Five decades ago a young man named Patrick Cusack was desperate to get away from his Irish homeland – fearing his future was nothing but grim if he stayed. The only way to cross the Irish Sea to England for good was if you were a footballer or a pop star, he reckoned.

His football skills were never going to earn him a contract with Manchester United – but the young band he was in were true groundbreakers and attracting stacks of attention. And it was part of a massive musical and cultural explosion taking Britain by a storm.

That band was the Boomtown Rats – fronted by future Live Aid and Band Aid hero Bob Geldof – who went on to enjoy a string of big hits including the timeless chart topper I Don’t Like Mondays and Rat Trap, the first New Wave No 1.

Now Patrick Cusack – more commonly k

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