Teenage Fanclub live in the perfect period of the Sixties when the revolution in the head was upon us. Where the rivers of our visions/ Flow into one another.
The Byrds sang their version of that Gerry Goffin and Carole King masterpiece, Wasn’t Born to Follow in 1968, amidst the peak of the turbulence and chaos of that same period. War and destruction always accompany rebirth and renaissance, as a cosmic principle
Teenage Fanclub encapsulate that sound of Folk Rock captured by the first four or five Byrd’s albums. That was driven by the sounds of Beatlemania and the songs of Bob Dylan, and by the visionary fertile mind of Phil Spector and his little symphonies for the kids.
The band formed in Glasgow at the tail end of the Eighties, with Norman Blake guitar and vocals, Raymond McGinley guitar and vocals, and Gerard Love on bass and vocals.
All shared lead singer duties on the songs they wrote, like the Beatles. Love left six years ago.
Francis Macdonald on drums was there from the start. Dave McGowan came later and played keyboards until he switched to bass with the departure of Love.
The newest member is Euros Childs on keyboards and backing vocals.
Childs performs the support act for the show. Solo, behind his keyboards.
He plays a delightful little set of whimsical, English music-hall styled songs which are reminiscent of the great Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band of the Sixties.
Funny little stories with a satirical edge which come from that deep wellspring of British humour. Almost wrote English.
Turns out he used to be a member of cult Welsh band Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci. He has three albums available on Spotify from 2006 and 2007.
Many of those songs are sung in Welsh. Tonight, he keeps it strictly to English, and echoes Monty Python as well, especially Eric Idle who wrote all their comedy songs (Every sperm is sacred). The Pythons were one sixth Welsh with Terry Jones.
One called Virgin Moon, as he sings about Richard Branson owning the moon. Of course, we all remember I’m the Urban Spaceman, a chart hit for the Bonzo’s as it was produced by Paul McCartney.
He echoes Macca in his vocal style tonight. Happy Coma especially so. His hyperbole is that this was a big hit in Australia (where they have just toured), and everybody sang along to sick and tired of the daily grind/ Happy coma/ Never to wake again.
He starts barking on another and sings about Good Rockin’, Moon Rockin’ and caps it with a startling falsetto bridge.
It is a quiet and studious audience tonight. They look like disgruntled liberal Left academics shell-shocked after the last election.
To their credit they come alive for the Teenage Fanclub when they hit the stage.
That is because they kick off with Home, a single from 2020 and we are immediately inside that classic chiming guitar jangle Pop sound. They extend the vamp with classic guitar riffs that echo like the Turtles and a host of West Coast American Pop bands.
Tired of Being Alone could come straight off the classic first Byrd’s album. It has the structure and resonance of I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better.
About You and they cover the Monkees’ style. A manufactured group but they rebelled against the establishment types and created an enduring legacy. It is appropriate that the Sex Pistols covered their Stepping Stones to prove the point that life imitates art and vice versa.
Alcoholiday and The Concept, from the great Bandwagonesque album, demonstrates their mastery of Beach Boy style harmony singing.
Endless Arcade and Everything is Falling Apart, from the Endless Arcade album of 2021, feature a hard and authoritative bass bottom which open the songs and provides the dynamic power.
The latter song name-drops the lyric I wanna hold your hand.
The sound they are encapsulating is the 1965 to 1966 period. When the Beatles reinvented Pop with Rubber Soul and ushered in Psychedelia with Revolver.
The Beach Boys took it to further heights on Pet Sounds. Much has been discussed and analysed in the wake of this music as a pinnacle yet to be superseded.
The Fanclub are the best band to demonstrate the timelessness of this style of music.
It’s All in My Mind has a huge rhythm section and a Big Country Scottish Pop drone. Naturally. The Fanclub are masters of the Pop drone.
It’s a Bad World and they phrase like the lead singer of Oasis. Liam Gallagher magnanimously called them, the second greatest band in the world! After his of course.
The song features a wah-wah pedal on the lead guitar from McGinley. It sounds like a Funk didgeridoo.
My Uptight Life is also with an Oasis vocal sound, but it could have also come off the Beatles Help! Album.
Many writers talk about the influence of Big Star and Alex Chilton, but I only hear it on the closing song Everything Flows. From their first album A Catholic Education (1990), and it has a bigger dissonant guitar noise of Grunge Pop.
Teenage Fanclub are a perfect band in that they embody and channel an era and style of music which is timeless. We are in a similar period now of turbulence and upheaval at least as big as the Sixties. Which means artists are needed to step up too.
Rev. Orange Peel
Photography by Marc Peretic
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