The very dapper Undertones bassist Michael Bradley strides across the media area where a throng of photographers and music journo’s await Rewind South’s first interviewee. The Derry band are celebrating their fortieth anniversary and having toured with Neville Staple earlier in the year the band are now hitting the festival circuit. Fergal Sharkey has long since departed and for the last twenty years, his shoes have been filled by another Derry native, the versatile Mr Paul McLoone. Originalrock.net sat down to discuss all things Undertones at the colourfully retro Rewind Festival in Henley-On-Thames.
Originalrock.net. So how’s the fortieth anniversary going?
Michael Bradley. “Great, really great and we loved doing the shows with Neville Staple. We’ve rarely done that, gone out with a bigger act or one with such a profile and a history as Neville Staple to do shows with us. I was a bit worried about what it was going to be like but it was great he was really nice to us. When I say was worried, I was worried in case he goes “Who are you people?” (laughing) but he was brilliant and his band were great, in fact for some of our songs which have brass on we borrowed them from Neville’s band, it was a great time.”
OR. We’re now at the stage where 2-Tone and Punk, for the want of a bracket, now everybody comes together as the alternative, the division seems to have stopped.
MB. “You see we were outside of that, we were Punk of course but for us…You see we loved The Specials, I see what you mean though that tribe thing has definitely disappeared which is great. Although I always say it was great when you seventeen or eighteen and you didn’t like someone (a band) or you didn’t fancy it so you hated the people that liked those bands, (chuckling) there’s something…It’s ok when your seventeen not so good when you’re sixty!”
OR. The early Undertones singles have pretty much transcended every genre. The songs are now played on mainstream radio from Heart to 6Music that must make you incredibly proud?
MB. “Oh absolutely, you know whenever you hear it on the radio and they don’t have to try and explain what it is, I’m really proud. ‘Here Comes The Summer’ is now used in adds, ‘Teenage Kicks’ has a life of its own, probably doing a tour on its own, so to be associated with that is and was beyond our wildest dreams. First of all, we were very excited to be able to make a single back in 1978 and then John Peel played it, it was absolutely brilliant. Then whenever we were on Top Of The Pops we still couldn’t believe it y’know and the fact we’re still playing them (singles) forty years later is probably a little sad but it’s also really good.”
OR. What’s your most cherished memory from those early days?
MB. “Do you know what it was that Top Of The Pops, being on Top Of The Pops for the first time and being in the same studio as Elvis Costello, I remember that, fantastic. Seeing your picture on the TOTP rundown and just being there and seeing how tiny the studio was, that’s it being on TOTP. Travelling over from Derry to be on TOTP and then travelling back once it was over to play a pub in Derry, that was an amazing couple of days.”
OR. Were you the returning heroes?
MB. “There was a little bit of that, absolutely.”
With the band’s stage time rapidly approaching I’m given the “one more quick one” sign from the press officer.
MB. (To the press officer) “It’s a short walk to that stage and I could run and jump over that fence, ahhh you’re alright.”
OR. So finally what do the next twelve months hold in store for The Undertones?
MB. “That’s a very good question, probably more shows. There’s no big plan there never was a big plan, so if we’re asked back then more shows!”
OR. Any album anniversary shows?
MB. “I don’t know, but when I say there’s no plan but I’m not going to talk about it… no there really is no plan!”
A few minutes later and Michael is on stage with The Undertones crashing through an opening set of post-punk classics including ‘Here Comes The Summer’, ‘Teenage Kicks’, Wednesday Day Week’ and the set-closing family punch of ‘My Perfect Cousin’. As a band, I always thought The Undertones had more in common with The Buzzcocks rather than the Pistols, Damned or Clash but after witnessing them live it’s not a British band that courses through their musical DNA but an American one, The Ramones. Gobstopper Rock ‘N’ Roll with added speed and lyrics about living in Derry (in the 1970s). The Undertones in 2019 circa are an absolute live joy, a throwback to Grange Hill, Marathon bars, lovebites, town hall discos, Woolworths, Wimpey bars and cheap cider. These may be rose-tinted teenage memories The Undertones deliver but they’re still hard to beat.