Good Vibrations

What you just heard was a snippet to the Good Vibrations movie. A story about Terri Hooley but and the Belfast based good vibrations records shop and further record label. Opened in 1977 by Hooley in Great Victoria Street the shop moved various times throughout its tenure as Belfast’s epicentre for punk music and bands including: Stiff Little Fingers, The Undertones and The Outcasts to name a notable few bands to have graced the shops doors. However, despite its shine and polish as Belfast’s premier record shop and music label for its time, it came from incredibly humble beginnings. According to Hooley when reminiscing about how the shop started out, “I set up Good Vibes by buying 1,000 singles for £40 and selling them out of my back bedroom. When there was no space left we took over this derelict building in Great Victoria Street” (88) While being a record shop and label, Hooley also used this to inform punks and gig goers alike to keep them up to date with the latest local records and gigs that were taking place with newsletters produced by Good Vibrations. As well as informing the punks and gig goers of the time, in 1979 there was a Good Vibes Irish Spring Tour in 1979. The line-up including The Tear Jerkers and The Outcasts. However, the Tear Jerkers and The Outcasts weren’t the only bands to work with Hooley. A Derry based punk band The Undertones recorder their EP Teenage Kicks with Good Vibrations. After the success of this EP being played on Radio 1 and further material recorded by The Outcasts, Hooley had set up a splinter label called Good Vibrations International which stayed in line with its punk roots but allowed for some leeway. One such band was Zebra, an Irish Reggae band who had appeared on the labels first 12” single. However, after years of moving from Great Victoria to Wintaven and finally North Street, Good Vibrations finally closed down in 2015 with a service of sorts taking place in the Oh Yeah Centre, also located in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter. While closed down, Good Vibrations was at the heart of Belfast’s punk movement. It even had a stage musical put on in the Lyric Theatre located on Ridgeway Street in Stranmillis, as well as a movie released in 2012.