The Nerves hailed from the Derrybeg estate in Newry and were formed by three bothers (The McCaul’s) who had initially played together as a three piece New Wave band called The Mash. However, by March of 1980 they had been joined by bassist Colin Murphy which gave birth to The Nerves original line up of Pat McCaul (lead guitar, vocals), Tommy McCaul (rhythm guitar, vocals), John McCaul (drums) and Colin ‘Dutch’ Murphy (bass).

They played a number of gigs around their hometown and across the border in nearby Dundalk and the odd foray to Belfast and Dublin. When Colin Murphy duly left the band he was replaced on bass by Connor Sweeney. This new line-up went into Setanta Studios and recorded a demo tape, which they then took to Belfast and left a copy in the Good Vibrations record shop with Terri Hooley.

The tape was left in a pile with countless others and forgotten about for a while. However, when Terri and his DJ friend Davy Simms eventually got round to playing it, they were very impressed. A few days later the group phoned up to ask if they'd heard the tape, and were told yes and did they want it back. When the band went to collect the tape they got a surprise when they were asked if they would like to record an album! Terri and Davy then went down to Newry one Friday night to catch the band live and to arrange a date for them to go into the studio. The demo received considerable airplay from Dave Fanning at RTE Radio and Davy Simms at Downtown.

The Nerves went back to Setanta Studios in Dundalk in late 1980 and recorded 12 tracks for the album that they titled “Notre Demo”. The album was recorded and mixed in 46 hours at a cost of £400. The album was subsequently released on Good Vibrations Records, only the labels second album, as a limited pressing in fifteen hundred and retailed at the knock down price of £2.99. To give the band experience of playing to a large audience, Terri and Davy entered them in a Battle Of The Bands competition in the Ulster Hall, Belfast. They were up against other local bands - Baraka, Natural Touch, Magnum Force, Flight 19 and Richmond Hill. To everyone's surprise and delight, The Nerves won the N. Ireland heat and went on to compete in the national finals in London where they performed at the the Hammersmith Odeon on 1st March 1981.  Their song ‘Back Street Mafia’ was also included on the 'Battle Of The Bands' compilation LP released by RCA in that same year.Two tracks were recorded at the time, in Pluto Studios in Manchester. The plan being that the top three bands in the final would also have a single released in addition to being included on the album. Judges for the final included Phil Lynott, Noddy Holder, Mike Oldfield & Rick Wakeman.You can listen to Back Street Mafia below

A fifteen date Irish tour was scheduled for early 1981 and the album finally came out, carrying with it high expectations that The Nerves might well equal the success of the Undertones. Although the album was well received the band were unable to match the success of other Good Vibrations signings.

The Nerves got back together in early 2020 with the idea of re-recording some of the older songs and previously unreleased material. However, Covid kicked. When it was safe to do so, the band did start working on a number of different ideas. This led them into the Take 6 Studio (Owned by Pat McCaul) and releasing "White Elephant" in December 2020 on all streaming platforms. "Poison Pen" followed in March 2021 and "Hostage" in November 2021. A number of other songs are being worked on with further releases due in 2022.