I've been listening to The Undertones a lot in the past week, mostly from their eponymous debut and posthumous A- & B-sides collection All Wrapped Up (featuring the infamous Dressed To Grill cover photo, which you can read about here).
Chain Of Love was The Undertones' final single as an active band, released in April 1983. Taken from the album, The Sin Of Pride, released a couple of months earlier, it failed to chart. By July 1983, the band (or at least the original line up with Feargal Sharkey) had played their final gig and gone their separate ways.
It was a sad end for the band, as The Undertones had evolved and grown over four albums and thirteen singles. Fergal Sharkey reflected in 1986 that "Everybody wanted us to be these 16-year-old kids covered in acne and playing Teenage Kicks" and you can empathise. Appearing on ITV's Razzmatazz in what appears to be Marc Almond's Soft Cell wardrobe was perhaps a leap too far for a public with a locked image of the band in naff jumpers, parkas and Doc Martins. However, it's an energetic (mimed) performance which, according to the comments accompanying the You Tube video below , left an impression on at least one audience member.
It's a shame that the single failed to set the charts alight, though you have to wonder if Culture Club were recording in the studio next door at the time. Released in September 1983, Karma Chameleon topped the UK charts for 6 weeks, with a strikingly similar harmonica motif.
And here's the excellent B-side, Window Shopping For New Clothes, following the popular You Tube trend of literally videoing the vinyl being placed and played on a turntable...
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