THE Boomtown Rats will reunite on stage for the first time in 26 years at this year's Isle of Wight Festival.

Playing together for the first time since 1986, Bob Geldof will take to the Main Stage with the other five band members for the UK festival exclusive, on June 16.

Formed in 1975 in Dublin The Boomtown Rats played their first UK shows with the Ramones and Talking Heads and fought the punk wars alongside the Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Jam and The Stranglers.

They were one of the biggest bands of the late 70's and 80's with a string of top ten hits and platinum albums, earning them Brit Awards, Ivor Novellos and Grammy Awards along the way.

Making history as the first Irish band to have a UK number one hit with Rat Trap, they went on to score another top single in 32 countries with I Don't Like Mondays and racked up six chart topping albums.

Bob Geldof said it will be a priveldge to perform at the festival with his old band mates.

He said: “Playing again with The Rats and doing those great songs again will be exciting afresh. We were an amazing band and I just feel it's the right time to re-Rat, to go back to Boomtown for a visit.

“Also, I've always fancied playing the Isle of Wight Festival ever since I hitched there in the good/bad days when I was a kid.

“I saw The Who, Doors - I think - Hendrix and Leonard Cohen, who incidentally blew Hendrix off the stage, and Kris Kristofferson, who was also amazing.”

John Giddings, the Festival's promoter, added: “It's great they have chosen the Isle of Wight Festival as their reunion. Our audience will love them, their catalogue is classic.”