Oh my word! This is certainly not one to miss! Legendary punkpop tunesmiths The Undertones celebrate the 45 anniversary of their iconic hit single ‘Teenage Kicks’ with friends and special guests The Rezillos. They will both be performing in Brighton on the same bill at the popular Chalk venue later this year!
The Undertones emerged from Derry, Northern Ireland in 1974, the result of five friends learning how to play basic rock and roll. Even by the standards of that decade, Derry was not the rock and roll capital of anywhere and with no live bands worth watching, they learned their trade by listening to mail order records, reading one of the few copies of NME that made it to Derry but most of all from listening to John Peel’s show on BBC Radio One.
Practicing in their bedrooms eventually led to the band recording ‘Teenage Kicks’ in 1978 on Terri Hooley’s Good Vibrations label in Belfast. A copy was sent to the legendary DJ John Peel and he liked the track so much he played it twice in a row on his radio show! Eventually signing to Sire Records, ‘Teenage Kicks’ was re-released, resulting in the band’s first appearance on Top of the Pops.
Over the next five years, John O’Neill, his younger brother Damian, Feargal Sharkey, Billy Doherty and Michael Bradley crafted numerous punkpop gems and would go on to release 13 singles and 4 studio LP’s, before disbanding in May 1983. The Undertones re-formed in 1999 with singer Paul McLoone, subsequently recorded 2 new LP’s and have been touring regularly ever since. They even played Glastonbury Festival in June 2005.
The current lineup has been together for over 20 years now which is very impressive. It consists of John O’Neill – rhythm guitar and backing vocals (1975–1983, 1999–present), Michael Bradley – bass guitar, keyboards, lead and backing vocals (1975–1983, 1999–present), Billy Doherty – drums (1975–1983, 1999–present), Damian O’Neill – lead guitar, keyboards and backing vocals (1976–1983, 1999–present), and Paul McLoone – lead vocals (1999–present).
The Brighton & Hove News Music Team know how good the current Undertones are, as we covered their Brighton concert at Chalk last year. Read our review HERE.
The forthcoming Brighton concert is the opening date of The Undertones select 9-date tour of the country. The first 3 dates (in Brighton, Bristol and Cardiff) will feature The Rezillos as support. The middle 3 dates (in London, Cambridge and Leamington) will feature Tom Robinson Band as support. The final 3 dates will take place in Leeds, Newcastle and Manchester and will see Neville Staple from The Specials as support. For the dates see flyer at the foot of this article.
The Brighton & Hove News Music Team last bumped into The Rezillos at Rebellion Festival last August. Here is our account of their performance in the Pavilion from 9:30pm – 10:20pm:
“I go back inside to the Pavilion for The Rezillos. The nucleus of the band today are vocalists Fay Fife (Sheilagh Hynd) and Eugene Reynolds (aka Alan Forbes). Their partners in crime are Phil Thompson on guitar, Chris Agnew on bass and Angel Paterson on drums. I last saw The Rezillos at London’s 229 Club in February 2020, (Review HERE) when they proved themselves to be a fantastically exciting live proposition, as they do tonight.
Their set kicks off with ‘Destination Venus’ from their debut album ‘Can’t Stand The Rezillos’. Fay Fife and Eugene Reynolds are now in their mid to late sixties, but their voices still sound exactly as they did over forty years ago, which in itself is pretty astonishing. Fay Fife dedicates ‘Flying Saucer Attack’ to “those guys up in the sky”. The Rezillos’ back catalogue is crammed with classics, so much so that it’s surprising to remember that before they split up in 1979 they had released only one studio album. However, their live album ‘Mission Accomplished….But The Beat Goes On’ did feature original songs that were never recorded in the studio. They did release another studio album, ‘Zero’, in 2015.
It should be remembered that Fife and Reynolds formed another band, The Revillos, in 1979, and that band continued until 1996. Unsurprisingly one of their songs, ‘Do The Mutilation’, gets an airing. This features Eugene Reynolds playing some pretty impressive sax. At one point Reynolds gets heckled. He invites the loudmouth to come up on stage and do better than him. Frankly, that would be a tall order for anyone. Reynolds is a master of his craft.
Their song, ‘20,000 Rezillos Under The Sea’, sounds an awful lot like ‘The William Tell Overture’ to me. No matter, the classics keep on coming. There is absolutely no arguing with the likes of ‘It Gets Me’, ‘Bad Guy Reaction’, ‘Mystery Action’, ‘Top Of The Pops’ (a bona fide hit!), ‘(My Baby Does) Good Sculptures’ and ‘I Can’t Stand My Baby’. The set closes with ‘Somebody’s Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight’, which somewhat astonishingly was written by Jeremy Spencer of Fleetwood Mac, and originally recorded by that very same band! Not a lot of people know that!”
So Undertones and Rezillos fans ‘It’s Going To Happen’ at Chalk in Pool Valley, Brighton on Thursday 28th September 2023, so go and get your ‘Teenage Kicks’ as ‘Here Comes The Summer’. The doors will open at 6:00pm and the fun will begin. You can bring along ‘Jimmy Jimmy’, ‘Julie Ocean’, your ‘Perfect Cousin’ Kevin, a ‘Male Model’, ‘Hannah Doot’ and ‘Boy Wonder’.
Order your tour tickets HERE and tickets for the Brighton concert can also be purchased HERE. I would most certainly hurry as this WILL sell out!
For further information on The Undertones, check out the following links:
Website / Facebook / Twitter / YouTube
More info on The Rezillos as be located below:
Website / Facebook / Twitter / YouTube
