The Undertones - ’Dig What You Need’ (Dimple Discs)

By Jim Rowland

This month sees Derry’s finest pop/punk/rock merchants The Undertones finally get back on the road after all the cancellations and re-scheduling chaos of the past couple of years. To coincide with the tour, Dimple Discs release ‘Dig What You Need’, a rather fine compilation of the best of the studio recordings of the band from the ‘reformation years’ with current vocalist Paul McLoone, all of which have been remixed and remastered.

Of course, The Undertones are not just Derry’s finest pop/punk/rock merchants, but one of THE finest exponents of that type of thing from anywhere in the world in any given era, at least in my opinion anyway, and many would agree. Just think of the list of singles the band released in the late 70s/early 80s with Feargal Sharkey on board – ‘Teenage Kicks’, ‘Get Over You’, ‘Here Comes The Summer’, ‘Jimmy Jimmy’, ‘My Perfect Cousin’, ‘Wednesday Week’, ‘You’ve Got My Number’, ‘It’s Going To Happen’ – each one a brilliantly written pop/rock masterpiece, and that’s without going into the numerous and just-as-great album tracks.

It didn’t last of course, with the band going their separate ways in 1983 after the slightly wrong turn of ‘The Sin Of Pride’. Fast forward to 1999 and The Undertones re-form without Sharkey, but with the perfect replacement in the shape of Paul McLoone, and have been blowing audiences away ever since with their superb live shows.

Perhaps what fell under the radar a little bit was the fact that they also made two new albums with McLoone – 2003’s ‘Get What You Need’ and 2007’s ‘Dig Yourself Deep’. Whilst nobody could reasonably expect those albums to match the success of ‘The Undertones’, ‘Hypnotised’ or ‘Positive Touch’, both are great albums in their own right, and it’s the material, or what has been chosen as the best, from those albums that we’re concerned with here on ‘Dig What You Need’. Producer/mixing maestro Paul Tipler (Stereolab, Elastica, Idlewild, Placebo, Julian Cope, The House Of Love) has been drafted in to add fresh ears, and remixed the thirteen songs chosen for this compilation to inject some added new sparkle to the original recordings. It’s worked a treat.

The likes of ‘Thrill Me’, ‘Enough’, ‘Oh Please’, ‘She’s So Sweet’, ‘Dig Yourself Deep’ and ‘I’m Recommending Me’ all follow the classic high energy, catchy pop/punk Undertones blueprint that works so well, whilst ‘Here Comes The Rain’, ‘You Can’t Say That’ and ‘I Need Your Love The Way It Used To Be’ veer in a more 60’s styled direction, something that was sometimes the case with the old material anyway. It’s far from just replicating the style of the old classics though, with ‘Fight My Corner’, ‘We All Talked About You’ and especially the dreamy and subtle ‘Winter Sun’ offering something a little different to what the original band did. It’s also worth pointing out that, as he does live, Paul McLoone does an outstanding job with the vocals.

There will always be a handful of these songs in your typical Undertones live set these days, and they blend pretty seamlessly with the old classics, of which there will be many. So whether you’re still a hard core Undertones fanatic, which I confess to being, or a more casual listener that knows a few of the classic old singles, do yourself a favour – pick up this album and go see them live on this current tour. You will not be disappointed.

’Dig What You Need’ is released on Friday (11 March). You can get your copy HERE.

The Undertones tour kicks off later this week, with full dates as follows:

Thursday 10 March – Sheffield, Leadmill
Friday 11 – Northampton, Roadmender
Saturday 12 – London, Electric Ballroom
Thursday 17 – Brighton, Chalk
Friday 18 – Frome, Cheese & Grain
Saturday 19 – Cardiff, Cardiff SU Great Hall
Thursday 31- Newcastle Upon Tyne, Boiler Shop
Friday 1 April – Manchester, Academy
Saturday 2 – Liverpool, O2 Academy

They also play the following dates:

Friday 22 April – Dublin, Academy
Friday 3 June – Cheltenham, Wychwood Festival
Friday 4 June – Coventry, HMV Forum
Friday 17 June – Londonderry, Millennium Forum
Friday 24 June – Glastonbury Festival
Friday 1 July – Lincoln, The Engine Shed
Saturday 2 July – Ware, Sign Of The Times Festival
Friday 15 July – Sunderland, Kubix Festival
Saturday 16 July – Naas, Forever Young Festival
Friday 5 August – Blackpool, R Fest
Saturday 6 August – Fareham, Wickham Festival
Saturday 20 August – Belfast, Custom House Square (supporting Stiff Little Fingers)

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The Undertones – ’Dig What You Need’ (Dimple Discs)