Teenage Fanclub have held a consistent place in my listening for more than two decades.
It's an exciting prospect to see the boys from Glasgow, Scotland, perform at The Northern in Byron Bay (12 March).With an amazing back catalog of 12 albums released since the late 1980s, the band is famed for beautiful harmonies and jangly guitars, having written some stunning music in a career spanning more than 30 years.
Best known is probably their 1995 album 'Grand Prix', from which their biggest hit in Australia 'Sparky's Dream' was lifted. However, it was 1991 album 'Bandwagonesque' that broke the band, controversially being voted Album Of The Year by Spin, ahead of 'Nevermind' by Nirvana and U2's 'Achtung Baby', giving some insight into the quality of their music.
The show kicked off with a ten-piece set from the band's keyboard player, Euros Child. It's fair to say the music wasn't well-known by the crowd, but it was a great warm-up act, and to be fair Euros showed great confidence in playing the set.
The set highlights were 'Stuntman' and 2017's ‘Happy Coma’. One thing that ran through Euros' music was experimentation; with 'Stuntman' he was constantly changing key, almost imperceptibly, and to my mind this makes the music more interesting, with the crowd always listening intently, trying to understand what has happened that is slightly unusual.
Euros Child - image © Bill Prendergast
Euros remained onstage, and the other four TF members appeared after a brief interlude. The Fannies kicked off with the lovely 'Tired Of Being Alone' off the latest album, 2023's 'Nothing Lasts Forever'. It's a little melancholy, but a beautiful melodic piece to kick off with.
The boys made clear this was not going to be a super high-energy set with huge amounts of movement on the stage – rather it is a focus on their stunning music, harmonies, guitar, and highlighting their fantastic songwriting.
'About You' followed, the song they play most often at concerts, and the opening song from 'Grand Prix'. 'Foreign Land' from the latest album followed, another piece featuring their jangly guitar and great harmonies.
Teenage Fanclub - image © Bill Prendergast
Guitarist Raymond McGinley took vocals on the next piece, 'Endless Arcade', and I realised that each song featured a different member on the key harmonies, with Norman Blake typically taking the lead vocals. This use of harmony is done so well, and one of the most-known features of their music.
'Alcoholiday' followed, with a much heavier start; it's another of their better-known pieces from the very early 'Bandwagonesque', bassist Dave McGowan running the harmonies (is there a more Scottish name? The Glaswegian accents were very thick, with Euros in particular being difficult to pick up as he conversed with the crowd!).
'Back To The Light' from the latest album – in my view the pick of the record – followed, and 'Falling Into The Sun' really cranked things up, with a lovely chorus-filled solo from McGinley.
'Everything Is Falling Apart' was introduced with lovely shimmering guitar, winding up in similar fashion. 'What You Do To Me' from 'Bandwagonesque' had the crowd singing (screaming!) the vocals. Euros was literally sitting there on this piece, not playing anything on the keyboard, just helping out with harmonies.
Teenage Fanclub - image © Bill Prendergast
In 'It's A Bad World', McGinley employed the wahwah and phaser pedals, giving off a sound that had drawn me to their earlier works, particularly from 'Thirteen'.
'My Up-Tight Life' features a lovely short run at the end of each chorus, and each time Blake plays it, he looks over at bassist McGowan smiling, almost happy that he had pulled it off successfully. 'The Concept' was the closing song of the set, probably the highlight of the evening from a crowd viewpoint, another of their best-known works.
The encore featured four final pieces, best of which was probably 'Middle Of My Mind', where McGinley and Blake looked at each other intensely at the start to get the lovely intro timing right – they nailed it, and did exactly the same at the end of the piece.
'Everything Flows', introduced as their first single, closed out the evening, a much heavier piece, where Blake was seen turning up the amp volume during the solo as the band really pushed the energy into the close.
Teenage Fanclub - image © Bill Prendergast
The Glaswegian boys were described as the best band in world by Nirvana's Kurt Cobain in the early 1990s. They were held up as the second best band by Liam Gallagher, (second only to Oasis, of course!). What a chance to see them run through their repertoire.
The quality and volume of music was apparent as there were still so many songs I love that they didn't feature, but what they did play was brilliant.
The music has held up well, and The Northern is a truly amazing venue to see bands. The boys have aged, there is accordingly less movement and action on the stage than in their youth, but it was a great event, a great way to spend a weeknight in beautiful Byron.
More photos from the concert.
