1998
Teenage Fanclub
Heaven
Reviewed by Murray Bramwell
Liam Gallagher has called them the second best band in the world, but don’t let that put you off. Teenage Fanclub, back again touring yet another strong new album, represent with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of talent the best of UK pop. Since their emergence as The Boy Hairdressers in Glasgow back in 1989 the re-badged Teenage Fanclub has produced a succession of highly regarded albums- from the drolly named Bandwagonesque toThirteen, to the 1995 treasure, Grand Prix and now their latest,Songs From Northern Britain (Sony)
They remind me of XTC. Perhaps it is the songwriting strength in the band and the effortless invention they display. But the vocals, and dreamy lyrics hark back to Songs from Southern California -when the Byrds were jingle-jangling under the guidance of Roger McGuinn, who I gather has had some association with the Fanclub in recent times.
Cranking up at Heaven after a solid set from Ammonia, the band is in extremely likeable form. There is a flock of Fanclub fanclub members in respectful homage at the edge of the stage and founder/ leader /writer/ singer Norman Blake is keen to make aye contact with them all. Suitably, Start Again opens their card – the thrumming bagpipe guitar, slappy drum and overbooming bass unfold as the vocals rise. Gerard Love sings lead with Blake blending the kind of magic harmony which has always given the group a sound greater than the apparent sum of its parts.
The other key to the equation is Raymond McGinley. In earnest horn rimmed specs, he out-proclaims the Proclaimers in the Interesting Geek stakes, but as he shoulders his green Fender it is clear not only that he is a major shareholder in the Fanclub sound but he is the Brains generally. I Don’t Care , he croons as his nerd love ballad builds in lovely gathering chords. Then Norman Blake returns to introduce the band’s First Big Single- Everything Flows, a splendid three part harmonic, augmented with tasteful keyboard flourishes from guest member Finlay McDonald.
The list is a nice blend of Fanclub Ancient and Modern. The Cabbage (from Thirteen) gets an airing, as does Grand Prix‘ s exultant opener, About You, before they return to the current work. Take the Long Way Round with its lilting hook and fetching vocals from Blake and McGinley is followed by Speed of Light, another elegantly constructed Raymond song with keyboard garnishes, natty drumwork from Paul Quinn and an array of pedal sounds from the bespectacled one. It is his birthday, it turns out and Norman, his lank hair flopping in his eyes, leads the groundlings in a few bars of the nativity song.
It’s that kind of night. Relaxed, utterly unpretentious, and the band plays one two-minute-twenty-second wonder after another. Songs likeVerisimilitude, with its awful Ogden Nash rhymes – attitude/platitude/ veris-similitude. Despite this verbal contortion- or actually, because of it- Raymond’s yearning vocal and the pocketful of words in his brain somehow win over. Planets, another northern song, has a slow, almost country melody expanding into cosmic wheels of perfectly aligned harmony. To finish the set they soar through Sparky’s Dream, sixties West Coast pop if ever you heard it – strains of the Association and Buffalo Springfield, with vox angelus from Crosby, Clark and Hillman never far away.
Inevitably, Teenage Fanclub are enticed back for encores. There is a Graney-ish weariness in Can’t Feel My Soul, with Finlay McDonald on transcendental guitar. And for a big finish, The Concept. It is Abbey Road Beatles, really. Orbiting harmonies, rheumy guitar incantations. and mantric lyrics. It could be Golden Slumbers– segueing into Carry That Weight. Except that it also sounds just like Teenage Fanclub- the second best band in the world.
The Adelaide Review, No.172, January, 1998, p.30.