The Undertones
| The Undertones | |
|---|---|
 The Undertones (2007) |
|
| General information | |
| origin | Derry , Northern Ireland |
| Genre (s) | Punk , new wave , pop-punk |
| founding | 1975, 1999 |
| resolution | 1983 |
| Website | theundertones.com |
| Founding members | |
| Feargal Sharkey (until 1983) | |
| John O'Neill | |
| Vincent O'Neil (1975-76) | |
| Michael Bradley | |
| Billy Doherty | |
| Current occupation | |
singing |
Paul McLoone (since 1999) |
guitar |
John O'Neill |
guitar |
Damian O'Neill (since 1976) |
bass |
Michael Bradley |
Drums |
Billy Doherty |
The Undertones is a rock band formed in Derry , Northern Ireland in 1975 . The band is one of the first punk bands , but has also adopted elements of glam rock , pop and soul .
history
The Undertones were formed in 1976 around Billy Doherty (drums), Feargal Sharkey (vocals), Mickey Bradley (bass), Damian O'Neill (guitar) and John O'Neill (guitar). After initially only covering songs from their favorite bands , they also began to write their own songs.
The first EP Teenage Kicks , with four songs on the Good Vibrations label, was discovered by radio DJ John Peel , and the band's first big hit was his support with the theme song. Peel later referred to Teenage Kicks as his favorite song, and the first line of the song is on his tombstone. Contact to Sire Records was established through Peel . The label signed the band and released the self-titled debut album in 1979. A tour of England in support of The Clash made the band well known in the punk scene. The band also received positive feedback in the USA; the readers of Touch-and-Go -Fanzine voted the debut album album of the year 1979. Already in 1980 the second album Hypnotised was released , which again turned out to be very trendy and with Wednesday Week even contained an acoustic ballad. The third album Positive Touch followed in 1981, but the band has now switched to the EMI sub-label Ardeck. In the same year the band could be seen at the ninth Rockpalast Nacht . Positive touch also marked the turning point in the band's career. While it managed to reach a respectable number 17 on the UK charts , it only stayed in the charts for six weeks.
After a long break, the fourth album Sin of Pride was released , which fell short of expectations. Both singles, including a cover version of Got to Have You Back by the Isley Brothers, flopped. The bad sales and the changing musical goals of the band members led to the dissolution of the band in 1983. A farewell concert was held in Dublin on July 17, 1983 .
Feargal Sharkey began a solo career, the O'Neill brothers formed the band That Petrol Emotion . A reunion in honor of John Peel's 50th birthday with the original line-up had to be canceled after the father of the O'Neill brothers died. In 1994 there were renewed rumors of reunion, but Feargal Sharkey turned it down.
In 1999 the band got back together without Feargal Sharkey. Paul McLoone took over the vocals because Sharkey was not interested and meanwhile lived in London. After touring, the band released a new album in 2003, Get What You Need . Dig Yourself Deep followed in 2007 .
In 2012 she was hired as opening act for the band Die Ärzte , and in 2013 for the band Die Toten Hosen . In autumn 2018 they gave concerts in Berlin, Dresden, Hamburg and Münster, the latter already sold out in advance.
Music genre
Most of the songs were written by John O'Neill, the majority of the remaining songs are by his brother Damian and Michael Bradley. In addition to the guitar-heavy garage rock sound, the singer Feargal Sharkey in particular gave the band its unique character with his distinctive tenor . Although the Undertones formed at the start of the punk era and the punk movement had an audible impact on the group, they were far more poppy than the rest of the musical movement. The touch-and-go fanzine ruled that the band combined “the stirring emotionality of the early days of punk with the unbelievable accessibility of pop”. In the course of their career they lost more and more heaviness, their last album before the breakup was mainly characterized by soul . After their reunion, however, the music got heavier again.
Discography
Studio albums
| year | Title music label |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 UK
|
 US
|
|||
| 1979 | The Undertones Sire Records |
UK13 (21 weeks) UK |
US154 (7 weeks) US |
First published: May 12, 1979
|
| 1980 | Hypnotized Sire Records |
UK6 (10 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: April 19, 1980
|
| 1981 | Positive touch Ardeck Records |
UK17 (6 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: May 9, 1981
|
| 1982 | The Sin of Pride Ardeck Records |
UK46 (5 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: March 12, 1982
|
| 2003 | Get What You Need Sanctuary Records |
- | - |
First published: 2003
|
| 2007 | Dig Yourself Deep Cooking Vinyl |
- | - |
First published: 2007
|
Quotes
“I can't listen to it now without getting all dewy-eyed. And if I play it on the radio, I have to segue it into the front of another record because I can't speak after I've heard it. "
“I can't listen to it now without getting wet eyes. And when I play it on the radio, I have to fade it into the beginning of another record because I can't speak after I've listened to it. "
literature
- Michael Bradley: Teenage Kicks: My Life As An Undertone , Omnibus Press, London 2016, ISBN 978-1785581809 .
Web links
- Official website
- The Undertones at laut.de
- The Undertones at Discogs (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i The Undertones at laut.de . Retrieved November 26, 2017
- ↑ a b c d e f g The Undertones at Allmusic (English). Retrieved November 26, 2017.
- ^ Tesco Vee & Dave Stimson: Touch and Go. The Complete Hardcore Punk Zine '79 -'93 . 3. Edition. Bazillion Points, New York 2013, ISBN 978-0-9796163-8-9 , pp. 57 .
- ^ Tesco Vee & Dave Stimson: Touch and Go. The Complete Hardcore Punk Zine '79 -'93 . 3. Edition. Bazillion Points, New York 2013, ISBN 978-0-9796163-8-9 , pp. 67 .
- ↑ Chart sources: UK US