The Undertones - The Undertones

Playground pogos (more than slight return)

An extensive anthology last year marked the 30th anniversary of the formation of Derry’s foremost punky power-poppers, so this expanded version of their debut LP might just be a pitch too far. Only two of the original 14 tracks were left off the earlier compilation, so the draw here is largely the hard-to-find Peel sessions and the CD bow of a few non-album singles B-sides.

There’s no denying the fumbling hormonal exuberance of Girls Don’t Like It, a battered, second hand Cortina of a cars’n’girls song offering a stark parochial contrast to the glamorous cruisin’ of Chuck Berry 20 years earlier, while the unloved misfit at the centre of (She’s A) Runaround offers a surprisingly grim portrait lurking beneath the frenetic surface of the Friday night school disco.

John O’Neill’s lyrics are less classic pop poetry and more furtive whispers from the bus shelters and bike sheds of almost everyone’s teenage years. It’s the language of the streets, rarely dressed up in anything beyond three chords, but most of the business was taken care of by the previous best of.

Salvo | SALVOCD 017

Reviewed by Terry Staunton
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