"Hey have you seen Orange Juice?" The Undertone's guitarist and elder brother figure - John O'Neill - bubbles over towards me from his corner of Nottingham Rock City's dressing room - his eyes bright - his voice enthusiastic.

He is extolling the virtues of Scotland's Postcard Records. Over the weekend to come - he and his four partners in the pop music survival game will be heard to praise often the top-achievements of bands such as Adam and Josef and Dexy's and Teardrop while unconsciously failing to speak overmuch about those ' '. champions of clean-cut chart appeal - the Undertones. I should have guessed it-

The Undertones are presently fighting their path through what we in the trade call a lean period. That is - they're paying for their absence from the forefront of the music business - the long months after 'Hypnotised' and 'My Perfect Cousin' which saw the band splitting from Sire and - finally - signing to EMI with their own Ardeck label. Currently - a number of bands have launched themselves onto the UK gig circuit at the same time causing a ridiculous overlap of tour schedules - massive unemployment means less money means less punters buying tickets and the 'Tones are catching the effects of the situation full in the face with half empty venues and pulled- out dates to prove it.

The simple fact is that - these days - no band wishing to see a steady mark in popular music can afford to slip away from the public eye for even the shortest amount of time.-As Feargal Sharkey insists - no-one is safe: "It's the same with any band. It doesn't matter. For example - if Adam And The Ants broke up tomorrow - people might wonder about it for a while but then - as soon as the next thing came along - they'd forget all about them!"

FIRST-HAND realisation that nothing short of hard work and total dedication will assist them to exist has rendered the Undertones a little more cynical and a sight more determined than one would once have bargained for.

Bassist Mickey Bradley's view is almost ruthless: "Our policy now is to take everything. Any publicity!" Feargal's insight is - scattered with strange ironies: "On the last tour the Hypnotised tour - we decided that we were going to sell all the t-shirts for £2.00 in spite of the fact that it had cost us - £1.75 to have each one made. ' We couldn't sell them! When we put the price up a few pounds they all went-"

One event that has definitely opened the band's eyes. is their departure from Sire and subsequent signing to EMI. Though they make no big deal about having their own Ardeck label - "the usual thing we just hand everything over to EMI when we've finished with it" - it's obvious that it's more than just "our own design - to disguise the fact that we're signed to EMI - that it allows us freedom without niggling complications." John O'Neill explains:

"When we were signed to Sire we were virtually doing the same things that we're doing now because Sire never did anything! I mean - we designed our own sleeves - we thought up the artwork - we might as well have had our own label then. We'd end up giving things to Sire and Sire would have to give them to WEA but this time we're dealing with . EMI directly. There's no Sire in between."

I suggest that there might still be problems in store - that EMI could well start muscling in and throwing its weight around but the Undertones are content to leave such hassles to their manager - Andrew Ferguson - convinced that all record companies are tarred with the same brush. What it all boils down to is :-

John: We wanna make records and we wanna sell records.

Mickey: "But we don't make records because they sell."

PERFECT opportunity to haul' Positive Touch' - the band's crucial third elpee - into the discussion. An interesting - endearing and ultimately refreshing Undertones album - it hasn't secured the kind of wholehearted - glowing praise that is usually showered over the band.

Drummer Billy Doherty (referring to the Sounds review): "We expected that from Dave McCullough anyway. Maybe there's a bit of truth in what he said -"

Mickey: "Business before pleasure perhaps. He was kinda right there in that we are obviously thinking more these days and taking the business side into consideration. But we still take making records totally separately from making money."

John: "That thing about a company Lp. It is not a 'company Lp'". He laughs almost despairingly at the memory of the past gushing reviews: "We never deserved them anyway. I mean - we were never as good as the papers made us out to be and - although it was great getting those reviews - they never ' made sense and we never took them seriously.".

'Positive Touch' marks an impressive move away from the first two Undertones albums both in sound and general format. Chirpy thumbnail sketches have developed into a stronger variety of songs - Feargal Sharkey's voice - in particular - benefits from the greater flexibility he's allowed embellished by a lively brass intrusion contributed by Neil King and Dick Blewett together with Paul Carrick's piano touches. This wider scope is carried on into the band's live performance by Damian O'Neill whose debut organ additions inject new blood into established numbers while stealthily laying down a tasty groundwork for new songs.

John sees the changes as- vital: "We wanted to make this LP different not just because it's our third but also because we were fed up with how the other two sounded."

We wanted to get away from the idea of being all guitars. Also playing live - y'know - we' re using the organ to get away from this being just a guitar band. Don't wanna end up like Status Quo!

Another aspect of the album (and an important one) is that its lyrics echo the problems of Northern Ireland in places - a far cry from the more homely subject of Chocolate and girls. Since - unlike bands such as Stiff Little Fingers - the Undertones have never gone out of their way to use the Northern Ireland situation as 'good copy' - does this indicate a turn of direction for them?

John: "We write about it but we don't try to make it too obvious - the song has to be a good pop song as well. The trouble is that it's very difficult to write about Ireland when you live there - when your family and friends live there. It's very hard to know how much you can say or how safe it is to say it. The idea for 'Crisis Of Mine'"(on 'Positive Touch') "is taken from this problem. It's a personal decision that you have to make."

thEN - an older and wiser band of Undertones that heads purposefully towards 1982. Taking themselves more seriously demanding that the public takes them more seriously they're still strong contenders in that pop music survival game. Mind you - they haven't changed too much.

Having completed another semi-attended concert at the Liverpool Empire - a somewhat tired and emotional John O'Neill sits talking to Slattery and myself in the hotel bar. Suddenly - he realises that the conversation is centred almost entirely around the Undertones. "Oh - " he exclaims - "do we have to talk about us? I'd much rather talk about Orange Juice."

TheUndertones.net/sensual.htm