The artifice of timelessness is a strange concept, often made the more so when viewed through the distorted prism of contemporary music. A slew of artists – from the pop purity of Abba to Frank Zappa’s Avant-Jazz – have had their signature sound placed in such a context, often erroneously so. But there is one band for whose music the term timeless could well have been invented.
Now some 27 years, and 10 full-length albums into their career, Teenage Fanclub remain just as fresh and alive as when they first emerged blinking into the light out of the darkness of their North Lanarkshire hometown of Bellshill in the late ‘80s. They may well now look as if they would not be remotely out of place sat in the staff room of some Scottish secondary school – keyboard player Dave McGowan’s perennial baseball cap is the only potential clue to their real identities – but by staying true to their fundamental belief in the powerful alchemy of blissful melodies and sun-kissed harmonies their musical spirit has somehow been carefully preserved in time.
With a sound that has been heavily influenced by The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and Big Star, the creative heart of the Fannies still lies with their three principal songwriters. There from the very beginning of Teenage Fanclub life, Norman Blake, Gerard Love and Raymond McGinley’s inventive output may well have slowed down – their latest long player Here is their first album release in more than six years – but as Here firmly attests, they have lost none of their unerring abilities to lace the most abiding melodies with delicately understated traces of sadness and joy. They surely hold the creative balance between sunshine and rain in the collective palm of their hands. As Blake once rightly remarked, “we only get together when it feels right.” And right now it clearly feels just right.
Out on tour in support of the new record, tonight Teenage Fanclub treat us to seven songs from Here in a set that encompasses 22 songs in total and stretches all the way back to their debut album A Catholic Education courtesy of a gloriously grungy and deftly extended final encore of ‘Everything Flows’. That these newer songs sit so comfortably alongside the older material is testament to not only Blake, Love, and McGinley’s enduring friendship but also their unerring ability to consistently craft the most beautifully heartfelt of tunes. The manner in which ‘Ain’t That Enough’ seeps effortlessly into ‘I’m In Love’ belies the fact that they are separated by almost 20 years and that moment alone confirms Teenage Fanclub’s ongoing ageless appeal.
Photo credit: Simon Godley
More pictures from this show can be found HERE
