The Undertones' Feargal Sharkey on his first car: 'The bodywork was full of paper and coathangers'
Singer and campaigner Feargal Sharkey was proud of his first car, a Datsun 120Y, until he took it for an MoT.
“It was great to have a car,” the 65-year-old said. “Where I came from in Northern Ireland there was widespread unemployment so to have a car was quite something.
“But when I took the Datsun to be tested it turned out the bodywork was full of paper and coathangers. It wasn’t great.”
It wasn’t his first experience of motoring though. Although his band The Undertones was just beginning to make a mark, he had a job with Radio Rentals delivering televisions.
“It was great to have a van because I could use it on a weekend to move the band around, but we couldn’t go over the border to the Republic of Ireland which made things difficult.
“It was very unusual to have any sort of vehicle where I came from so I did appreciate it.”
As lead singer of The Undertones, Mr Sharkey had several hits in the late 1970s and early 1980s including Teenage Kicks, Here Comes Summer and My Perfect Cousin.
After splitting with the band in 1983, he went to have success as a solo artist, mostly notably with the hit single A Good Heart which went to number one in several countries including the UK in 1985.
He has been involved in the business side of the music industry since the early 1990s and he is now a prominent campaigner on the subject of water pollution.
He says he does still enjoying driving but finds it very difficult living in London.
“You just wouldn’t even think about taking a car into central London,” he said. “The cost of it is prohibitive and you can’t find anywhere to park when you get there.