I was never too sure about The Depressions. Unconvincing in both look and sound, they were described cruelly but accurately by the NME as being one of the last bands to jump on the punk bandwagon – “just as the wheels were coming off.”

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Here’s another oddity from the depths of my singles collection. It’s either by Chris Sievey or by The Freshies, depending on how you look at it.

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Xdreamysts were signed up by Polydor at the same gig as Protex. Their single, Right Way Home, was one of the first releases on the Bad Vibrations but unlike most of their labelmates they didn’t even pretend to be punks.

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The Outcasts, a kind of rootsier Undertones also featuring three brothers, were another of the first wave of Ulster bands, but bad luck blighted their career. One of them was killed and another badly injured in two separate car crashes.

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“Following an incident at a press reception in Kilkenny for Thin Lizzy, it was decided that it was in the band’s best interests if the band’s manager – and drummer – Nigel Hamilton left immediately following the tour.” That may be the most interesting thing about Belfast band The Tearjerkers. Sadly it seems that whatever happens in Kilkenny stays in Kilkenny.

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The Moondogs were another of the seemingly endless parade of power pop bands to spring up in Northern Ireland in the late 70s.

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I wonder what the actor Colin Salmon (three Bond films, two Resident Evil movies, and lots of telly) thinks when – all right, if – he listens back to the solitary single released by The Tee Vees in 1979.

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It’s facile to think of all Northern Ireland punk bands furiously raging against the Troubles. Apart from Stiff Little Fingers, most of the New Wave bands from Ulster tended more towards power pop. Like Starjets.

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Is there a Glam revival? If there is – and this would seem to suggest as much – then it’s crept up on me unawares. Rather like that cat Mud sang about. Apparently this video has gone viral, and I can see why: it’s like a pastiche of something from an early 70s Top of the Pops.

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As a longtime fan of The Dears, I’ve always enjoyed the melancholy music and Bowiesque / Morriseyesque / Albarnesque croon of frontman Murray Lightburn. Even so, this is something I never expected from the creator of apocalyptic albums like Degeneration Street and No Cities Left.

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