Teenage Fanclub represent the lost moments

Good guys seldom make it, could be the epitaph to the Teenage Fanclub’s career. (Before you start panicky e-mailing, we are not suggesting anything, we know nothing and don’t dabble in any kind of magic.) No, they haven’t and are not (at this time) splitting up, the point being that the band has placed many a milestone along the musical highway but have hardly ever been recognized for it.

The Best of albums, essentially a ploy to buy some time, a semi-column in a career, rather than rounding up one’s greatest moments for the soundbite hungry future, appears not to be the case here. This is just a review of the past dozen years to highlight the goodies. An introduction and yet more of a reminder of some great musical moments that failed to trouble the charts because the connoisseurs have always known its value. This ‘Shortcut…’ is full of examples of the previously be-loved back catalogue…

The purveyors of ‘slacker-rock’ emerged, although some earlier attempts were made, from Glasgow in 1989 but looked far and away for their musical inspirations, that of the great prairies of American rock with the main one being – The Big Star and its leading light, Alex Chilton. Mixing its major pool of influence with echoes of The Byrds, Beach Boys, Badfinger and Neil Young, doesn’t deny the band’s output.

There are a lot of gems here, from ‘Everything Flows’ (1990, ‘A Catholic Education’) to the blissful groove of ‘My Upright Life’ (2001, ‘Howdy’). The band’s career hit a minor pay dirt with albums ‘Bandwagonesque’ (1991), ‘Thirteen’ (1993), ‘Grand Prix’ (1995) and ‘Songs From Northern Britain’ (1997) when their chart positions progressed from 22 to 3! Singles fared far worse, with ‘Ain’t That Enough’ peaking at 17 in 1997.

Other delights are ‘Neil Jung’, ‘The Concept’, ‘Sparky’s Dream’, ‘What You Do To Me’, ‘Radio’, ‘I Need Direction’, all charming, all celestial, all so polite. That could be the reason behind Teenage Fanclub’s cult status: no scandals, no legal cases, no tabloid-coverage, no (mass) public awareness… Just the music standard and that, alas, ain’t enough these days!

Teenage Fanclub never set out to be innovators but make music they love (to listen to), I remember them claiming once; still, their re-inventions are songs of prominence and merit. So, why is Travis so popular instead of…?

8/10
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Tour Dates:

02 February – Town Hall, Middlesbrough
03 February -- Manchester MDH, Manchester
04 February – Stanley Theatre Liverpool,
05 February – Sugarmill, Stoke
06 February – Metropolitan University, Leeds)
08 February – Leadmill, Sheffield
09 February – Roadmenders, Northampton
10 February – Waterfront, Norwich
11 February – The Junction, Cambridge
13 February – Academy 2, Birmingham
14 February – University Anson Rooms, Bristol
16 February – Wedgwood Rooms, Portsmouth
17 February – Brookes University, Oxford
18/19 February – Astoria, London
21 February – Barrowlands, Glasgow
23 February – Liquid Room, Edinburgh
· 24 February – Lemon Tree, Aberdeen