The Undertones bring 50th anniversary tour to Southampton

Half a century is a long time for any band, let alone one that built its name on the three-chord pop-punk of the late seventies. The Undertones are marking their 50th anniversary with a tour, and the Southampton leg lands at The 1865 on Friday 20 November, with doors opening at 19:00. Tickets went on sale on Monday 17 August, so it is worth checking the venue or an authorised seller for what is left and what it costs.

For anyone who needs the backstory, the band formed in Derry, Northern Ireland, in 1976. The original five were John O’Neill, Damian O’Neill, Feargal Sharkey, Billy Doherty and Michael Bradley, and they started by learning basic rock and roll before finding their own sound. The song that made them a household name, Teenage Kicks, was written by John O’Neill and recorded in 1978 for Terri Hooley’s Good Vibrations label in Belfast. A copy ended up with BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, who played it twice in a row and kept championing it until he died in 2004. Sire Records later re-released it, it landed the band their first Top of the Pops appearance, and it climbed to number 31 in the UK Singles Chart.

That was only the start. The setlist is likely to pull from a deep catalogue that includes Jimmy Jimmy, Here Comes The Summer, You’ve Got My Number (Why Don’t You Use It?), Wednesday Week, My Perfect Cousin, Julie Ocean, The Love Parade, Male Model and Get Over You, and the four albums from their original run: The Undertones in 1979, Hypnotised in 1980, Positive Touch in 1981 and The Sin of Pride in 1983. Feargal Sharkey left in 1983 to go solo and the band split shortly after, only to reform in 1999 with fellow Derryman Paul McLoone on vocals. His first gig with them was at the Nerve Centre in Derry on 19 November 1999, and the line-up since has been John O’Neill, Damian O’Neill, Michael Bradley, Billy Doherty and Paul McLoone. They have toured the UK, Ireland, Europe, Japan, Turkey and North America, and released Get What You Need in 2003 and Dig Yourself Deep in 2007. They are currently promoting their first live album, 16 Live Humdingers, recorded in Glasgow in 2023, which is only available at shows and exclusively on green vinyl.

Opening the Southampton bill are Ruts DC, the London punk band also known as The Ruts D.C., who blend punk with reggae, dub and rock. The current line-up is John “Segs” Jennings, David Ruffy and Leigh Heggarty. Their best-known work includes Babylon’s Burning, which reached number seven in the UK Singles Chart in 1979, as well as In a Rut, Staring at the Rude Boys, West One (Shine On Me), Something That I Said and Jah War. Their debut album, The Crack, came out on 29 September 1979 and reached number 16 in the UK Albums Chart. The Ruts formed in Hayes in August 1977 and played their first show in Northolt, Middlesex, on 16 September 1977. Original singer Malcolm Owen died in July 1980, and the remaining members continued as Ruts D.C., leaning more into dub and reggae before splitting in 1983 and reforming in 2007. Guitarist Paul Fox died on 21 October 2007, leaving Jennings, Ruffy and Heggarty to carry it on.

The Southampton date sits within a wider 2026–27 run, with Electric Bristol on 14 November, Chalk in Brighton on 21 November and the Electric Ballroom in Camden on 22 November. The Brighton show also has Ruts DC, and the London gig adds Tom Robinson to the bill. There are Irish dates too, plus a Belfast Christmas Weekender at The Limelight on 19–20 December and two nights at the Millennium Forum in Derry on 19 and 20 February 2027, with Skids and DJ Terri Hooley as special guests.