The Undertones were almost done by 1982. They were still putting great records out, but those records, both singles and albums were comsistently charting lower than before. As a band they made most sense on Top of The Pops on Thursday nights, and while some of them were happy to go on as a more culty, leftfield concern, singer Feargal Sharkey definitely wasn't. He liked the trappings of fame. So the band folded, Sharkey moved into areas where he could continue being on Top of The Pops and the rest of the band opted for the culty, leftfield, abrasive thing.
The records they at this point were putting out were still mighty fine, at least to my ears. There was certainly nothing wrong with The Love Parade, it added a sophisticated Sixties Soul sheen to The Undertones' signature sound. But it fell far short of the Top Forty which the band had come to expect as a basic requirement,for singles placings having achieved this with consumate ease with most of their 7 inch releases for the previous three years.
I think, they're still an underrated band, despite their success, even all these years later. I find it difficult to find a song of theirs I don't care for. They had remarkable quality control. Possibly they're slightly overlooked because their lyrical concerns, ( at least the ones they're best known for ), were largely teenage ones, hence their best known song, their debut single and John Peel's favourite. It's not really mine, I thought they produced plenty of songs that were quite the equal of that one if not better. But they did mature with every single and album just as they did as people. Perhaps they outgrew their audience. For the O'Neill brothers, the next natural step was That Petrol Emotion with a new set of cohorts. At this point they could and would address the other real issues of where they had come from.
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