The Boomtown Rats announce 2025 50th anniversary UK tour

The Boomtown Rats have announced a 50th anniversary tour of the UK for October and November 2025.

The Irish new wave band, led by Bob Geldof, will play 12 theatre shows around the country, kicking off in Nottingham’s Royal Concert Hall on October 10 and taking in London’s Eventim Apollo on October 31, 50 years to the day after their first ever gig.

The run ends at the Liverpool Olympia on November 15. Tickets for the shows go on sale at 10am on Friday (December 6), and you can find yours here.

https://t.co/e4x7S3r9Hp pic.twitter.com/JdABRtwBL6

— The Boomtown Rats Official (@BoomtownThe) December 2, 2024

The Boomtown Rats will play:

OCTOBER 2025

10 – Nottingham, Royal Concert Hall

11 – Birmingham, Symphony Hall

17 – Aberdeen, Music Hall

18 – Glasgow, Barrowland

24 – Sheffield, City Hall

25 – Cambridge, Corn Exchange

31 – London, Eventim Apollo

NOVEMBER 2025

1 – Southampton, O2 Guildhall

7 – Manchester, Bridgewater Hall

8 – Gateshead, Glasshouse

14 – York, Barbican

15 – Liverpool, Olympia

The Brit and Grammy winning band are best known for their huge late-’70s hits ‘Rat Trap’ and ‘I Don’t Like Mondays’. They were together between 1975 and 1986, and reformed in 2013.

Geldof was one of the organisers of Band Aid’s ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ in 1984 alongside Midge Ure. This Christmas, an ‘Ultimate Mix’ of the song has been produced for the single’s 40th birthday, featuring contributions from Sting, Boy George, Sam Smith,  Harry Styles, Chris Martin, Elbow‘s Guy Garvey, Sugababes, Bananarama, Seal, Sinéad O’Connor, Rita Ora, Robbie Williams, Kool and the Gang, Underworld and more.

Conceived to raise money for the Ethiopian famine, it sold a million copies in its first week and, at the time, was the fastest-selling single in UK chart history.

In recent times, however, it has had a less positive response from some, being accused of “perpetuat[ing] damaging stereotypes” towards Africa.

Ahead of the 2024 version, Sheeran – who featured in the 2014 recording – said that he had not been asked for his permission for the 2024 edition, and if he had been, he would have respectfully declined. In his reasoning, he said that “a decade on and my understanding of the narrative associated with this has changed.”

Geldof later defended the single in an interview. “This little pop song has kept millions of people alive,” he said. “No abstract theory regardless of how sincerely held should impede or distract from that hideous, concrete real-world reality,” he added. “There are 600 million hungry people in the world – 300 million are in Africa. We wish it were other but it is not. We can help some of them. That’s what we will continue to do.”

He went on to say he had reached out to Sheeran to discuss the matter. “Let me be clear – he’s a really good bloke, and he’s a clever man. He’s a massive talent, so all respect. I put in the call. We’ll have a chat. We’ll agree, we’ll disagree, whatever the fuck. We’ll sort it out. That’s the way stuff gets done.”

The song gathered mixed responses from fans upon its release, and another person to speak out about the potentially negative impact of the track was Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. While acknowledging that the original version was “well-meaning at the time”, Ahmed added that it was “frustrating to see our nation’s ancient history, culture, diversity and beauty reduced to doom and gloom”.