Bob Geldof Sued By Ex-Bandmate Over 'I Don't Like Mondays' Credit Dispute

Irish music and activism icon Bob Geldof is being taken to court by a former bandmate in his old band, The Boomtown Rats, over claims that the decorated performer was not the sole writer of seminal 1979 single I Don't Like Mondays.

As The Telegraph reports, John Moylett — better known by the moniker Johnnie Fingers — played keyboard for The Boomtown Rats for the entirety of their original incarnation, from 1975 to 1986.

When the band reunited in 2013, he — along with long-departed guitarist Gerry Cott, who left in 1981 — abstained from joining them, and has now filed a writ with the High Court to seek compensation for his input to the famous ditty.

At least part of that may be because, according to The Telegraph, he claims that he deserves two-thirds of the past three decades' worth of royalties from I Don't Like Mondays given his creative contributions to the music and some lyrics, but "was pressured not to take credit" for his input by the young Geldof, who remains the sole credited writer on the song in question along with several other Boomtown Rats tracks.

Belated though it may be, this action hasn't come totally out of the blue — the now-Tokyo-based Moylett, along with Cott, drummer Simon Crowe and guitarist Garrick Roberts, previously pursued legal action against Geldof in 2005 for unpaid royalties, with Moylett also having sent Geldof correspondence since the previous year.

I Don't Like Mondays, inspired by the Cleveland Elementary School shooting incident of 1979, is one of The Boomtown Rats' biggest hits.

The Telegraph reports that Geldof remains staunch in his assertion that he is responsible for the song, calling Moylett's claims "a figment of his imagination".