The Undertones: The Interview
by Brendan Sullivan | 00.00.0000

When legendary BBC DJ John Peel died in 2004 his family honored a request he made in 1978. He wanted The Undertones’ song "Teenage Kicks" to be played at his funeral. He first heard the song on a cheap demo tape and had the whole band come in to play. They later signed to Sire records and followed The Clash to the US on tour in 1979 along with the funk outfit Sam and Dave. They broke up in 1983 and kept in touch over the years, playing in other bands along the way. In 1994 they started up again with a new singer and in 2003 they put out a new album together. When their latest single "Thrill Me" reached Peel’s turntable later that year he said: "And these are words which I'd never thought I'd be saying on the radio again, a new single from The Undertones." He played "Thrill Me" twice, back to back. He did the same thing 25 years ago with "Teenage Kicks." We caught up with the shy guitarist/songwriter John O’Neil and bassist Mickey Bradley in New York during their latest tour. Here's the all the questions and answers about all the new kicks they've been getting:

An old guy at your show said that you guys are the same band you were back in.
Mick: Well, I guess we haven’t gotten any better (laughs).

Is it true that you all bought your first instruments together and learned to play just to be in a band together?
Mick: Yes. It was a couple of years before we managed to get one song where we could all start and stop at the same time, though.

Where did Teenage Kicks come from?
Damian: I wrote that. We started playing two or three times a week at The Casbah in Derry and we wanted to always add a song each week just to keep everything fresh and then one week I came up with that. At the time it didn’t even stand out in the set. I remember when we got the pressing of the "Teenage Kicks" EP I remember thinking "this doesn’t sound very good... we fucked it up again."

And now a thousand copies of that recording have been reissued.
Mickey: They’re all gone. I didn’t even get a copy—none of us did. The only person I know who did is a guy who works at the BBC radio station with me. And he’s the guy who puts the chocolate in the vending machines.
Damian: How did he get it?
Mickey: He just walked into the record shop in Derry when it came out.

So twenty years later you all have kids and mortgages and you decide to do it again?
Mickey: Our drummer, Billy—who’s not with us on tour because he got in a bike accident—had the idea. But John and Dave were in a band called That Petrol Emotion. But they broke up in ‘94. The Saw Doctors used to have us come onstage and do "Teenage Kicks" as an encore. And in the summer of ‘99 they asked us to tour with them and I said Ay and John said Ay and Billy said Ay.

When was it obvious the Feargal Sharkey was not going to join up?
Mickey: Five years earlier in ’94 we’d had an offer to join a festival tour. And it was good money and a good way to spend a holiday. But Feargal said no. I phoned him up and tried to persuade him, but he wouldn’t. It wasn’t about money or band politics. He just didn’t want to.

What is he doing now?
Mickey: Well then he was working for a record company. And now he’s actually in charge of a government task force that’s looking into the state of live music. He works for Tony Blair.
How did you figure out a replacement?
Mickey: We had already committed to doing the show when Feargal said no. And Billy had been in a band with Paul so we asked him. But there was no Plan B. Paul was plans A-Z.

If you put out another record do you think it will be influenced by what you hear today?
Damian: Everything works in a cycle. Now you can finally hear some good guitar stuff coming back around. Like with The Kills or The Dirtbombs or Yeah Yeah Yeahs. It’s all so great with that really Clash-y spirit. I like that real garage sound, but none of the harsh stuff.
Mickey: We don’t really go for metal. That whole Deep Purple, Black Sabbath reich. You know, all that Spandex stuff. Which is not to say I’m into all soft. In fact, thank god that whole “Unplugged” craze is over. I don’t mind acoustic music, but when you see a rock band turn up without any amplifiers, you just wanna say, Great boys, now go home and get your Marshalls, okay?
Damian: I like the Nirvana one, though.
Paul: That’s the exception. (Mickey agrees.)
Damian: People always say we sound like Greenday, but most of their old stuff just sounds like Metal to me.
Paul: I like some of their recent stuff, though. It’s hard to say what I do and don’t like. I would like to say that I don’t like modern R&B. But then "Crazy in Love" comes on and you can’t help getting into it. (He goes off into a brief air-guitar of the chorus) Dah-da-na-na-na-nah-nah. A lot of that stuff is fun because it’s so similar. Very producer led.

In the documentary Teenage Kicks you say that touring became really demoralizing after a few years of playing to half-full clubs. How does it feel this time?
Damian: It’s very encouraging. We sold out our first show right away and we played to a full crowd every night. It happens all over. We’ve still got fans our age but then they keep getting younger too. We really didn’t want to be cashing in on a nostalgia, tour. It gets stale after awhile. That’s why I think it helped to put out a new record in 2003. We’ll probably have another one out next year.

Could you ever seen yourselves working with a producer on your next project?
Damian: We probably wouldn’t dismiss it straight off. But for now it’s working for us to be producing our own records back home at a small studio in Derry. It keeps it simple.
Mickey: I like to think of us as semi-pro.
Damian: I mean it would be nice if we could write some great songs and then someone with the right eye for it could come along and add another dimension if we could strike a nice balance.
Paul: Although I think Phil Spector’s kinda tied up right now. But with all due respect to Greenday, when you see them coming on stage all in uniform you gotta wonder who’s calling the shots for them. For some bands it works, but for some it’s just like they’re putting on their rockstar costume for the show. When you see the Rolling Stones—even now—they all look sort of different, but they look like a band of individuals. And that’s sort of how we look at it. It just wouldn’t work for us. It’s a hundred and eighty degrees from "us." I would just feel too self-conscious. First I’d be wondering how I looked and then I’d be wondering how it’s going to sound when I say, "Hey, Mickey. Do you think this works for me?"
Damian: We’re just not like that.
Mickey: We’re from Derry.

What’s it like in Derry now for you guys?
Mickey: More people recognize me as being in the Undertones now than have ever before. But that’s the same with everything. The band is more respected now that it ever was. Even when we were touring with The Clash and Sam and Dave. I guess we just didn’t realize how good we were—are.