"Wednesday Week" almost sneaks The Undertones into the UK Top Ten

The Undertones : Wednesday Week

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In June of 1980 The Undertones released their UK#11 hit "Wednesday Week". The single rose in the charts while The Undertones tried to conquer America on a four week tour. Michael Bradley remembers the tour this way :

"Two shows a night" looks great on a poster, but to actually do two shows on one stage on one night was a new experience for us. I was especially concerned as I was wearing the same shirt on stage as I had put on that morning getting dressed. I would wear it for the second show as well. Change my shirt in front of the rest of the band? Are you mad? One of the support bands was called the Psychotic Pineapple - they had a large walking pineapple which arrived on stage during their performance, as far as I remember. All we had was Feargal's naked chest. Jimmy Carter was the President and still we weren't successful in subjugating the USA. I'll never understand show business.

The band made fans out of some American critics. Trouser Press sent Ira Robbins to interview the daring boys from Derry moat of whom still live at home with their parents. Robbins' conclusion:

  So there you are: a glam-rock singles band that is decidedly unglamorous. A punk band that's as smooth as you'll get 'em. A bunch of nice guys that don't take shit from anyone. A group from Ulster that doesn't feel the need to constantly remind everyone of that fact. A pop band that may never make it big in America. The only group on earth that objects to overly favorable reviews and articles. Undoubtably the most exciting new thing to come along all last year. And the last to admit it.

The B-side " I Told You So" was originally recorded for a Smash Hits flexi-disc. 

With Hypnotised The Undertones deliver another thrilling album

The Undertones : Wednesday Week

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On April 21, 1980 The Undertones released their second album, Hypnotised. Mostly recorded at Wisseloord Studios in the Netherlands, where Elvis Costello and the Attractions had just finished Get Happy!!, Hypnotised might even top the self-titled debut in inventiveness, energy and using the word "girl" in song titles. Smash Hits' David Hepworth gave the album 9/10 writing:

This was going to be called "Fifteen Rockin' Humdingers" and that says it all. Without sacrificing an ounce of attack they've started to widen their range, putting together stronger songs and, in addition to covering The Drifters' masterpiece "Under The Boardwalk, they offer their own perfect sad love song "Wednesday Week" which proved conclusively that Feargal Sharkey is the finest natural singer to come out of punk. The Undertones make everybody else look like they're playing charades in a shop window.

On the Undertones website bass player Michael Bradley says 1980 was the best year the band ever had. They toured Europe, America and the UK Twice.

It was an extended childhood, being in the Undertones. There was the time I phoned up the New Musical Express, the music paper, pretended to be our press agent and told them Billy Doherty had been killed - run over by a bus in Derry - I said this with Billy standing beside me, in O'Neill's house, laughing. Next thing we know, a DJ on Radio One, Kid Jensen, is saying how sorry he was to learn of the death of the Undertones drummer, Billy Doherty. Our manager, sitting in England, heard this - he immediately rang O'Neill's - not to find out what happened to Billy, but which one of us had made up the story. Eventually the truth got out that it was a hoax, but we never got the blame. It was stated, by our real press agent, that an anonymous person had made the call.

In America, where Sire Records distributed Hypnotised, the album got rave reviews from Robert Christgau of the Village Voice:

From the opening chorus--"Here's more songs about chocolate and girls/It's not so easy knowing they'll be heard"--the good-kids-of-the-year are as honest as power pop (remember power pop?) ever gets. They're also as powerful, which I bet has something to do with why they're so honest. The improved melodies have something to do with why it's not so easy any more. ( A-)

Not Conversational

Elvis Costello and the Attractions : Talking in the Dark

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On December 18, 1978 Elvis Costello and the Attractions released the non-album single "Talking in the Dark" b/w"Wednesday Week". Both songs are inventive tunes of lost love that hover around the two minute mark and both were produced by Nick Lowe at Eden Studios in London. Costello would later say "Talking in the Dark" was his favorite song from the Armed Forces sessions.

Elvis Costello's favorite albums from 1978

Chet Baker Broken Wing
FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 (pianist, conductor: Krystian Zimerman) FUNKADELIC: One Nation Under a Groove
THE HOLLIES: The Best of the Hollies “Look Through Any Window.”
THE JAM: All Mod Cons
NICK LOWE: Jesus of Cool, “36 Inches High”
WILLIE NELSON: Stardust , “Moonlight in Vermont.”
CHARLIE PARKER: The Complete Savoy Studio Sessions, “Ko-Ko.”
THE ROLLING STONES: Some Girls, “Shattered.”
THE SPINNERS: The Best of the Spinners, “Rubberband Man.”
HANK WILLIAMS: 40 Greatest Hits, “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” “I’ll Never Get out of This World Alive.”
Torn Curtain (Bernard Herrmann)