{{Other uses|Rat trap (disambiguation)}} {{Unreliable sources|date=July 2021}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}} {{Infobox song | name = Rat Trap | cover = Rat Trap (single).jpg | alt = | type = single | artist = The Boomtown Rats | album = A Tonic for the Troops | B-side = "So Strange"<ref name="Discogs"/> | released = {{Start date|1978|10|06|df=y}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://dutchcharts.nl/showitem.asp?interpret=The+Boomtown+Rats&titel=Rat+Trap&cat=s|title=Boomtown Rats singles}}</ref> | recorded = | studio = | venue = | genre = *New wave<ref name= "Stanley 2013">{{cite book|first=Bob |last=Stanley|title=Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop|chapter= Cranked Up Really High: Punk Rock|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9emZAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT7|date=13 September 2013|publisher=Faber & Faber|isbn=978-0-571-28198-5|page=449}}</ref> *pop rock<ref>https://www.allmusic.com/song/rat-trap-mt0011610608</ref> | length = {{Duration|m=4|s=55}} | label = {{Plainlist| * Ensign<ref name="Discogs"/> (UK) * Columbia (US) }} | writer = Bob Geldof<ref name="Discogs"/> | producer = Robert John "Mutt" Lange<ref name="Discogs">{{cite web|url=http://www.discogs.com/Boomtown-Rats-Rat-Trap/release/1253225 |title=Boomtown Rats, The - Rat Trap (Vinyl) at Discogs |year=1978 |publisher=Discogs.com |accessdate=28 March 2014}}</ref> | prev_title = Like Clockwork | prev_year = 1978 | next_title = I Don't Like Mondays | next_year = 1979 }}
"'''Rat Trap'''" is a song by the Boomtown Rats, released in October 1978 as the third and final single from the band's second album ''A Tonic for the Troops''. It reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart for two weeks in November 1978,<ref name="Larkin2002"/> the first single by a punk or new wave act to do so.<ref name="British Hit Singles & Albums">{{cite book | first= David | last= Roberts | year= 2006 | title= British Hit Singles & Albums | edition= 19th | publisher= Guinness World Records Limited | location= London | isbn= 1-904994-10-5 | page= 71}}</ref> The song was written by Bob Geldof,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bobgeldof.com/content.asp?id=38 |title=Bob Geldof |publisher=bobgeldof.com |date= |accessdate=28 March 2014}}</ref> and produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange.<ref name="Discogs"/> It replaced "Summer Nights", a hit single for John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John from the soundtrack of ''Grease'', at number one on the UK chart after the latter's seven-week reign.<ref name="Pegg2006"/>
==Song== "Rat Trap" is a rock song, telling the tale of a boy called Billy who feels the depressing town he lives in is a "rat trap".
When the band performed the song on ''Top of the Pops'' (which is also mentioned in the song) as the UK new number one, the band members began by tearing up pictures of Travolta and Newton-John to emphasise the fact that the pair - who had spent a total of 16 weeks out of the preceding 22 at the top of the charts - had been deposed. Geldof mimed the saxophone part on a candelabra, a jest he explained in his autobiography ''Is That It?'': "The Musicians' Union had forbidden me to play saxophone on the video, as obviously I hadn't done so on the record. But I saw a candelabra on the piano at the shoot and I put a mouthpiece in the central candle holder and played it. The impact of video came home when during the next few British gigs kids pulled out candelabras from nowhere and began playing them during the sax solo in 'Rat Trap'".<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Geldof| first1 = Bob| first2 = Paul| last2 = Vallely| title = Is That It?| publisher = Pan Books| page = 171| date = 2005| isbn = 0-330-44292-9}}</ref>
In the music video, which was directed by David Mallet, various members of the band are seen reading copies of the novel ''Rat Trap'' by the Welsh author Craig Thomas, although the book has no connection to the song. The lyric about "pus and grime..." was changed to "blood and tears pour down the drains and the sewers", although Geldof mumbled the line anyway.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opd14v2I7Ik |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211219/opd14v2I7Ik |archive-date=2021-12-19 |url-status=live|title=Boomtown Rats - Rat Trap [totp2]| website= YouTube | publisher=BBC |minutes =1:15|accessdate=23 October 2014}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
One of the more popular Boomtown Rats songs, it was performed by them at Live Aid and is still performed by Geldof to this day. During the Live Aid performance, Geldof's microphone went dead (apparently from the cable being damaged), causing Simon Crowe's harmony vocals to become the only audible voice on the last half of the song.{{cn|date=December 2024}}
In 1996, Geldof recorded a self-mocking cover version of the song with Dustin the Turkey which reached number one in Ireland.{{cn|date=December 2024}}
==Personnel== * Bob Geldof – vocals * Pete Briquette – bass, vocals * Gerry Cott – guitar * Johnnie Fingers – keyboards, vocals * Simon Crowe – drums, vocals * Garry Roberts – guitar, vocals * Alan Holmes – saxophone<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.musicteachers.co.uk/user/8a5ff2822e08e9993822/biography |title=Mr Alan Holmes| website= musicteachers.co.uk | accessdate=23 October 2014}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist|refs= <ref name="Larkin2002">{{Citation | first1 = Colin | last1 = Larkin | title = The Virgin encyclopedia of 70s music | publisher = Virgin Publishing | page = 45 | edition = 3rd | year = 2002 | isbn = 1852279478 | postscript= . }}</ref>
<ref name="Pegg2006">{{Citation | first1 = Nicholas | last1 = Pegg | title = The complete David Bowie | publisher = Reynolds & Hearn | page = 76 | edition = 6th | year = 2006 | isbn = 1905287151 | postscript= . }}</ref> }}
{{The Boomtown Rats}} {{Authority control}}
Category:1978 songs Category:1978 singles Category:1996 singles Category:The Boomtown Rats songs Category:Dustin the Turkey songs Category:UK singles chart number-one singles Category:Irish Singles Chart number-one singles Category:Song recordings produced by Mutt Lange Category:Ensign Records singles Category:Columbia Records singles Category:Music videos directed by David Mallet (director) Category:Songs written by Bob Geldof