are a
Scottish Alternative Rock band from
Bellshill , near
Glasgow , formed in
1989 .
Teenage Fanclub are revered by power-pop fans for their devotion to chiming,
Byrds -esque guitars and
Harmony Vocals . They are also known affectionately 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 (who all sing lead vocals on their own songs) giving equal playing time to each one's songs. The prevalence of harmonies on the album versions of songs is strongly demonstrated in their live concerts. In concert, Love will sing the harmony vocals on the songs where Blake sings the melody, with Blake providing the harmonies when McGinley and Love sing lead.
In 2006, the band held two special concerts (in London and Glasgow) playing their 1991 masterpiece Bandwangonesque in its entirety.
There have been a succession of drummers, including:
- Paul Quinn , who was later replaced by the returning Francis MacDonald.
Keyboardist Finlay MacDonald (no relation to Francis MacDonald) has also been a member.
Teenage Fanclub emerged from the Glasgow
C86 scene. Their sound is reminiscent of
West Coast Band s 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 ''Ciccone Youth'' guise). 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 Riff s 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 (Producer) 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).
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 .
- "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) #99 UK
- "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) #39 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 22 . 2005 )
