“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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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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Long-forgotten by all but hardcore punks, Belfast band Victim were the second group to put out a single on the city’s Bad Vibrations label. This is it.

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So here is, to mark the 65th birthday this week of Jake Burns – the very first punk single to come out of Northern Ireland exactly 45 years ago.

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Here’s another slice of Ulster punk from Protex. With their primal power pop sound they were Belfast’s answer to Buzzcocks. And with their ear for a good tune – like this, their debut on Good Vibrations – it’s a surprise they weren’t bigger.

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Here’s a little bit of music history – the first punk single from Northern Ireland… the first official one, anyway. Big Time by Rudi was the first release on Belfast’s homegrown Good Vibrations label in April 1978.

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Randy Crawford joined The Crusaders to sing what became their biggest hit, Street Life in 1979. Or, as my old colleague used to call it, Street Light.

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The Undertones released one of the greatest debut singles of all time in Teenage Kicks – in fact one of the best ever singles, full stop.

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All I really remember about Téléphone is that they were French and that I have a single made of red vinyl in the shape of (you guessed) a telephone.

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