You’ve been back for nineteen years. Do you still get asked if Fergal’s with you?

“No, not really. Some people don’t know but they’re the sort who don’t care anyway. Anyone who has any vague interest will know that we decided not to go down that path a long time ago.”

Like Ronnie Wood bemoaning that he’s still the new boy in the Stones when he’s been with them forty-odd years?

“Aye, there’s still somebody at the back going ‘Where’s Mick Taylor’. It’s an odd one, it still comes up. Somebody recently said he must be at home counting the royalties and he didn’t write any of the songs.”

A friend of mine bumped into him last week outside the Tory Party conference in Birmingham.

“You’re kidding me? What was he doing there? Maybe he’s after getting in the House of Lords. Lord Sharkey of Derry.”

Maybe it wasn’t him. Could be there’s a Fergal Sharkey lookalike in Birmingham. But it must have been odd, you’re in a place you’ve live all your lives, there’s all the associated problems with living in Northern Ireland in the seventies. Then suddenly you’re famous, everyone in the city knows you and wants a piece of you. It must have been a bit of a shock.

“Maybe for Fergal it was. I was at the back playing the bass. Some people did hang round us but it never really bothered me. It was fame but it wasn’t proper fame, front pages and stuff like that. It’s not like people turned their heads when we walked down the street. We had some attention from guys our age who didn’t appreciate us and they took pains to make sure we didn’t get above our station.”

The Good Vibrations film – how realistic was it?

“The people who made it said before it came out to remember that it was a film. They had to make the story work so they had to take some liberties with it, but the main thing was about Terri Hooley and they got his story right, the guy who played him did brilliant. The Undertones’ part was a bit of a walk on and they had to tell that story very quickly but I think it got the spirit of the times, of Terri and of Belfast. Being from Derry we were on the periphery but they got what Terri was going through and also they got his personality. He didn’t care about money, he was the worst businessman in the world, which is a good thing. It’s good to be bad in business.”

The film also showed how many punk bands there were in Northern Ireland. We’d heard yourselves and Stiff Little Finger, a bit of Protex and Rudi, but Good Vibrations showed that there was masses of bands over there that we didn’t know about.

“Wasn’t there as many in Birmingham. No? It’s interesting, I wouldn’t have thought that. I know they did spring up quickly. There was a great book called It Makes You Want to Spit. The title’s awful but the book’s great, it’s an encyclopaedia of punk bands from Northern Ireland and I think you’re right because when I read it there’s always another band I’d never heard of. They’d maybe do three or four shows and then spilt.

“We got punk later, maybe late 77 to 78 that’s where it really kicked off. There was that legendary Clash non-appearance in 77 and that’s when you realised how many people liked punk in Belfast. They all congregated outside Queen’s University where the concert had been cancelled, there was all these wee pockets then they all got together and realised they weren’t alone.”

Teenage Kicks was one of those songs that didn’t sell masses but its impact was enormous. Do you ever stop to think how any millions of copies it sold on compilations?

“I have a number of them because whenever it appears on a record we get sent a copy, which is very useful for building a record collection. It got to 31 in the chats, which was nothing.”

I have this argument with so many people who say punk had no lasting effect, that Rod Stewart and Genesis were still around afterwards, but so many things happened around it.

“It really changed British culture because it was unforeseen. You couldn’t replicate the effects of punk these days because everyone’s looking out for the next big thing. There’s so many stylists, bloggers, all looking out for it. Back then you only knew what was happening if you read the NME and even then it was only a couple of things. The music press was still mainly about Genesis, about Jethro Tull and that’s why it was so great because within a couple of years you had, to quote the Jam, a youth explosion.”

Everyone says their time was the best but growing up then, from the end of ’77 through until about 1980, every week there seemed to be a classic album out that you had to buy.

“You’re right, it was great. It was just brilliant to be a teenager then. There’s that great scene in the book Hi Fidelity where the woman’s husband had left her and she’s selling his record collection, all these great rare and valuable records, for hardly anything. That’s what the times were like then.”

The period between now and Teenage Kicks, if you go back that far again you’re looking at the Battle of Britain, yet people are still listening to it and it still sounds modern,

“38 years. How did that happen? We’re must be living in the Time Tunnel. In the sixties there was the trad boom and I think we’re the modern trad jazz band.”

Will there be any new Undertones material coming out?

“That’s a good question. I don’t know. Sometimes we work on a couple of things and because we have other jobs it falls by the wayside. It wouldn’t be about the money though, you don’t do music just for that.”

Meanwhile, you do have a book out. Teenage Kicks: My Life as an Undertone, was published in March.

“It did. It tells the story of the band, what went on and the rest of them are still talking to me so it must be okay.”

I was in the car the other night and Get Over You came on. I was thinking, ten thirty at night, listening to the Undertones on the radio. Where have I done that before?

“You wouldn’t be talking to me now if it wasn’t for John Peel. The idea of Teenage Kicks being a really important song, it’s all because of John Peel. In 1988, ’89, no-one was really talking about it then Peel chose it on Desert Island Discs. He became a national treasure and that’s what it was, he became this beloved icon and his favourite record was Teenage Kicks.

“It’s a fine balance, between rawness and polished. The guitars were raw but Fergal’s voice was different. The vocals are quite sweet but it’s a proper singer. The bass player was fantastic as well.”

In that situation Teenage Kicks on the radio would have been too much of a cliché. I was listening to Get Over You, which tends to be overlooked in your back catalogue.

“We’ve remixed Get Over You because we were never too happy with a few things about it so we gave it to Kevin Shields from My Bloody Valentine. He didn’t change it dramatically, he stripped away some of the backing vocals that we weren’t happy with and it’s much better now.”

You said a few months ago that if one of the band leaves than that’s it, it’s over. Is that still your feeling?

“I think so. We don’t really talk about it but we just know. No-one’s doing it for a living and I think once it’s over everyone will accept it. We had a second half that we didn’t expect, or maybe I’m just speaking for myself but that’s the impression I get. If somebody says stop, then we’ll stop the bus and we’lll all get off. Or maybe in three years it’ll be Micky Bradley’s Undertones touring, then you can come back and shoot me.”