Name Garry Roberts | Role Guitarist | |
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Music group The Boomtown Rats (1975 – 1986) Albums The Fine Art of Surfacing, Mondo Bongo, A Tonic for the Troops, In the Long Grass, V Deep Similar People Simon Crowe, Pete Briquette, Gerry Cott, Johnnie Fingers, Bob Geldof | ||
Garry Roberts (born Garrick Roberts, 16 June 1950, Dublin, Ireland) is the former lead guitarist with the Irish band, The Boomtown Rats, which came into being in 1976. He and Johnnie Fingers (Moylett) had decided to put a band together and, between them, they recruited the other four members, Pete Briquette (bass), Gerry Cott (guitar), Simon Crowe (drums) and singer Bob Geldof.
After The Boomtown Rats broke up in 1986, Roberts worked with Simply Red, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and Flesh For Lulu in the role of sound engineer on tours in the UK and US. He avoided playing the guitar in public for ten years, after which he and Simon Crowe played together for four years in the rhythm and blues four-piece band The Velcro Flies. After having worked successfully as an Independent Financial Adviser for fifteen years, he had become disillusioned with the life insurance industry and became a central heating engineer to keep himself occupied between gigs. Roberts and Crowe, with Darren Beale, on second lead guitar, and Peter Barton, on bass guitar and lead vocals, are now playing together as Boomtown Rats Roberts and Crowe, and performing material from the Rats' first three albums across Europe and the UK.
He lives in Bromyard, Herefordshire.