Michael Bradley was the bass player of The Undertones, one of the most successful bands to come out of Northern Ireland. The quintet formed in 1974 and ended up being one of the bigger punk rock and new wave acts of the time. In 2016, Bradley released Teenage Kicks: My Life as an Undertone. Omnibus Press has re-released Teenage Kicks as part of their Remastered series.
Bradley starts by discussing his early life, but mostly keeps the story focused on The Undertones themselves. The band formed when its five members decided to play music, drawing inspiration from the Beatles and the Small Faces. Despite forming during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the band mostly stayed apolitical. When punk broke in England in 1976, they started playing music closer to the Sex Pistols and the Buzzcocks.
The experiences recounted of forming the Undertones feel much more relatable than other books I’ve read about bands. There was a cohesion within the band that sometimes feels left out of other band biographies. Bradley gives the reader a good sense of the scene in Ireland. While punk was exploding in England, it was barely making a dent with Ireland’s mostly Catholic population. I appreciated reading about the little details of life in Ireland regarding brands used and TV shows they watched, but also getting the context of life in Ireland in the middle of the Troubles.
While adolescence and defiance in Derry have been portrayed in shows like Moone Boy and “Derry Girls, it’s great to get firsthand accounts rather than a dramatic retelling. That being said, it’s refreshing to read a book about young punks who were way more into music than trouble. The Undertones started making waves and money playing shows at the local bar, the Casbah. Soon, the band’s popularity started to grow. With that growth came bad record contracts and meeting the bands you worshipped in a short amount of time.
As I’ve read more books about other bands in England, it’s been interesting to compare their experiences with England’s American Bandstand equivalent, Top of the Pops, and how each band has reacted to it. Every band has a unique experience, but it also feels similar to the others. Bradley’s recollection doesn’t seem as bad as others, but he also doesn’t spend as much time going over the show’s ridiculous requirements in comparison to others’ recollections.
Bradley’s writing style does sometimes get dense, but the story of the Undertones is worth the ride. Teenage Kicks is one of the better books I’ve read about youth and playing in a band. It’s an interesting journey through the eyes of a kid going through the scene whose band may not have been as successful as the bigger names, but it’s this perspective that gives us a better idea of the scene as a whole rather than a bigger band’s small corner of it.
Pick up Michael Bradley’s Teenage Kicks: My Life as an Undertone from Omnibus Press or other fine bookstores.