Interesting stuff ralph. From memory, was Damien the one who was the huge Dexys fan? I know one of them was, interesting he'd turn the chance down if so. I liked TPE, deserved a wider audience i thought.Chairman Ralph wrote: ↑29 Nov 2020, 1:04amI'm sure they had younger fans in their ranks, too, like any organized entity does -- it's just, "that other thing" they were about politically came before everything else, including the music, unfortunately.You gotta wonder how popular the NME was amongst loyalist paramilitaries.
I can shed a bit of light there, as I did a story about them, too. Both Damian and John said that It's Gonna Happen reflected a feeling within the the band that it was time to acknowledge that they'd grown up a bit -- which made the song feel like a natural step, one that also reflected their growth as musicians and songwriters. They were keen to move on from the slam-bang hookiness of the earlier era, where they did avoid anything political-oriented. Both said that they never cared for Stiff Little Fingers, whom they saw as a more contrived take on the situation. I remember Damian telling me, "They always promoted The Troubles, whereas, we always promoted the music."Yeah, i love the song but always found it curious the undertones suddenly came out with this pretty direct political message, given how doggedly they'd avoided the whole troubles situation previously. I think it was Damien O'Neill who wore the black armband on top of the pops which was a quite provocative statement to make, though i don't remember if it really registered at the time. They definitely suffered some backlash for it back home at least.
Ironically, It's Gonna Happen marked the peak, at least of terms in their chart performance -- whereas, the next single (Julie Ocean) was a flop, and as they've all stated, signaling an era where everything was about to turn south for them, with the Undertones being no more for a good 16 years.
Though it's interesting to see that the O'Neills' next band, That Petrol Emotion, was everything that the Undertones hadn't been -- more abrasive and more intense, with a decided emphasis on highly-charged commentary. (Which reminds me of a fun fact: Damian turned down offer to join Dexy's Midnight Runners, so he could join TPE. The mind boggles, as they say. )
The conflict was a pretty torid time for artists, in that however you chose to express yourself, or not, at least one side would find fault with you, if not both. Seamus Heaney had a memorable phrase - "whatever you say, say nothing - which captured the dilemma. Heaney, Van Morrison, the Undertones, they all got it at various stages, called cowards for not addressing the troubles in their work. The Fingers had their own way, but were careful not to favour one side. It's no accident that in the last 5 or so years, a glut of literature has started to be published dealing with the conflict, these writers have the benefit of distance to explore their themes. The guys back then didn't.
As for the relationship between the Fingers and Undertones, was always fascinated by that. Can't remember if i read it or saw it in a doc, but there's an incident early on where Jake Burns enters the Undertones dressing room after a gig and one of the band is hostile towards him. But i don't think that attitude was shared across the whole band, there was mostly mutual respect between them and acknowledgement they just had different methods and you could argue the Undertones songs about teenage angst were, in their way, as much about the troubles as the Fingers material.
Anyway...was a Fingers fan myself but they were two phenomenal bands. Always interesting how punk so permeated the north in the 70s while barely making a ripple down south. There was the Rats but they buggered off to London at first available opportunity.