Last week in the post on Mary of the Fourth Form, I promised to take a look at the B-side of that single – the iconic Do the Rat.

As related in Bob Geldof’s lyric anthology Tales of Boomtown Glory, this song was written as a joke. The band wanted to take the piss out of the showbands that had become a mainstay of ‘popular’ music in Ireland up to the 1970s. It seems that Pete Briquette also hated the show bands and wanted to invent a dance to really take the mickey – so Bob put together some words, using the most ridiculous rodent references he could think of and …… it became a hit!!!!

It was originally released in November 1977 as the B-side to Mary of the Fourth Form. But Do the Rat really took off - to the extent that in France and Holland, the tracks from the UK single were swapped, with Do the Rat becoming the A-side and Mary of the Fourth Form on the B-side.

Who’d have thunked it??!

Here’s the French release and picture sleeve......

.....and here’s the Dutch picture sleev,e, printed in vivid orange and complete with dance instructions!!!

Now you all know what the dance involves, there's no excuse !!!