GIG REVIEW: The Undertones + John Otway @ Boiler Shop, Newcastle, Thursday 4 December 2025
The Undertones brought a welcome dose of nostalgia to the Boiler Shop as part of a short run of gigs celebrating the 45th anniversary of their second album, Hypnotised.
Their self-titled 1979 debut album is universally recognised as a classic, but Hypnotised, released a year later, was more successful, reaching No 6 in the UK charts, and garnering two Top 20 singles.
Tonight was all about celebrating the album, as well as other favourites from the back catalogue of one of the 1970s’ finest exponents of pop-punk.
While Stiff Little Fingers made their name singing about the Troubles, The Undertones took a different approach, with their Motown-rooted pop offering light relief from the awful realities of life in Northern Ireland.
They sang songs about growing up, teenage angst and chocolate bars, and it brought them three Top 20 albums and seven Top 40 singles before they split up in 1983.
They reformed in 1999, initially to play some shows in their native Derry, but original singer Feargal Sharkey declined to take part and was replaced by Paul McLoone, who fronts the band to this day.
He takes the stage dressed all in black, grey hair teased into a quiff, and stamps his own mark on these classic songs. The Undertones have released two albums of new material since reforming, but it’s the oldies people want to hear, and boy do they sound good tonight.
All but a couple of tracks from Hypnotised get an airing, more or less in order, apart from curiously starting with Hard Luck, the last track on side one of the original LP.
Many fans regard it as a better record than the debut (I don’t agree, as The Undertones remains one of my all-time Top 10 albums); but it does it contain classics like There Goes Norman, Tearproof and the self-effacing More Songs About Chocolate And Girls.
By the time we get to the first of its big hit singles, My Perfect Cousin, McLoone has cast off his leather jacket, and the song gets the best response from the crowd in the first half of the show. The place is pretty full, but seems a bit subdued – either because it’s a work night or we’re just all getting old.
The second half of the show sees the band – guitarists Damian and John O’ Neill, bassist Michael Bradley and drummer Billy Doherty – wheel out more of their stellar back catalogue, including Jimmy Jimmy, Family Entertainment, and, of course, Teenage Kicks.
Only Thrill Me from the post-reformation albums makes the setlist, but it’s clear that tonight is all about celebrating the band’s rich legacy.
Early favourites like Male Model and Girls Don’t Like It rub shoulders with later cuts like It’s Gonna Happen and The Love Parade, which is dedicated to legendary Motown guitarist Steve Cropper, whose death was announced earlier in the day.
A rousing version of another classic, Get Over You, ends the main set, before the band return for a four-song encore culminating in another classic single You’ve Got My Number (Why Don’t You Use It)?
The Undertones have succeeded, once again, in bringing a lovely warm glow to a cold Tyneside evening, and reminding everyone here just why they fell in love with this band in the first place. Never mind teenage dreams; middle aged dreams are hard to beat too.
