Here Comes the Summer: The Undertones Story


Here Comes the Summer: The Undertones Story

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This programme contains some strong language

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'I found out some songs wrote themselves.

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'Like, Teenage Kicks wrote itself. Teenage Kicks was written,'

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it was a matter of 20, 30 seconds.

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'I remember doing it at the time and thinking,

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"Where's that coming out of?" You know?

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For the first time, The Undertones and Teenage Kicks.

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# Are teenage dreams so hard to beat... #

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In October 1978,

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millions of British viewers got their first taste of Teenage Kicks.

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And their first glimpse of The Undertones.

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Five lads from Northern Ireland

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who created some of the most sublime pop music ever made.

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# Dressed like that you must be living in a different world... #

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The Undertones were inspired by the angry anarchy of punk.

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But theirs was a different kind of rebellion.

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# Boys stop you on the street They wanna know your name... #

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Their singer was a choir boy. They sang of girls,

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or the lack of them,

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mummy's boys and their irritating relatives.

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# ..my perfect cousin... #

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They created a perfect and timeless soundtrack to growing up

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that spoke to teenagers all over the globe.

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But their adolescent anthems were revolutionary, nonetheless.

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Startlingly positive protest songs that demanded a life more ordinary.

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Because The Undertones came from Londonderry.

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Epicentre of the violent Troubles

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that tore Northern Ireland apart during the 1970s.

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'What you cannot over emphasise'

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is just how unpleasant that place was.

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The Undertones were this extraordinary contrast to all that.

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# Little mummy's boy... #

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For me, The Undertones coming up with those great pop songs

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was the most wonderful form of protest.

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# Jimmy, Jimmy... #

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'17, 18-year-olds

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'in a very ridiculous, absurd stressful situation,

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'still managing to capture the almost abstract,'

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universal exquisiteness of a great pop song.

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'The Undertones came from a place which was, on the face of it,'

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mad with violence, raging with violence.

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# Ooh, baby, baby, what can I do

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# You know you drive me crazy when I'm looking at you... #

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'And, yet, they emerged singing songs'

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of trivial and conventional teenage angst.

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# Here comes the summer... #

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'Here was a band who somehow managed to produce something big

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'and operatic and meaningful. And that was something really precious.

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'They couldn't have happened anywhere else. And they couldn't have had'

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the impact they had anywhere else.

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This is the story of the most improbable pop stars

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from the most unexpected place.

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Between 1978 and 1983,

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The Undertones had a string of hit records that made them

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one of punk rock's most prolific and popular acts.

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# I am an anti-Christ... #

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They were one of a wave of bands

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inspired by The Sex Pistols' rousing call to rebellion

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and punk's DIY assault on the music industry and the world at large.

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# You got my number... #

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But while The Pistols snarled out anarchy in the UK...

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# ..You know my name... #

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..and The Clash raged about white riots

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and Sten guns in Knightsbridge...

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The Undertones sang of the everyday trials of teenage life and love.

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# If you wanna, wanna, wanna, wanna Wanna have someone to talk to... #

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It wasn't as disruptive in an obvious way as The Clash or The Pistols.

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'But what made the whole thing completely unique'

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was the need to escape, the need to create an alternative world

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was so much on their shoulders

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'that their response to their surroundings and circumstances

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'was to create this amazing guitar pop music'

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that was just so infectious and so exhilarating.

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Other punks may have SEEMED more radical

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but what made The Undertones' music genuinely subversive

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is that it came from a place where bombs and guns

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were part of the walk to school.

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A city where an ordinary life was something that dreams were made of.

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# Why don't you use it?! #

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MUSIC: "Dirty Water" by The Standells

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# I'm gonna tell you a story

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# I'm gonna tell you about my town... #

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The story of The Undertones begins here,

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in the tight-knit Catholic neighbourhoods

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around the Bogside area of Derry.

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# Down by the river... #

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This was the childhood home of five mates.

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Michael, Billy, brothers John and Damian, and Feargal

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who became one of Britain's most iconic bands.

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# ..that's where you'll find me... #

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So, where were The Undertones from in Derry?

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Well, start off with the highest altitude,

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which was us up in Creggan.

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That was our house there, number 36, Creggan Broadway.

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From my house to O'Neill's house I suppose was just...two streets away.

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22, Beechwood Avenue.

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Undertones HQ.

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22, Beechwood Avenue, this was the headquarters

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of where The Undertones, kind of, got together...

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The hub. You know, it was our gathering place.

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Billy was a stone's throw from O'Neill's house over the Moor.

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We're just here on the Lone Moor Road

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and my house is just round the corner.

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'And Feargal would have been about ten minutes' walk.'

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53, Grafton Avenue.

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# Well, I love that dirty water... #

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Where Feargal lived, certainly, would have been lower middle-class.

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'But, you know, to an outsider,'

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we would have all been working class.

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You know, there was no leafy suburbs here.

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There were no Volvos parked outside.

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'We were very lucky, I think.'

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I was certainly very lucky in that I was only a couple of streets

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away from John O'Neill who wrote great songs.

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And only, you know, maybe a mile away from Feargal Sharkey,

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who's a great singer.

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Imagine Feargal had lived over there.

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Imagine Feargal had lived on the Waterside.

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Imagine Feargal had been Protestant.

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The Undertones would never have existed.

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That's the bizarre thing about Derry.

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MUSIC: "All Kinds Of Everything" by Dana

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# Snowdrops and daffodils... #

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To the outside world, in the early 1970s,

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Northern Ireland's second city was famous as the home

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of Eurovision winner Dana.

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And as the place where the violent struggle known as the Troubles began.

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Already, the stones are flying

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and there's a whiff of CS gas in the air.

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# All kinds of everything

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# Remind me of you... #

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Growing up in Derry was no ordinary experience.

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'Derry wasn't one place, you see.'

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There was the Derry where the Troubles happened,

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which was down at the bottom of William Street.

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In terms of Troubles, I mean the daily riot.

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'People in Derry would tell you that it was good craic down there,'

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apart from when things happened like the shootings and serious stuff.

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'Guys in my class would talk about being down and throwing stones.

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'And, of course, you had the prize'

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of the rubber bullet.

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# Summer time, winter time... #

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You kind of knew it was cool to be from Derry.

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'Whenever punk happened and you read about The Clash

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'talk the Sten guns in Knightsbridge and so on.

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'Great slogans, but The Clash would have killed to come from Derry

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'because we all had our Trouble stories.'

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There was in instance here round about the early '70s,

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I would have been about 14 years old,

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that there was a booby-trapped bomb.

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'And that bomb was actually that strong

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'that it blew me up out of my bed.'

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The windows came in, glass on top of me,

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the tiles came off the roof, the door came in as well.

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'Then, shortly after the explosion, the army came back again.'

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I looked over here and I could see the soldier take an aim and he just shot up the road.

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There's hundreds of people here. It was just complete...

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# All kinds of everything

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# Remind me of you. #

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'Even then, we kind of knew that...'

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They weren't... They didn't have that in Manchester.

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The history and geography of The Undertones' hometown

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made it unique.

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Derry was a divided city,

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where a large Catholic majority was ruled by a Protestant minority.

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A city with an uneasy, sometimes antagonistic, relationship

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between Protestant unionists, who supported ongoing British rule of Northern Ireland,

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and those mainly Catholic nationalists

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who favoured Irish independence.

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'It's not an accident that the Northern Ireland Troubles started in Derry.'

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Here you had a place, the Bogside and the Creggan,

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the area down beneath the walls here.

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'You had the biggest single concentration of working-class Catholics in Northern Ireland.'

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So people felt self-confident in their numbers.

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Catholic working-class people in a place like the Bogside

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or the Creggan Estate

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did not have that sense of siege, of being besieged

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that Catholic working-class people

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in the epicentres of Ireland and Belfast had.

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It's also important to understand about Derry

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is that from where we're standing, if you walk in that direction,

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that direction or that direction, for three miles,

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you're in the Republic of Ireland. So there was no sense of isolation here.

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So Derry was a place where, simultaneously,

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working-class Catholics felt

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almost uniquely discriminated against, and that was true.

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But at the same time,

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Derry Catholics felt more self-confident

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than Catholics anywhere else in the North,

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and that was a strange combination.

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So, at one and the same time, it was possible to feel in Derry,

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"We are being incredibly hard done by by the world."

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And, at the same time, "Aren't we great?"

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To some extent, The Undertones captured that, that Derryness.

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You're aware of the political situation.

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There was always rioting, there was always bombs.

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The army checkpoints were there to stop you every time.

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And you were hassled by the police.

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'You just got used to it,

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'even though you're aware that was going on and how bad it was,'

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you still wanted to have some sort of escape.

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'When you're about 14 or 15, and you realise'

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you're not going to be a professional footballer...

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the next avenue open to you would be form a band.

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'So it was myself and John.'

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I think we might have had a mandolin and a set of bongos.

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'After we played football, we'd come to our house and play some records.'

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'And there'd always be a guitar lying about,'

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and Billy might just start... you know, playing the drums.

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'There was no great master plan...'

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initially, you know?

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And then Vinnie was in the band as well.

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'We weren't out to change the world. It was just...'

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It was just a bit of fun, you know?

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In 1974, just like boys everywhere,

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Billy Doherty and John and Vincent O'Neill

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decided that it might be a good laugh to form a band.

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Their next recruit came from around the campfire.

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This is Bundoran in Donegal.

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And in August 1974, we were camping down here.

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And I officially joined the as-yet-unnamed Undertones.

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# Goodbye to you My trusted friend... #

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He was my best mate. And I think...

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I think he could play stuff, like, you know? He could tune the guitar.

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And the rest of us couldn't, you know?

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Vinnie was the first person who knew

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that they announced the new charts on a Tuesday lunchtime.

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He would go to his house, I would go to my house.

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We'd have our dinner, and then on the way back up from school,

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we'd discuss what it was.

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And I remember you really wanted Seasons In The Sun to be number one.

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I remember that because I remember when Seasons In The Sun was number one,

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I remember leaving the house with a sense of,

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"Vinnie'll be happy about that."

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# We had joy, we had fun We had seasons in the sun... #

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The band was now four. They had friendship.

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They had a shared love of pop music. Next they needed a singer.

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# See the way he walks down the street... #

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I'm just going to look at the register here for 1971/72

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for my class, which was B4, which was second year.

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So, where am I?

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"William... Edward Doherty."

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And on the same class down the list, there you go,

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"Sharkey, Sean F," F for Feargal.

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# He's a rebel and he'll never ever be any good... #

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'Feargal was a cousin of mine but he was also in my class

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'and whenever we were in music class'

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with Mr Bonner, he would ask the guys in the class,

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"Can anyone play guitar or sing?"

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And always Feargal sang, so he had some nerve

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to stand up in that class with 30 or 34 guys and sing.

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Billy's cousin would grow up to become

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one of pop music's most original voices.

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# My heart's lost since you been gone... #

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'Feargal Sharkey,'

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what a voice. That nasal, brilliant, amazing totally unique,

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absolutely characterful voice.

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Which I think was the greatest voice to come out of punk.

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You know, where the hell did THAT come from?

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CHOIR BOY SINGS

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Sharkey was an unlikely punk who's singing career began

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long before he joined The Undertones.

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Feargal was a child star,

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a champion of the annual Irish music festival called the Derry Feis.

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The Feis is actually a showcase for all parts of the arts,

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mostly for children of Derry to perform in and also to compete.

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It is competitive.

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My mother would be anxious that we all sang and played an instrument,

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but it turned out he had a lovely boy soprano voice.

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And he had no nerves, you know.

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Feargal was always very confident about his singing.

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When he got into his stride he was unbeatable.

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And one of the adjudicators, he sang How Soft Upon The Evening Air,

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and she said it brought her to tears.

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It was obvious, he definitely had the balls to go up

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and sing in front of people, you know?

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Even though he may not necessarily

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have been part of the gang as such.

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Was he ever part of the gang?

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Probably not.

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Which is probably very unfair on him,

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because he didn't have any other friends.

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We needed a singer and we sought out a singer,

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whereas we didn't seek out anyone else in the band.

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MUSIC: "Get Over You" by The Undertones

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To the record-buying British public,

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Sharkey would come to define The Undertones.

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# Dressed like that you must be living in a different world

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# And your mother doesn't know... #

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But he didn't write any of the songs he seemed to personify.

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# Boys stop you on the street They want to know your name... #

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Feargal, you know, interestingly and unusually, was kind of old school.

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It was a bit like having Shirley Bassey wandering on after

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the orchestra's put everything down.

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Sings the part, "Thanks, Shirl, off you go."

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# And I don't wanna get over you... #

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But he had very little input with... Well, no input with the writing.

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He didn't actually originate any material on all the albums.

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He never wrote a thing.

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While Sharkey was the charismatic frontman,

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musically the band was driven by its chief songwriter,

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a self-taught scholar of pop, John O'Neill.

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# Come all you young rebels... #

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We used to go on holidays in the summer

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to Buncrana or Bundoran.

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And there were these folk bands playing all the rebel music.

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# For the love of one's country... #

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That was my first experience of hearing music live, I suppose.

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And they sung beautiful, beautiful songs,

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like Boolavogue, and Foggy Dew and The Patriot Game.

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# The patriot game... #

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MUSIC: "Get It On" by T Rex

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But also at the same time, obviously,

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when you're 12, 13, you listen to the radio and what's in the charts.

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The charts at the time, it was a glam rock thing, in particular.

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T Rex, Garry Glitter.

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You've got three minutes to make a statement, starting with T Rex.

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Some T Rex songs are two minutes long.

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A big influence on me at an early age, too, had been

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early rock and roll, '50s rock and roll.

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# Why must I be a teenager in love... #

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And again, the library was quite good for early blues stuff.

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You could go down to the library and get the Howlin' Wolf records

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and John Lee Hooker.

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# That is true

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# I love you... #

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And plus a lot of blues, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley,

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there were just three chords to them.

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It was easy to play.

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# The patriot game. #

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It was coming up to our GCSE O-Levels, and we did mocks,

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and I did very, very bad.

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-HE LAUGHS

-It worried me, and I thought,

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"I need to start spending a bit of time

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"doing a bit of studying if I'm going to do any better than this."

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In 1976, Vincent O'Neill, aged 16, left the band.

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Luckily, his kid brother wasn't a bad guitarist.

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They tried a few guitar players, and it didn't work out.

0:18:360:18:39

So their last resort, they ended up getting me.

0:18:390:18:42

You know, it was the best thing that ever happened to me,

0:18:430:18:47

obviously, because I felt part of a gang. It was really good.

0:18:470:18:49

At 15, Damian was the baby of the band,

0:18:520:18:55

although all five were still in their teens.

0:18:550:18:57

Too young for pubs and clubs, it was here, in the front room

0:18:590:19:02

of the O'Neill family home, that The Undertones began to absorb

0:19:020:19:06

the musical influences that would come to form

0:19:060:19:09

their distinctive sound.

0:19:090:19:11

O'Neill's house was the place where I went every day.

0:19:130:19:17

I did everything at O'Neill's apart from sleep.

0:19:170:19:19

Feargal, then, would go down there.

0:19:190:19:22

We would just sit in O'Neill's house,

0:19:230:19:25

play some acoustic guitar, listen to records and talk rubbish all night.

0:19:250:19:30

And it was absolutely brilliant.

0:19:300:19:33

# There's a riot going on... #

0:19:330:19:35

The boys had a strict, but eclectic music policy,

0:19:380:19:41

taking in '60s British R & B, pub rock, glam

0:19:410:19:44

and American rock and roll,

0:19:440:19:45

blues, and garage bands.

0:19:450:19:48

And then, this happened.

0:19:500:19:53

# I am an antichrist... #

0:19:530:19:57

In 1976, The Sex Pistols launched their anarchic

0:19:570:20:00

assault on middle England.

0:20:000:20:02

For many people, it's a bigger threat to our way of life

0:20:020:20:05

than Russian communism, or hyper-inflation.

0:20:050:20:07

The Undertones became a self-proclaimed punk rock band.

0:20:070:20:12

But unlike London, Manchester or even Belfast,

0:20:120:20:15

there was no live punk scene in Derry,

0:20:150:20:18

and, stranded far from the action, the band found itself drawn more

0:20:180:20:23

to the records coming out of New York than London.

0:20:230:20:25

Christmas 1976, I was told that my brother

0:20:270:20:31

was going to buy me a record.

0:20:310:20:33

He didn't ask me himself, he asked my sister which one would I want.

0:20:330:20:37

I ended up with the Ramones' first LP for Christmas.

0:20:380:20:42

And anyone who was alive in 1976

0:20:420:20:47

will remember the Ramones' first LP,

0:20:470:20:50

because nothing had ever sounded like it before.

0:20:500:20:53

So fast, so simple, just stripping it all down to the basics.

0:20:550:20:59

MUSIC: "Beat On The Brat" by the Ramones

0:21:020:21:07

This was where it all started. Absolutely.

0:21:070:21:09

The Ramones' first LP completely re-invented rock and roll.

0:21:090:21:13

# Beat on the brat

0:21:130:21:14

# Beat on the brat

0:21:140:21:16

# Beat on the brat with a baseball bat

0:21:160:21:18

# Oh, yeah... #

0:21:180:21:19

In 1976, no-one else was singing such simple songs. And funny songs.

0:21:190:21:23

# Beat on the brat

0:21:230:21:25

# Beat on the brat... #

0:21:250:21:27

Through records and radio, The Undertones sought out

0:21:270:21:30

other Stateside punk bands,

0:21:300:21:31

discovering music that owed more to American rock and roll

0:21:310:21:35

than Anarchy In The UK.

0:21:350:21:37

It was almost like joining the dots for us, you know?

0:21:380:21:41

Hearing the New York Dolls, and the MC5 and The Stooges

0:21:410:21:44

and The Velvet Underground, was like,

0:21:440:21:47

"This is what rock and roll is supposed to be about."

0:21:470:21:49

We just decided to start a group, so we borrowed instruments,

0:21:490:21:53

we learnt a few songs and hey presto.

0:21:530:21:58

By 1977, The Undertones had a well-rehearsed set of R & B,

0:21:590:22:03

glam and punk rock covers.

0:22:030:22:06

London's punk bands had the Marquee,

0:22:070:22:11

Manchester, the Electric Circus,

0:22:110:22:13

New York had CBGB's,

0:22:130:22:16

but all Derry could offer was a makeshift shack in a bomb site,

0:22:160:22:20

called the Casbah.

0:22:200:22:21

MUSIC: "Casbah Rock" by The Undertones

0:22:210:22:26

It's been said that it was a Portakabin which had been

0:22:260:22:29

plastered on the outside and placed over a hole in the ground

0:22:290:22:33

where a former pub had been, until it was blown up.

0:22:330:22:35

# Cos you'll never get pop at the Casbah Rock... #

0:22:350:22:38

The Casbah was the hippy/ alternative/indie scene in Derry.

0:22:380:22:45

It was the only place you could go to,

0:22:450:22:47

this pub where they didn't mind about what religion you were,

0:22:470:22:50

but they also... They would welcome anybody.

0:22:500:22:53

The Undertones debuted at the Casbah on 10th March, 1977.

0:22:540:22:59

It became their spiritual home for the next two years,

0:22:590:23:04

and a godsend to a bunch of disaffected Derry kids

0:23:040:23:07

desperate for any kind of scene to call their own.

0:23:070:23:10

MUSIC: "Jump Boys" by The Undertones

0:23:100:23:12

# Jump boys # We're all jump boys... #

0:23:120:23:15

For me it was the first live experience of a group I'd ever seen.

0:23:150:23:19

So we sat there, and we sort of sat in a corner, and it was amazing.

0:23:190:23:23

It was just a great, dramatic night.

0:23:230:23:25

# Jump boys are crazy They don't have no sense... #

0:23:250:23:28

They were just excited. And they were different.

0:23:280:23:31

And it was ours.

0:23:310:23:33

There was a different crowd, too, that went there.

0:23:330:23:36

And that made it a bit more unique as well.

0:23:360:23:37

We all became a bit of a community,

0:23:370:23:39

because at that stage the band had no recognition.

0:23:390:23:43

We were the people who knew they were any good.

0:23:430:23:46

So you were, sort of, a group of, sort of, believers.

0:23:460:23:49

15 years before the peace process,

0:23:510:23:54

the Casbah became a humble retreat for a generation that refused

0:23:540:23:57

to be defined by Derry's deep-seated sectarianism.

0:23:570:24:00

I got to know this guy, called Gordy.

0:24:000:24:04

And he's from the Waterside, and we're chatting,

0:24:040:24:06

and it came out that he happened to be a Protestant.

0:24:060:24:08

And I clicked, "That's the first time I've actually known that

0:24:080:24:12

"I'm talking to a Protestant.

0:24:120:24:14

"And it means absolutely nothing to me."

0:24:140:24:17

He's on to the same music, he's on to the same ideas and stuff like that.

0:24:170:24:20

I thought, "Ah, we're just here to have a carry on and a good craic.

0:24:200:24:24

"Get away from reality."

0:24:240:24:26

You couldn't ignore what was going on, because you lived it.

0:24:280:24:32

But it wasn't there when they were playing.

0:24:320:24:35

Something else was going on as well.

0:24:350:24:37

And that was political as well, because it was a challenge.

0:24:370:24:40

It was different.

0:24:400:24:41

# Jump boys are crazy They don't have no sense... #

0:24:430:24:46

There's a whole community, like a family of people,

0:24:460:24:49

that met through The Undertones, for whatever reason and became friends.

0:24:490:24:52

So therefore you just felt like a big family.

0:24:520:24:54

We were absolutely aware of how people felt that we were

0:24:540:24:58

expressing how they felt.

0:24:580:25:01

That was a large motivating fact to why we did get signed up,

0:25:010:25:05

that we stayed in Derry, we didn't leave.

0:25:050:25:08

Because we felt we were part of that whole scene anyway.

0:25:080:25:12

In the summer of 1977, inspired by regular sessions at the Casbah,

0:25:140:25:19

19-year-old John O'Neill wrote The Undertones' first original song.

0:25:190:25:24

The idea was, every week we played the Casbah,

0:25:240:25:28

to have either a new song or a new cover version.

0:25:280:25:30

And it just seemed obvious, to me, anyway,

0:25:300:25:34

that if you play these three chords, that three chord trick,

0:25:340:25:39

that trying to come up with a few words along with it

0:25:390:25:43

couldn't be that hard.

0:25:430:25:45

First one I showed to the band was I Told You So,

0:25:470:25:50

which was a basic R & B rip off.

0:25:500:25:52

# I wake up in the morning I've been looking for a bed

0:25:520:25:57

# Somebody tells me you've been sleeping in too late

0:25:570:26:00

# I told you so... #

0:26:000:26:01

Me, Mickey and Billy, actually, contributed our songs

0:26:010:26:04

over the years, but John, he's just got it, you know?

0:26:040:26:08

Most great bands have got an amazing songwriter.

0:26:080:26:11

It was just trying to get words that sounded right.

0:26:110:26:15

That Beat movement thing of first thought, best thought.

0:26:150:26:19

The less you thought about it, the easier it was, you know?

0:26:190:26:23

# I told you so I told you so... #

0:26:230:26:25

By the end of the year, The Undertones had a full

0:26:250:26:27

set of original songs and were ready to make a record.

0:26:270:26:30

# Well, it's too late to stop I told you so. #

0:26:300:26:34

There was nowhere to record in Derry,

0:26:340:26:37

but there was a guy in Belfast.

0:26:370:26:40

I suppose as an old hippy,

0:26:420:26:44

punk to me was my hippy's revenge on the world.

0:26:440:26:47

"You didn't listen to us in the '60s, now look what you've got."

0:26:470:26:51

# Take a look where you're livin'

0:26:510:26:53

# You got army on the street

0:26:530:26:54

# And the RUC dog of repression... #

0:26:540:26:56

The Belfast scene was characterised by the muscular, political punk

0:26:560:27:00

of Stiff Little Fingers, who raged about rubber bullets and car bombs.

0:27:000:27:04

# It's an alternative Ulster... #

0:27:040:27:06

The boys from Derry had something slightly less obvious to offer.

0:27:060:27:10

At the time I was quite friendly with Terri Hooley in Belfast.

0:27:110:27:15

I'd heard that he was starting

0:27:150:27:16

to record some young punk bands in Belfast.

0:27:160:27:19

I said to him, "Well, look, there's a band in Derry

0:27:190:27:21

"and I'm convinced that they're better

0:27:210:27:23

"than any of the bands in Belfast. You really should get them up."

0:27:230:27:27

So I pestered him for a while, and eventually he said,

0:27:270:27:30

"Look, there's a thing happening

0:27:300:27:32

"next weekend up at Queen's, the Battle of the Bands.

0:27:320:27:34

"We get them up to play the Battle of the Bands,

0:27:340:27:36

"and we get them into the studio."

0:27:360:27:38

MUSIC: "True Confessions" by The Undertones

0:27:380:27:41

On June 15th, 1978,

0:27:410:27:43

The Undertones stole the show at Terri Hooley's battle of the bands.

0:27:430:27:48

And the next day they went into the studio,

0:27:510:27:53

and recorded the four tracks that would make up their first record.

0:27:530:27:57

# Don't be so surprised

0:27:570:27:58

# You've been telling me lies

0:27:580:28:00

# It's hard to wake up to your make-up

0:28:000:28:02

# Take off that disguise

0:28:020:28:04

-# True

-# True, true, true

0:28:040:28:06

# True confessions... #

0:28:060:28:07

Got chance to do four songs, and it was called Teenage Kicks EP,

0:28:070:28:10

because we were teenagers, more or less.

0:28:100:28:12

So it was just a good title for the EP, for four songs.

0:28:120:28:16

We preferred True Confessions.

0:28:160:28:17

-# True

-# True, true, true

0:28:170:28:19

# True confessions... #

0:28:190:28:22

As far as I was concerned, anyway,

0:28:220:28:23

the best song on it was True Confessions.

0:28:230:28:25

But it was obvious that if we were going to call it

0:28:250:28:28

Teenage Kicks EP, that should be the first song on the EP.

0:28:280:28:32

Something of a happy accident,

0:28:350:28:37

because the title track would come to be regarded by some

0:28:370:28:41

as the most perfect pop record ever made.

0:28:410:28:43

MUSIC: "Teenage Kicks" by The Undertones

0:28:430:28:48

Just the first few seconds of it,

0:28:480:28:49

everything you enjoy about a certain sort of music comes with it.

0:28:490:28:52

Because they've tapped into it, like an aerial. They've tapped into it,

0:28:520:28:55

so you're not just hearing a cheap, shoddy guitar

0:28:550:28:58

through a cheap, shoddy amp play obvious chords,

0:28:580:29:00

you're hearing millions of other things floating through it.

0:29:000:29:04

It's everything they've been influenced by.

0:29:040:29:06

And they were influenced by the best things.

0:29:060:29:08

They had incredible curating tastes,

0:29:080:29:09

if you like, which we think of nowadays.

0:29:090:29:12

# Are teenage dreams so hard to beat?

0:29:120:29:15

# Every time she walks down the street

0:29:150:29:18

# Another girl in the neighbourhood

0:29:190:29:23

# Wish she was mine She looks so good

0:29:230:29:25

# I wanna hold her Wanna hold her tight

0:29:250:29:29

# Get teenage kicks right through the night

0:29:290:29:32

# All right... #

0:29:320:29:34

Emerging from the front line of a major conflict,

0:29:340:29:37

The Undertones could claim greater cause for voicing anger

0:29:370:29:40

and rebellion than any of their punk peers.

0:29:400:29:44

Instead, they sang a song about a teenage boy's

0:29:440:29:47

frustrated yearning for a teenage girl.

0:29:470:29:50

Poignant, universal and profoundly ordinary.

0:29:500:29:55

# I'm gonna call her on the telephone... #

0:29:550:29:57

Unfortunately, none of London's record companies were interested

0:29:590:30:02

in The Undertones juvenile lament.

0:30:020:30:04

In fact, the world might never have heard it

0:30:060:30:08

if it wasn't for a maverick DJ at BBC Radio 1.

0:30:080:30:12

# Get teenage kicks right through the night

0:30:120:30:15

# All right. #

0:30:150:30:17

And that's the end of tonight's programme, on which you heard

0:30:210:30:23

the Desperate Bicycles, The Slits,

0:30:230:30:25

The Mekons, Alternative TV, the UK Subs and Sham 69.

0:30:250:30:28

More of the same unpleasant and disorientating racket

0:30:280:30:31

on tomorrow night's programme.

0:30:310:30:33

Until then, from me, John Peel, goodnight and good riddance.

0:30:330:30:36

I said, "Why don't we phone John Peel?

0:30:360:30:38

"I think he mentioned Stiff Little Fingers."

0:30:380:30:40

And I says, "Well, we're better than Stiff Little Fingers."

0:30:400:30:42

You know, how cocky is that? So I pick up the phone, and I says,

0:30:420:30:47

"My name's Billy, I'm phoning from Northern Ireland."

0:30:470:30:50

Straight through. He picks up the phone, John Peel,

0:30:500:30:52

and goes, "Hello, who's this?"

0:30:520:30:53

'This afternoon I had one of those embarrassing experiences

0:30:530:30:56

'when you're talking to someone and neither of you

0:30:560:30:58

'can understand what the other's saying.

0:30:580:31:00

'I was speaking to a member of the band The Undertones,

0:31:000:31:02

'who come from Londonderry, and the chap I was speaking to -

0:31:020:31:05

'and it was a long distance line, so it wasn't too clear -

0:31:050:31:08

'had such a strong accent, I had difficulty

0:31:080:31:09

'figuring out what he was saying.'

0:31:090:31:11

He couldn't understand me.

0:31:110:31:12

I had like a really broad Derry accent.

0:31:120:31:14

So I had to speak very slowly.

0:31:140:31:16

And I mentioned to him, "There's a band from Derry

0:31:160:31:18

"called The Undertones.

0:31:180:31:19

"We've recorded an EP, but it's not released yet."

0:31:190:31:22

And he says, "When the record comes out, send it over."

0:31:220:31:24

'And he asked me to play something for a whole bunch of people

0:31:240:31:27

'there in Derry.

0:31:270:31:28

'I've probably got some of these names wrong,

0:31:280:31:31

'so if I have I apologise to all of those concerned.

0:31:310:31:33

'But the names seem to be Eddie McLaughlin, Joe Breslin,

0:31:330:31:36

'Paddy Crawford, Dick Tucker, the McGillys, the McGanleys,

0:31:360:31:40

'I think it was, Maillies, and,

0:31:400:31:42

'anyway, all of the band's fans in Derry.

0:31:420:31:44

'I'm sorry if I got the names wrong.'

0:31:440:31:46

So finally, when Teenage Kicks EP came out, I phoned John Peel,

0:31:460:31:50

and I says, "This is Billy, I've been speaking to you on and off

0:31:500:31:52

"for the past few months. We now have the EP."

0:31:520:31:55

We knew he was playing it that night,

0:31:550:31:58

so we were all at Beachhead Avenue.

0:31:580:32:00

MUSIC: "Teenage Kicks" by the Undertones

0:32:000:32:02

I was like, "Yeah! We got a record played!"

0:32:020:32:04

Not only a record played on Radio 1,

0:32:040:32:06

but John Peel played it as well. We were so delighted.

0:32:060:32:09

# Are teenage dreams so hard to beat? Every time she walks... #

0:32:090:32:12

Thanks to John Peel, in the Autumn of 1978,

0:32:120:32:15

listeners all over Britain got to hear The Undertones.

0:32:150:32:18

Among them, a genuine music biz mogul from America.

0:32:220:32:25

I was driving down to one of those little seaside places

0:32:250:32:30

about 90 minutes outside of London.

0:32:300:32:32

My head was killing me.

0:32:320:32:34

And the one relief was we were listening to John Peel.

0:32:340:32:39

The Peel Show was on the radio, and Teenage Kicks came on.

0:32:390:32:44

Paul McNally was driving and I start yelling at him, "Pull over!

0:32:440:32:49

"Pull over!" He turned white.

0:32:490:32:51

He must have thought I was having some kind of attack,

0:32:510:32:54

because I was complaining about my headache.

0:32:540:32:56

Yeah, there was a bit of excitement in the car at that point!

0:32:560:33:00

I said to him, "I've got to sign this band. They are fucking amazing.

0:33:000:33:06

"It's unbelievable. What a voice and what a song."

0:33:060:33:11

I think it's one of the greatest records of all time.

0:33:110:33:14

Seymour Stein,

0:33:150:33:18

the man who, four years later, would famously sign Madonna,

0:33:180:33:20

owned Sire Records, the American label

0:33:200:33:23

whose roster included the Ramones.

0:33:230:33:26

MUSIC: "Family Entertainment" by The Undertones

0:33:260:33:29

Days after hearing Teenage Kicks,

0:33:300:33:32

Stein dispatched Paul McNally to Derry to sign The Undertones.

0:33:320:33:36

We'd the comical scenario

0:33:360:33:38

where we went to Feargal's house for a meeting with Paul.

0:33:380:33:41

He was going to tell us the details of the contract.

0:33:410:33:44

And there was us five in the band, plus we had all our friends,

0:33:440:33:47

10 or 12 people.

0:33:470:33:49

In good faith we thought,

0:33:510:33:53

"Feargal and Mickey will go to London to meet Seymour Stein,

0:33:530:33:56

"we'll sign a contract meanwhile, here in Derry, for Paul,

0:33:560:34:00

"they'll go over there and they'll negotiate a bit more, and maybe,

0:34:000:34:03

"if it's good enough, they'll sign."

0:34:030:34:05

In October 1978, two lads from Derry arrived in London

0:34:100:34:13

to play hardball with the man who signed Madonna.

0:34:130:34:16

MUSIC: "Smarter Than You" by The Undertones

0:34:160:34:18

# I'm a little intellectual Someone who knows it all... #

0:34:180:34:22

Feargal smoked at the time, he would smoke like that, and go...

0:34:220:34:26

And just looked at the guy like that. And you'd think,

0:34:260:34:29

"I'm dealing with a real shrewd character here."

0:34:290:34:31

But Feargal had no idea either. He would smoke sort of like...

0:34:310:34:34

You had savvy Seymour Stein, record company mogul, talking to two weans,

0:34:340:34:38

basically, who hadn't a clue about anything about the music business.

0:34:380:34:42

He must have thought he was dealing with two idiots.

0:34:420:34:45

And you know what? He was!

0:34:450:34:47

# Smarter than you, smarter than you

0:34:470:34:49

# Smarter than you Can't you see... #

0:34:490:34:51

I remember, vaguely, them trying to renegotiate at the last minute.

0:34:510:34:57

They phoned us, and I said to Michael, "Well, ask him how much he's going to give us."

0:34:570:35:02

And it was 6,000. And I said, "6,000 each, or 6,000 what?"

0:35:020:35:05

He said "6,000 between 5 of us over three years."

0:35:050:35:08

6,000 divided by 5 over 3 years is not a lot of money.

0:35:080:35:12

So I got on the phone to Michael and says, "Michael, say to Seymour we want 100,000."

0:35:120:35:15

Billy was certainly shouting in the back. "The Rich Kids got 60,000!"

0:35:150:35:19

The Rich Kids, Glen Matlock's band, they signed to EMI.

0:35:190:35:21

I said, "The Rich Kids got 60,000!" And Seymour went...

0:35:210:35:25

I could hear Seymour in the background going, "You guys are crazy!"

0:35:250:35:28

"What do you want me to say?"

0:35:280:35:29

So Seymour came over, took the phone off Michael, and I think

0:35:290:35:32

he made some offer of, I don't know, 30,000, out of sheer panic.

0:35:320:35:35

I said, "That's fine, that's OK, that's the deal."

0:35:350:35:37

# Can't you see I'm smarter than you... #

0:35:370:35:40

I think it was originally 8,000, we managed it up to 10,000,

0:35:400:35:43

but the royalty rate was shocking.

0:35:430:35:44

I think it was worse than the Bay City Rollers,

0:35:440:35:46

and they didn't even write their songs.

0:35:460:35:48

My only memory is that I signed them.

0:35:480:35:51

In the end, that's what counted.

0:35:510:35:53

# Can't you see I'm smart? #

0:35:530:35:55

Whatever the terms of the record deal,

0:35:570:35:59

Sire immediately re-released Teenage Kicks as a single.

0:35:590:36:02

And just weeks later, The Undertones,

0:36:020:36:05

a band used to playing to 100 fans in the Casbah,

0:36:050:36:09

made its debut in London for a TV audience of over 10 million.

0:36:090:36:13

At number 38, first time in, Undertones and Teenage Kicks.

0:36:130:36:17

'I remember, she must have bought them,

0:36:190:36:21

'but my mother had a pair of new pyjamas for me,'

0:36:210:36:23

because it was like a hospital stay. "You're staying in a hotel,

0:36:230:36:26

"in London, you're not going to show us up."

0:36:260:36:27

All my aunties bought me pyjamas to go over to do Top Of The Pops.

0:36:270:36:31

First time I was ever on an aeroplane. I was 18,

0:36:310:36:34

never out of Ireland, never on an aeroplane.

0:36:340:36:36

And armed with tonnes of pyjamas.

0:36:360:36:38

# Are teenage dreams so hard to beat?

0:36:380:36:42

# Every time she walks down the street... #

0:36:420:36:45

Britain's musical landscape was shifting.

0:36:450:36:47

The Undertones formed part of a new wave of music inspired by punk,

0:36:470:36:51

and independent in spirit,

0:36:510:36:53

that challenged the corporate rock and smooth pop

0:36:530:36:56

that had come to represent the mainstream status quo.

0:36:560:36:59

They're a young band, they come from Ireland.

0:37:050:37:07

It's The Undertones and Jimmy, Jimmy.

0:37:070:37:09

# Little mummy's boy

0:37:130:37:16

# He wasn't very old

0:37:160:37:19

# Though he was very small

0:37:190:37:22

# He did what he was told

0:37:220:37:25

# Jimmy, Jimmy... #

0:37:250:37:27

The bands that bands like Undertones were influenced by

0:37:270:37:29

were not getting anywhere near Top Of The Pops,

0:37:290:37:32

or the charts, or the mainstream world.

0:37:320:37:34

They were obscure bands and The Undertones were in that period

0:37:340:37:37

just after punk when, suddenly, the records that previously

0:37:370:37:40

you would've only heard on John Peel and not in the charts,

0:37:400:37:43

suddenly started to break into the charts.

0:37:430:37:45

That was the great moment of a new kind of strange,

0:37:450:37:48

lovely pop music getting into the charts.

0:37:480:37:49

# Ooh, baby, baby, what can I do?

0:37:490:37:51

# You know you drive me crazy When I'm looking at you... #

0:37:510:37:54

Three more singles from The Undertones' first album

0:37:540:37:56

made them regulars on Top Of The Pops.

0:37:560:37:59

# Here comes the summer... #

0:37:590:38:02

But at a time when the charts

0:38:020:38:04

began to open up to ever more shocking and extravagant acts,

0:38:040:38:07

what was most remarkable about The Undertones

0:38:070:38:10

was that the band and their songs were so down-to-Earth,

0:38:100:38:13

they seemed positively exotic.

0:38:130:38:15

Predominantly, the songs are just about fun and games with your mates.

0:38:170:38:21

That seems to be the general message.

0:38:210:38:23

'They were being themselves,'

0:38:230:38:25

and I think that's why people found them so attractive,

0:38:250:38:28

There was this tremendous honesty about them.

0:38:280:38:30

# Here comes the summer

0:38:300:38:32

# Here comes the summer

0:38:320:38:34

# Here comes the summer... #

0:38:340:38:36

They were just nice kids who seemed

0:38:360:38:39

sort of uncorrupted and sweet

0:38:390:38:40

and you can see why they wrote about

0:38:400:38:43

Jimmy, Jimmy and Here Comes The Summer and Teenage Kicks,

0:38:430:38:46

because there was an innocence to them.

0:38:460:38:48

This rather cheerful, Derry ordinariness.

0:38:480:38:50

But back home in Derry,

0:38:500:38:52

The Undertones' ordinariness had special meaning.

0:38:520:38:55

A significance brought into focus when, in 1979,

0:38:580:39:02

they played a concert at a local school.

0:39:020:39:04

They were on Top Of The Pops on Thursday,

0:39:070:39:10

and then they were in my school, on the stage, on Friday morning.

0:39:100:39:13

The Undertones created a universal soundtrack to growing up.

0:39:160:39:19

The everyday world of their music had particular

0:39:210:39:23

resonance at home in Derry, where an ordinary adolescence

0:39:230:39:27

was something the band and audience alike could only have imagined.

0:39:270:39:31

Looking back, you can see

0:39:330:39:34

that there was more to it than they saw. I think.

0:39:340:39:36

They were able to put into words what a lot of us felt

0:39:400:39:43

and they were able to... show a dimension of our spirit.

0:39:430:39:49

Because our spirit was bursting to get out,

0:39:490:39:51

because we'd been suppressed for so long.

0:39:510:39:53

# If you hate the British Army

0:39:530:39:56

# Hate the British Army

0:39:560:39:58

# Hate the British Army Clap your hands. #

0:39:580:40:00

These children would see shootings and bombings

0:40:000:40:03

and their houses would have been raided,

0:40:030:40:05

their brothers would be in jail or their brothers would be dead.

0:40:050:40:08

I wanted them to see that there was a light at the end of the tunnel.

0:40:110:40:14

So, I feel that they were saying that... Maybe they were just saying

0:40:140:40:18

that they were young and they wanted to enjoy themselves

0:40:180:40:21

and they wanted a bit of freedom and not to be stood on and suppressed.

0:40:210:40:25

In Derry, and throughout Northern Ireland,

0:40:280:40:30

The Undertones gave an alternative voice

0:40:300:40:32

to a generation caught in the crossfire of their turbulent times.

0:40:320:40:36

One way to understand it

0:40:400:40:42

is as an alternative to what was really going on around them.

0:40:420:40:46

I mean, if you came from Derry at that time,

0:40:460:40:48

almost the most rebellious thing you could do is be ordinary.

0:40:480:40:51

# Little mummy's boy

0:40:510:40:54

# He wasn't very old... #

0:40:540:40:56

I went to see them in concert in Ballymena,

0:40:560:40:59

which is this terrifying Protestant town north of Belfast.

0:40:590:41:03

The street had armoured vehicles in it.

0:41:050:41:08

There was police with guns everywhere.

0:41:080:41:10

But once you'd gone in there, it was like a big youth club.

0:41:100:41:15

The kids that were running around were so grateful

0:41:150:41:18

that here was a band that wasn't singing about getting blown up

0:41:180:41:22

and the IRA and the Troubles, but was singing about ordinary things.

0:41:220:41:25

They were like a window onto

0:41:250:41:27

the kind of life everybody else takes for granted.

0:41:270:41:30

# Jimmy, Jimmy, oh... #

0:41:300:41:33

I was at a wedding about a month ago and they played Jimmy, Jimmy.

0:41:330:41:36

I'm a good age, and I was like a child!

0:41:360:41:38

Just, that excitement, that...

0:41:380:41:41

It's still there. It's just fabulous.

0:41:410:41:43

In 1980, The Undertones released their second album.

0:41:460:41:49

A record that took them beyond

0:41:490:41:50

the three-chord punk-ish thrashes of their debut,

0:41:500:41:53

bringing their tales of everyday life and love

0:41:530:41:57

to a much broader audience.

0:41:570:41:59

# Here she comes

0:41:590:42:02

# To say goodnight

0:42:020:42:05

# I'll get no sleep tonight... #

0:42:050:42:09

I was starting to get into The Velvet Underground at that stage.

0:42:090:42:13

'I loved the slow songs, that juxtaposition,'

0:42:130:42:16

of these experimental things with these lovely soft, beautiful songs.

0:42:160:42:21

So, Wednesday Week was my attempt

0:42:210:42:22

to write a slow, ballad-y type thing.

0:42:220:42:24

# Wednesday week, she loved me... #

0:42:240:42:27

'I remember thinking,'

0:42:270:42:29

"We're going to be OK. We're going to last a few more years

0:42:290:42:32

"if John's going to come up with songs like this."

0:42:320:42:35

But the biggest song on the album,

0:42:410:42:42

and The Undertones' biggest hit, wasn't from John O'Neill.

0:42:420:42:46

It came courtesy of Michael, Damian and an unsuspecting relative..

0:42:460:42:50

..by the name of Kevin.

0:42:520:42:54

I was sitting in a pub in Derry having a quiet pint

0:42:540:42:56

with some friends and another friend of mine came in

0:42:560:43:00

and sniggered in my general direction

0:43:000:43:04

and said my ears must be burning.

0:43:040:43:06

'I hadn't a clue what he was talking about.'

0:43:080:43:09

It was only later on in the evening that he said

0:43:090:43:12

that I should go talk to my cousins in The Undertones.

0:43:120:43:15

# I've got a cousin called Kevin

0:43:150:43:18

# He's sure to go to Heaven

0:43:180:43:21

# Always spotless, clean and neat

0:43:210:43:24

# As smooth as you'll get 'em... #

0:43:240:43:26

Myself and Damian were working on it for quite a while,

0:43:260:43:29

and it was kind of based on a real-life cousin of Damian's.

0:43:290:43:33

'Very unfairly, but, sure, life's not fair.'

0:43:330:43:36

# My perfect cousin

0:43:360:43:39

# What I like to do he doesn't

0:43:390:43:41

# He's his family's pride and joy

0:43:410:43:44

# His mother's little golden boy

0:43:440:43:49

# He's got a degree in economics

0:43:490:43:51

# Maths, physics and bionics... #

0:43:510:43:54

I got a bit of stick. People would sing certain lines at me.

0:43:540:43:57

# Cos I hate University Challenge... #

0:43:570:44:00

I suppose at the time, I was probably a bit annoyed about it.

0:44:000:44:04

Now, it doesn't cause me any difficulties at all.

0:44:040:44:06

I can see the fun in it.

0:44:060:44:07

My Perfect Cousin, a comic rant against swotty relatives,

0:44:100:44:14

was The Undertones' only top-ten hit.

0:44:140:44:16

Hip film director Julien Temple was hired to shoot the video.

0:44:180:44:22

And the location for this domestic drama was...

0:44:230:44:27

of course, the O'Neill's house in Derry, where the English film crew

0:44:270:44:31

got their first taste of what it's like to live in a militarised town.

0:44:310:44:34

# Now, I've got a cousin called Kevin... #

0:44:340:44:37

We had a cable coming out of a house and we were lighting this thing,

0:44:370:44:41

and the next thing I knew, I was slammed up against the wall

0:44:410:44:43

with a machinegun against my head,

0:44:430:44:45

with this 15-year-old Cockney skinhead saying,

0:44:450:44:48

"What the fuck are you doing?"

0:44:480:44:49

# He always beat me at Subbuteo... #

0:44:490:44:51

'And it kind of made a lot of sense that despite the real,

0:44:510:44:55

'hard facts of war and bullets flying around,'

0:44:550:44:58

they were singing, you know,

0:44:580:44:59

things about cousins who got on their nerves.

0:44:590:45:02

# He's his family's pride and joy... #

0:45:020:45:04

There was also an innocence there, compared with the London punk scene.

0:45:040:45:08

So, when I got there, I thought,

0:45:080:45:10

"This is amazing, cos it's a really, kind of different, family world."

0:45:100:45:15

You know, like you imagine the 1940s or something like that.

0:45:150:45:19

They were deeply entrenched in this culture of Catholic Derry

0:45:190:45:22

and were able to find poetry in it.

0:45:220:45:25

# Girls try to attract his attention

0:45:250:45:28

# But what a shame, it's in vain... #

0:45:280:45:30

It was a little bit like some kind of surreal soap.

0:45:300:45:32

They were creating a landscape full of their chums

0:45:320:45:35

and relatives and people they'd bumped into.

0:45:350:45:37

# My perfect cousin... #

0:45:370:45:39

Very mundane. Very domestic. And it seemed, oddly enough,

0:45:390:45:43

quite punk, to talk about stuff that wasn't Americana.

0:45:430:45:45

It actually seemed part of their down-to-Earth-ness,

0:45:450:45:49

that was actually quite potent.

0:45:490:45:50

Oh, yes, I like that one.

0:45:500:45:52

My Perfect Cousin from The Undertones.

0:45:520:45:55

And now, it's time for our perfect inflatable Scrabble...

0:45:550:45:58

As well as chart success,

0:46:030:46:04

The Undertones earned a reputation as a formidable live act.

0:46:040:46:08

# Wake up screaming in the middle of something wrong... #

0:46:090:46:15

They had this power live

0:46:150:46:17

that a lot of bands never, ever get together.

0:46:170:46:20

They became one of the best live bands that I've known.

0:46:210:46:24

# So boys will be boys

0:46:240:46:26

# When they haven't got nothing to do... #

0:46:260:46:30

But whatever ambitions their record company and management team

0:46:300:46:33

might have had for them,

0:46:330:46:34

The Undertones were unusually indifferent to life on the road.

0:46:340:46:39

We used to have a phone, right here.

0:46:390:46:41

And many a time, me or John would be sitting on the stairs, going,

0:46:410:46:45

"No, but it means leaving home for more than a week.

0:46:450:46:47

"We don't want to do that."

0:46:470:46:49

They would come away from Derry for three weeks and three weeks only.

0:46:490:46:53

They would do a six week tour but they would need to have

0:46:530:46:55

a week to ten days' break in the middle of it.

0:46:550:46:57

Billy and myself were really bad in the sense that we really hated

0:46:570:47:01

leaving our wives, or girlfriends that became our wives, or whatever.

0:47:010:47:05

Myself and Caroline were just so madly in love

0:47:050:47:08

that it took a shine off having to leave,

0:47:080:47:11

because we were both in tears leaving the house.

0:47:110:47:14

We just missed each other so much.

0:47:140:47:17

It was that simple.

0:47:170:47:19

We just yearned to be with each other.

0:47:190:47:21

Getting a girlfriend was a big deal for boys

0:47:240:47:27

whose music seeped teenage angst.

0:47:270:47:29

But there was more to their attachment to home

0:47:290:47:32

than the pull of young love.

0:47:320:47:35

They seemed troubled by the fact that they had to enter

0:47:350:47:37

what they deemed to be a kind of routine.

0:47:370:47:39

They were already feeling that

0:47:390:47:41

somehow they'd compromised themselves,

0:47:410:47:44

because there was a very pure, punk spirit in the air back then

0:47:440:47:46

that you didn't do certain things that looked like

0:47:460:47:49

you were compromising yourself.

0:47:490:47:50

And to some extent, with them, that even meant leaving their town,

0:47:500:47:54

leaving their house, leaving their girlfriend.

0:47:540:47:56

All of these strange things, to them, were a compromise.

0:47:560:47:58

It meant they'd sold out, and they hadn't sold out. Not by any means.

0:47:580:48:01

They'd just begun to have success.

0:48:010:48:03

But they didn't know what to do, didn't know how to process it.

0:48:030:48:06

In September 1979,

0:48:080:48:10

The Undertones supported The Clash on an American tour.

0:48:100:48:14

This was a chance to break America,

0:48:150:48:18

and to party with perhaps the hippest band on the planet.

0:48:180:48:21

I was on that tour, the Clash tour in America

0:48:230:48:25

with The Undertones on support, and it was incredibly, unbelievably...

0:48:250:48:29

Literally, you'd be walking into a room and Andy Warhol would be there.

0:48:290:48:33

But my memory of it is that The Undertones were like shadows.

0:48:330:48:36

It's almost like they felt they'd wanted to be this kind of group,

0:48:400:48:44

full of integrity and suddenly they were in the equivalent

0:48:440:48:47

of The Sound Of Music or something.

0:48:470:48:49

The reason I wanted to be in the band is not to party or

0:48:490:48:53

to take drugs or drink or whatever, I just wanted to play my drums

0:48:530:48:57

and I wanted to play my drums with my mates.

0:48:570:48:59

So I found it hard to cope with, to be honest.

0:48:590:49:04

I was actually relieved to get back home.

0:49:040:49:06

You know, I've worked with a lot of bands where they go out all night

0:49:090:49:12

and experience the town, you know, Munich or Budapest or Barcelona.

0:49:120:49:17

They stay up all night and experience what that is for.

0:49:170:49:21

But, no. Fairly early to bed.

0:49:210:49:24

We didn't play the game, and we didn't want to play the game.

0:49:240:49:28

We hated that rock star crap that you were fed.

0:49:280:49:31

Limousines and, you know, it was back to a punk rock street thing.

0:49:310:49:37

We were part of the street. We didn't want to be rich and famous.

0:49:370:49:40

# So sad to see you've got silver... #

0:49:400:49:45

For many bands,

0:49:450:49:47

success offered the chance to leave behind their normal, everyday lives.

0:49:470:49:51

Not for The Undertones, despite the ongoing violence

0:49:510:49:54

and conflict in their home town.

0:49:540:49:57

# Julie Ocean

0:49:570:49:59

# Always on fire... #

0:49:590:50:02

The release of their third album in 1981 coincided

0:50:020:50:07

with one of the darkest episodes of the Troubles.

0:50:070:50:10

After a period of relative calm in Northern Ireland,

0:50:110:50:14

a serious of hunger strikes by Catholic Republican prisoners

0:50:140:50:17

brought violence back onto the streets of Derry.

0:50:170:50:21

The hunger strikes were carried out by Republican prisoners,

0:50:210:50:24

IRA prisoners, who were demanding political status.

0:50:240:50:27

They were in prison, having been sentenced for bombing,

0:50:270:50:30

shooting, possession of arms, murder, attempted murder, etc. So,

0:50:300:50:33

as far as the state was concerned, they were serious criminals,

0:50:330:50:37

To treat them as prisoners of war,

0:50:370:50:40

or give them special, political status,

0:50:400:50:42

is to give them a licence to kill.

0:50:420:50:44

On the other hand, Republicans regarded themselves,

0:50:440:50:47

and were seen by their community,

0:50:470:50:49

sort of as having taken part in an uprising, if you like.

0:50:490:50:54

Although The Undertones had previously avoided writing

0:50:550:50:58

about the Troubles, they found the hunger strikes impossible to ignore.

0:50:580:51:03

It was in streets everywhere in Derry, Belfast, Northern Ireland...

0:51:030:51:07

You couldn't escape it or get away from it.

0:51:070:51:09

It was a really, really grim time.

0:51:090:51:11

So, I tried to write a song about it.

0:51:110:51:15

It turned out to be It's Going To Happen.

0:51:150:51:17

# Happens all the time It's gonna happen, happen... #

0:51:170:51:20

"It's gonna happen all the time" is about hunger strikes,

0:51:200:51:23

cos Ireland's got a history of hunger strikes, from way back.

0:51:230:51:27

"Until you change your mind", till the Government changes their mind.

0:51:270:51:31

# Best story I've ever heard... #

0:51:310:51:34

Basically, it was quite crass, so I gave it to Mickey and said,

0:51:340:51:37

"Can you rescue this song?"

0:51:370:51:39

I can't remember if he said, "This is about the hunger strikes."

0:51:390:51:42

But I decided it wasn't going to be about the hunger strikes,

0:51:420:51:45

because I still hold to that it's very difficult to write

0:51:450:51:48

something good and valuable about a situation like that.

0:51:480:51:52

So I came up with verses which are vaguely alluding

0:51:520:51:55

to someone in trouble.

0:51:550:51:56

# Happens all the time... #

0:51:560:51:58

Good evening from Belfast.

0:51:580:52:00

The province is quiet after the early-morning rioting

0:52:000:52:04

that marked the death of Bobby Sands.

0:52:040:52:05

Coincidentally, the night we did Top Of The Pops

0:52:050:52:08

was the same evening Bobby Sands had died.

0:52:080:52:12

# Everything goes when you're dead... #

0:52:120:52:15

As a sort of mark of respect, I thought it would be a good idea

0:52:150:52:19

if we all wore black armbands.

0:52:190:52:22

But when it came to doing it, they didn't refuse but they just...

0:52:220:52:26

No... But I did anyway. Because I did feel that angry about it.

0:52:260:52:29

I wasn't trying to make statements that I support the IRA,

0:52:300:52:33

but I did sympathise with the aims of the hunger strikers.

0:52:330:52:36

Millions of Top Of The Pops viewers were oblivious.

0:52:360:52:40

But for the first time, The Undertones were attempting,

0:52:400:52:44

with characteristic bashfulness,

0:52:440:52:46

to reflect something of the momentous events

0:52:460:52:48

they were living through.

0:52:480:52:50

Strangely enough, although The Undertones were more affected,

0:52:510:52:55

through their community, by the hunger strikes,

0:52:550:52:57

than any other contemporary band,

0:52:570:52:59

it was out of character for them to be commenting on those things.

0:52:590:53:03

And once again, you see

0:53:030:53:05

The Undertones are really a very complicated phenomenon,

0:53:050:53:09

a complicated musical and cultural phenomenon.

0:53:090:53:11

Very complicated political phenomenon.

0:53:110:53:13

It's Going to Happen reached 18 in the charts in Spring 1981.

0:53:140:53:18

It was to be The Undertones' last top-20 record.

0:53:200:53:22

Good evening, good people of Hitchin.

0:53:240:53:27

And anyone else who's just joined us.

0:53:270:53:29

Once again, Sight and Sound comes from the Regal Theatre,

0:53:290:53:32

and I'm sure you'll be only too glad to be reacquainted with a band

0:53:320:53:35

who we haven't seen or heard very much of for the last year or so.

0:53:350:53:39

So, please welcome, all the way from Derry, ladies and gentlemen,

0:53:390:53:42

The Undertones. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

0:53:420:53:46

I always say we split up because we didn't sell records.

0:53:460:53:49

If Sin Of Pride, which is a record I don't like,

0:53:500:53:53

but if that had have been a success,

0:53:530:53:55

we would probably have stayed together.

0:53:550:53:57

# It makes me wonder how to read or understand you

0:53:570:54:01

# Makes me wonder what's in your mind... #

0:54:010:54:04

In March 1983, The Undertones released The Sin Of Pride,

0:54:040:54:09

their fourth and, as it turned out, final album.

0:54:090:54:12

We just knew we weren't going to have a hit single,

0:54:160:54:19

and also we knew that Feargal was not happy in being in a band

0:54:190:54:23

who maybe got good reviews, but were struggling financially.

0:54:230:54:27

I remember saying, "Well, if you make good records

0:54:310:54:34

"and you get a good review in the end, will that be enough?"

0:54:340:54:36

And I said that to Feargal, I said, "Will you not be happy with that?"

0:54:360:54:39

And he says, "Nope."

0:54:390:54:41

And then I saw writing on the wall.

0:54:410:54:43

None of the three singles from the album troubled the Top 40

0:54:460:54:50

and, as record sales declined,

0:54:500:54:52

the band and its lead singer began to drift apart,

0:54:520:54:55

as differences that had lain dormant until now began to surface.

0:54:550:55:00

# My heart's lost since you've been gone... #

0:55:000:55:07

As the Rolling Stones say, it's the singer, not the song.

0:55:070:55:10

You know, I knew that.

0:55:100:55:12

The song's only as good as the singer.

0:55:120:55:15

I was getting more and more frustrated

0:55:150:55:17

at the way Feargal sang the songs.

0:55:170:55:19

Feargal wasn't really into music, you know.

0:55:230:55:27

As I listened to things, I had maybe a certain idea in my head,

0:55:270:55:31

the way it should be sung.

0:55:310:55:32

Trying to get Feargal then to listen to things, to give him an idea,

0:55:320:55:37

"It's this kind of way that I'm thinking the song should be..."

0:55:370:55:41

He was always dismissive.

0:55:410:55:43

He'd go, "I'll sing the song the way I think it should be sung."

0:55:430:55:48

John was very, very protective and very precious of his music.

0:55:480:55:52

I don't mean that in a negative way, it's just the way he was.

0:55:520:55:55

And there was maybe that kind of personality clash.

0:55:550:55:58

Feargal probably had different aspirations,

0:55:580:56:00

and all that was starting to come to the surface.

0:56:000:56:02

So I think he had enough of that.

0:56:020:56:03

And to be honest, if it was me, I'd think the same as well,

0:56:030:56:06

I'd say, "Look, I've had enough of this. I'm a good singer.

0:56:060:56:08

"I'm actually a better singer than what you are musicians.

0:56:080:56:11

"I'm going to head off."

0:56:110:56:13

Finally, in May 1983, The Undertones decided to call it a day.

0:56:140:56:18

# Got to have you back... #

0:56:180:56:22

We were in Sweden,

0:56:220:56:23

and there was a photographer taking photographs of us.

0:56:230:56:26

And, for some reason, we weren't playing ball with the photographer.

0:56:260:56:29

Feargal knew this was happening and just says, "Right, boys, that's it."

0:56:290:56:32

And before the sound check,

0:56:320:56:34

we had a wee sit-down meeting.

0:56:340:56:37

He was probably smoking, and he says,

0:56:370:56:39

"That's it, I'm leaving the band." And no-one argued with him.

0:56:390:56:43

No-one said, "Oh, why? What's happening?" We all kind of knew.

0:56:430:56:46

There was no fun any more,

0:56:460:56:48

and it was almost like someone's got the balls to do it and that was great.

0:56:480:56:53

So let's just break up.

0:56:530:56:54

Then again, that's what's good about being a band.

0:56:570:56:59

You look at The Beatles, they fell apart spectacularly too.

0:56:590:57:03

Five years, four albums and 13 singles

0:57:070:57:10

after bursting onto the scene with Teenage Kicks,

0:57:100:57:13

The Undertones' story was over.

0:57:130:57:16

But coming from the darkest of places and situations,

0:57:180:57:21

their enduring achievement is to have created timeless music

0:57:210:57:25

of startling positivity that touched teenagers all over the globe

0:57:250:57:30

while daring a generation at home to dream of a life more ordinary.

0:57:300:57:35

MUSIC: "Get Over You" by The Undertones

0:57:350:57:37

# Dressed like that you must be living in a different world

0:57:370:57:42

# And your mother doesn't know

0:57:420:57:44

# Why you can't look like all the other girls

0:57:440:57:48

# Boys stop you on the street They wanna know your name

0:57:480:57:51

# Try to reach you on the phone Cos they know your game

0:57:510:57:54

# Always running up the alley trying to get home

0:57:540:57:56

# Or standing on the corner never alone

0:57:560:58:01

# And I don't wanna get over you

0:58:010:58:04

# It doesn't matter what you do

0:58:040:58:06

# I just can't get over you, over you

0:58:060:58:12

# And I don't wanna get over you

0:58:120:58:15

# It doesn't matter what you do

0:58:150:58:18

# I just can't get over you Over you. #

0:58:180:58:22

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