Teenage Fanclub

Teenage Fanclub is a Scottish alternative rock band from Bellshill, near Glasgow, formed in 1989.

Overview

The Teenage Fanclub is revered by power-pop fans for their devotion to chiming, Byrds-esque guitars and harmony vocals. They are also known affectionatly as "The Fannies" and "The Bellshill Beach Boys"

Songwriting duties are shared between the three permanent members of the group:

In concert, they usually alternate between the three songwriters (whom all sing lead vocals on their own songs). Despite the prevalence of harmonies on the album versions of songs, only Blake sings harmony in concert.

There have been a succession of drummers, including:

Francis MacDonald (a prime-mover in the C86 scene, later of the BMX Bandits), the drummer in the original lineup, and in a later period
Brendan O’Hare (later of the Telstar Ponies and Mogwai), and
Paul Quinn, who was later replaced by the returning Francis MacDonald.

Keyboardist Finlay MacDonald (no relation to Francis MacDonald) has also been a member.

Background

Teenage Fanclub emerged from the Glasgow C86 scene. Their sound is reminiscent of West Coast bands like the Beach Boys and 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, was widely panned; it consists of a number of self-confessedly shambolic guitar thrashes and an ironic cover of Madonna's "Like a Virgin" (also demolished by Sonic Youth in their Ciccione Youth guise). The album was produced at great speed in order to fulfil the terms (although not the spirit) of an existing American record deal with Matador Records.

Their next album Bandwagonesque, released on Geffen in the US and Creation Records in the UK, brought Teenage Fanclub commercial success. The album 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 follow-up, Thirteen, is more grungy than Bandwagonesque in style; it suffered scathing reviews at the time of 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" and was replaced by Paul Quinn (formerly of the Soup Dragons).

Grand Prix, Teenage Fanclub's fourth album, was both a critical and commercial success in Britain becoming their first top ten album. It was released at the height of britpop and almost certainly benefitted from being released on Creation records. In America they 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, of course, only to his own outfit.

Songs From Northern Britain followed Grand Prix and built on the former's success. The album's folky, acoustic sound resonated with listeners, as it is their highest charting release in the UK and contains their biggest hit single to date (Ain't That Enough).

Their next 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 was a commercial failure. Francis MacDonald rejoined as the drummer for the tour supporting the album.

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).

A new album, Man-Made, was released on May 2, 2005 on the band's own PeMa label. "Man-Made" was recorded in Chicago in 2004, and produced by John McEntire of Tortoise.

Discography

Albums

A Catholic Education (1990)
The King (1991) #53 UK
Bandwagonesque (1991) #22 UK, #137 US
Thirteen (1993) #14 UK
Deep Fried Fanclub (1995) Compilation
Grand Prix (1995) #7 UK
Songs From Northern Britain (1997) #3 UK
Howdy! (2000) #33 UK
Words of Wisdom and Hope (2002) Jad Fair
Four Thousand Seven Hundred And Sixty-Six Seconds - A Shortcut To Teenage Fanclub (2003) ^* #47 UK
Man-Made - (2005) #34 UK

Singles

"Everything Flows" - (7" UK 1990, CDS US 1991)
"Everybody's Fool" (7") - (1990)
"The Ballad of John & Yoko" - (1990)
"God Knows It's True" - (1990)
"Star Sign" - (August 18, 1991) #44 UK
"The Concept" - (October 27, 1991) #51 UK
"The Peel Sessions" - (1991)
"What You Do To Me" (EP) - (Feb 2,(1992) #31 UK
"Free Again / Bad Seeds" (7") - (1992)
"Radio" - (June 17, 1993) #31 UK
"Norman 3" - (August 12, (1993) #50 UK
"Hang On" - (February 14, 1994)
"Fallin'" - (March 28, 1994) #59 UK
"Mellow Doubt" - (April 7, 1995) #34 UK
"Sparky's Dream" - (May 15, 1995) #40 UK
"Neil Jung" - (August 21, 1995) #62 UK
"Ain't That Enough" - (June 30, 1997) #17 UK
"I Don't Want Control Of You" - (August 11, 1997) #43 UK
"Start Again" - (November 17, 1997) #54 UK
"I Need Direction" - (October 9, 2000) #68 UK
"Dumb Dumb Dumb" - (June 18, 2001)
"Association" - (August 29, 2004) #75 UK
"Fallen Leaves" - (May 30, 2005) {Limited to 2,000 copies}
"It's All In My Mind" - (November 21. 2005)

External links