While Michael “Mickey” Bradley’s Teenage Kicks: My Life as an Undertone was originally published in 2016, it’s been recently re-released, likely to coincide with the band’s 50th anniversary of Teenage Kicks, the iconic song famously adored by BBC Radio DJ John Peel.
In case you’re not familiar with the tune, it’s a timeless, energetic punk-pop anthem that helped to define one of the UK’s most celebrated bands, and has relived its glory via the Netflix series, Derry Girls.
The band’s formative years began with a couple of guitars, a mandolin, some bongos and a practice room in Damien, John, and Vinny O’Neill’s family kitchen.
[Cool Undertones 45s spotted in Belfast/wish I’d purchased!]
My Life as an Undertone is a full account of the band, from growing up and spending hours at the O’Neill’s to their contract signing with Sire Records’s Seymour Stein, a dream moment for the band as this meant their label mates would include musical heroes The Ramones.
Not only does the book dive deeply into teenage life in Derry, but also touches on the political climate at the time. The Undertones kept a low profile and chose not to theme their music catalogue with political undertones (pardon the pun), but rather about adolescence, romance, school, and guitarist Damian O’Neill’s perfect cousin.
To reference one of my favourite Undertones songs, I have my own True Confession to make: As a decades-long fan of the Derry quintet, I already know much of their story via books, magazines, online perusing — and a private punk rock tour of Belfast I took last year provided by the delightful Dolores Vischer of Creative Tours Belfast.
She took me around to where record shop Good Vibrations once stood (owned by Terri Hooley, who got the band’s four-song debut EP, Teenage Kicks, recorded back in June 1978). The band’s homegrown ethos found them wrapping their own EP’s labels inside Terri’s shop.
Fellow band mate Damian O’Neill and bass guitarist Bradley took some of those records to the post office in Shaftesbury Square. There’s an interesting bit surrounding whether it was Bradley who posted one of the copies to John Peel, or whether Hooley hand-delivered copies to Peel at Radio 1 in London.
[Bradley, left, at the Millennium Forum, February 14, 2025]
Either way, Mickey was happy that John Peel liked it so much, quipping, “Imagine John hated Teenage Kicks, or, more likely, thought it was good but not as good as Teenage Treats by The Wasps. They would be sitting there that night in an Indian restaurant in London, while we would be trying to steal a chip from Feargal’s plate in the Rainbow Cafe in Derry.”
[John Peel’s own copy of Teenage Kicks at the British Library during London Punk 40]
In the mid-1970’s, long before the Internet, there was NME (New Musical Express), a round-the-clock source of bands and concerts for The Undertones, and likely much of the UK at the time. Bradley would study all the photos, cartoons, and articles, and mentions that he was fourth in line to read each issue (after John, Billy, and Vinny).
Friday was the day of release, but Bradley would get excited if he could get his hands on a copy the day before. “Only a couple of hours difference but such was my devotion to the paper that it was like Christmas coming early.”
This was of upmost importance to up-and-coming bands such as The Undertones — The Clash, The Damned, Iggy Pop and fellow punk bands were nowhere to be found on TV.
[The band, (Paul McLoone in place of Feargal Sharkey) poses in front of their Derry mural]
I enjoyed the book from cover to cover, and wondered to myself whether non-Undertones fans would enjoy Teenage Kicks. I’d say YES!, as the book has historic value through the eyes of one of Derry’s most famous musicians.
It touches on the band’s exposure and meetings of many other bands of the era too, all done with Bradley’s admirable writing style and self-deprecating humour. It’s a joy to read, and I tried hard to not finish the book over a weekend, but it was tough.
Bradley also includes several photos in the book, including one taken with The Ramones at The Sherlock Holmes Hotel in London where both bands stayed during a tour. “Feargal Ramone” and “Michael Ramone” are included in the caption!
Teenage Kicks: My Life as an Undertone is published by Omnibus Remastered; UK £12.99, USD $22.00. The 2025 edition includes a foreword by Robby Doyle.
If you’re as much an Undertones fan as I am, you’ll want to check out Mickey Bradley’s Music Map podcast, (episode 103), where he talks about the start of the band, celebrating Teenage Kicks at 50, and all the musings of getting on as a pop star in Derry as they sharpened their music skills and setlists at the old Casbah.
Its former home is just behind the current Derry Girls mural, and is just a few minutes’ walk from where I saw them kick off the 45th anniversary tour of their second album, Hypnotised, at the Millennium Forum.
