Almost four decades have passed since The Undertones, a young band from Londonderry in Northern Ireland, hit the headlines with their coming of age anthem ‘Teenage Kicks’. To mark their 40 years together, the band performed a special gig at the BBC’s Blackstaff studios in Belfast. In this post, BBC Radio Ulster Senior Producer Owen McFadden, reflects on four decades of music memories.
It’s hard to believe that it was nearly forty years ago. I was ‘mis-spending’ my youth in Belfast’s now legendary Good Vibrations record shop when boxes of the in-house label’s fourth single release arrived.
Terri Hooley, whose shop and record label these were, eagerly put the 7” vinyl on his turntable. Billy Doherty’s drums signalled the arrival of a genuine classic. Teenage Kicks had landed. Days later, the band would be climbing the narrow stairs at Good Vibrations to fold the picture sleeves of their first 45.
It seemed as if The Undertones had come from nowhere, but of course they’d been together for two years by then, energised by punk and rocking the Casbah in Derry.
However, once they’d committed their talents to tape in a tiny Belfast studio, news travelled fast. And the rest really is history. A besotted John Peel played Teenage Kicks twice in a row one evening in September 1978. Seymour Stein, boss of Sire records, tuned in on his car radio, immediately dispatched an A&R man to Derry to sign the band. Soon, they were on Top Of The Pops. They had a hit record.
The Undertones success and the positivity it brought to this part of the world have endured. Everyone knows (and loves) an Undertones song: Jimmy Jimmy, Here Comes The Summer,Get Over You, My Perfect Cousin.
And now, incredibly, the band is celebrating its fortieth birthday, skilfully combining rock ‘n’ roll with the everyday commitments of families and day jobs.
In a special performance at the BBC’s Blackstaff Studios in Belfast to be broadcast on BBC Radio Ulster on Bank Holiday Monday, they’ll be playing their debut LP in all its wonderful entirety, and looking back to how it all began in conversation with presenter Stephen McCauley.
And if I close my eyes, I might just find myself back in Good Vibrations, with Terri Hooley pogoing ecstatically to that musical magic conjured in the Derry air.
So hard to beat.
Owen McFadden is Senior Producer at BBC Radio Ulster
- The Undertones at the BBC is on BBC Radio Ulster, Monday 30 May at 3pm
- BBC Radio Ulster is available via 92-95FM & DAB digital radio, digital TV and online at bbc.co.uk/radioulster
- Catch-up on the programme via BBC iPlayer from Monday 30 May after broadcast
