Teenage Fanclub
are an alternative rock band from Glasgow, Scotland. The band is composed of Norman Blake (vocals, guitar), Raymond McGinley (vocals, lead guitar), Gerard Love (vocals, bass) and Francis MacDonald (drums), with songwriting duties shared equally between Blake, McGinley and Love. In concert, the band usually alternate between the three songwriters (who all sing lead vocals on their own songs) giving equal playing time to each one's songs.
The band's sound relies heavily on chiming, Byrds-esque guitars and harmony vocals [1]. As well as being compared to the Byrds, Teenage Fanclub have also been compared to Big Star and Neil Young. [2]
Teenage Fanclub has had a succession of drummers, including Francis MacDonald, Brendan O’Hare and Paul Quinn, who was later replaced by the returning Francis MacDonald. Keyboardist Finlay MacDonald (no relation) has also been a member.
To date, the band have released eight studio albums, and are currently working on their ninth.
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TEENAGE FANCLUB TICKETS
EVENT | DATE | AVAILABILITY |
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Teenage Fanclub Tickets 5/11 | May 11, 2024 Sat, 6:00 PM | | Teenage Fanclub Tickets 5/12 | May 12, 2024 Sun, 8:00 PM | | Teenage Fanclub Tickets 5/13 | May 13, 2024 Mon, 8:00 PM | | Teenage Fanclub Tickets 5/16 | May 16, 2024 Thu, 8:00 PM | | Teenage Fanclub Tickets 5/17 | May 17, 2024 Fri, 8:00 PM | |
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History
Teenage Fanclub emerged from the Glasgow
C86 scene. Their sound is reminiscent of
West Coast bands like the
the Beach Boys and
the Byrds, and their
seventies counterparts
Big Star. Originally a noisy and chaotic band, their first album
A Catholic Education
is largely atypical of their later sound, with the possible exception of "Everything Flows".
The King
, their next album, received critical reviews; it consisted of a number of self-confessedly shambolic guitar thrashes and an ironic
cover of
Madonna's "Like a Virgin".
Their next album,
Bandwagonesque
, released on
Geffen in the US and
Creation Records in the UK, brought Teenage Fanclub a measure of commercial success. Bandwagonesque was more deliberately constructed, the hooks became stronger, the
guitar riffs were brought under control, and the harmony
vocals took shape.
Bandwagonesque
won
Spin
magazine's 1991 end-of-year poll for best album, beating
Nirvana's
Nevermind
, their Creation stablemates
My Bloody Valentine's album
Loveless
, and
R.E.M.'s hugely successful
Out of Time
.
The subsequent,
Thirteen
, was more grungy than
Bandwagonesque
in style. It suffered scathing reviews on release, possibly motivated by a backlash against the critical praise heaped on
Bandwagonesque
and also instigated in part by the group who, with typical honesty (and probably fatigued by the protracted recording process), did not hide their disappointment with the album from interviewers. Brendan O'Hare left Teenage Fanclub during this period due to "musical differences" to be replaced by
Paul Quinn (formerly of the
Soup Dragons).
Grand Prix
, Teenage Fanclub's fifth album, was both a critical and commercial success in Britain, becoming their first top ten album. Released at the height of
Britpop it almost certainly benefited from being released on the Creation records label. In America however the band failed to regain the ground that
Thirteen
had lost them. Around this time
Liam Gallagher of Britpop giants (and labelmates)
Oasis called the band "the second best band in the world" — second only to Oasis.
Songs from Northern Britain
followed
Grand Prix
and built on the former's success. The album's folky, acoustic sound resonated with listeners, and was their highest charting release in the UK and contains their biggest hit single to date, "Ain't That Enough."
The follow-up album,
Howdy!
, released on
Columbia Records in the UK after the demise of Creation, continued the sound of
Songs from Northern Britain
. The album, however, was poorly marketed and ultimately a commercial failure. Francis MacDonald rejoined as the drummer for the tour supporting the album.
In 2002, they released
Words of Wisdom and Hope
with cult icon
Jad Fair of
Half Japanese.
Their final release on a
Sony label,
Four Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty-Six Seconds - A Shortcut to Teenage Fanclub
, collected the Fanclub's best songs along with three new songs (one from each member).
Their next album,
Man-Made
, was released on 2 May 2005, on the band's own
PeMa
label.
Man-Made
was recorded in Chicago in 2004, and produced by
John McEntire of
Tortoise.
The band began work on their ninth album in August 2008, booking an initial three weeks at Leeders Farm recording studio in Norfolk.
[3] The album is called
Shadows
and will be released on the band's own
PeMa
label.
[4] During Teenage Fanclub's performance at Ben & Jerry's Sundae On The Common festival on 25th July 2009, Norman Blake announced that the album is due for release in January 2010.
[5] Gerard Love is also working on a solo album for release on
Geographic
backed by musicians including Bob Kildea, Tom Crossley, Dave McGowan and Brendan O'Hare.
[4]
Discography
Studio Albums
- A Catholic Education
(1990)
- The King
(1991) #53 UK
- Bandwagonesque
(1991) #22 UK, #137 US
- Thirteen
(1993) #14 UK
- Grand Prix
(1995) #7 UK, #68 Japan
- Songs from Northern Britain
(1997) #3 UK
- Howdy!
(2000) #33 UK
- Words of Wisdom and Hope
(2002) [with Jad Fair
- Man-Made
(2005) #34 UK
- Shadows
(2010)
Compilations
- Deep Fried Fanclub
(1995) [B-Sides Compilation]
- Four Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty-Six Seconds - A Shortcut to Teenage Fanclub
(2003) [Compilation] #47 UK
Singles
Title
| Release date
| Chart Positions
|
U.K. Singles
| U.S. Modern Rock
|
"Everything Flows"
| 1990/1991 (U.S.)
| -
| -
|
"Everybody's Fool"
| 1990
| -
| -
|
"The Ballad of John & Yoko"
| 1990
| -
| -
|
"God Knows It's True"
| 1990
| 99
| -
|
"Star Sign"
| 18 Aug, 1991
| 44
| 4
|
"The Concept"
| 27 Oct 1991
| 51
| 12
|
"The Peel Sessions"
| 1991
| -
| -
|
"What You Do to Me" (EP)
| 2 Feb 1992
| 31
| 19
|
"Free Again" / "Bad Seeds"
| 1992
| -
| -
|
"Radio"
| 17 Jun 1993
| 31
| -
|
"Norman 3"
| 12 Aug 1993
| 50
| -
|
"Hang On"
| 14 Feb 1994
| -
| 19
|
"Fallin'" (with De La Soul)
| 28 Mar 1994
| 59
| -
|
"Mellow Doubt"
| 7 Apr 1995
| 34
| -
|
"Sparky's Dream"
| 15 May 1995
| 40
| -
|
"Neil Jung"
| 21 Aug 1995
| 62
| -
|
"Have Lost It" (EP)
| 1995
| -
| -
|
"Ain't That Enough"
| 30 June 1997
| 17
| -
|
"I Don't Want Control of You"
| 11 Aug 1997
| 43
| -
|
"Start Again"
| 17 Nov 1997
| 54
| -
|
"Long Shot"
| 1998
| -
| -
|
"I Need Direction"
| 9 Oct 2000
| 48
| -
|
"Dumb Dumb Dumb"
| 18 June 2001
| -
| -
|
"Near to You" (with Jad Fair)
| 2002
| 68
| -
|
"Did I Say"
| 2002
| -
| -
|
"Association" (International Airport / Teenage Fanclub)
| 29 Aug 2004
| 75
| -
|
"Fallen Leaves" (Limited to 2,000 copies)
| 30 May 2005
| -
| -
|
"It's All In My Mind"
| 22 Nov 2005
| -
| -
|
Trivia
- The band are affectionately known as "The Fannies" and "The Bellshill Beach Boys"
- In 2006, the band held two special concerts (in London and Glasgow) playing their 1991 album Bandwagonesque
in its entirety.
- Teenage fanclub were regulary name-checked by Kurt Cobain in interview and described by him as "the best band in the world". [7]
- The band revealed at a concert in Belfast in 2009 that they don't have any tribute acts, after an audience member shouted out 'There's only one Teenage Fanclub.'
References
- Teenage Fanclub: Biography : Rolling Stone
- http://www.nme.com/artists/teenage-fanclub
- Teenage Fanclub official website. "Work Starts on a New Album!"
- Twee As Fuck issue 06 July 2009 Gerard Love interview
- Posting on Teenage Fanclub message board
- Twee As Fuck issue 06 July 2009 Gerard Love interview
- http://www.clashmusic.com/live-review/teenage-fanclub:-tennents-mutual