The Undertones – ‘True Confessions (Singles = A’s + B’s)’

The Undertones
True Confessions (Singles=A’s + B’s)
Sire Records www.sirerecords.com/

It’s been 36 years or so since The Undertones first played a the local Londonderry pub scene, before unleashing themselves onto an unsuspecting Europe, with a string of great singles and tight live shows formed them as one of the bands “of your times” – most were happy with describing them as a punk pop group. The quintet comprised of Fergal Sharkey on vocals, John O’Neil on guitar, Damian O’Neil on guitar, Michael Bradley on bass, Billy Doherty on drums. The band rose to prominence after signing a ‘one=off’ contract with Belfast independent label, Good Vibrations. The end result The Undertones first EP titled ‘Teenage Kicks’, was heavily promoted by influential Radio 1, when it was good, DJ John Peel, he made the title song his all time favourite, going on to say he cried the first time he heard ‘Teenage Kicks’. The rest, was not the usual script, for he band had no manager, deciding on recruited lead singer Fergal to handle the negotiations of a five year deal with Sire Records.

The rest is a pretty glorious history of releases. What can I tell you as a nine year old, ‘My Perfect Cousin’ further changed my world and my Subbuteo tactics; ‘Jimmy Jimmy’ was my first, not my last slab of coloured vinyl, green if you must know, it’s up there with my Dickies yellow vinyl and my X-Ray Spex pink Vinyl. ‘Here Comes The Summer’ played to teenage ears, in their first few outings to beer gardens and other pubs, is the perfect and most dangerous soundtrack of songs; I won’t even detail what ‘Teenage Kicks’ did back then and what it’s doing right now, but without containing any swearing, it would not surprise me, if ‘they’ would want to slam a Parental Warning on the single, if the song ever came to light these days.
The Singles Boxset that came out back in 2000 is great, looks fantastic, but make no mistake if you would like to either introduce yourself to The Undertones or would like to hear the songs like ‘Mars Bars’, ‘You’ve Got My Number (Why Don’t You Use It)’, ‘The Love Parade’, ‘Wednesday Week’ are all here as well, so that is seven or more songs I have mentioned amongst the A and B sides of their original vinyl releases, all of which are brought to you on two compact discs accompanied with a sixteen page booklet, so this collection has not been over-rushed or just thrown out for a fast buck or two, I am pleased to report.

If you like brash art-beat or melodic indie or punk – most songs are normally brought home in fewer than three minutes, you could not easily find a better place to add to your collection, The Undertones as thus collection proves,  were and from what I am hearing, are still a great band. 8.5/10
Steve Janes

Got the Human Leauge in to advise her…