The Undertones took to the stage at the Lemon Tree in Aberdeen at 8.45pm on Sunday 10th October 2021, and the audience were treated to an evening of musical indulgence for those with a liking for the finest music ever written.
The Undertones were BBC DJ John Peel's favourite band of all time, and I concur.
Forget your Beatles, Rolling Stones, Clash and Sex Pistols. This was pure melody wrapped up in powerful rock beats and magnificent chord changes. The drumming excelled and the lead singer's voice and movements captured the mood perfectly.
The audience of approximately 150 must have felt like the first audiences at the Cavern. The majority of youthful Aberdonians stayed at home tucked up in their cosy bedrooms listening to boring rap music and its like, or playing their playstation games, whilst the Aberdeen drizzle ran down their bedroom windows.
But this audience consisted mainly of "greys" and "blouson jackets" from the late 70s, a time when playstations and computers were simply ideas in Bill Gates adolescent imagination. A time when the youth of the day knew what real music sounded like. And 150 clearly still do.
"Jimmy Jimmy", "Thrill Me", "Hypnotised, My Perfect Cousin", "Wednesday Week" had the audience pogo-ing along, hands raised in the air in worship to their heroes, and heads bobbing up and down to the melodic magnificence. Would the youth of today even know what it meant to pogo?....doubt it. They probably couldn't get their heads out of their mobiles long enough to even bother (I digress.....).
A second encore was finished to the rampant beat of "Teenage Kicks", with the audience enthralled by every melodic lyric, savouring the last few moments of an unforgettable spectacle.
The roar of appreciation at the end was deafening. Louder than anything you'll hear from Pittodrie these days.
Aberdeen may never again have the chance to witness such musical brilliance.
They say see "Rome and Die". I say "See the Undertones and die".
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