Recently a friend offered me a free ticket for Teenage Fanclub at New Century Hall on Saturday night. Who'd say no to that?
New Century seemed close to sold out and the band were welcomed on stage like returning heroes. In 2018 Gerald Love, bass player and writer of some of their best songs, left the group and Norman Blake and Raymond McGinley have continued since, writing, recording and playing, but haven't played any of his songs. This means that some of TFC's best songs- Sparky's Dream, Star Sign, Don't Look Back, Ain't That Enough and December among them- are off limits. The five man TFC come on stage not long after nine with support act and Gorkys main man Euros Childs on keys and backing vocals. Norman and Ray launch straight into a late period song, Home from 2021, and immediately we're into that Teenage Fanclub sweet spot zone, Glasgow via late 60s West Coast American rock, twin guitars and co- vocals, Buffalo Springfield, Crazy Horse and Big Star all very much in the area.
There's no light show to speak of, no projections, not much in the way of between song patter, just a band playing their songs- and the songs very much do the talking. Early on Metal Baby from Bandwagonesque gets a big crowd response. Mellow Doubt is played as part of a three song acoustic guitar mini- set. There are songs from their full back catalogue, from 1991 and from their latest, Do Not Dare To Dream, and all points in between. They are warm and punchy, the guitars are slightly distorted and the harmonies a little ragged, the drums thumpy and unflashy. It's exactly what TFC should sound like. What You Do To Me is crowd pleasingly loud and the run in to the end of the set hits all the spots- My Uptight Life from 2000's Howdy is sweet and moving. It's A Bad World (from 1998's Songs From Northern Britain) is the penultimate song and a peak and a song that means a lot to me.
Back in 1999 when Isaac was diagnosed with his genetic illness and we were waiting for a bone marrow donor, I drove to and from work for what seemed like many, many weeks contemplating his future and ours. A successful bone marrow transplant was his only hope but also at that point carried a 50% mortality rate risk. I listened to two albums in that period on my car's cassette player (I must have listened to more but these two stand out in my memory)- Songs From Northern Britain and Primal Scream's XLRTR. Weirdly the two songs, one from each album, that really struck me back then as being in some way 'about' Isaac, have both been songs I've heard played live at New Century Hall in the last few weeks- Teenage Fanclub's It's A Bad World and Primal Scream's Keep Your Dreams.
There was something about It's Bad World, the uplifting melodies and Raymond's vocal, the contrast between the verse, 'I've made up my mind/ Life's not unkind', and the chorus. 'It's a bad world', that hit me. Life was indeed unkind and it was also a bad world and yet the song, it's gorgeous guitar lines, the tone and the harmonies, suggested otherwise. Anyway, on Saturday night, it was a bit of a moment. Moist eyes.
They finished the set with The Concept, 1991's TFC calling card, Neil Young and Big Star fed through a noisy blender with those tongue in cheek lyrics about Norman's denim clad girl who is gonna buy some records by the Status Quo, likes the group when they pull in the slack and who don't do drugs but does the pill. Is it a song about the girl or about the group? Both maybe. Who does he love more? The group, I think. The coda, all searing, crunchy twin guitars, three part vocals and thumping drums, is as much a part of 1991 as Screamadelica, Nevermind, Andrew Weatherall and acid house.
A three song encore follows, It's All In My Mind and Can't Find My Soul, more songs about young men's insecurities and the feeling that things just aren't quite right, and then finally Everything Flows from 1990, the group's starting point- major and minor chords, fuzz pedals, early 20s ragged glory and a love of Sonic Youth and Love. The band and much of the audience are middle aged, heavier and losing their hair, and Norman sings, 'Well you get older every year/ But you don't change/ Or I don't notice you changing...', and nearly four decades have flown by and we've all got older every year.
'I'll never know which to flow/ Set a course that I don't know'.
No Gerald, no flashy show, no big deal, in the end it's just Teenage Fanclub playing a bunch of songs that have soundtracked parts of our lives. As Gerald sang, Ain't that enough?
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