The Undertones are 50! And no-one’s more amazed than Damian O’Neill

The Undertones are 50! And no-one’s more amazed than Damian O’Neill

Author: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold December 2, 2025 Duration: 34:13

Glorious news! The Undertones, dependable symbols of eternal youth, are setting out on a 50th anniversary tour in 2026, still playing Teenage Kicks and Here Comes the Summer in their mid-60s. Damian O’Neill joined when he was 14 and can’t believe it either. He looks back here at …

 

… their first gig in a scout hall - “Feargal was a Scout leader!” - and their second for 1,000 schoolkids at St Joseph’s in Derry

 

… the world-wide appeal of their Irish identity and why “America never got us”

 

… David’s memories of interviewing them for Smash Hits in 1979 the day they thought “we’re finished”

 

... “We were anti-pretension!”

 

… seeing Horslips, Rory Gallagher, the Blockheads, Eddie & the Hot Rods and the Lurkers

 

… joining the band at 14 and playing Beatles, Stones, Them, Cream and Dr Feelgood covers

 

… parkas, Millets jeans and the Derry boot-boy look. “If you dressed up in those days you ran the risk of getting your head kicked in”

 

 … being in the band’s HQ the night Peel played Teenage Kicks twice in a row

 

… songs about “love and lack of love” – and girls and chocolate

 

… how it feels to be on Top Of The Pops and then watch your single go down the charts

 

… their first visit to a studio (Wizard in Belfast) and self-producing Teenage Kicks with just an engineer – and still playing it in your mid-60s

 

… and a heartfelt apology to the people of Blackburn!

 

Order tickets for the Undertones 50th Anniversary tour here: https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/the-undertones-tickets/artist/959984


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There’s a particular kind of conversation about music that happens between friends who’ve spent a lifetime immersed in it-not as distant critics, but as participants in the culture. That’s the atmosphere you’ll find in Word In Your Ear, a podcast from Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, and Alex Gold. With a collective eighty years of writing and broadcasting for titles like Smash Hits and Mojo, and shows from "The Old Grey Whistle Test" to VH-1, they don’t just recount history; they unpack the stories behind it with the ease of a shared laugh. This podcast grew naturally from their work on the late, great magazine The Word, where they began recording over thirteen years ago, building a dedicated following who found something genuinely special in the mix. Each episode weaves together music, commentary, history, and interviews, moving seamlessly from deep-dive analysis of a seminal album to a frank chat with a surprising guest, all delivered with the warmth and wit of a late-night chat. It feels less like a formal show and more like you’ve been invited to pull up a chair in a room where the anecdotes are plentiful and the expertise is worn lightly. The result is a consistently engaging listen that treats music not as a museum piece but as a living, breathing part of our lives.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Word In Your Ear
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