Guitarist Garry Roberts is dead

Boomtown Rats guitarist Garry Roberts has died aged 72. This was announced by the Irish new wave band around singer Bob Geldof on Facebook. “It is with immense sadness that The Boomtown Rats announce this morning the passing of Garry Roberts, our friend and guitarist,” the statement read.

“On a clear spring evening in 1975, in a pub in Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin, Garry became THE founding member of what turned out to be a great rock ‘n’ roll band, driven in large part by their sound, one Storm of massive, deliberate noise that erupted from his overloaded amps and animated not only the rest of the group but the audiences he played to around the world,” wrote remaining band members Bob Geldof, Pete Briquette and Simon Crowe.

“For fans he was a legend – and he was. To us he was Gazzer, the guy who encapsulated the feel of who the Rats were,” the band wrote. “We’ve known Garry since we were kids and we feel oddly unsteady without him tonight.”

The Boomtown Rats were formed in 1975 in the town of Dun Laoghaire, near Dublin. They released their debut The Boomtown Rats in 1977, and subsequently became known for hits like “Rat Trap” (1978) and “I Don’t Like Mondays” (1979). In 1985, Bob Geldof organized the Live Aid benefit concerts for victims of the famine in Ethiopia and since then has mainly been known for his charitable commitment. Most recently, the band released their seventh album “Citizens of Boomtown” in 2020 – almost 40 years after its predecessor “In the Long Grass” (1984).

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