Another Summertime Special

Side 2 of a cassette compilation of The Undertones, recorded sometime in 1989.

I posted Side 1 on Saturday 25th June 2022, roughly 544,920 minutes ago. Fortunately, The Undertones were a little more prompt. Even as you were listening to the greatest song you'd ever heard, you knew that the new greatest song you'd ever heard would be a couple of minutes away.

I wrote about my reintroduction to The Undertones in the late 1980s, thanks to my brother's copies of the debut album and All Wrapped Up compilation, plus the rather excellent jukebox at The Bell in Stokes Croft, Bristol, our go-to for pre- or post-excessive partying.

Prior to that, The Undertones seemed to be on BBC TV all the time, whether Top Of The Pops, The Old Grey Whistle Test and at least a couple of appearances on Cheggers Plays Pop. As a kid, I liked The Undertones, I loved their manic energy and the fact that the lead singer seemed to be wearing the same hand me downs and secondhand clothes that I had. I was the only boy round our way with a pair of brown Doc Martens. They were a bit too big for me but they'd had a reasonably careful previous owner. 

I know this compilation so well that listening to the debut album still feels a bit odd and out of sequence, so ingrained is this tracklisting in my mind. Side 2 exceeds Side 1's tally of 18 songs by squeezing in another 3 songs, a couple coming in at under one minute, but keeping it all to a pacy 45 minutes.

 

True Confessions appears twice on this mixtape, the album version here sounding like the band had been listening to Donna Summer's I Feel Love and Magic Fly by Space before heading into the studio. It's a very different take and I love it.

The collection wraps up with the B-side of Here Comes The Summer. One Way Love is two minutes and sixteen seconds of lyrical and musical brilliance in it's simplicity, fading out but leaving the feeling that the music will never stop. It certainly won't this weekend: The Undertones will be on a loop. And loud. 

1) Told You So (1980)

2) Family Entertainment (Album Version) (1979)

3) Window Shopping For New Clothes (1983)

4) Casbah Rock (1979)

5) Mars Bars (1979)

6) Smarter Than U (1978)

7) I Don't Wanna See You Again (1980)

8) Wrong Way (1979)

9) Julie Ocean (Single Version) (1981)

10) Turning Blue (1983)

11) Got To Have You Back (Cover of The Isley Brothers) (1983)

12) Jump Boys (1979)

13) She Can Only Say No (Single/Live Version) (1979)

14) Here Comes The Summer (Single Version) (1979)

15) Really Really (1979)

16) Beautiful Friend (Single Version) (1981)

17) Get Over You (Single Version) (1979)

18) Listening In (Album Version) (1979)

19) True Confessions (Album Version) (1979)

20) Jimmy Jimmy (1979)

21) One Way Love (1979)

1978: Teenage Kicks EP: 6

1979: Get Over You EP: 13, 15, 17

1979: Here Comes The Summer EP: 14, 21

1979: Jimmy Jimmy EP: 5

1979: The Undertones: 2, 4, 8, 12, 18, 19, 20

1980: My Perfect Cousin EP: 7

1980: Wednesday Week EP: 1

1981: Beautiful Friend EP: 16

1981: Julie Ocean EP: 9

1983: Chain Of Love EP: 3

1983: Got To Have You Back EP: 10

1983: The Sin Of Pride: 11Beautiful Friend EP

Side Two (45:07) (KF) (Mega)

Side One here