* Feargal Sharkey (lead vocals),
* John O'Neill (guitar),
* Damian O'Neill (guitar, keyboards and vocals),
* Michael Bradley (bass and vocals), and
* Billy Doherty (drums).
John O'Neill was the original main song writer, with his brother Damian and Mickey Bradley writing in various solo & combined variations for most of the remainder.
Sharkey's power pop tenor was distinctive, and the band regarded a tight ensemble. By 1977 they were performing their own three-chord pop punk material influenced by Nuggets-type material and Ramones, and in 1978 released their debut four-song EP Teenage Kicks on Good Vibrations. It became a hit with support from DJ John Peel, who considered that EP's title song (Teenage Kicks) his all-time favourite. The song has been covered by many including boyband Busted (at the 2003 Brit Awards), American group The Raconteurs, Swedish band [aritst]Sahara Hotnights and French band Nouvelle Vague.
The original band released four studio albums:
* The Undertones (1979)
* Hypnotised (1980)
* Positive Touch (1981)
* The Sin Of Pride (1983).
Falling sales linked to their changing musical direction and tensions within the band, leading to their split in 1983. A compilation album titled All Wrapped Up featured a woman dressed in lunch meats wrapped in clear plastic on the (non band approved) cover. Several other compilations including the superb BBC sessions CD Listening In (named after a song on their first album) (2004) exist.
The O'Neill brothers went on to form That Petrol Emotion. The Undertones reconvened in 1999, initially to play a few shows in their hometown of Londonderry, replacing singer Feargal Sharkey with a similarly warbling new recruit, Paul McLoone. Since this time, the band has continued to play a small number of gigs each year in various places around the world.
The band have also released two further studio albums:
* Get What You Need (2003)
* Dig Yourself Deep (2007)
NOTE: There is another band with this name - The Undertones, a subset of the University of Notre Dame Glee Club who sing a capella arrangements of popular songs. For more information on these guys, check out www.nd.edu/~utones.
Male Model
The Undertones Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Things like that were for little boys
My mamma got me clothes for her favourite son
Freeman's item A page 61
I wanna wanna be a male model
I wanna wanna be a male model
I wanna wanna be a ... model ... model
Read women's magazines for fashion scenes
Til you know the prices they're in pounds and pence
Reminds me that I can't afford to buy new clothes
I never got a chance to say I'll take those
I wanna wanna be ...
I'm fed up of wearing things second hand
The coat that must belong to another man
Sizes that got out of style years ago
Anything cheap I don't wanna know
The Undertones's song Male Model is a whimsical commentary on the idea of what it meant to be a young, fashionable man in the late 1970s. The first verse sets a playful, sarcastic tone, speaking of the singer's childish disdain for toys, and his mother's attempts to dress him in clothes she hoped would make him look like her favorite son. The reference to Freeman's catalog is a nod to the limited shopping options available at the time in the singer's home country of Northern Ireland.
The chorus then introduces the crux of the song - the singer's desire to become a "male model." The repeated refrain of "I wanna wanna be a..." is both earnest and slightly mocking, suggesting that the singer is aware of the absurdity of the idea but can't help wanting it anyway. The second verse takes on the idea of fashion more directly, with a reference to women's magazines and the price of clothes, as well as the singer's own feeling of being unable to afford new clothes. The final stanza of the song lays bare the singer's frustration with his difficult position, mocked as a boy for decades-old hand-me-downs and unable to buy anything new.
Overall, Male Model is both a satire of the expectations and stereotypes of masculinity that trap young men, and a sincere yearning for something better - something that the singer doesn't quite know how to articulate but feels deeply.
Line by Line Meaning
When I was young I never wanted toys
From a young age, I had no interest in toys.
Things like that were for little boys
I considered toys to be childish.
My mamma got me clothes for her favourite son
My mother favored me and bought me clothes from a catalog.
Freeman's item A page 61
The catalog she used was Freeman's, and the clothes were from page 61.
I wanna wanna be a male model
I aspire to be a male model.
I wanna wanna be a male model
I continue to aspire to be a male model.
I wanna wanna be a ... model ... model
I still deeply desire a career as a model.
Read women's magazines for fashion scenes
I read women's magazines for inspiration on fashion trends.
Til you know the prices they're in pounds and pence
I familiarized myself with the costs of fashion items in the UK's currency (pounds and pence).
Reminds me that I can't afford to buy new clothes
The reality of my financial situation became clear - I cannot afford new clothes.
I never got a chance to say I'll take those
I never had the chance to tell a salesperson that I wanted to purchase clothing items.
I'm fed up of wearing things second hand
I grew tired of constantly wearing clothing that was previously owned by others.
The coat that must belong to another man
I wore a coat that probably belonged to another man.
Sizes that got out of style years ago
The sizes of the clothes I had access to were out of style and outdated.
Anything cheap I don't wanna know
I refuse to wear anything that looks or feels cheap.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: DAMIAN STEPHEN O'NEILL, JOHN JOSEPH O'NEILL, MICHAEL BRADLEY
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind