Looks like reviews are back in favour so I've written one - hope it's OK

In 1983 Mick Houghton’s sleeve notes for “All Wrapped Up” not unreasonably said of The Undertones that “...we’ll never see the five of them amble on stage together again...”. However, twenty years later in Sheffield and with a new CD safely cellophane-wrapped and all stickered-up, they did just that and immediately set about mixing the familiar and potent cocktail of old and new by launching into “Family Entertainment” and then “Thrill Me”.

We’d barely had time to wonder at Damian’s impressively shiny shoes before an unexpectedly stand-out “Girls That Don’t Talk”, “Rough Escalator” and “Male Model” filled the most thunderously exciting ten minutes of the gig. Just as “Thrill Me” had in no way jarred against “Family Entertainment” so “Rough Escalator” sounded perfectly in place between the two old favourites and removed any fears - if there still were any - that the legacy of ‘78-83 would be corrupted by inferior new material.

Having made it clear that this is not Going To Happen The Undertones then roared their way through the rest of the main set before leaving the stage as the end of “My Perfect Cousin” bounced around the room. A rowdy singalong of the same song, complete with a very decent hand-clapping approximation of Billy’s pre-”mother bought a synthesiser” drumming, brought the band back out for, of course, “Casbah Rock” and “Top Twenty”. On a roll as impressive as one of Billy’s and knowing it, Mickey told the others to stay on stage and the audience to pretend that they’d gone off and come back to finish with “Mars Bars”, “True Confessions” and “Let’s Talk About Girls”.

This was entirely appropriate for Sheffield, where the old material had gone down best, but in Leeds the following night it was noticeable how well the new stuff was received. It really now does demand inclusion in the set, which would be incomplete without it: surely no-one in The Cockpit would have wanted to go home having missed “Rough Escalator”, “Oh Please” or “Joyland”. At first though it did seem as if this Sheffield-old/Leeds-new switch had gone too far as ‘Watch that man” completely failed to bring the mandatory response of “There Goes Norman”. In Sheffield parts of the song had been little more than an instrumental as another rowdy audience singalong - commented on by Paul and Mickey - carried it, but in Leeds it was quickly back to the band.

Oh dear...but it soon became clear that I’d misread some subtle clue as the usual favourites had their usual effect. Mickey and Paul agreed ‘that was good’ after “I Gotta Getta”, “Mars Bars” was played as if The ‘Tones were living on nothing but glucose for energy consignments of the things and “Top Twenty” sounded as fresh as it did the day John wrote it down, despite being described by Mickey as “an obscure B-side”. Is this the moment to request the inclusion in the set of “Really Really”, another unregarded gem that’s undeservedly tucked away?

Quite what was happening at the front I don’t know but someone or something prompted Paul to sing the lines “She won’t even let me explain that me and Feargal we’re just not the same”. And there is absolutely no need for him to try to be, for in Leeds he produced a shimmering vocal on “Wednesday Week” that carried out over the audience, just as his “When Saturday Comes” in Sheffield had floated over the pointing fingers and waving fists of the pogo-crazed punters as Billy’s drums rolled and echoed in magnificent support.

Two nights later in London and Paul provided the coolest moment in a furnace of a venue by towelling his face and hair and taking a long drink of water before walking in a wide circle back to the mike. to confirm, just in time, that Wednesday Week had never happened at all. “Wednesday Week” also stood out in London as the only song of its type to be played. Out went the soppy stuff - nothing was Going To Happen tonight and Saturday had been and gone - and in came enough speed and noise to remind us of The ‘Tones’ Ramones-influences and enough sweat to bring Terry Hooley’s documentary description of The (Derry) Casbah to life.

The mix had been thoroughly punked up and as a result the old stuff came over best, particularly “Get Over You”, a still-singing-it-next-morning “True Confessions” and a memorably-strobed “Jump Boys”. Of the new songs “Joyland” confirmed itself as the one, but this really was a night for The Undertones to show how fresh their old material still sounds and their enjoyment in playing it. Dublin proved as much again, although it took some time to get going in front of a less than responsive crowd. Perhaps they had been saving themselves for the big ones, with ‘Teenage Kicks’, ‘My Perfect Cousin’ and ‘Get Over You’ being sung as joyously as anywhere else, but who knows if this would have happened if Paul hadn’t grabbed hold of them earlier?

Even by his own standards he was extraordinarily energetic tonight, from ‘She Wants Everything But You’ right through to the rampaging ‘Let’s Talk About Girls’ that finished the set. This may have been the result of nicotine deprivation - he had taken the stage with the words “Good evening. Anyone got a light?” - but it had its fag-free reward when the audience suddenly joined in with his hands-over-head clapping during ‘Jump Boys’. The fleeting look on Paul’s face when he realised that he was now getting something back from the audience simply said “turned it”, and he deserves a lot of credit for having done so.

Musically this was London again, with a Ramones-reminiscent “Let’s go” from Mickey as the introduction to...sorry, just cannot remember (and ‘Chinese Rock’ on the P.A. afterwards). On-stage though things were not as smooth as you can get ‘em. Mickey snapped a string “for the first time in twenty years” according to Damian, perhaps getting his own back for being asked “Are you ready for your solo?” as he re-tuned before ‘Rough Escalator’. Mickey stopped ‘Thrill Me’ very quickly, saying that Billy had “set us off wrong”, while Paul was still talking to us on the telephone during ‘Top Twenty’ when he should have been taking us for another ride....none of which mattered in the slightest because The Undertones were clearly enjoying themselves hugely.

This in itself justifies their decision to re-form, and supports Billy’s ‘Teenage Kicks’ comment that on-stage something just happens and everybody has a good time. Well, yes it does and yes they do, but let’s be clear why by saying what the band are probably too “refreshingly...unpretenti​ous” (Mick Houghton again) to say for themselves. To do this we need only quote The Master of the Revels at The Casbah. “The Undertones” he shouted with entirely justified post-gig excitement, “it don’t get no better than that”. The Get What You Need tour proved him right.