Good Vibrations features a foot-stompingly good soundtrack of bands including The Outcasts, The Shangri-Las and The Undertones, whose 1979 hit Teenage Kicks is described by Hooley as the song that changed everything for Good Vibrations: “There was going to be no hope in them getting a record because no record companies were going to come to Belfast to see them,” he says. Hooley, a self-described “old hippie” who was the most unlikely person to get involved in the punk scene, got caught up in the movement after seeing band Rudi perform and wanting to put their record out. Which made Hooley’s choice to set us a punk record shop and label on Queen Victoria Street – known as Bomb Alley because it was the most-bombed quarter-mile in Europe at the time – not the obvious one. When you went into the city centre, you were always worried about passing a car in case it blew up, or being shot at. We’d all hung about in the clubs and bars, and then when the Troubles came, Protestants went to the Protestant areas and Catholics went to the Catholics areas, and people tended to stick there. The name Good Vibrations stands in contrast to the very bad vibes which characterised much of Belfast during the 1970s. It was the only city centre in Europe where people just didn’t go out at night. Pubs and clubs were being bombed, and Belfast became very black and white. The 1960s was a wonderful time to grow up in Belfast it very colourful, with lots to do and plenty of gigs the Rolling Stones, The Beatles and Bob Dylan would come and play.Īnd then the Troubles came, and then nobody came over to play in Belfast it was a horrific period in our lives.
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