Peel was a big fan of the Undertones, including their Teenage Kicks single, which was his favourite song of all time. Singer Feargal Sharkey eventually left to join a one-off group with Vince Clarke (formerly of Depeche Mode) and Eric Radcliffe called The Assembly, whose track Never Never reached number 23 on the 1983 Festive Fifty. Peel also played both sides of Sharkey's debut single, on 25 September 1984. While Feargal's solo music career was very commercialised pop, a complete contrast to his punk style as a member of the Undertones, Peel continued supporting him and even praised his voice in the first programme of the Peeling Back The Years series in 1987: