![Listening in: Radio Sessions 1978-1982]()
| There have been Undertones Peel Session compilations available in various formats before but there certainly hasn't been anything quite as authoritatively exhaustive as Listening In--a 27 track chronology of all six sessions recorded for the BBC between the band's nascent provincial punk esprit of October 1978 and the mature pop twilight days of December 1981. Beginning rather murkily (this inaugural session, funded by the enamoured John Peel himself, seems to have been rescued from a skip) with the estranged wolf whistle, scuzzy guitars and knee-trembler vibrato of Feargal Sharkey on the punk-pop classic "Get Over You" and swiftly followed by the butterflies-in-stomach diffidence of "She Can Only Say Know", which encapsulates everything charming and potent about the Undertones, Listening In serves as a useful alternative history to Northern Ireland's most enduring contribution to popular music. One can only wonder why the public-at-large cold shouldered the later material. Although "Beautiful Friend" and "Sin of Pride" are less refined than their studio brethren, the punters' fatal indifference to the band's burgeoning adulthood now smacks of infanticide. The Peter Pans of punk, the Undertones were never allowed to grow up. Regardless, this raggedly fine collection showcases everything great about them, including rarities in the shape of a cover of Gary Glitter's "Rock & Roll" and a version of "Just Like Romeo and Juliet", originally by Undertones sideproject the Wesleys. --Kevin Maidment |
