Teenage Fanclub

Infobox musical artist
Name = Teenage Fanclub


Img_capt = Teenage Fanclub Live in 2003 (Kings Park, Perth, Western Australia)
Background = group_or_band
Years_active = 1989–Present
Origin = Bellshill, Scotland
Genre = Alternative rock Jangle Pop Power pop Baroque Pop
Label = Creation Records Sony Records PeMa Records
Matador
Current_members = Norman Blake Raymond McGinley Gerard Love Francis MacDonald
Past_members = Brendan O’Hare Paul Quinn Finlay MacDonald

Teenage Fanclub are an acclaimed Scottish alternative rock band from Bellshill. 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 [ [http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/teenagefanclub/biography Teenage Fanclub: Biography : Rolling Stone ] ] .

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.

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". The album was produced at great speed in order to fulfil the terms 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 fifth 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. The album was demoed with Duncan Cameron at Riverside Studios (2) in Busby. This must have been some success, as they recorded both versions of the single Neil Jung with him, along with many singles from their back catalogue.

"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.

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 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.

The band have now begun work on their ninth album. They have booked an initial three weeks at Leeders Farm recording studio in Norfolk and will be teaming up with Nick Brine, who will be engineering.. [ [http://www.teenagefanclub.com Teenage Fanclub official website. "Work Starts on a New Album!"] ]

Trivia

*A Teenage Fanclub cover of "Take the Skinheads Bowling" by Camper Van Beethoven is featured in the Michael Moore documentary "Bowling for Columbine".
*Counting Crows covered "Start Again" from "Songs from Northern Britain", and on their unreleased "Under the Covers" album. Regarding the cover, singer Adam Duritz stated that: " [It's] maybe my favorite song by one of my favorite bands, the wonderful Scottish band Teenage Fanclub."
*Norman Blake will soon be releasing his solo album.

Discography

tudio 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
*"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

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

ingles

References

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.

External links

* [http://www.teenagefanclub.com/ Official website]
* [http://home.no.net/teenage/fanclub/ Fanpage with record listing]