About The Undertones

The Undertones are an Irish punk band formed in Derry, Ireland in 1975. The original band consisted of: * Feargal Sharkey (lead vocals), * John O'Neill (guitar), * Damian O'Neill (guitar, keyboards and vocals), * Michael Bradley (bass and vocals), and * Billy Doherty (drums). John O'Neill was the original main song writer, with his brother Damian and Mickey Bradley writing in various solo & combined variations for most of the remainder. Sharkey's power pop tenor was distinctive, and the band regarded a tight ensemble. By 1977 they were performing their own three-chord pop punk material influenced by Nuggets-type material and Ramones, and in 1978 released their debut four-song EP Teenage Kicks on Good Vibrations. It became a hit with support from DJ John Peel, who considered that EP's title song (Teenage Kicks) his all-time favourite. The song has been covered by many including boyband Busted (at the 2003 Brit Awards), American group The Raconteurs, Swedish band [aritst]Sahara Hotnights and French band Nouvelle Vague. The original band released four studio albums: * The Undertones (1979) * Hypnotised (1980) * Positive Touch (1981) * The Sin of Pride (1983). Falling sales linked to their changing musical direction and tensions within the band, leading to their split in 1983. A compilation album titled All Wrapped Up featured a woman dressed in lunch meats wrapped in clear plastic on the (non band approved) cover. Several other compilations including the superb BBC sessions CD Listening in (named after a song on their first album) (2004) exist. The O'Neill brothers went on to form That Petrol Emotion. The Undertones reconvened in 1999, initially to play a few shows in their hometown of Londonderry, replacing singer Feargal Sharkey with a similarly warbling new recruit, Paul McLoone. Since this time, the band has continued to play a small number of gigs each year in various places around the world. The band have also released two further studio albums: * Get What You Need (2003) * Dig Yourself Deep (2007) NOTE: There is another band with this name - The Undertones, a subset of the University of Notre Dame Glee Club who sing a capella arrangements of popular songs. For more information on these guys, check out www.nd.edu/~utones.