THE UNDERTONES LIVE AT LA BELLE ANGELE, EDINBURGH
It’s been a while, but John Scott discovers that teenage kicks are still hard to beat thanks to The Undertones. 
If the hallmark of a great band is the quality of its singles collection (and I think it is) then The Undertones rank amongst the greatest. In the five years between 1978 and 1983, they released fourteen A-sides, each a perfectly polished pop gem, their accompanying B-sides equally precious. The band also boasted a singer, Feargal Sharkey, whose distinctive vocals made the band instantly recognisable. When Sharkey left the band after 1983’s The Sin Of Pride, it seemed likely that we had seen the last of The Undertones but a reformation in 2003 with new frontman, Paul McLoone, proved successful and the band has continued to tour and record ever since.
Tonight’s sold-out gig sees the band pack twenty-eight songs into 90 minutes (a further three encores were dropped due to the venue’s curfew). Drawing heavily on those classic songs, the setlist also features album favourites from both the Sharkey and McLure iterations. From the opener Girls Don’t Like It, the pace rarely lets up. After more than forty-five years of playing together, Derry’s finest are tightly honed. A fan at the front holds up a banner with the request: “Can I play guitar on Teenage Kicks?” “Even John can’t play it, it’s not easy” ripostes bassist Michael Bradley, gesturing to John O’Neil, guitarist and the writer of the song in question. Bradley is of course gleefully doing his pal a disservice. John O’Neil and his brother and co-guitarist, Damian, trade riffs and licks like a punk-pop Ron and Keith, Damian, in particular, adding lightning-fast ornamentations to their seemingly simple but deceptively complex songs.
If it seems impossible to imagine these songs sung by anyone other than Feargal Sharkey then that’s a notion that quickly evaporates. Paul McLoone may share something of Sharkey’s tone but he has an easy, swaggering self-confidence and sense of fun that allows him to make the songs his own. His more-camp-than-Jagger hip swivels and hand gestures are so self-deprecatingly ironic that’s impossible not to love him for them.
The highlights are of course those peerless singles: You’ve Got My Number (Why Don’t You Use it), The Love Parade, Jimmy Jimmy, It’s Going to Happen. It almost seems impossible to remember that there was a time when Teenage Kicks did not exist. If any other band had a song as iconic as Teenage Kicks (and few do) they would surely save it for the encores, but it arrives mid-set and such is the quality of the Undertones’ songbook that the songs that follow it are undiminished by its magnificence. 
The encores may be cut short but we have been far from short-changed. My Perfect Cousin sees us out (”his mother bought a synthesiser, got The Human League in to advise her”: still genius). My only regret is that it has taken me until now to see The Undertones. If you haven’t seen them, don’t pass up the opportunity.
JOHN SCOTT
Setlist
Girls Don’t Like It
Jump Boys
I Need Your Love the Way It Used to Be
You’ve Got My Number (Why Don’t You Use It!)
The Love Parade
Thrill Me
Jimmy Jimmy
Crisis of Mine
Tearproof
It’s Going to Happen
Teenage Kicks
True Confessions
Oh Please
Nine Times out of Ten
Billy’s Third
I Gotta Getta
Family Entertainment
Girls That Don’t Talk
Here Comes the Summer
When Saturday Comes
Dig Yourself Deep
Hypnotised
(She’s a) Runaround
Wednesday Week
Listening In
Get Over You
Male Model
My Perfect Cousin
