Ireland in 50 albums, No 4: The Undertones' self-titled debut
The Undertones in 1978: L-R, Feargal Sharkey, Michael Bradley, John O'Neill, Damian O'Neill and Billy Doherty (Picture: Fin Costello/Redferns)
The Casbah in Derry city was where the Undertones got their schooling. They played their first gig there in March 1977. The makeshift music venue was two cabins nailed together, plastered on the outside, which stood over a bomb crater, where a pub had once stood. Needs must when you live in a city torn apart by civil war.
The Casbah was home to Derry’s indie scene, a non-sectarian zone. It had house rules. Patrons were banned from doing a pogo because it caused all the bottles inside the portable building to fall off their shelves. If anyone tried to pogo, the bar staff hurled wet towels at them.
“The toilets in the Casbah could give the toilets in the CBGB’s toilets in New York a run for their money,” says Damian O’Neill, the band’s lead guitarist and vocalist.
“I loved playing there. Initially, nobody came to see us. It was frequented by long-haired hippies. They were used to listening to rock music.
"We were these new upstarts doing something very, very different. But to be fair to the older clientele, they got it quickly. We reminded them of their youth in the 1960s – garage bands and Them, Van Morrison’s band. They appreciated the energy we were trying to express.
“Gradually, we got our own followers, teenagers, people our age, who heard about us through the grapevine and wanted to check out this weird punk band because we were the only punk band in Derry. We built up this amazing following. Before we got signed, the queues outside were crazy. People screaming to get in, just to see us.”
Every time the Undertones played the Casbah, they got in the habit of introducing a new song they’d written. They could gauge the reaction of people to the tune.
Afterwards, they’d keep it in the set or drop it. Live experience was essential for the band. They got sharper on their instruments. They got handy at dealing with hecklers during gigs.
Lead singer Feargal Sharkey and bass player Michael Bradley were always ready with the put-downs, putting manners on drunk punters in the audience.
“People would spit at you on stage," recalls Bradley of later UK tours. "It was in fashion then. You had to roll with that – there was nothing you could do about it.
“Leaving aside the spitting, whenever we were playing, we wanted to entertain ourselves as well. We still have that sense – you’re on stage, you want the whole thing to be good craic. You want the band to enjoy themselves.
"Feargal was very quick-witted. I guess it was a mixture of adrenaline and nerves and willingness to please that you would come up and gabble sometimes.”
Terri Hooley, the famous Good Vibrations impresario from Belfast, was struck by the abuse the band had to deal with from the public, even before they’d signed a record deal. Lads would wait outside the Casbah wanting to hit them a slap; he remembers seeing Feargal Sharkey getting spat at on the street.
“Derry was a very parochial, small-minded town back then,” says O’Neill. “Anything out of the ordinary was frowned upon. You kept to yourself. Because we were different, we stood out. Wearing drainpipes and having short hair could get you a kicking. We weren’t unique. Smaller towns all over Ireland and the UK were like that.
“Even when we were successful, we always got abuse there, particularly Feargal. He was obviously the focal point because he was the lead singer.
“It was nasty. It’s probably one of the reasons why I left Derry for London in late 1982. I never moved back. It’s different today.
"We’re revered, as homegrown heroes, which is wonderful, but I don’t forget the hostility we faced. Just walking around the town, people following you, saying, ‘Undertones, you’re shite!’ It was relentless. It got you down. Even the dogs in the street would be barking at you.”
Hooley took a punt on the band by producing their first record, a four-track EP, in the summer of 1978, which was named Teenage Kicks, after their defining, classic
pop song.
The vote of confidence from Hooley’s Good Vibrations didn’t come a moment too soon. It seemed the band were always on the verge of splitting up. They had shopped around a demo tape earlier that year to three British record labels: Stiff Records, Radar Records and Chiswick Records. None of them were interested. There was also bad blood festering within the band’s ranks.
“At that stage, we were playing regularly, but we were also fighting,” says Bradley.
“There would be the odd bad temper. There were fist fights. Punches thrown. When you’re 18, 19 years old that’s what happens sometimes. I remember Feargal said one day, ‘I’m fed up with this.’ Maybe he didn’t feel we were getting anywhere. Maybe he was just annoyed.
“I was designated to ring him from O’Neill’s house. We didn’t have a phone in my house, and we were always hanging around O’Neill’s house. I rang him. He was pissed off. I said, ‘Listen, will you stay until we make a record?’ Because at this stage we had got the OK from Terri Hooley that we were making a record. He said, ‘OK.’ But it wasn’t the end of those flare-ups, which happened regularly over the next three or four years.”
Doherty, the band’s drummer, was arch publicist. His bandmates nicknamed him “Billy Brassneck”. During the summer of 1978, Doherty got on the phone to John Peel, the legendary DJ, whose nightly show on BBC Radio 1 was appointment listening for music fans. A copy of the Teenage Kicks EP landed in Peel’s lap. Peel was enchanted. On the night of September 12, 1978, he played ‘Teenage Kicks’, not once, but twice in a row.
Apparently, it was the first time a double-play was ever done on BBC radio. The Undertones, tuning in back in Derry were delighted.
“We were around the radio listening intently,” says O’Neill. “John Peel was our hero, like most teenagers at the time who were into punk. The fact he was playing our record was so special. We were going berserk in the room, jumping up and down. It was one of those magical, magical moments.”
The following month, the Undertones flew to London to perform ‘Teenage Kicks’ on Top of the Pops. When their hosts asked them which restaurant they wanted to be entertained at, they chose McDonald’s. Bradley’s mother bought him a new pair of pyjamas because he was going to be staying in a hotel.
From playing in front of a couple of hundred people in the Casbah, they were now performing in front of 10 million viewers on television. Nerves didn’t even come into it. They looked the like the cat that got the cream.
“If you watch that performance, there’s a cockiness there from us,” says O’Neill. “It’s mostly ‘Fuck you, Derry. Who’s laughing now?’ That’s what I was feeling.”
In January 1979, the band were back in London to record their self-titled debut album The Undertones. They spent the guts of four weeks in Eden Studios, which has been the stable for records by Joy Division, Madness and the Sex Pistols. The album was produced by Roger Béchirian, who worked on several Elvis Costello records and was part of the British new wave scene.
The influences which unconsciously bled into the album, according to O’Neill, include the simplicity and humorous lyrics of the Ramones; the Buzzcocks; and “The Holy Trinity,” as the band called them – the New York Dolls, MC5 and Iggy and the Stooges. John O’Neill, who subscribed to the Beat Generation ethic “first thought, best thought” wrote nearly every single track on the LP, churning out the lyrics out at breakneck speed.
‘Jimmy, Jimmy’ which reached No 16 in the British charts in April 1979, was the only single released from the album, but it has several timeless Undertones tracks on it, including ‘Male Model’, ‘Here Comes the Summer’, and a re-issue later that year included ‘Teenage Kicks’.
The album is full of the band’s exuberance, their singular sound: short, banging tunes, the adorable noise that made Peel fall in love with them.
Sharkey’s voice gives it its distinctiveness.
“He had this perfect, unique warble to his voice which suited the songs we wrote for him. It was a match made in heaven,” says O’Neill.
The adventure spun out for another four years. They toured America with the Clash, but after three more albums and several Top 20 hits, the band ran out of steam. Punk went out of fashion. Sharkey wanted out.
“Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet were all in their spandex and trendy clothes. We probably looked out-dated,” says O’Neill. It was sweet while it lasted.
“Somebody said once, ‘The Undertones were the original Derry Girls’,” says Bradley.
“There was just the five of us. We didn’t have that many other friends. We grew up together, hanging around O’Neill’s house. My number had come up. I was there on stage with my friends. This band that we were playing with for a couple of years suddenly made the big time. You couldn’t beat it.”
- The Undertones will perform at Forest Fest Music & Arts Weekend, Emo Village, Co Laois, July 21-23, as part of their 2023 European tour. For more on Damian O’Neill’s solo album An Crann, see damianoneill.bandcamp.com
- The Undertones reformed in 1999, with Paul McLoone, the erstwhile Today FM DJ, replacing Feargal Sharkey as lead singer. The band released one more album, Dig Yourself Deep, in 2007.
- After leaving the band, Sharkey had a short but successful solo career, which included 'A Good Heart', a No 1 hit single in 1985. He has since had a notable career as a music industry executive, and as a keen fisherman, campaigns against river pollution.
- John O’Neill: after the Undertones split up, he had a second act with the critically acclaimed band That Petrol Emotion, whose line-up included his brother Damian.
- Damian O’Neill: the guitarist still lives in London, where his record label Dimple Discs has released records like Telefís and his own new solo album An Crann.
- Michael Bradley: the bass player fronts the popular Mickey Bradley Record Show on BBC Radio Ulster on Friday nights.
- Billy Doherty: having survived a heart attack after an Undertones gig in Dublin in 2107, the drummer helps the Northern Ireland Chest Heart & Stroke foundation raise awareness about heart disease and stroke.
- John Peel died of a heart attack in Cusco, Peru in 2004. His gravestone in Suffolk bears the inscription: “Teenage dreams so hard to beat”.
