When The Undertones formed in their home town of Derry in 1975, they were living in a town blasted by sectarianism, battered by poverty and unemployment, and broken down by an all-pervading sense of futility. Twenty years after their first Top Twenty hit record, The Undertones are back together again, but now the cloud has begun to lift from the battlements of Derry's walls.
A process of urban renewal has been marching inexorably on, and the latest step in Derry's forward movement is the new Nerve Centre premises on Magazine Street, which celebrated its opening last weekend with a unique concert by Derry's legendary punk pop heroes. Described as "one of the most dynamic and innovative multi-media centres to be found anywhere in the British Isles", the Nerve Centre has been at the core of Derry's music and film scene for the past 10 years - but with fresh funding from the National Lottery, the Derry District Partnership, and the European Regional Development Fund, this one-time DIY music and animation workshop has now become the city's hi-tech hub of sound and vision.
The new Nerve Centre incorporates recording studios, rehearsal rooms, animation studios, video production studios, digital media suites, a 600-capacity live performance venue and a 56-seater cinema. Designed as a gathering place for Derry's creative community, The Nerve Centre provides almost everything a band needs to write and produce a record, make a video, design a website, create a visual image and market their music. It also equips filmmakers and animators with all the tools necessary to develop their ideas from story board to finished product. The area within Derry's walls is seen as a Catholic enclave, chief executive Pearse Moore, who points out that Fountain Ward is partly Protestant, - is keen to keep the Nerve Centre as a place where both communities can work together on projects.
The centre explores the cultural heritage of Northern Ireland through The Symbols Interactive Experience, an educational CD-ROM which covers the common historical ground between unionists and nationalists. "It's re-examining the myths and legends of Ulster and looking, for instance, at the way both communities claim Cu Chulainn as a symbol. We've also created an animation series called Cu Chulainn, which takes Celtic myths and uses them as an allegory for modern politics - that's the subtext there."
The centre is also working on a project called Flipsides, a 65-minute animated satire on cultural stereotypes in the North, which Moore describes as "a Northern Ireland Simpsons".
And if for any reason people won't come to the Nerve Centre, the Nerve Centre will go to them: "We do a lot of projects with rural communities, for instance, John O'Neill has been going out to small towns around the province in search of young bands to include on our CD compilations," says Moore.
The original Nerve Centre was founded by Pearse Moore and Martin Melarkey back in "the dark days of the 1980s", and was a street-level response to the prevailing atmosphere of apathy which threatened to smother Derry's creative air.
The first hint the outside world got that something artistic was afoot in Derry came when the short film, Dance Lexie Dance, made in association with Raw Nerve Productions, was nominated for an Academy Award. The movie world, however, is already in the know, thanks to the Foyle Film Festival, the city's annual celluloid celebration which this year has brought Wim Wenders, Joseph Fiennes, Dervla Kirwan and Jimmy McGovern to Derry. The Nerve Centre's opening last Friday coincided with the closing days of this year's festival, adding nicely to the sense of occasion.
Local Assembly member John Hume was a special guest at the opening ceremony, and though he was still weak following his recent illness, he managed to make a strong if softly-spoken case for Derry becoming a new cultural capital. The town which produced Phil Coulter, Josef Locke and Dana, said Hume, was now ready to be put on the international map; "The timing is expert, because we're leaving this century and, in another arena, we're leaving the past behind us - I certainly hope - and going into a new millennium and a new beginning."
The link between The Nerve Centre and The Undertones was forged when original Undertones guitarist, John O'Neill, began working there in 1990, following the break-up of his second band, That Petrol Emotion.
The Undertones had been toying with the idea of reforming for a while, but when the Nerve Centre's Helena Hasson suggested that the band mark the reopening of the centre with a reunion gig, the idea became a full-on project. Original members Billy Doherty, Mickey Bradley and Damien O'Neill were eager to give it another go, but original singer Fergal Sharkey declined the invitation to rejoin the band. Undeterred, O'Neill & Co. recruited another Derry man, Paul McCloone, to fill the vacant slot, and it looked as though the much-anticipated reunion gig was finally going to happen. There is talk, now, of some festival gigs.
Last Friday night at the Nerve Centre, Derry rock fans witnessed the return of the prodigal punks, and went appropriately bonkers, christening the new venue with sweat, spilt beer and an outpouring of sheer rock'n'roll fervour.
