If you’re not already familiar with the music of The Undertones, then I’m seriously concerned for your well-being. They were one of the original punk rock bands from Northern Ireland, playing their first gig in 1976 and releasing their debut EP, the classic ‘Teenage Kicks’, on the Good Vibrations label in 1978. The song was championed by John Peel on his radio show, where it was heard by Seymour Stein who immediately decided to sign the band to Sire records. Over the ensuing five years, the Undertones would release four albums and numerous singles, scoring many hits along the way before splitting-up in 1983. Singer Feargal Sharkey went on to have a successful, though brief, solo career, whilst John and Damian O’Neill formed That Petrol Emotion, who would release five albums between 1985 and 1994 achieving both critical and commercial success along the way. But the music of The Undertones still held a place in many hearts and, in 1999, the band reformed, albeit without Feargal, who was by this time busily involved in other non-musical activities. The news that they would be performing with a new vocalist, Paul McLoone, initially made some fans rather wary but once they began playing live again, all doubts were promptly blown away. The band were tighter than ever and Paul, instead of merely trying to mimic Feargals’ unique style, found a way to deliver the vocals in his own style that kept the fans more than happy. The success of their live shows inevitably raised the question of new material, which in turn resulted in the release of a new single, ‘Thrill Me’, and a new album, ‘Get What You Need’, in 2003. Although not a massive success sales-wise, the new music was mostly met with good reviews and proved popular with fans. It would be another four years before a second album of new material, ‘Dig Yourself Deep’, appeared in 2007 and while again, it was not a big seller, it was certainly popular amongst fans and contained another set of songs that added to the bands’ already impressive legacy.
Although, like everyone else, the band have been sitting-out the recent delays and cancellations of the Covid-period, they are now back on track with UK and European tour dates and a brand new compilation LP, ‘Dig What You Need’, featuring the best tracks from ‘Get What You Need’ and ‘Dig Yourself Deep’, all remixed, re-mastered and sounding better than ever… If you missed those albums first time around, this is definitely the best way to catch up!
Although, like everyone else, the band have been sitting-out the recent delays and cancellations of the Covid-period, they are now back on track with UK and European tour dates and a brand new compilation LP, ‘Dig What You Need’, featuring the best tracks from ‘Get What You Need’ and ‘Dig Yourself Deep’, all remixed, re-mastered and sounding better than ever… If you missed those albums first time around, this is definitely the best way to catch up!
With all of this new activity on the go, I was able to set-up a telephonic-interview with bass-player / song-writer extraordinaire Michael Bradley, and the obvious subject with-which to start was the new album… When did the band have the idea to release this record?
‘It was Damian’s idea, actually… we made those albums and enjoyed doing them but they didn’t make much impact at the time, for obvious reasons. We were happy that we’d done them because it felt as if they were something that we had to do and since then, we’ve always kept a few of the songs in our live set. They always seem to go down pretty well, so when Damian came up with the idea to combine the best songs from each record as one new album, I thought, yeah, that’s not a bad idea… Then, next thing I knew, Damian had put it all together and was telling me, here it is! That said, I didn’t really want to get involved with choosing the songs that went on there, because then you start feeling awkward if you want to pick one of your own. But Damian was okay with that because there were none of his songs on them… I hadn’t actually realised that before then, because he always used to write songs on our earlier records, but I think it may have been because he was also doing other things at the same time, off on his own. Either way, it meant that he’d be an honest broker when it came to what were the best songs to go on there. As it is, the songs are mostly John’s, tempered by a few of mine.’
All of the tracks were also remixed and re-mastered by Paul Tipler..
‘Yeah, it was, although I’m never the one to ask about that kind of stuff… I can hardly ever tell when things have been re-mastered or remixed, unless it’s something really obvious, like they’ve added a mouth-organ or something! So I’m always polite when something gets played to me, but I’m not the kind of person who’ll have conversations about whether the snare-drum has a great sound or not. It’s all just drums to me! I’m a bit of an ignoramus when it comes to that whole process.’
‘It was Damian’s idea, actually… we made those albums and enjoyed doing them but they didn’t make much impact at the time, for obvious reasons. We were happy that we’d done them because it felt as if they were something that we had to do and since then, we’ve always kept a few of the songs in our live set. They always seem to go down pretty well, so when Damian came up with the idea to combine the best songs from each record as one new album, I thought, yeah, that’s not a bad idea… Then, next thing I knew, Damian had put it all together and was telling me, here it is! That said, I didn’t really want to get involved with choosing the songs that went on there, because then you start feeling awkward if you want to pick one of your own. But Damian was okay with that because there were none of his songs on them… I hadn’t actually realised that before then, because he always used to write songs on our earlier records, but I think it may have been because he was also doing other things at the same time, off on his own. Either way, it meant that he’d be an honest broker when it came to what were the best songs to go on there. As it is, the songs are mostly John’s, tempered by a few of mine.’
All of the tracks were also remixed and re-mastered by Paul Tipler..
‘Yeah, it was, although I’m never the one to ask about that kind of stuff… I can hardly ever tell when things have been re-mastered or remixed, unless it’s something really obvious, like they’ve added a mouth-organ or something! So I’m always polite when something gets played to me, but I’m not the kind of person who’ll have conversations about whether the snare-drum has a great sound or not. It’s all just drums to me! I’m a bit of an ignoramus when it comes to that whole process.’
One of the things that’s nice about this release is that it’s going to be available on vinyl, whilst the two original albums were only on CD. I think a lot of fans still associate The Undertones with vinyl, going back to all of those great singles…
‘Ahh, well, I’ve always been a fan of CD… I remember when they first came out and I thought they were fantastic. You could just grab them from the box and play them and they wouldn’t get scratched, or at least, that’s what we were being told back at the time… But as far as those albums were involved, back in 2003 and 2007, CD releases were just the default-format and people weren’t paying much attention to vinyl back then. However, that’s all changed again and vinyl seems to have become a lot more popular again recently, although because of that, it costs so much more now. So I think people have started going back to CDs again… I mean, if I’m ever thinking about getting something like a new Beatles reissue, I’m happy to get it on CD just because it’ll be cheaper and also because they’re a lot handier… what can I say, I’m a very old man!’
The first record you actually released after the band had reformed with Paul McLoone was the ‘Thrill Me’ single, which has remained in your live-sets ever since and become something of a fan-favourite…
‘Well, because ‘Thrill Me’ was a single-release before it appeared on the album, I think that’s always helped it to stand out and we all liked it, so we’ve always kept it in the set. But the funny thing I’ve noticed just recently is that people seem to be paying more attention to it, again. Just in the last few weeks, Gideon Coe played it on 6 Music and Ralph McLean played it on Radio Ulster, so I was starting to think, is something happening, here? I’ve always thought it was a great record, so I think that’s why people still enjoy it. When we play it live, it won’t have the same sort of impact as, say, ‘My Perfect Cousin’ or ‘Jimmy Jimmy’, but you do get a sense of recognition for it and you can tell that people are enjoying it. Ever since we reformed, we’ve only ever played the songs that we want to play, but that’s remained in our live sets since it was released, so that must say something about it.’
‘Ahh, well, I’ve always been a fan of CD… I remember when they first came out and I thought they were fantastic. You could just grab them from the box and play them and they wouldn’t get scratched, or at least, that’s what we were being told back at the time… But as far as those albums were involved, back in 2003 and 2007, CD releases were just the default-format and people weren’t paying much attention to vinyl back then. However, that’s all changed again and vinyl seems to have become a lot more popular again recently, although because of that, it costs so much more now. So I think people have started going back to CDs again… I mean, if I’m ever thinking about getting something like a new Beatles reissue, I’m happy to get it on CD just because it’ll be cheaper and also because they’re a lot handier… what can I say, I’m a very old man!’
The first record you actually released after the band had reformed with Paul McLoone was the ‘Thrill Me’ single, which has remained in your live-sets ever since and become something of a fan-favourite…
‘Well, because ‘Thrill Me’ was a single-release before it appeared on the album, I think that’s always helped it to stand out and we all liked it, so we’ve always kept it in the set. But the funny thing I’ve noticed just recently is that people seem to be paying more attention to it, again. Just in the last few weeks, Gideon Coe played it on 6 Music and Ralph McLean played it on Radio Ulster, so I was starting to think, is something happening, here? I’ve always thought it was a great record, so I think that’s why people still enjoy it. When we play it live, it won’t have the same sort of impact as, say, ‘My Perfect Cousin’ or ‘Jimmy Jimmy’, but you do get a sense of recognition for it and you can tell that people are enjoying it. Ever since we reformed, we’ve only ever played the songs that we want to play, but that’s remained in our live sets since it was released, so that must say something about it.’
It’s always awkward when a band reforms and starts to record new material, because if it doesn’t stand-up well next to their original songs, it can be a big disappointment for the fans. But I do think that ‘Get What You Need’ and ‘Dig Yourself Deep’ stood-up pretty well and included some really great new songs…
‘Well, it’s good to hear that, even now, and I do remember having that feeling back at the time, you know, that we really needed to get it right. I mean, a lot of bands keep-on making records and it used to be a cliché that they’d always say, ‘we think our new album is the best thing we’ve ever done’. But I’m not so sure that anyone says that anymore… Paul McCartney keeps on making new records and sometimes they’re brilliant and other times they’re just alright, but it’s what he does. He makes records. And of course, there’ll be people who come along and say, it’s not as good as his old stuff, but it’s really a daft comparison to make, trying to judge something that someone has just made with something made twenty or thirty years ago. It’s unfair to expect them to still be the same.’
In the case of The Undertones, your musical style developed and embraced a lot of different influences over the course of the first four albums, so surely that would be an indicator that you wouldn’t want to just do the same old thing all over again…
‘Well, when you’re a teenager, a year is a very long time. Now, a year is nothing, but back then it was a long time when you’re on that kind of path… especially for someone like John, who was the originator of a lot of what we were doing. It’s not as if we ever had discussions about not doing something the same as something else or wanting to do something new in a different way, we just worked on the songs as they came up. John would bring a new song to the rest of us and maybe he’d tell us the sort of thing that he’d been influenced by, to give us an idea of where it was going. That happened a few times, although in my case and possible Billy’s, I really just carried on playing the same way I had always done... I don’t think I varied my style all that much at all. But I don’t think we ever actually discussed whether we should or shouldn’t write another song like ‘Jimmy Jimmy’ or ‘You Got My Number’. It was never a spoken-thing, it was more that we just understood that it would be a daft thing to do. It’s funny, because you do hear about bands who consciously try to make another record that sounds like their big hit, and I’ve always found that very, very strange. It would just be a very odd thing to do in a studio. Why would a band want to try and keep to a particular pattern or blueprint? That’s always seemed to me like a really odd thing to do. Presumably, as you carry on as a band, you’ll get better at what you’re doing and you’ll want to try and do different things
‘Well, it’s good to hear that, even now, and I do remember having that feeling back at the time, you know, that we really needed to get it right. I mean, a lot of bands keep-on making records and it used to be a cliché that they’d always say, ‘we think our new album is the best thing we’ve ever done’. But I’m not so sure that anyone says that anymore… Paul McCartney keeps on making new records and sometimes they’re brilliant and other times they’re just alright, but it’s what he does. He makes records. And of course, there’ll be people who come along and say, it’s not as good as his old stuff, but it’s really a daft comparison to make, trying to judge something that someone has just made with something made twenty or thirty years ago. It’s unfair to expect them to still be the same.’
In the case of The Undertones, your musical style developed and embraced a lot of different influences over the course of the first four albums, so surely that would be an indicator that you wouldn’t want to just do the same old thing all over again…
‘Well, when you’re a teenager, a year is a very long time. Now, a year is nothing, but back then it was a long time when you’re on that kind of path… especially for someone like John, who was the originator of a lot of what we were doing. It’s not as if we ever had discussions about not doing something the same as something else or wanting to do something new in a different way, we just worked on the songs as they came up. John would bring a new song to the rest of us and maybe he’d tell us the sort of thing that he’d been influenced by, to give us an idea of where it was going. That happened a few times, although in my case and possible Billy’s, I really just carried on playing the same way I had always done... I don’t think I varied my style all that much at all. But I don’t think we ever actually discussed whether we should or shouldn’t write another song like ‘Jimmy Jimmy’ or ‘You Got My Number’. It was never a spoken-thing, it was more that we just understood that it would be a daft thing to do. It’s funny, because you do hear about bands who consciously try to make another record that sounds like their big hit, and I’ve always found that very, very strange. It would just be a very odd thing to do in a studio. Why would a band want to try and keep to a particular pattern or blueprint? That’s always seemed to me like a really odd thing to do. Presumably, as you carry on as a band, you’ll get better at what you’re doing and you’ll want to try and do different things
The other thing that works in your favour when you don’t stick to a particular formula is that it gives the songs a better chance of remaining fresh and vital, as opposed to bands who stay with a predictable style which soon becomes old-hat…
‘Well, yeah, and that helps when we go out and play, even now. If anything, I think we actually play our older songs with a bit of a tougher sound these days, probably because we’re all older and have more experience, so we know how to play these things as well as we can. But we’ve never been ones for changing things around too much, like some bands who might slow a song down or do something else with it. We were never interested in trying to do radically different versions of the older songs, which some bands will do because they get bored playing the same things all the time. I think, with us, it’s been good because we don’t play too often, so we can still enjoy the old songs whenever we do play them. We’ve never got into a position where it just becomes a job, so we can still make mistakes and just laugh at them! I mean, most of our songs are relatively simple, so we all know where to come-in and how to end at the same time, but we’ve all made mistakes at one time or another. Even John will make an occasional mistake and he wrote most of them! But it really doesn’t matter too much and we’ve never been in that position where we’d want to change things around just for the sake of it. The only things that we might change a bit would be songs like ‘The Love Parade’, which we have to do a little bit different because we don’t have keyboards when we play it live and I think the way we play it now is a little more like a Sixties Garage band, which is where the idea for the song came from in the first place.’
Do you try to represent all of your different albums when you play live?
‘Well, the bulk of the set tends to come from the first two albums and there’ll be a selection from ‘Positive Touch’, but from ‘The Sin of Pride’ I think ’The Love Parade’ is the only one that we’ve played regularly. There’s reasons for this, partly because the arrangements of the songs on that album wouldn’t work so well to be played live. But also because there are some bad memories and bad experiences involved from when we were making that album, which may be another reason why we’re not so keen on playing those songs now. Having said that, we have tried a few times to work out a way to play ‘Luxury’ when we’ve been together for practice. So far it hasn’t worked, but I’ve sort of become resolved to find a way to do it and, when we have our next practice, I hope we’ll try it again. I really want to get it ready so we can play it live, because I do think it’s a great song. I mean, I can’t say that ‘The Sin of Pride’ is one of our best records, but I know some people really like it, so it’ll be good if we can play some of those songs for them.’
‘Well, yeah, and that helps when we go out and play, even now. If anything, I think we actually play our older songs with a bit of a tougher sound these days, probably because we’re all older and have more experience, so we know how to play these things as well as we can. But we’ve never been ones for changing things around too much, like some bands who might slow a song down or do something else with it. We were never interested in trying to do radically different versions of the older songs, which some bands will do because they get bored playing the same things all the time. I think, with us, it’s been good because we don’t play too often, so we can still enjoy the old songs whenever we do play them. We’ve never got into a position where it just becomes a job, so we can still make mistakes and just laugh at them! I mean, most of our songs are relatively simple, so we all know where to come-in and how to end at the same time, but we’ve all made mistakes at one time or another. Even John will make an occasional mistake and he wrote most of them! But it really doesn’t matter too much and we’ve never been in that position where we’d want to change things around just for the sake of it. The only things that we might change a bit would be songs like ‘The Love Parade’, which we have to do a little bit different because we don’t have keyboards when we play it live and I think the way we play it now is a little more like a Sixties Garage band, which is where the idea for the song came from in the first place.’
Do you try to represent all of your different albums when you play live?
‘Well, the bulk of the set tends to come from the first two albums and there’ll be a selection from ‘Positive Touch’, but from ‘The Sin of Pride’ I think ’The Love Parade’ is the only one that we’ve played regularly. There’s reasons for this, partly because the arrangements of the songs on that album wouldn’t work so well to be played live. But also because there are some bad memories and bad experiences involved from when we were making that album, which may be another reason why we’re not so keen on playing those songs now. Having said that, we have tried a few times to work out a way to play ‘Luxury’ when we’ve been together for practice. So far it hasn’t worked, but I’ve sort of become resolved to find a way to do it and, when we have our next practice, I hope we’ll try it again. I really want to get it ready so we can play it live, because I do think it’s a great song. I mean, I can’t say that ‘The Sin of Pride’ is one of our best records, but I know some people really like it, so it’ll be good if we can play some of those songs for them.’
You’ve played some great cover versions over the years and one of them, the Gary Glitter hit ‘Rock’n’Roll’, was even recorded for a John Peel session. A few years ago, when the Undertones played at Koko in London, Billy started to play the intro for it and some people in the audience started cheering, although he stopped playing it after only a few seconds, amid smirks and excuses onstage! I know there’s the whole problem of what happened with Gary Glitter, but taken in its’ own right, it’s still a great song… Would you feel awkward playing something like that again?
‘We actually used to start our set with that, at one time, and yes, they are still great records. We all had those singles and albums back when we were kids… But because of what he did, people just feel that you can’t play them anymore. Although, I don’t think anyone has stopped playing Phil Spector records because of what he did. No-one’s going to stop playing the Ronettes because Phil Spector wrote the songs and produced them… The best way around it would be to play a Glitter Band song, because they recorded some great stuff as well and, in fact, I’ve even played some of their songs on the radio and I don’t think anyone’s been upset about that…’
One other song you played very early-on, which I was surprised to learn about, was a cover of the Johnny Moped classic, ‘Incendiary Device’… How had you got to hear that?
‘Oh yeah, we were playing that back at the Casbah in 1977, I think… it was actually the b-side of their first single, ‘No One’, but we never really played the a-side because we all preferred ‘Incendiary Device’. It was John who heard about the single and bought it by mail order, from some advert he’d seen in the back pages of the NME. He got the record, told us about the song and said that we should try to do it… so we tried it out and it was great! Of course, in terms of the words, it’s probably not one of the best songs to play, especially now! But we enjoyed playing it and it’s still a great record. In fact, I saw the Johnny Moped film a little while ago, the one that Fred Burns made. They had some really great stories about their early days, when Captain Sensible was still with them, like when they were playing in someone’s garden! I mean, that’s the kind of thing we used to do sometimes… we’d just set-up and play a few songs even though we didn’t even have an audience. So I really identify with them. The other film I really liked, recently, was ‘King Rocker’, about Robert Lloyd. It was just a great story and you didn’t even have to be a big fan of his music to enjoy it. That’s the sign of a good film.’
‘We actually used to start our set with that, at one time, and yes, they are still great records. We all had those singles and albums back when we were kids… But because of what he did, people just feel that you can’t play them anymore. Although, I don’t think anyone has stopped playing Phil Spector records because of what he did. No-one’s going to stop playing the Ronettes because Phil Spector wrote the songs and produced them… The best way around it would be to play a Glitter Band song, because they recorded some great stuff as well and, in fact, I’ve even played some of their songs on the radio and I don’t think anyone’s been upset about that…’
One other song you played very early-on, which I was surprised to learn about, was a cover of the Johnny Moped classic, ‘Incendiary Device’… How had you got to hear that?
‘Oh yeah, we were playing that back at the Casbah in 1977, I think… it was actually the b-side of their first single, ‘No One’, but we never really played the a-side because we all preferred ‘Incendiary Device’. It was John who heard about the single and bought it by mail order, from some advert he’d seen in the back pages of the NME. He got the record, told us about the song and said that we should try to do it… so we tried it out and it was great! Of course, in terms of the words, it’s probably not one of the best songs to play, especially now! But we enjoyed playing it and it’s still a great record. In fact, I saw the Johnny Moped film a little while ago, the one that Fred Burns made. They had some really great stories about their early days, when Captain Sensible was still with them, like when they were playing in someone’s garden! I mean, that’s the kind of thing we used to do sometimes… we’d just set-up and play a few songs even though we didn’t even have an audience. So I really identify with them. The other film I really liked, recently, was ‘King Rocker’, about Robert Lloyd. It was just a great story and you didn’t even have to be a big fan of his music to enjoy it. That’s the sign of a good film.’
The early days of the Undertones were included in the 2013 film, ‘Good Vibrations’, which told the story of Terri Hooley and his legendary record label. Obviously it was based more around Terri than the bands and some critics complained about the accuracy of some of the events featured, but what did you think of it?
‘Well, I had to shut my eyes every time the Undertones were on the screen, but you know, because it’s a film it’s not going to be exactly the way things happened. It wasn’t meant to be a documentary, you know? So I enjoyed the rest of it and I thought Richard Dormer, the guy that played Terri, was absolutely brilliant, really fantastic. And I think they really got the whole Belfast ethos in there, you know, that whole sense of humour. They got all of that, although I think that if they hadn’t got such a good actor to play Terri, perhaps they wouldn’t have got it so well. He was just great and I think it really summed-up the joy and the excitement of those times.’
In retrospect, when the early punk scene in Northern Ireland is discussed, people often refer to a common sound between many of the bands. Certainly, some of the bands had similar influences, from early rock’roll and Sixties garage bands through to glam-rock, but do you think that was the case?
‘I’ve never really thought about it before, but I don’t really think so, actually. I mean, we were all working with the same things, guitars, bass and drums, so possibly that would have resulted with something in common, just because none of the bands on Good Vibrations back then were electronic or keyboard-based, they were all guitar based. But aside from that, I don’t think there was much in common and everyone was really doing their own thing.’
‘Well, I had to shut my eyes every time the Undertones were on the screen, but you know, because it’s a film it’s not going to be exactly the way things happened. It wasn’t meant to be a documentary, you know? So I enjoyed the rest of it and I thought Richard Dormer, the guy that played Terri, was absolutely brilliant, really fantastic. And I think they really got the whole Belfast ethos in there, you know, that whole sense of humour. They got all of that, although I think that if they hadn’t got such a good actor to play Terri, perhaps they wouldn’t have got it so well. He was just great and I think it really summed-up the joy and the excitement of those times.’
In retrospect, when the early punk scene in Northern Ireland is discussed, people often refer to a common sound between many of the bands. Certainly, some of the bands had similar influences, from early rock’roll and Sixties garage bands through to glam-rock, but do you think that was the case?
‘I’ve never really thought about it before, but I don’t really think so, actually. I mean, we were all working with the same things, guitars, bass and drums, so possibly that would have resulted with something in common, just because none of the bands on Good Vibrations back then were electronic or keyboard-based, they were all guitar based. But aside from that, I don’t think there was much in common and everyone was really doing their own thing.’
You wrote your own account of your time in the band, ‘Teenage Kicks – My Life as an Undertone’, which was published by Omnibus Books in 2016. Was that something you’d been thinking about for some time?
‘Yeah, I had been thinking about it for quite a long time. When I started to mention the idea to some friends of mine, some of them were suggesting that I should work with a ghost-writer, but in the end I did it completely by myself, which is what I always wanted to do. Even just a year before it came out, someone got in touch with me and said they’d do it for me, like, he’d sit down with me and I could tell him the story and he’d write it up. But I didn’t know him from Adam and I found that idea quite horrible. I just knew that I’d much rather write it myself and I wanted to do it before someone else did, although as it turned out, I don’t think any of the others were particularly bothered. I also liked the idea of doing it because I was quite scared about it, in case it wasn’t any good, so it was a challenge. But as I went along, I gave copies of some of the things I’d written to people I knew, to see what they thought of it, and the feedback they gave me was that they thought it was good and I should keep going with it. Actually, I still do readings from it, occasionally, and sometimes I’ll be reading something that I haven’t read for a while and I’ll think to myself, you know, that really isn’t so bad. So I’m very happy with it. The other thing I was a little worried about was that I had to rely on my memory and, generally, I have a pretty good memory but I also knew that the way I remembered something might not be the way someone else would. So I thought it was important to say, well, this is the way I remember this happening, or even, I don’t actually remember this happening, but I know that it did! I wanted to let people know that what I wrote about was my experience of things, and other people may have experienced them differently.’
One of the things that fans have always appreciated about the Undertones is that the band have always stayed pretty down-to-earth. Coming from Derry and not moving over to London, do you think it helped you to maintain that attitude?
‘I think it did, yeah. And it helped us to get our own sound because we were in a sort of splendid isolation. The first time we went over to England as a band was when we went in a van to do ‘Top of the Pops’. That was kind of unusual because most bands would normally move to London as soon as they got the chance, as you were supposed to go there if you wanted to ‘make-it’. And, I mean, I loved London and still do, and we enjoyed making the first two albums there, but as soon as we finished whatever we were doing there, we would all go back to Derry and that definitely kept our feet on the ground… you couldn’t go back to Derry and act like a big deal. Your friends weren’t going to be coming up to you like journalists, asking you what are you going to do next and when will you be playing again? There was none of that in Derry… even your parents were just happy that you had a job. I don’t know if we’d have turned out any different had we spent more time in London, but I certainly think it helped that we weren’t spending all of our time talking to journalists or record company people. Whenever we came home, we’d just sit indoors watching TV or go out and play football with our friends. I think we all went along with the old Punk thing about the audience could be the band and the band could be in the audience. I mean, John always used to keep his head down and would almost deny that he was even in the Undertones, because he was always so quiet and self-effacing. But that said, if someone just wanted to talk to him about music, he’d get really animated because he’s always loved music. But he’s never been the sort of guy who’d go around telling people that he wrote ‘Jimmy Jimmy’ or ‘Teenage Kicks’…’
‘Yeah, I had been thinking about it for quite a long time. When I started to mention the idea to some friends of mine, some of them were suggesting that I should work with a ghost-writer, but in the end I did it completely by myself, which is what I always wanted to do. Even just a year before it came out, someone got in touch with me and said they’d do it for me, like, he’d sit down with me and I could tell him the story and he’d write it up. But I didn’t know him from Adam and I found that idea quite horrible. I just knew that I’d much rather write it myself and I wanted to do it before someone else did, although as it turned out, I don’t think any of the others were particularly bothered. I also liked the idea of doing it because I was quite scared about it, in case it wasn’t any good, so it was a challenge. But as I went along, I gave copies of some of the things I’d written to people I knew, to see what they thought of it, and the feedback they gave me was that they thought it was good and I should keep going with it. Actually, I still do readings from it, occasionally, and sometimes I’ll be reading something that I haven’t read for a while and I’ll think to myself, you know, that really isn’t so bad. So I’m very happy with it. The other thing I was a little worried about was that I had to rely on my memory and, generally, I have a pretty good memory but I also knew that the way I remembered something might not be the way someone else would. So I thought it was important to say, well, this is the way I remember this happening, or even, I don’t actually remember this happening, but I know that it did! I wanted to let people know that what I wrote about was my experience of things, and other people may have experienced them differently.’
One of the things that fans have always appreciated about the Undertones is that the band have always stayed pretty down-to-earth. Coming from Derry and not moving over to London, do you think it helped you to maintain that attitude?
‘I think it did, yeah. And it helped us to get our own sound because we were in a sort of splendid isolation. The first time we went over to England as a band was when we went in a van to do ‘Top of the Pops’. That was kind of unusual because most bands would normally move to London as soon as they got the chance, as you were supposed to go there if you wanted to ‘make-it’. And, I mean, I loved London and still do, and we enjoyed making the first two albums there, but as soon as we finished whatever we were doing there, we would all go back to Derry and that definitely kept our feet on the ground… you couldn’t go back to Derry and act like a big deal. Your friends weren’t going to be coming up to you like journalists, asking you what are you going to do next and when will you be playing again? There was none of that in Derry… even your parents were just happy that you had a job. I don’t know if we’d have turned out any different had we spent more time in London, but I certainly think it helped that we weren’t spending all of our time talking to journalists or record company people. Whenever we came home, we’d just sit indoors watching TV or go out and play football with our friends. I think we all went along with the old Punk thing about the audience could be the band and the band could be in the audience. I mean, John always used to keep his head down and would almost deny that he was even in the Undertones, because he was always so quiet and self-effacing. But that said, if someone just wanted to talk to him about music, he’d get really animated because he’s always loved music. But he’s never been the sort of guy who’d go around telling people that he wrote ‘Jimmy Jimmy’ or ‘Teenage Kicks’…’
Long before the band reformed in 1999, you did almost reform with Feargal for a one-off, secret event to celebrate John Peels’ 50th birthday. Unfortunately, events conspired to prevent your appearance going ahead, but do you think that could have led on to anything else at that time?
‘Yeah, that was back in 1989… I think John and Damian were still in That Petrol Emotion at the time, or perhaps John had just left, but me and Billy came over to London to join them. The four of us got together first and then Feargal came down to the rehearsal room. But on that particular day he was just getting over a cold so we didn’t get to actually play anything with him. He just sat and watched us and everything seemed to be grand. But then the next day, we got word that John and Damian’s father had died, so that knocked everything on the head and it never happened. We never even got as far as a full rehearsal, which was a shame. But even then, it hadn’t been a situation where we were all hugging each other and saying this is great, we should have done it years ago! It wasn’t a tense situation when we all got back together again, but neither was it a brimming with enthusiasm, so maybe it was for the best that it didn’t happen. Not that I’m saying it wouldn’t have worked or that no-one would have wanted to see us, because all through the Nineties we were getting offers to reform, mostly from Vince Power, to play at his festivals. Some of us would have been happy to do it, but by then Feargal was working for a record company and didn’t know how it would go down with them... So that really prevented anything happening at that time and, you know, I just don’t think it was supposed to happen…’
Aside from the Undertones, you’ve been working as a presenter for Radio Ulster for quite some time. How did that come about?
‘I started working for Radio Foyle in 1986, a few years after The Undertones broke-up. I was presenting a show for a few years and then I started working as a producer until, in 2013, they asked me if I’d like to present another music show, so I’ve been doing that on Friday nights since then. I carried on working as a producer as well, but I finally left that last year, so it’s all been good.’
‘Yeah, that was back in 1989… I think John and Damian were still in That Petrol Emotion at the time, or perhaps John had just left, but me and Billy came over to London to join them. The four of us got together first and then Feargal came down to the rehearsal room. But on that particular day he was just getting over a cold so we didn’t get to actually play anything with him. He just sat and watched us and everything seemed to be grand. But then the next day, we got word that John and Damian’s father had died, so that knocked everything on the head and it never happened. We never even got as far as a full rehearsal, which was a shame. But even then, it hadn’t been a situation where we were all hugging each other and saying this is great, we should have done it years ago! It wasn’t a tense situation when we all got back together again, but neither was it a brimming with enthusiasm, so maybe it was for the best that it didn’t happen. Not that I’m saying it wouldn’t have worked or that no-one would have wanted to see us, because all through the Nineties we were getting offers to reform, mostly from Vince Power, to play at his festivals. Some of us would have been happy to do it, but by then Feargal was working for a record company and didn’t know how it would go down with them... So that really prevented anything happening at that time and, you know, I just don’t think it was supposed to happen…’
Aside from the Undertones, you’ve been working as a presenter for Radio Ulster for quite some time. How did that come about?
‘I started working for Radio Foyle in 1986, a few years after The Undertones broke-up. I was presenting a show for a few years and then I started working as a producer until, in 2013, they asked me if I’d like to present another music show, so I’ve been doing that on Friday nights since then. I carried on working as a producer as well, but I finally left that last year, so it’s all been good.’
It’s well-known that John Peel was a champion for the music of The Undertones, as well as for so many other bands… Do you think he influenced your decision to work on the radio?
‘It probably was an influence, yeah, in that I never wanted to be a mainstream DJ like Bruno Brookes or something. When I do my shows, it’s all about the music and the bands that make it. I mean, I know I’ve never come close to the amount of effort and the sheer conscientiousness that John Peel put into it. I would just never have enough time to do that and, thankfully, I’ve never been in the position where so many people would send me tapes or records, but John Peel took that role and his position there very seriously. I do still enjoy hearing and sharing new bands and their music whenever I can, and there are always great things out there, but you can’t be comprehensive about all of it, and you’re not going to hear everything. But enough comes my way to keep me happy!’
Since the Undertones reformed in 1999 and despite some being a little wary at first about the absence of Feargal, I think most fans have been very accepting of Paul McLoone and have been happy for him to sing the songs in his own style…
‘Well, the fans we meet have been great, because the fans who didn’t like what we were doing just didn’t go! So there’s no simple answer to it… we had to get Paul to sing because we knew that Feargal wouldn’t want to do it and even if he did, I don’t think it would have been great. I mean, if you’re going to reform a band it’s always a bad idea to reform without the original singer, as they’re always the focal point. That might as well be in ‘The Big Book of How to Reform a Band’! But in our case we didn’t care about that because the four of us always thought of ourselves as a bit of a unit. We needed someone to sing and all of us already knew Paul, independently of each other, and we all got on well with him, so it was the obvious thing to do. I think he wears it very well and accepts the responsibility. He’s been doing it for twenty years, now, but he took on a self-less task, really. He had to fill some pretty big shoes, but I think it helped that Feargal never wrote any of the songs. If Feargal had been a songwriter as well as the singer, I doubt if the rest of us would have wanted to be playing songs by someone who wasn’t there. So it really helped that John wrote most of the songs, as well as Damian and myself. Paul still has to put-up with some bizarre things, as he’s out at the front of the band, but I think most people have accepted him being there because he is a great singer and does a really good job. I can understand why some people might not want to see us without Feargal, but I have to say, everyone I’ve spoken to who has come to see us has always said it was great, so we know that it works and if some people want to stay away, we don’t really care. I mean, obviously we want people to like what we’re doing but we were never the kind of band who’d sit down and have discussions about how we could increase our audience or sell more tickets. We were always more like, we’re going to do this to please ourselves and if other people love it, that’s great!’
‘It probably was an influence, yeah, in that I never wanted to be a mainstream DJ like Bruno Brookes or something. When I do my shows, it’s all about the music and the bands that make it. I mean, I know I’ve never come close to the amount of effort and the sheer conscientiousness that John Peel put into it. I would just never have enough time to do that and, thankfully, I’ve never been in the position where so many people would send me tapes or records, but John Peel took that role and his position there very seriously. I do still enjoy hearing and sharing new bands and their music whenever I can, and there are always great things out there, but you can’t be comprehensive about all of it, and you’re not going to hear everything. But enough comes my way to keep me happy!’
Since the Undertones reformed in 1999 and despite some being a little wary at first about the absence of Feargal, I think most fans have been very accepting of Paul McLoone and have been happy for him to sing the songs in his own style…
‘Well, the fans we meet have been great, because the fans who didn’t like what we were doing just didn’t go! So there’s no simple answer to it… we had to get Paul to sing because we knew that Feargal wouldn’t want to do it and even if he did, I don’t think it would have been great. I mean, if you’re going to reform a band it’s always a bad idea to reform without the original singer, as they’re always the focal point. That might as well be in ‘The Big Book of How to Reform a Band’! But in our case we didn’t care about that because the four of us always thought of ourselves as a bit of a unit. We needed someone to sing and all of us already knew Paul, independently of each other, and we all got on well with him, so it was the obvious thing to do. I think he wears it very well and accepts the responsibility. He’s been doing it for twenty years, now, but he took on a self-less task, really. He had to fill some pretty big shoes, but I think it helped that Feargal never wrote any of the songs. If Feargal had been a songwriter as well as the singer, I doubt if the rest of us would have wanted to be playing songs by someone who wasn’t there. So it really helped that John wrote most of the songs, as well as Damian and myself. Paul still has to put-up with some bizarre things, as he’s out at the front of the band, but I think most people have accepted him being there because he is a great singer and does a really good job. I can understand why some people might not want to see us without Feargal, but I have to say, everyone I’ve spoken to who has come to see us has always said it was great, so we know that it works and if some people want to stay away, we don’t really care. I mean, obviously we want people to like what we’re doing but we were never the kind of band who’d sit down and have discussions about how we could increase our audience or sell more tickets. We were always more like, we’re going to do this to please ourselves and if other people love it, that’s great!’
It’s only a few years away from The Undertones 50th anniversary – that must feel rather strange?
‘Of course! I sometimes look back and I remember when I started working for the BBC in 1986, which was three years since the band had broken-up and it already seemed like ages ago. But three years now is nothing! It just goes to show how, as you get on with your life, things can change very quickly. I mean, 1986 would’ve been the tenth anniversary of when we first played onstage, but by then the band had been and gone, I’d come out the other end and was starting a new day-job. So it does seem strange, especially as the band reformed and are still playing together twenty years on from that. A few years back, we were invited to play some shows with Die Toten Hosen in Germany, and they headline these huge concerts over there! I just remember looking out at this massive crowd and thinking, this must be as far from playing at the Casbah as it can get! The fact that punk rock has come that far is something quite incredible. But as far as our 50th anniversary… I think it’ll be great just to be here! I think, when you get to this stage of your life, you’ll just be thinking, it’ll be good to be around for that, haha! I mean, it would be a terrible thing to miss it and have everyone else talking about you behind your back!’
‘Of course! I sometimes look back and I remember when I started working for the BBC in 1986, which was three years since the band had broken-up and it already seemed like ages ago. But three years now is nothing! It just goes to show how, as you get on with your life, things can change very quickly. I mean, 1986 would’ve been the tenth anniversary of when we first played onstage, but by then the band had been and gone, I’d come out the other end and was starting a new day-job. So it does seem strange, especially as the band reformed and are still playing together twenty years on from that. A few years back, we were invited to play some shows with Die Toten Hosen in Germany, and they headline these huge concerts over there! I just remember looking out at this massive crowd and thinking, this must be as far from playing at the Casbah as it can get! The fact that punk rock has come that far is something quite incredible. But as far as our 50th anniversary… I think it’ll be great just to be here! I think, when you get to this stage of your life, you’ll just be thinking, it’ll be good to be around for that, haha! I mean, it would be a terrible thing to miss it and have everyone else talking about you behind your back!’
So, there you have it. The Undertones are on tour over the next few months and the new album is available now, so you have no excuse for not catching-up with them. For further information, here’s their website ;
www.theundertones.com
and should you want more info about the new album
www.theundertones.bandcamp.com
www.theundertones.com
and should you want more info about the new album
www.theundertones.bandcamp.com