According to Geldof , he wrote the song after reading a telex report at Georgia State University 's campus radio station , WRAS , on the shooting spree of 16-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer , who fired at children in a school playground at Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego , California , on 29 January 1979 , killing two adults and injuring eight children and one police officer . Spencer showed no remorse for her crime ; her full explanation for her actions was " I do n't like Mondays . This livens up the day " . Geldof had been contacted by Steve Jobs to play a gig for Apple , inspiring the opening line about a " silicon chip " . The song was first performed less than a month later . Geldof explained how he wrote the song : I was doing a radio interview in Atlanta with Johnnie Fingers and there was a telex machine beside me . I read it as it came out . Not liking Mondays as a reason for doing somebody in is a bit strange . I was thinking about it on the way back to the hotel and I just said ' silicon chip inside her head had switched to overload ' . I wrote that down . And the journalists interviewing her said , ' Tell me why ? ' It was such a senseless act . It was the perfect senseless act and this was the perfect senseless reason for doing it . So perhaps I wrote the perfect senseless song to illustrate it . It was n't an attempt to exploit tragedy . Geldof had originally intended the song as a B-side , but changed his mind after the song was successful with audiences on the Rats ' US tour . Spencer 's family tried unsuccessfully to prevent the single from being released in the United States
fired at children in a school playground
Cleveland Elementary School shooting (San Diego)
I Don't Like Mondays