Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

I'm as likely as the next man to complain about the number of lists that magazines, TV shows and newspapers seem to come up with constantly these days but then your band's featured in one and suddenly everything's alright. Funny that, the realisation that maybe a list is an interesting device to tell a story. Like the story of music in Northern Ireland. The Belfast Telegraph compiled a countdown of the fifty best musical moments here, starting at number fifty which was Eoghan Quigg on X Factor. Yes, Teenage Kicks would beat the small Dungiven schoolboy, I confidently predicted to any passing stranger in the shop where I read the paper. That's 'read' in the past tense, in case you think I spend my days using the paper shop as a library. I did keep an eye on the progress of the list as the week went on, just to make sure The Undertones were above Stiff Little Fingers, apart from anything else. Old punk rivalries never die, at least as far as the Derry ones are concerned.Μύ By Thursday I was beginning to get worried when I didn't see our name there but that night I got a phone call from Maureen Coleman at the Tele. Our debut single had been chosen as the best musical moment in Northern Ireland. For a record which struggled to number 31 in the charts in 1978, it has had a life which none of the band would have predicted when we were in the back room of Good Vibrations wrapping the discs in paper sleeves. After thirty two years, almost to the day, it finally made it to number one. Excuse me while I dislocate my shoulder slapping myself on the back.