103 - The Undertones, Teenage Kicks & John Peel with Mickey Bradley

This week we celebrate 50 years of The Undertones with the one & only Mickey Bradley - our starting point is Derry in the late 1970s as we trace the formation of the band at the O’Neill house on Beechwood Avenue.

Although the initial idea for the Undertones was a folk band playing Mandolins - everything changes when they hear The Ramones & the early punk records - realising they need to speed up their songs.

Vincent O’Neill leaves & younger brother Damien joins to round out the lineup with Feargal, Mickey, Billy & principal songwriter John.

The first gig takes place in a local scout hall but its at Derry venue The Casbah where the band hone their craft, playing weekly for over 18 months from early 1977.

Their first visit to a recording studio remarkably results in the Teenage Kicks EP & it is released via legendary Belfast record shop burgeoning record label Good Vibrations.

The bands lives are changed forever when John Peel takes a liking to the record & plays it on his radio show - Mickey tells us about the varying accounts of how Peel got hold of the record.

John Peel famously played Teenage Kicks twice in a row on September 25th 1978 & Sire Records head Seymour Stein heard it while on a trip to the UK, resulting in the band signing to the prestigious New York home of The Ramones & Talking Heads.

Teenage Kicks also leads to an appearance on Top Of The Pops (the bands second time in a studio) & the rest is history.

The Undertones have tour dates throughout 2026 & you can get Mickey’s book here.

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Music by Andy Maxwell

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