Teenage fan club
| Teenage fan club | |
|---|---|
 Teenage fan club live Sonorama |
|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Power pop , alternative rock , indie rock |
| founding | 1989 |
| Website | www.teenagefanclub.com |
| Current occupation | |
| Norman Blake | |
| Gerard Love | |
| Raymond McGinley | |
| Francis MacDonald | |
| former members | |
Drums |
Brendan O'Hare (1990-1994) |
Drums |
Paul Quinn |
Keyboard |
Finlay MacDonald |
Teenage Fan Club is a British indie / alternative rock band that celebrated its greatest success in the 1990s.
Band history
Teenage fan club was founded in the Scottish town of Bellshill . The group emerged in 1989 from the Scottish C86 scene, which also spawned bands like Primal Scream , The Jesus and Mary Chain , The Vaselines and The Pastels . The hard core of the band are Norman Blake (vocals, guitar, keyboard), Raymond McGinley (lead guitar, vocals) and Gerard Love (bass, vocals); these three are also responsible for the songwriting . The drummer was in the original line-up and currently mostly Francis MacDonald, who also often sat on the drums with the BMX Bandits . In addition, many different musicians played with the band on both studio albums and live performances, mostly "old friends" from other Scottish indie bands, such as the Telstar Ponies .
Their first album, A Catholic Education, was still dominated by hard, dissonant guitar sounds and received little attention in the English music press. This changed with the second studio album Bandwagonesque, which was released in 1991 and was enthusiastically received by the music press in Great Britain and the USA. Although it only reached number 137 in the American album charts, it was named the best album of the year by the music magazine Spin , ahead of Nirvanas Nevermind and REMs Out of Time ; in 2006, the NME still listed it at number 79 on its list of the 100 best British albums of all time. The sound of the album clearly showed the influence of American power pop bands of the 70s like the Byrds and especially Big Star , with whom Teenage Fan Club has been compared since then. As a result, the Fannies (so their nickname) played some concerts as an opener for Nirvana; In 1993 they recorded the track Fallin ' with the hip-hop grandees De La Soul for the soundtrack of Judgment Night . Flat, melodic guitars also shaped the band's next two albums, with songs From Northern Britain (1997) and Howdy (2000) the band turned to more folky acoustic sounds after 1997 .
Since Bandwagonesque, the band has gathered a small but loyal fan base, especially in Great Britain and Scandinavia, including the Manic Street Preachers and Liam Gallagher from Oasis ; the latter described in 1997 Teenage Fan Club as "the second best band in the world" (after Oasis). However, there was no great commercial success, the band's highest chart position was only 17th place in the British singles chart with Ain't That Enough in 1997. In 2000 Sony even refused to release the album Howdy! to publish on the American market. It was released a year later by the indie label Thirsty Ear. To this day, Teenage Fan Club can often be seen live, especially in Great Britain. The most recent studio album Here was released in 2016.
Reception in popular culture
The band Angelika Express sings in their song Teenage Fanclub Girl about a flirtation , who replies to the protagonist's question about the “best group of all time” that he likes the Teenage Fanclub very much.
Discography
Albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 UK
|
 US
|
|||
| 1991 | The King |
UK53 (2 weeks) UK |
- | |
| Bandwagonesque |
UK22 (7 weeks) UK |
US137 (4 weeks) US |
||
| 1993 | Thirteen |
UK14 (3 weeks) UK |
- | |
| 1995 | Grand Prix |
UK7th  (6 weeks)UK |
- | |
| 1997 | Songs From Northern Britain |
UK3 (6 weeks)UK |
- | |
| 2000 | Howdy! |
UK33 (2 weeks) UK |
- | |
| 2005 | Man made |
UK34 (2 weeks) UK |
- | |
| 2010 | Shadows |
UK30 (2 weeks) UK |
- | |
| 2016 | Here |
UK10 (2 weeks) UK |
- | |
More albums
- 1990: A Catholic Education
- 2002: Words of Wisdom and Hope! (with Jad Fair )
Compilations
- 1995: Deep Fried Fan Club
- 2003: Four Thousand, Seven Hundred and Seventy seconds; A shortcut to teenage fan club
Singles
| year | Title album |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
|
UK
|
|||
| 1990 | God Knows It's True |
UK99 (1 week) UK |
|
| 1991 | Star Sign Bandwagonesque |
UK44 (2 weeks) UK |
|
| The Concept Bandwagonesque |
UK51 (1 week) UK |
||
| 1992 | What You Do To Me Bandwagonesque |
UK31 (2 weeks) UK |
EP
|
| 1993 | Radio Thirteen |
UK31 (2 weeks) UK |
|
| Norman 3 Thirteen |
UK50 (1 week) UK |
||
| 1994 | Fallin ' |
UK59 (2 weeks) UK |
with De La Soul
|
| 1995 | Mellow Doubt Grand Prix |
UK34 (3 weeks) UK |
|
| Sparky's Dream Grand Prix |
UK40 (2 weeks) UK |
||
| The peel sessions |
UK98 (1 week) UK |
with Frank Black
|
|
| Neil Jung Grand Prix |
UK62 (2 weeks) UK |
||
| Have lost it |
UK53 (2 weeks) UK |
EP
|
|
| 1997 | Ain't That Enough Songs From Northern Britain |
UK17 (3 weeks) UK |
|
| I Don't Want Control Of You Songs From Northern Britain |
UK43 (2 weeks) UK |
||
| Start Again Songs From Northern Britain |
UK54 (2 weeks) UK |
||
| 2000 | I Need Direction Howdy! |
UK48 (2 weeks) UK |
|
| 2002 | Near to You Howdy! |
UK68 (1 week) UK |
with Jad Fair
|
| 2004 | Association |
UK75 (1 week) UK |
|
| 2005 | Fallen Leaves Man-Made |
UK78 (1 week) UK |
More singles
- 1990: Everything Flows
- 1990: Everybody's Fool
- 1990: The Ballad of John & Yoko
- 1992: Free Again / Bad Seeds
- 1993: Hang On
- 1998: Long Shot
- 2001: Dumb Dumb Dumb
- 2002: Did I Say (2002)
- 2005: Scotland on Sunday
- 2005: It's All In My Mind
- 2010: Baby Lee
- 2016: I'm In Love
Web links
- teenagefanclub.com - official website (English)
- Teenage fan club at laut.de.
- Teenage Fanclub at Allmusic (English)
- Teenage Fanclub ( Memento from March 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) at Rolling Stone (English)