The Undertones: Teenage Kicks: The Best Of The Undertones

The Undertones, from (London)/Derry, Northern Ireland, were never my favourite punk band, not by a long way. Despite Radio One DJ John Peel championing them and their subsequent elevation to "punk treasures" I was never convinced. I considered them to be a bunch of adolescents messing around in a big boys' game. To me, they were not the real thing, not anywhere near it. I simply could not give them the credibility that I bestowed upon the Clash, The Jam, The Ramones or Stiff Little Fingers. They had the status (almost) of a novelty act as far as I was concerned. 

Now, that was a fairly harsh assessment, but they you go. I preferred Twix to Mars Bars. 

Now I've got that out of my system, I will conceded that there are several punkish/new wave gems of 45 rpm singles to be found on this parka-clad collection. They are the now-iconic rites of passage anthem Teenage Kicks, of course (even I accept that song's punk royalty), the amusing tales of Kevin in My Perfect Cousin and Jimmy in Jimmy Jimmy, the catchy and nostalgic optimism of Here Comes The Summer(rrrr), the brass-enhanced, jangly It's Going To Happen, the sixties-influenced pop of Wednesday Week and the admittedly amusing Mars Bars. True Confessions is a good one too. Sort of. Get Over You is a rousing and highly enjoyable Ramones-ish romp that I can't help but like. 

The Dr. Feelgood-esque You've Got My Number (Why Don't You Use It?) and the equally rocking, early Beatles-ish Let's Talk About Girls are two tracks that definitely draw me in quite a long way. They're good ones. 

The group even went all arty, synthy and post-punk on some of their later tracks, particularly the quirky The Love Parade, a song that was a million miles away from Teenage Kicks. A track I feel should have been included on here is one that surely influenced The Housemartins in the jaunty Chain Of Love. 

Quite a lot of their songs revealed the young lads' wry humour and, while I sort of admired them for that, humour was not what I was looking for in my punk tracks. I wanted ranting viscerality, fist-pumping political messages with maybe a bit of bubblegum catchiness thrown in. Five young lads kind of taking the piss out of themselves just wasn't my bag of jelly babies.

They could play, though. And they were clever. So who the hell am I to criticise? I'm coming over like that smug cousin Kevin.....

Enough.