Boomtown Rats - Diamond Smiles (promo video, 1979)

[@robertballot3869]

What a fantastic album this was, truly fine art, and almost surfacing, but not quite. The album had such flow and such eclectic compositional work. They were a six-piece, but all those cooks made very sumptuous broth at this stage of their career. God, nothing's better than when you hear great music that never had much of a chance for worldwide popularity, but still feel that everything they did was worth it. And what's more -- you get it. Thanks Bob and your Ratmates. Saw you twice in that era -- NYC and UMass@Amherst. We loved you guys every bit as much as you deserved to be loved for making such creative, tuneful music.

[@hiddenfire65]

I liked this when I was 18. Listening to it again at 46 ... it really is great.

[@guyfawkes9951]

I wholeheartedly love every note of "The Fine Art Of Surfacing" and this is my favorite track from that album. Never saw this clip until tonight. Thanks for posting it.

[@theworstchannelyouhaveever9573]

Agree but I don't like Monday is the true best for me

[@SocialBurrito3]

A really sad story attached to the most catchy music! Love the Boomtown Rats!

[@marinagodoy4076]

This will always be my favorite Boomtown song. Adore it.

[@elgringodechile]

This and a "another piece of red" are my top two!

[@nodders6830]

Favourite Boomtown song , listen to this track weekly . If only I had the courage .

[@psifigal8229]

I love this album, and this song was my favorite. I don't know why it didn't get much air play, I would call the radio stations and request it all the time, never heard it played... Thanks for posting!

[@duerandaggi]

Heavy. These guys really pushed the envelope. 40 years ago! This is ART, makes you stop and ponder.

[@buckybucky5028]

Loved this song and the video. Boomtown Rats were one of the best from that time. Thanks for posting!

[@holymoly4122]

Many years ago I received album The best of The Boomtown Rats... ...and my favorite song was- Diamond Smiles ….Thank You for Video!

[@Battlady57]

Wonderful song.

[@toxicthecat457]

This completely encapsulates the style and excitement and whimsy of the Rats. It's between this, Someone's Looking At You, and Keep It Up for things which made a 12 year old me dizzyingly happy off that record. Love Mondays, of course, seeing it on Top of the Pops in the Summer of '79 was the hook that turned this kid (from the US and on holiday in the UK in the best year for music ever) into a 12-year-old Superfan.

[@dontboogiewithme4238]

I can remember when this album came out i was 14years old Excellent band and the album back in the day

[@susansantry]

i worked as a chambermaid in this hotel,and got to be in the crowed,got to meet bob,he was really nice,paula ok x

[@adventureswithdogshikingwi3664]

Awesome! Did you meet Johnny Fingers too and George Cott?

[@Battlady57]

Ive heard others say bob is nice.he.s always seemed a lovely guy.he was certainly gorgeous when he was young.very charismatic.

[@berliner0]

Sweet

[@laurenmayer9249]

I've been listening to this album for years. Thank you for posting this

[@trevorblem7920]

I was 14 when this was a hit. One of their best . What memories. 🔥❤️

[@jeffheim8588]

They had the balls to comment about controversial issues and I think that was something that needed to be done

[@lorettascherman3856]

If you read what this song is really about, it's really heartbreakingly sad.

[@abbiwils]

What a fantastical song, hands down. If only they were together again and made more music like this. :(

[@davejackson8455]

They have done. New album soon, 13/03/20

[@Jojoseahorse]

Don't think I've seen this since it came out! Love the song :)

[@framerob2]

My first single I bought with me own money... top banana

[@hiddenfire65]

Great music, strong album. Give me this one and V Deep.

[@rogerwoodfill5917]

Absolutely love this song and its album!

[@KGarvey125]

may be my favorite Boomtown Rats song.

[@graveyrdgirl]

full offense but bob geldof in a gold suit is everything Ive ever wanted

[@cara7196]

I'd have to agree with you on that.

[@csmith4956]

Three years late, but TOTALLY!!

[@sawdustandcigarettes]

To be.

[@flippingnina]

jerry seinfeld @ 1:12 jimmy fallon @ 1:55 norm mcdonald @ 2:05 the future kings of comedy when they were all innocents!

[@coonagh1]

Pete Briquette, what a name!!!

[@tcalomfirescu]

Wow, I have never had a suicide song, sing so solo to me as this one of my sister who left this like a diamond-smile note to me to remind me that she was 17 and I was 15 and she was naked and so was I in the pool and she...her glamour survived and she floated to me and measured how weightless she was on the motion-less-glide. And she wasn't my sister then, she was, middle-school, the motion-less-green-carbon-emerald-blue-glide, Barbara- Cockalin-child... the 80s misunderstood Angels of the..

[@reedgordon566]

She went up the stair, stood up on the vanity chair, tied her belt around the chandelier and went out kicking at the perfumed air.

[@jonas3333]

Great to see the song I listen to on a pretty regular basis depicted well in this video. Would have liked to see more story, but early music videos had to do that crazy intermittent band stuff in almost every one!

[@IsaacChute-j3d]

This one of their best songs and albums IMHO

[@mikerundberg8301]

DIAMOND SMILES shines like a diamond

[@e.priest8937]

This is my favorite song

[@sambda]

@uxzz Indeed. See the Jam, Elvis Costello etc. The music was expected to sell back then, not the visuals.

[@yuriygluzdakov9546]

Bravo!

[@delling1643]

would have liked to hear the end

[@sillyone52062]

Always imagined Diamond as being weathered and a bit beaten down.

[@tcalomfirescu]

The motionless glide....... the motionless glide..... it feels and sounds and swims, so... velvet-swim, so recumbent 79, so JBH 1982 glamour then we were me and they were I, innocence and self....

[@tcalomfirescu]

the best American dust, ice and frozen-lakes and forgotten competitions since the 1880s and silver railroads that used to look forward to and down on Rams, Ghost-towns, agressive-last-loves, last-drunken mirror-river-overlooks, frozen-Kneivels, Georgetown memories, marriages and Squandered American Dreams.

[@MrSteelkisser]

thnx4sharin!

[@themachine5987]

I came here to see if I had somehow missed something great. Moving on - not sure what the fuss is about.

[@hiddenfire65]

The song still sounds great ... I'm pretty sure the whole album (The Fine Art of Surfacing) does.

[@krisscanlon4051]

This video was made in what 1979? David Mallet probably had a budget of nothing; Mallet became a king of videos afterward. I think the lyrics are a slight jab at the acidic lines of Elvis Costello circa 1979 plus a very new wavy take on Elvis sound...The Rats nailed it here big time...Lange production is so good...Costello you should of called him 85 or so!

[@Timmybear]

@Del350K4 - My impression of the character was that, like Edie Sedgwick, she was a thin layer of style and glamour over a deep well of insecurity and fear, so a 'mousy' portrayer seems apt to me. And there is a long tradition in drama of violence happening 'off stage', so not showing the suicide is not that odd and not necessarily a sign of cowardice.

[@jonas3333]

While the actress portraying Diamond avoids several of Sedgwick's trademark looks, I think there's most definitely a likelihood this excellent song was based on that tragic girl's story to a degree.

[@goldheartbadge]

The "na na na" outro (which Jon Bon Jovi copied in the chorus of "Midnight In Chelsea") sounds more like Springsteen than Springsteen himself!

[@dougsmith7083]

Killer Perhaps the blueprint for PULP'S "Common People?"

[@miz_logo_lee]

This was done when making music videos was kind of a weird, experimental thing to do. Who plays "Diamond"? Isn't she the same girl who plays "Brenda Spencer"?

[@berliner0]

Yes

[@sambda]

Yes.

[@tcalomfirescu]

As English, things we must do: Acknowledge Bob for being Irish and Pink. Applaud with fingers and thumb snapping, the suicide of Diamond, as she smiles and lives-to-die-to become a subtle, sentimental, sideways, American-British story, actually and really transcendent of the Avenger's Scarlet Witch and the Avenger's Vision. You see, one is so labeled and mis-understood so as to be almost a parody, but ironically an anti-embodiment of a Hawthorne or Victor Von -Metal-Heavy-over-done-bad-boy, vs.

[@andyx2506]

You can say that again!

[@gregsmith1928]

Brilliant

[@treatmentbound]

After 36+ years, I finally saw the video. Does anybody out there know the name of the actress who plays Diamond in the video?

[@treatmentbound]

Ron D Hey Thanks. I never made the connection before. Just watched the Mondays vid. again, and she's only in that one briefly.

[@776luvs768]

I need to fart

[@simonsmith7755]

As an obsessive fan by this time, I was so shocked this didn't stay at No1 (when that mattered at all) for weeks on end as it's so good. Older now, I understand suicide song / radio play may have been a factor.

[@44Celt]

there was also a top of pops crew strike on at this time, the Rats didn't got the TOTP exposure that most probably would,ve seen them go further up the charts

[@andrewyoung2796]

Poor diamond

[@k0n158]

How's Vera Lynn, Bob?

[@ikemachamer7904]

Great.

[@chrisr5499]

I wonder if this video influenced Ultravox with Vienna

[@greengretsch]

You see Bob was very clever with his lyrics. He wants the listener to believe the character of Diamond Smiles is female but Diamond is actually a man posing as a female, which gives greater meaning to her suicide. He drops small clues throughout the song but the clincher is, "well it only goes to show haha! how many real MEN any of us know..." This was Bob's "Lola" meets Bowie's "Watch that Man". Totally brilliant!

[@prepaid189]

No! He only meant that no one noticed her going upstairs to the bedroom, hence missing!

[@Del350K4]

What a superb track; for me it´s their unrecognised masterpiece. And what a shite promo vid; Diamond´s supposed to be a sumpremely poised and self-confident woman of the world-yet they cast that little mouse to play her, looking like a cowed teen in her big sister´s first party frock... And if they didn´t have the balls to depict the suicide they shouldn´t have tried to have the video parallel the events described in the song.

[@prepaid189]

Well, her looking like a little teen mouse added to her vulnerability.

[@bmoneyrancidfan91]

Where would thee promo videos premiere if mtv wasnt around

[@BrianGoguen-k7k]

Seen them twice.Great show.

[@sambda]

@susansantry Tell us when, where etc.

[@debrarodriguez3193]

Paula Yates would have made a better Diamond. I'm gonna blame the record company, though.

[@debrarodriguez3193]

I meant she was more glamorous looking. She shouldn't have been in the crowd scenes, she should have been Diamond.

[@toriagiro9519]

@@debrarodriguez3193 I think this was long before he was with paula yates.

[@bodoono]

Nice comment Del350K4. I agree wholeheartedly.

[@kellykizer6718]

33 smiles.

[@rubberalleybluesband]

this ^^^^^

[@jamesbrady5663]

Very Elvis Costello-ish circa Armed Forces

[@WordPainterWA]

I could have soooooo written a better script for the video. The song and this amateur job are so disconnected its painful to watch. Having said that, love this album and sill enjoy the songs - genius.

[@SocialBurrito3]

Dude, it was 1979ish lol, cut it some slack! I think it was nicely done for the time especially so. The song and the album I agree are amazing.

[@nick16279]

Sounds so much like DEVO's debut

[@Grace-f7d]

😇GVB❤

[@Angie_bae]

The lead singer looks like Seinfeld lol

[@mikebrodie8062]

unmistakable David Bowie influence. You have to cherry pick great stuff like this out of the mostly bland pop music fare the music industry offers at any given time.

[@berliner0]

Roxy and Bowie etc rock

[@raycal63]

Should have made it to Number 1

[@prepaid189]

Was this based upon a true story?

[@44Celt]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/qaDTkptrbL2Gg7s Geldof explains the story at 1:44

[@nikkiclark6975]

What is the meaning of this song?

[@aprildannette9820]

he wrote it after reading about socialite that hung herself at a party Nikki Clark

[@babasovka]

a rich girl felt traped, killed herself

[@ahumanjustbeing2466]

down in the boondocks...I luv her she loves me but I don't fit her society...🎶😂

[@susanmcmillan9368]

My ex-husbands favorite..........LOL, I tolerate it! Not bad really!

[@exexpat11]

Ninnekah Smiles Traffic's silent tonight Ninnekah smiles her Meth Head smile Tonight she's in a heavy disguise She looks at her wrist to clock the passing time Weather's mild tonight She wonders will they notice her tired eyes She wonders will her Adelita wigs survive And will they see she's going down a third time Everybody tries - She sees herself as JayLo on the mild But really she’s a Deathrow Rapist’s child Long ago perfecting a motionless slide For Fifteen years she put her future aside Ninnekah seems so sure and so poised She shimmers for the Urns on the shelf And says, "Love is for others, but me it destroys" She wasn’t the girl in the cake Got pregnant too soon by mistake Someone told her her brain was half baked And Ninnekah lifted her Texas Steel Reserve And said, "Cheers" She stands to one side There's no more to this than meets the eye Everybody drinks cheap generic Beer dry And talks about those plaid shirt and pink hair styles They said she did it - with grace They said she did it - with style They said she did them all Oh, they said before she died Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh I remember Ninnekah Smiles Nobody saw her go They said they should have noticed 'Cause her living conditions were so low Well, it only goes to show Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! How many real men do any of them know She climbed the dining room chair Stood silent alone in the air Tied her lame belt around the plastic chandelier And went out kicking at the overly perfumed air Oh, oh They said she did it - with grace They said she did it - with style They said she did them all Oh? They said it before she died Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh Now no one remembers Ninnekah Smiles

[@BoudicaJ]

Americans. Make everything about them.

[@exexpat11]

@@BoudicaJ Actually made it about a girl I knew and a big fan of the BTR's since 79 when I lived in Teeside. I have three citizenships and you would never guess where but you looked up where Ninnekah was... Guess what job I have...

[@robmah71]

1.46-1.57.....

[@superbobtendo1493]

punk buddy!!!

[@blooberpuss]

I always pictured "Diamond" as a beautiful drag queen who was a little older. Bad casting in this elaborate mess -- but still a good song.

[@aprildannette9820]

well i think the real girl he wrote it about was young its written about a real person Blooberpus

[@BrianGoguen-k7k]

I had read this was based on a true story