Teenage Kicks: My Life as an Undertone

We never went in for group hugs. We didn’t have champagne. We probably made tea and toast.” Michael Bradley is talking about the famous moment John Peel played ‘Teenage Kicks’ twice in a row on his BBC radio show. This historic moment is described in his memoir Teenage Kicks: My Life As An Undertone in a curiously muted fashion.

“Those couple of weeks were very strange,” he adds. “It was really like you had just won the pools! John Peel thinks your record is great.”
Bradley’s book traces the aspiring young Irish punks from their earliest incarnation in the mid-‘70s up to their untimely demise in 1983. He takes us on an entertaining journey, peppered with tales of Top Of The Pops appearances, encounters with Seymour Stein, and hanging out with Peel himself. But mostly it is the story of five Derry lads who can’t quite believe their luck. Their youthful exuberance is one of the book’s most endearing qualities.
The author describes a feeling of constantly being on a school trip and – given their general innocence, high jinks and predilection for confectionery – it is entirely apt.
“Every time we stopped on the road,” he recalls, “we’d all pile out of the bus, go in and probably terrify the shopkeeper – and then get back on the bus each with his own chocolate. But I’ve spoken to people who work in music and they do think of it as a day off school. You’re in a TV studio or doing a live show, you are not at work in an office or doing maths!”
On one count, their innocence was a major disadvantage: their first record contract was a dog. However, Bradley, in contrast to many others who signed away their lives to record company moguls, is sanguine about it.
“I’m not bitter at all, it was a record contract!” he states. “We were in the room with Seymour Stein – the man who signed The Ramones! – so all that was brilliant. How could I regret anything? I was in The Undertones!”
The exciting world of pop stardom is a million miles from the streets of mid-’70s Derry. The environment from which they sprang was a musical wasteland: they alone flew the flag for punk.
“We were never part of a scene,” he says. “When I look back on it we were the scene. The other thing was that we believed everything about punk. We would have read NME and listened to John Peel. Also, we believed in the ethos of punk rock, that thing of: you don’t become rockist, you don’t see it as a career and be ambitious. That would be frowned upon!”
Their home city is like another character in the book. Bradley, who works as a producer and broadcaster with BBC Radio Foyle, warmly acknowledges his attachment to it.
“We never decamped to London, which was what bands did in those days,” he says. “We would always just go home whenever we weren’t doing anything.
“One of the memories I have is arriving back to the house after indoor football and my sister telling me the chart position of ‘Wednesday Week’,” he adds. “Really, if you have a record in the charts you should be in London doing the promotional work, but we weren’t. So Derry was very important: we all lived there. John, Billy and myself still live in Derry. I couldn’t think of living anywhere else.”
This year, The Undertones are celebrating their 40th anniversary it makes sense to cast an eye back over their illustrious career. But what was the original impetus for Bradley to write the book?
“The first paragraph was written in March 2006 – but I always had the idea. [He pauses.] I’m a liar. I didn’t always have the idea, someone said I should write a book! I started and stopped and would revisit it occasionally – but once I got a publisher, I got serious. My biggest panic was I’d write it and then see loads of them in bargain buckets. But I wanted to write it because it’s a good story.”
John Peel is fondly recalled in the book, which describes his early support for the band – and his almost fatherly attitude towards them.
“My favourite memory of John was the time he brought us down to the BBC studio,” reminisces Bradley. “We were in Maida Vale doing a session and we were invited down and we sat in while he was doing the show. I remember sitting in this darkened room as he worked his magic playing records. Then, for a bit of craic, he interviewed me. He laughed in the right places! For us to be granted that access was absolutely brilliant.”
Bradley is equally enthusiastic remembering the band’s Top Of The Pops appearances.
“I was secretly relieved when the show ended because that meant we are the most successful Derry band in terms of Top Of The Pops appearances,” he says. “Nobody will beat that record unless they bring back the programme! You may get Mercury Music Prize nominations – but our TOTP record will never be beaten!”
He regales us with stories of star-spotting in the BBC canteen and then, of course, there was that time he managed to get an autograph from Elvis Costello.
“Yes, Elvis. He has a much bigger and more successful book than mine,” laughs Bradley. “I will be bringing my copy for him to sign when we play the Galway Arts Festival this year!”
Meanwhile, The Undertones have just released a special edition of ‘My Perfect Cousin’ for Record Store Day.
“The subbuteo man on the cover has metal movable parts! I applaud anyone who can make a 35-year-old single seem interesting,” he laughs.
Needless to say, the band collected a few well-known fans over the years. Bradley recalls one particular star-struck moment, when he answered the phone to a certain Mr. Paul Weller.
“We were playing in LA in 1980,” Mickey says. “I was in my hotel room, the phone rang and I answered it. A voice said, ‘Mickey Bradley?’. I said, ‘Yes’. The voice said, ‘Paul Weller here’. And he invited us along to a TV show they were recording that day. I remember thinking, ‘Fucking hell!’.
Perhaps paving the way for a follow-up, the book stops before the 1999 reunion, with Paul McLoone as singer.
“The story of Mark 1 is good because it has a beginning, a middle, and an end – and the ending is a great ending. There is a neatness there,” he reflects. “But the reaction has given me a taste for writing. People have been very complimentary. It’s hard work – but I’m open to offers!”