Product Description
Performance Notes:
I Don't Like Mondays - arrangement for Standard British Brass Band Instrumentation (also available for school orchestra)
Concert key: Bb major, Tempo 130bpm
Performance time: 3' 52'' (without 'pause'*)
*pause - bar 85, beat 3 - optional long pause (approx 10 - 20 secs) commemorating the occasion during the Boomtown Rats 1985 Live Aid performance, recognising the millions starving in Africa.
The premiere performance of this arrangement will be for the 60th Anniversary Celebration Concert of Hangleton Band on 10th May 2025 at Bishop Hannington Church in Hove, UK.
Arrangers Note:
As Head of Music at Blatchington Mill School, Hove UK during the 1980s and 90s, our school orchestra performed my arrangement of I Dont Like Mondays for a Schools Concert at Brightons Dome Theatre in 1981. A pupil taking part at the time, Richard Baker, is now director of the Hangleton Brass Band. 44 years later, when I asked Richard for ideas for a piece I could arrange for the band, he immediately suggested I Dont Like Mondays as it brought back memories of the time he had first played it with the school orchestra.
Facts and Info:
I Dont Like Mondays is a song performed by the Boomtown Rats and written by their vocalist Bob Geldof and band pianist Johnnie Fingers. It was released in 1979, reaching number one in the UK Singles Chart for four weeks during the summer of that year.
Geldof says whilst staying in the USA he read about a school shooting by a 16 year old girl in San Diego who fired at children in the school playground. The girls explanation when asked why she did it said, "I Dont like Mondays. This livens up the day". Her family tried to prevent the release of the record in the USA, but were unsuccessful. In later years, Geldof said he regretted writing the song as it made the girl famous. Originally credited solely to Geldof, it was not until 2019 that he and Johnnie Fingers reach an agreement over who wrote the song - Fingers eventually receiving a settlement and co-writer credit.
Live Aid 1985:
Forty years ago this year (2025), in 1985, The Boomtown Rats performed the song for Live Aid at Wembley Stadium, a music based fund raiser organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure. When Geldof sang the line, And the lesson today is how to die, he paused for 20 seconds to allow the audience to acknowledge the significance of those starving in Africa, for whom Live Aid had been set up to help.
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