As the drum legend with Derry pioneers The Undertones, Billy Doherty has spent five decades behind the kit, helping soundtrack generations with the band's infectious blend of punk energy and pop sensibility. Now, as The Undertones celebrate 50 years, Doherty looks back on the band's remarkable journey, from growing up amid the Troubles to sharing stages with The Clash and The Sex Pistols, while reflecting on the tantalisingly close reunions with former frontman Fergal Sharkey that ultimately never came to pass. Perfect cousin; Eamon O'Neill.
Photo: Press
Hi Billy, how are you doing?
Not so bad. I've never been called a legend before. I think you have to die before you become a legend. Well, and even then, that would be disputable.
A lot of people are influenced by that intro to 'Teenage Kicks', so I think you made your mark!
Oh, thanks very much. Well, I actually nicked it from T. Rex 'Get it On'. It's a guy called Clem Catini. He was the session guy whenever it was produced by Tony Visconti, so I sort of took that and interpreted it for 'Teenage Kicks'.
Where are you based these days?
I'm all over the place at the minute. I'm in Brighton, and then heading up to Dundee at some point, but no, Derry's still home at the moment.
We're here to talk about 50 years of the Undertones. Can you believe that it's been that long?
Well, I don't really think it on the longevity of 50 years. I'm just very grateful that we're still playing, but if you had said to me back in 1976, 77, that we'll be doing this 50 years on, I'd have thought you're talking nonsense. We're exceptionally lucky that we stood the test of time. We may not have had the height of some of the few bigger bands, but we've held our place. We've got a niche, and I'm very proud of it.
Going back to the band's beginnings, and the troubles were at their height; was the band a way to escape all of that?
Well you don't really appreciate the situation at the time because you get different priorities as a teenager. It's fun now when I'm older, and you look back at footage of what it was like. I mean, it was disgraceful. It was horrible, what went on, but lucky enough, we managed to get through it all. For us, music was our outlet. For some guys it could have been football or whatever, but for us, it was music, and that was more important. We were lucky that we all had the same interest. We all liked the same type of music, and that unified the band, and that's really what we concentrated on. I mean, we did suffer with our education because we were totally dedicated to what we were doing. It's like anything; if you want to be a great swimmer, a great boxer, a great athlete, a great professor, you have to knuckle down and get on with it. For us, the band was a priority.
So the band enabled you to endure what was going on around you?
We lived through some dreadful things. You probably have done yourself, and probably a lot of people in Northern Ireland have lived through some dreadful things. It was shocking what we had to endure, and it's horrible, regardless of what religion you are or what your political stances, what we do to each other. It's shocking. We're all the same. We're made of the same stuff. We all believe the same. We all have the same needs. We need to have comfort at home. Families fall in, families fall out. You need money. That's one thing about the band; when you travel around the world, everyone is virtually the same, yet we're knocking our heads together, and fighting over a bit of land. And you know, these days are over. Basically we're all one people, and harping on about "Ireland should be free" and "Ireland should be part of the United Kingdom", I think those days have to stop. We are a great nation, and I mean both Protestants and Catholics, we really are, and that should be the uniting uniting force of the country, not the political or who owns land or who conquered the other. Unfortunately, there's still people who keep bringing up the past. It's gone, move on. But better things can be done in life.
Young people back then needed some sort of normality and outlet. What was it like being part of that lifeline?
I think we're putting our lives on the line. Initially, we were not liked at all, and then we got into a lot of difficulties because, back then it was rock bands, show bands, and we had this tag because you were labelled or pigeonholed as a punk band, therefore you couldn't play, which is nonsense. But we had a lot of things to deal with back home. Fergal Sharkey, particularly, had a dreadful, dreadful time because being the singer, and he's his own man and he'll do his own thing and he'll stand his ground. But Fergal got into a lot of this. Now in 2026, they actually have a mural on the Derry Walls with the band, honouring what we stood for and what we've achieved, but back in the day it was not like that. It was very very difficult.
Would you say that was a generational thing, or because you were labelled as punk?
Well, we never set out to conquer the world, or unite people. We never thought it. The guys in the band aren't like that, but we are acutely aware of what was going on around us. But we never set out to unite Catholics and Protestants. I mean, for me, that was never the case. If people like the music, that to me was the important thing. If we all like something similar, that was the uniting thing or the catalyst for the band, but not necessarily trying to persuade people, you know, "put down your arms and forget about this identity", and "let's join the punk movement". I think that's a load of old crap, to be honest. I was never into that. We were just doing what we were doing, and that's it. People liked it and we didn't care who they were, didn't care what colour, what religion, what their hair was like, we didn't care. But obviously, in the early days, it did matter to certain people, and in Derry, you don't get above your station. If they thought you were getting high and mighty, you'd be chucked into the Foyle [river]. I'd probably still get chucked into the Foyle, but maybe not as maybe there'd be somebody there to rescue us now.
That's a very Northern Irish attitude.
It's totally different now. I mean, it's completely different, which is lovely. It's great when you go back home, and you know, like I had a friend say they were on holiday in America or France or whatever, and they would send a little video; "Look, they're playing 'Teenage Kicks'!". So that's really nice.
Not so bad. I've never been called a legend before. I think you have to die before you become a legend. Well, and even then, that would be disputable.
A lot of people are influenced by that intro to 'Teenage Kicks', so I think you made your mark!
Oh, thanks very much. Well, I actually nicked it from T. Rex 'Get it On'. It's a guy called Clem Catini. He was the session guy whenever it was produced by Tony Visconti, so I sort of took that and interpreted it for 'Teenage Kicks'.
Where are you based these days?
I'm all over the place at the minute. I'm in Brighton, and then heading up to Dundee at some point, but no, Derry's still home at the moment.
We're here to talk about 50 years of the Undertones. Can you believe that it's been that long?
Well, I don't really think it on the longevity of 50 years. I'm just very grateful that we're still playing, but if you had said to me back in 1976, 77, that we'll be doing this 50 years on, I'd have thought you're talking nonsense. We're exceptionally lucky that we stood the test of time. We may not have had the height of some of the few bigger bands, but we've held our place. We've got a niche, and I'm very proud of it.
Going back to the band's beginnings, and the troubles were at their height; was the band a way to escape all of that?
Well you don't really appreciate the situation at the time because you get different priorities as a teenager. It's fun now when I'm older, and you look back at footage of what it was like. I mean, it was disgraceful. It was horrible, what went on, but lucky enough, we managed to get through it all. For us, music was our outlet. For some guys it could have been football or whatever, but for us, it was music, and that was more important. We were lucky that we all had the same interest. We all liked the same type of music, and that unified the band, and that's really what we concentrated on. I mean, we did suffer with our education because we were totally dedicated to what we were doing. It's like anything; if you want to be a great swimmer, a great boxer, a great athlete, a great professor, you have to knuckle down and get on with it. For us, the band was a priority.
So the band enabled you to endure what was going on around you?
We lived through some dreadful things. You probably have done yourself, and probably a lot of people in Northern Ireland have lived through some dreadful things. It was shocking what we had to endure, and it's horrible, regardless of what religion you are or what your political stances, what we do to each other. It's shocking. We're all the same. We're made of the same stuff. We all believe the same. We all have the same needs. We need to have comfort at home. Families fall in, families fall out. You need money. That's one thing about the band; when you travel around the world, everyone is virtually the same, yet we're knocking our heads together, and fighting over a bit of land. And you know, these days are over. Basically we're all one people, and harping on about "Ireland should be free" and "Ireland should be part of the United Kingdom", I think those days have to stop. We are a great nation, and I mean both Protestants and Catholics, we really are, and that should be the uniting uniting force of the country, not the political or who owns land or who conquered the other. Unfortunately, there's still people who keep bringing up the past. It's gone, move on. But better things can be done in life.
Young people back then needed some sort of normality and outlet. What was it like being part of that lifeline?
I think we're putting our lives on the line. Initially, we were not liked at all, and then we got into a lot of difficulties because, back then it was rock bands, show bands, and we had this tag because you were labelled or pigeonholed as a punk band, therefore you couldn't play, which is nonsense. But we had a lot of things to deal with back home. Fergal Sharkey, particularly, had a dreadful, dreadful time because being the singer, and he's his own man and he'll do his own thing and he'll stand his ground. But Fergal got into a lot of this. Now in 2026, they actually have a mural on the Derry Walls with the band, honouring what we stood for and what we've achieved, but back in the day it was not like that. It was very very difficult.
Would you say that was a generational thing, or because you were labelled as punk?
Well, we never set out to conquer the world, or unite people. We never thought it. The guys in the band aren't like that, but we are acutely aware of what was going on around us. But we never set out to unite Catholics and Protestants. I mean, for me, that was never the case. If people like the music, that to me was the important thing. If we all like something similar, that was the uniting thing or the catalyst for the band, but not necessarily trying to persuade people, you know, "put down your arms and forget about this identity", and "let's join the punk movement". I think that's a load of old crap, to be honest. I was never into that. We were just doing what we were doing, and that's it. People liked it and we didn't care who they were, didn't care what colour, what religion, what their hair was like, we didn't care. But obviously, in the early days, it did matter to certain people, and in Derry, you don't get above your station. If they thought you were getting high and mighty, you'd be chucked into the Foyle [river]. I'd probably still get chucked into the Foyle, but maybe not as maybe there'd be somebody there to rescue us now.
That's a very Northern Irish attitude.
It's totally different now. I mean, it's completely different, which is lovely. It's great when you go back home, and you know, like I had a friend say they were on holiday in America or France or whatever, and they would send a little video; "Look, they're playing 'Teenage Kicks'!". So that's really nice.
You mentioned the mural; what was it like to have that recognition in your hometown?
Well, there's a friend of ours, a guy called Marty Edwards. He's got tattoos of the band's autographs on his body, but Marty was trying to get this up and running years ago, but somehow it was set up on the Derry Walls, and it couldn't be in a better spot because it's on the tourist route. So you've got all these people walking past who've probably never heard of the band, looking and going; "who's The Undertones?!" The thing is, unfortunately, all our parents have all passed away, and they would have been exceptionally proud that their sons are being recognised in Derry, and that we got our portraits on a wall. I don't really dwell on it. I think it's a lovely thing, and it's a nice thing to to happen, but as I say, if we went back to 1977, it would be unthinkable that everybody end up on a mural on a wall in Derry.
Something else that would have been unthinkable is the stats for 'Teenage Kicks'; at the time of writing it's had 97 million plays on Spotify and you're approaching the 1 billion club. That must be mind-boggling.
Well, I never looked at that. You know, my role in the band is I'm the drummer. I'm the drummer for The Undertones, and that's the way I've always seen my role in the band, and anything over and above that, well, that's fine. I've got no control on that. Admittedly, that's it's very nice to have that, but it's something I don't dwell on. I'm the drummer in the band. That's my job. I go out every day, try and do my best, and that's probably the thing that's kept the band together since day one. We've been very critical when we come off stage, but it was very calm. There was no argument about it, and there was no ego trips about it. If I missed a beat or we played a wrong chord, we would say, "Look, you did this wrong," and it was very positive, and that's remained right the whole way through. Like, we did a show with The Sex Pistols a few weeks ago, and again, we came off stage and we were saying that that song was too fast or was too slow or whatever, and we take it on board and we think, "right, the next time we go out, we'll make certain that we don't do the same mistake", which we probably end up doing, but that's been a unifying thing with the band.
That early period was so pivotal; who do you remember sharing stages with?
Well, probably The Clash on the early days. We invited The Clash and The Damned to come to play in Derry, but The Clash received a death threat from a certain organisation. I shouldn't be making fun of it, but I'll basically tell you the story. We were recording with the first or second LP, and we were going to have The Clash play with us in Derry, and we're in the studio recording, and in walks Joe Strummer, and Joe said, "I got a letter here, guys, and it's a death threat. It's from the Red Hand Commandos of Ulster or something like that, saying that if The Clash played down Londonderry, there would be a bullet". And we laughed. We thought it was a joke. We thought it was a Clash windup thing, and then he showed us the letter. Now you'd think a six year old wrote the letter. It was really badly written. The grammar was even wrong on it.
But the threat was real.
Obviously we couldn't do the show because we had to take it seriously. But then The Clash invited us to support them on their US tour, and I have to say, Joe Strummer was unbelievably good, like a father, in the same way that John Peel was like a father figure, Joe Strummer was exactly the same. He was very protective of the band, so probably that would have been a highlight then. But going more recently, a highlight for me was playing with The Sex Pistols maybe two and a half years ago. I think it was a charity show for the Shepherd's Bush whatever it was, and my God, they were incredible.
That was with with Frank Carter, yeah?
Yeah. Frank is a very nice man. Frank Carter couldn't be nicer. And as a matter of fact, all the guys in the band are lovely. They are not like the way they've been portrayed by the media. They're really down to earth guys. I got on exceptionally well Paul Cook. And Frank Carter's family are just like an ordinary family, very down the earth, very humble, very ordinary, no airs or graces. It's lovely. I mean, with all bands, there's been highs and lows and everything in between, there's been setbacks, but we just kept going.
I guess the low came with the band's split in '83. You reformed with the brilliant Paul McLoone in '99; how did that come about?
Well, there's a bit of background to that. Paul and I, we were in a band called The Carolines, and we had a certain level of success, but we split up. But myself and Michael Bradley, the bass player in The Undertones, we would have played with The Saw Doctors, and they were exceptionally good to us. We would come on and do 'Jimmy Jimmy' or 'Teenage Kicks', and we would do some of their big shows like The Point [in Dublin] on a New Year's Eve, those kind of shows, Anyway, I managed to persuade John and Damien [O'Neill brothers, guitars] to come down to Galway to play with the Saw Doctors, and the way I sold it to John and Damien was: "look, it's a bit of a holiday. You're going to get your hotel paid for and everything will be looked after". That was grand, and the show went exceptionally well. It was really, really good. But we had no singer. I think Davy Carton [Saw Doctors' front man] stood in for us, and he was singing the songs.
So that brief reunion was the catalyst to get something going on a more formal basis?
Well, the next day I went to an R.E.M. concert, and to make a long story short, there's a guy called Joe, the sound guy for U2, and I'd be friendly with Joe, so Joe said, "Billy, do you want me to introduce you to the drummer of R.E.M.?" Now, Bill Barry had left at this stage, and a guy called Joey Waronker was the drummer, and I said to Joe, "God, Joe, no. I'd be mortified talking to a proper drummer!". He said, "For God's sake." Billy, come on over. I'll introduce you to him". So anyway, I walked over, Joe introduced me, and he says, "Joey, this is Billy from The Undertones", and what did he do? This is absolutely a true story; he went down on his hands and knees and started worshipping me! Now, when he did that, a circle formed, and I was so embarrassed. I didn't know what to say or what to do, so obviously that created a bit of a sensation.
So you had fans in high places!
So Dennis Desmond [MCD Promotions] was there, and Dennis called me over and he says "Are you still playing? Do you still have the guys in the band?" And I says, "Well, we have the four original members, but we don't have Fergal" - Fergal had left the band at the time - and this is his words, he said to me; "Billy, get a young buck, and we'll head off to America on tour". And I says, 'Dennis, that's never going to happen", but I could see Joe going; "God Billy, keep your mouth shut. Don't be saying anything!", because yeah, absolutely meant it. So I said to the guys in the band, and they went; "okay, we'll give it a try", and because I knew Paul from the Carolinas, Paul came up, and Paul just adapted straight away, everything clicked, and that's how it all started.
Well, there's a friend of ours, a guy called Marty Edwards. He's got tattoos of the band's autographs on his body, but Marty was trying to get this up and running years ago, but somehow it was set up on the Derry Walls, and it couldn't be in a better spot because it's on the tourist route. So you've got all these people walking past who've probably never heard of the band, looking and going; "who's The Undertones?!" The thing is, unfortunately, all our parents have all passed away, and they would have been exceptionally proud that their sons are being recognised in Derry, and that we got our portraits on a wall. I don't really dwell on it. I think it's a lovely thing, and it's a nice thing to to happen, but as I say, if we went back to 1977, it would be unthinkable that everybody end up on a mural on a wall in Derry.
Something else that would have been unthinkable is the stats for 'Teenage Kicks'; at the time of writing it's had 97 million plays on Spotify and you're approaching the 1 billion club. That must be mind-boggling.
Well, I never looked at that. You know, my role in the band is I'm the drummer. I'm the drummer for The Undertones, and that's the way I've always seen my role in the band, and anything over and above that, well, that's fine. I've got no control on that. Admittedly, that's it's very nice to have that, but it's something I don't dwell on. I'm the drummer in the band. That's my job. I go out every day, try and do my best, and that's probably the thing that's kept the band together since day one. We've been very critical when we come off stage, but it was very calm. There was no argument about it, and there was no ego trips about it. If I missed a beat or we played a wrong chord, we would say, "Look, you did this wrong," and it was very positive, and that's remained right the whole way through. Like, we did a show with The Sex Pistols a few weeks ago, and again, we came off stage and we were saying that that song was too fast or was too slow or whatever, and we take it on board and we think, "right, the next time we go out, we'll make certain that we don't do the same mistake", which we probably end up doing, but that's been a unifying thing with the band.
That early period was so pivotal; who do you remember sharing stages with?
Well, probably The Clash on the early days. We invited The Clash and The Damned to come to play in Derry, but The Clash received a death threat from a certain organisation. I shouldn't be making fun of it, but I'll basically tell you the story. We were recording with the first or second LP, and we were going to have The Clash play with us in Derry, and we're in the studio recording, and in walks Joe Strummer, and Joe said, "I got a letter here, guys, and it's a death threat. It's from the Red Hand Commandos of Ulster or something like that, saying that if The Clash played down Londonderry, there would be a bullet". And we laughed. We thought it was a joke. We thought it was a Clash windup thing, and then he showed us the letter. Now you'd think a six year old wrote the letter. It was really badly written. The grammar was even wrong on it.
But the threat was real.
Obviously we couldn't do the show because we had to take it seriously. But then The Clash invited us to support them on their US tour, and I have to say, Joe Strummer was unbelievably good, like a father, in the same way that John Peel was like a father figure, Joe Strummer was exactly the same. He was very protective of the band, so probably that would have been a highlight then. But going more recently, a highlight for me was playing with The Sex Pistols maybe two and a half years ago. I think it was a charity show for the Shepherd's Bush whatever it was, and my God, they were incredible.
That was with with Frank Carter, yeah?
Yeah. Frank is a very nice man. Frank Carter couldn't be nicer. And as a matter of fact, all the guys in the band are lovely. They are not like the way they've been portrayed by the media. They're really down to earth guys. I got on exceptionally well Paul Cook. And Frank Carter's family are just like an ordinary family, very down the earth, very humble, very ordinary, no airs or graces. It's lovely. I mean, with all bands, there's been highs and lows and everything in between, there's been setbacks, but we just kept going.
I guess the low came with the band's split in '83. You reformed with the brilliant Paul McLoone in '99; how did that come about?
Well, there's a bit of background to that. Paul and I, we were in a band called The Carolines, and we had a certain level of success, but we split up. But myself and Michael Bradley, the bass player in The Undertones, we would have played with The Saw Doctors, and they were exceptionally good to us. We would come on and do 'Jimmy Jimmy' or 'Teenage Kicks', and we would do some of their big shows like The Point [in Dublin] on a New Year's Eve, those kind of shows, Anyway, I managed to persuade John and Damien [O'Neill brothers, guitars] to come down to Galway to play with the Saw Doctors, and the way I sold it to John and Damien was: "look, it's a bit of a holiday. You're going to get your hotel paid for and everything will be looked after". That was grand, and the show went exceptionally well. It was really, really good. But we had no singer. I think Davy Carton [Saw Doctors' front man] stood in for us, and he was singing the songs.
So that brief reunion was the catalyst to get something going on a more formal basis?
Well, the next day I went to an R.E.M. concert, and to make a long story short, there's a guy called Joe, the sound guy for U2, and I'd be friendly with Joe, so Joe said, "Billy, do you want me to introduce you to the drummer of R.E.M.?" Now, Bill Barry had left at this stage, and a guy called Joey Waronker was the drummer, and I said to Joe, "God, Joe, no. I'd be mortified talking to a proper drummer!". He said, "For God's sake." Billy, come on over. I'll introduce you to him". So anyway, I walked over, Joe introduced me, and he says, "Joey, this is Billy from The Undertones", and what did he do? This is absolutely a true story; he went down on his hands and knees and started worshipping me! Now, when he did that, a circle formed, and I was so embarrassed. I didn't know what to say or what to do, so obviously that created a bit of a sensation.
So you had fans in high places!
So Dennis Desmond [MCD Promotions] was there, and Dennis called me over and he says "Are you still playing? Do you still have the guys in the band?" And I says, "Well, we have the four original members, but we don't have Fergal" - Fergal had left the band at the time - and this is his words, he said to me; "Billy, get a young buck, and we'll head off to America on tour". And I says, 'Dennis, that's never going to happen", but I could see Joe going; "God Billy, keep your mouth shut. Don't be saying anything!", because yeah, absolutely meant it. So I said to the guys in the band, and they went; "okay, we'll give it a try", and because I knew Paul from the Carolinas, Paul came up, and Paul just adapted straight away, everything clicked, and that's how it all started.
Bringing things up to date, you're going out on tour on a huge 50 year celebration.
It's basically, what we were doing in 1977. I mean, it's virtually the first LP and off course, all the singles, and it's exactly the same as we were back in 1977. We still have the same enthusiasm, the same drive, the same compassion, the same belief. We've never lost that. That's always been there. Every time we do a show, it's as if we're doing a show for the first time, and we never take it for granted. We go out there and do our thing, and hopefully, people will see that and appreciate that as well.
Would you say you appreciate it more this far down the line, now that you've got it back?
I consider myself very grateful. Really, as I said earlier, my role in the band is just to drum, and they want me to drum a certain way, so that's what I'll do. I'm really there to support the guys, and I'm very lucky. I'm very proud to have the guys and the and the band not only as friends, but they are really good musicians. And the thing about the band is that they always want to remain anonymous, and that's been probably the fault of the band. You don't want to elevate the band to a position where maybe U2 or Thin Lizzy are, we've always kept a very low profile, and I like the anonymity of the band. Y
Have you have you any contact at all with Fergal Sharkey these days?
Nah, none. Unfortunately, not. Fergal's a cousin of mine, and but there's no contact, and it got really, really difficult a few years ago. And it's funny that when we are on tour, we met a lot of people who come across Fergal, and they're not exactly complimentary with Fergal, which is a shame. But he's doing his thing about trying to preserve the rivers in England. I wish he would do the same over here in Ireland as well. But no, we're not on friendly terms.
Has there ever been any chance of a full reformation with Fergal?
We actually got the opportunity to reform. The first time was for John Peel's birthday, and we actually were in London when we were rehearsing, but we got a phone call that John and Damien's father had passed away, so we couldn't do that. So that that that didn't happen. And then going back around about 1985, back then everything was done by post, so a letter arrived and it was from Andy Ferguson, our manager, saying that they had an offer for the band to reform, and I thought; "this is definitely a mistake here in the amount of money. The decimal point is definitely in the wrong place!" And I phoned Andy and I said, "Is this a typing error?!", and he says, "No, it's true". It was like lottery money, and it was only for five shows, five Saturdays, and I thought; "right, the only person that would object would be John because John would be seeing it as an art - we're not in it for the money" but Fergal would have jumped at the chance. But it was the complete opposite; Fergal said no, and John said yes. We tried to persuade Fergal. He didn't want to know. We contacted John Peel for John Peel to influence him. That actually made matters worse.
That's a shame it didn't happen.
The next year, we got another offer for even more money, we went back to Fergal, and Fergal didn't want to know, so we just left it. We just abandoned that idea. The only time it came really close was for the 2012 Olympics. They wanted to have bands from the four regions of the United Kingdom; England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, so it was us, I think the Pistols, I think it might have been the Manic Street Preachers, and it might have been Simple Minds, but that fell through. But Fergal agreed to do it, and thankfully it didn't happen. Thank God it didn't happen, because Paul wasn't too keen on it, but that that would have changed the whole outlook of the band because that would have drawn a lot of international interest. Obviously, when there's that level of interest, your pay cheque is a lot higher, but I've no regrets at all. We're lucky that it worked out like that.
The Undertones celebrate their 50th Anniversary with dates in the UK and Ireland from October. For a full list of dates visit the band's official site.
It's basically, what we were doing in 1977. I mean, it's virtually the first LP and off course, all the singles, and it's exactly the same as we were back in 1977. We still have the same enthusiasm, the same drive, the same compassion, the same belief. We've never lost that. That's always been there. Every time we do a show, it's as if we're doing a show for the first time, and we never take it for granted. We go out there and do our thing, and hopefully, people will see that and appreciate that as well.
Would you say you appreciate it more this far down the line, now that you've got it back?
I consider myself very grateful. Really, as I said earlier, my role in the band is just to drum, and they want me to drum a certain way, so that's what I'll do. I'm really there to support the guys, and I'm very lucky. I'm very proud to have the guys and the and the band not only as friends, but they are really good musicians. And the thing about the band is that they always want to remain anonymous, and that's been probably the fault of the band. You don't want to elevate the band to a position where maybe U2 or Thin Lizzy are, we've always kept a very low profile, and I like the anonymity of the band. Y
Have you have you any contact at all with Fergal Sharkey these days?
Nah, none. Unfortunately, not. Fergal's a cousin of mine, and but there's no contact, and it got really, really difficult a few years ago. And it's funny that when we are on tour, we met a lot of people who come across Fergal, and they're not exactly complimentary with Fergal, which is a shame. But he's doing his thing about trying to preserve the rivers in England. I wish he would do the same over here in Ireland as well. But no, we're not on friendly terms.
Has there ever been any chance of a full reformation with Fergal?
We actually got the opportunity to reform. The first time was for John Peel's birthday, and we actually were in London when we were rehearsing, but we got a phone call that John and Damien's father had passed away, so we couldn't do that. So that that that didn't happen. And then going back around about 1985, back then everything was done by post, so a letter arrived and it was from Andy Ferguson, our manager, saying that they had an offer for the band to reform, and I thought; "this is definitely a mistake here in the amount of money. The decimal point is definitely in the wrong place!" And I phoned Andy and I said, "Is this a typing error?!", and he says, "No, it's true". It was like lottery money, and it was only for five shows, five Saturdays, and I thought; "right, the only person that would object would be John because John would be seeing it as an art - we're not in it for the money" but Fergal would have jumped at the chance. But it was the complete opposite; Fergal said no, and John said yes. We tried to persuade Fergal. He didn't want to know. We contacted John Peel for John Peel to influence him. That actually made matters worse.
That's a shame it didn't happen.
The next year, we got another offer for even more money, we went back to Fergal, and Fergal didn't want to know, so we just left it. We just abandoned that idea. The only time it came really close was for the 2012 Olympics. They wanted to have bands from the four regions of the United Kingdom; England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, so it was us, I think the Pistols, I think it might have been the Manic Street Preachers, and it might have been Simple Minds, but that fell through. But Fergal agreed to do it, and thankfully it didn't happen. Thank God it didn't happen, because Paul wasn't too keen on it, but that that would have changed the whole outlook of the band because that would have drawn a lot of international interest. Obviously, when there's that level of interest, your pay cheque is a lot higher, but I've no regrets at all. We're lucky that it worked out like that.
The Undertones celebrate their 50th Anniversary with dates in the UK and Ireland from October. For a full list of dates visit the band's official site.
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