In September 1978, Terri Hooley, the owner of Belfast's independent record label Good Vibrations, visited London with a box of seven inch records, specifically the fourth release from his label. Hooley considered Teenage Kicks, recorded by Derry punk band The Undertones in mid-June that same summer and released on Good Vibrations on August 31, "the greatest thing ever", and was convinced that the A&R departments of every London-based record label would be similarly enthused about the record. In this, he could not have been more wrong.
Hooley shares his memories of his ill-fated trip to whip up excitement around The Undertones' debut single in Terri Hooley: Seventy-Five Revolutions, a new biography of the Belfast-born punk champion written by Louder contributor Stuart Bailie, published to mark Hooley's 75th birthday.
"I went to Rough Trade, who were the biggest independent distributors in England at the time," Hooley recalls. "And they’d just signed up Stiff Little Fingers and I was sure they were going to sign up The Undertones and they told me it was the worst record they ever heard in their life. And I was broken-hearted and I nearly cried. I took it to EMI and CBS and everybody else that I could get a meeting with and they all told me the same thing.
