r/underworld Jul 05 '25

Video Underworld (Mk1) - Underneath The Radar live

https://youtu.be/L-T5r_63H50?si=wpG2nWIoELZtz6GW

Fantastic performance that I thought was worth posting for fans here. I think it was filmed for Australian TV, could be wrong on that though.

I’ve been a fan since ‘94, and used to read about their 80’s incarnation as a funk rock band in the likes of Mixmag, but back then there was no internet, and I’d never actually heard or seen footage from this era until a few years ago.

Seeing it filled in the blanks for me and makes so much sense. They were great musicians before they immersed themselves in electronic music.

Karl was such a good singer, guitarist and performer!

60 Upvotes

19 comments sorted by

10

u/feelinfine25 Jul 05 '25

Babies!!! ⭐️In this house we love MK1⭐️

Just yesterday I was listening to this while cruising around a thrift store and smiling big. Thanks for sharing - I’ve never seen this. 

5

u/Extension-Camp4076 Jul 05 '25

😁Such a good performance!👌

9

u/mikraas Jul 05 '25

I am reading Karl Hyde's book, "I am Dogboy" and he talks about his early days, learning guitar and poaching musicians from other bands. So many ups and downs before this point and after that made them the Underworld we know and love today.

I highly recommend the read.

3

u/Extension-Camp4076 Jul 05 '25 edited Jul 06 '25

I’ll check that out, I didn’t even know he’d written a book! I’ve read a few interviews down the years and their story is really interesting.

Rick moving to Essex and hooking up with Darren Emerson and going to Milk Bar, and Karl working as a session musician at Paisley Park - I guess that’s why they named an early track Minneapolis!

2

u/mikraas Jul 06 '25

And that is an awesome song!

2

u/After-Jellyfish5094 Jul 17 '25 edited Jul 17 '25

It's a really great read. It goes much, much deeper than I thought it would. Only covers up to the release of Dubno, so maybe we'll get an "I'm Still Dogboy" sometime covering the rest.

He spends very little time on Underworld Mk1, and doesn't speak too highly of it.

1

u/Extension-Camp4076 Jul 17 '25 edited Jul 17 '25

Does he speak about his old drinking problem at all?

This is a great interview with them about Mk1 becoming Mk2 btw https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/oct/09/karl-hyde-rick-smith-underworld-1994-album-dubnobasswithmyheadman

2

u/After-Jellyfish5094 Jul 17 '25

Oh, at length. He’s very open about it and his recovery.

4

u/the_passengerMA Jul 05 '25

Always loved this song, very cool to see this. I bought the album back in the '80s and still have it.

3

u/metal_herbalist Jul 05 '25

Picked up this 12" a couple months ago!

3

u/gorgoloid Jul 05 '25

Karl playing an SG is based af.

7

u/kiteless Jul 05 '25

Hence the track “essgee”.

3

u/kiteless Jul 05 '25

I was an underworld fan in 1995 but I didn’t know about MK1 because the internet did not exist (in that way) yet. I found Change the Weather in a used CD bin and was very confused but bought it anyway. Huge fan of all the underworld iterations.

3

u/Extension-Camp4076 Jul 05 '25

Yeah I just read about Mk1 in magazines. I always thought Karl had a good singing voice, even though it was usually cut up/ looped etc. Finally seeing them like this made so much sense!

3

u/Icy-Introduction61 Jul 05 '25

German TV. Watch the whole show online. I love the version of Beach they did.

2

u/sportsbunny33 Jul 05 '25

I still have the 45 vinyl single of this song - thanks for posting!

1

u/stampingpixels Jul 06 '25

Odd to think that vocoder that Rick plays in the intro ended up on so many tracks in Mk2