The Undertones

The Undertones are a punk rock band from Derry, Northern Ireland formed in 1975. When the band were together from 1975 to 1983 before splitting up they consisted of Feargal Sharkey (vocals), John O'Neill(rhythm guitar, vocals), Damian O'Neill (lead guitar, vocals), Michael Bradley (bass, vocals) and Billy Doherty (drums). The band were reunited in 1999 with new members after the lead singer had left and have been together to the current day. Despite the political climate of Northern Ireland at the time, the band wrote more about teenage angst and heartbreak than the Troubles. The band released 4 studio albums before the breakup with their most popular song being 'Teenage Kicks', released in 1978. The song is still popular and widely known by people of all ages. The band are one of the most successful bands to come out of Northern Ireland.

DEMOGRAPHICS

To find demographics for the band I looked on ask.fm to find out various aspects about the type of listeners that the Undertones have. I also looked on youtube, google and setlist.fm to find more information.

AGES

When the Undertones first came out, they would have been very popular with the younger ages between 15 and 30. The punk rock scene at the time in Northern Ireland was a for those who wanted to go against the system and have a revolution of a sort. Because the band are old enough now, they would have quite a lot of listeners who would be aged around 50 as people who were 20 or so at the time will likely have regained some kind of interest. The photo on the right hand side is a photo of the band in the earlier years. So really the ages of listeners today could be both the young people of today or also the people who were young at the time they came out. 


LOCATION

At least half of the listeners of the Undertones on ask.fm are from the United Kingdom. This is becuase the band aren't overly well known outside of the UK or maybe even Europe, besides people maybe knowing Teenage Kicks. The band also have a percentage of last.fm lsiterenrs being from other places in Europe such as Sweden, Poland, Germany, Ukraine, Denmark, Finland and Turkey. There is also from a small amount of listeners on the website from south american countries such as Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, and also a few from North America in the United States and Canada. In the last year the Undertones have played 8 gigs, with 2 being in Ireland, 2 in England, 2 in Germany, 1 in Turkey and 1 in France. All these gigs were at small places as the band wouldn't have anywhere as near as much of a following as they did when they first came out. The band wouldn't do many gigs outside of Europe. In the past 8 years they have only played 2 gigs outside of Europe with both being in the United States.



SOCIAL BACKGROUND

The punk rock scene at the time in Northern Ireland was a for those who wanted to go against the system and have a revolution of a sort. The recent movie 'Good Vibrations' gives us an insight into this, with the Undertones (people acting as the undertones) featuring as a part of the movie. The music would still be today for punk rockers, who like to be a bit different. Here we have a poster for the Good Vibrations movie.



GENDER

The revolutionary music would have been mostly associated at the time with males, but this obviously doesn't mean that just men listen to the music. It was mostly at the time just listened to by both men and women who were young and felt they could relate to the music. Again, if we use good vibrations as an accurate, if anything over-stereotyped representation of the time, we can say that both men and woman were in this scene. In the screenshot of a clip from the movie on the right we can see that apart from the main actor who the film is about, the crowd are all young males.


Here I have a video of the band we are working for The Empires doing a cover of The Undertones' classic 'Teenage Kicks.'

Post by The Empires.