Biography Teenage Fanclub
Teenage Fanclub are an alternative rock band from Bellshill, Scotland. The band is composed of Norman Blake (vocals, guitar), Raymond McGinley (vocals, lead guitar), Gerard Love (vocals, bass) and Francis MacDonald (drums), with songwriting duties shared equally between Blake, McGinley and Love. In concert, the band usually alternate between the three songwriters (who all sing lead vocals on their own songs) giving equal playing time to each one's songs.
The band's sound relies heavily on chiming, Byrds-esque guitars and harmony vocals Teenage Fanclub: Biography : Rolling Stone. As well as being compared to the Byrds, Teenage fanclub have also been compared to Big Star and Neil Young. http://www.nme.com/artists/teenage-fanclub
Teenage Fanclub has had a succession of drummers, including Francis MacDonald, Brendan O’Hare and Paul Quinn, who was later replaced by the returning Francis MacDonald. Keyboardist Finlay MacDonald (no relation) has also been a member.
To date, the band have released eight studio albums, and are currently working on their ninth.
Their next album, Bandwagonesque, released on Geffen in the US and Creation Records in the UK, brought Teenage Fanclub a measure of commercial success. Bandwagonesque was more deliberately constructed, the hooks became stronger, the guitar riffs were brought under control, and the harmony vocals took shape. Bandwagonesque won Spin magazine's 1991 end-of-year poll for best album, beating Nirvana's Nevermind, their Creation stablemates My Bloody Valentine's album Loveless, and R.E.M.'s hugely successful Out of Time.
The subsequent, Thirteen, was more grungy than Bandwagonesque in style. It suffered scathing reviews on release, possibly motivated by a backlash against the critical praise heaped on Bandwagonesque and also instigated in part by the group who, with typical honesty (and probably fatigued by the protracted recording process), did not hide their disappointment with the album from interviewers. Brendan O'Hare left Teenage Fanclub during this period due to "musical differences" to be replaced by Paul Quinn (formerly of the Soup Dragons).
Grand Prix, Teenage Fanclub's fifth album, was both a critical and commercial success in Britain, becoming their first top ten album. Released at the height of Britpop it almost certainly benefitted from being released on the Creation records label. In America however the band failed to regain the ground that Thirteen had lost them. Around this time Liam Gallagher of Britpop giants (and labelmates) Oasis called the band "the second best band in the world" — second only to Oasis.
Songs from Northern Britain followed Grand Prix and built on the former's success. The album's folky, acoustic sound resonated with listeners, and was their highest charting release in the UK and contains their biggest hit single to date, "Ain't That Enough."
The follow-up album, Howdy!, released on Columbia Records in the UK after the demise of Creation, continued the sound of Songs from Northern Britain. The album, however, was poorly marketed and ultimately a commercial failure. Francis MacDonald rejoined as the drummer for the tour supporting the album.
In 2002, they released Words of Wisdom and Hope with cult icon Jad Fair of Half Japanese.
Their final release on a Sony label, Four Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty-Six Seconds - A Shortcut to Teenage Fanclub, collected the Fanclub's best songs along with three new songs (one from each member).
Their next album, Man-Made, was released on 2 May 2005, on the band's own PeMa label. Man-Made was recorded in Chicago in 2004, and produced by John McEntire of Tortoise.
The band began work on their ninth album in August 2008, booking an initial three weeks at Leeders Farm recording studio in Norfolk. Teenage Fanclub official website. "Work Starts on a New Album!"
British alternative rock groupsCreation Records artistsPower pop groupsScottish rock music groups1990s music groups
Teenage FanclubTeenage FanclubTeenage Fanclubティーンエイジ・ファンクラブTeenage FanclubTeenage Fanclub青春歌迷俱乐部
The band's sound relies heavily on chiming, Byrds-esque guitars and harmony vocals Teenage Fanclub: Biography : Rolling Stone. As well as being compared to the Byrds, Teenage fanclub have also been compared to Big Star and Neil Young. http://www.nme.com/artists/teenage-fanclub
Teenage Fanclub has had a succession of drummers, including Francis MacDonald, Brendan O’Hare and Paul Quinn, who was later replaced by the returning Francis MacDonald. Keyboardist Finlay MacDonald (no relation) has also been a member.
To date, the band have released eight studio albums, and are currently working on their ninth.
Background
Teenage Fanclub emerged from the Glasgow C86 scene. Their sound is reminiscent of West Coast band like the Beach Boys and Byrds, and their seventies counterparts Big Star. Originally a noisy and chaotic band, their first album A Catholic Education is largely atypical of their later sound, with the possible exception of "Everything Flows". The King, their next album, received critical reviews; it consisted of a number of self-confessedly shambolic guitar thrashes and an ironic cover of Madonna's "Like a Virgin".Their next album, Bandwagonesque, released on Geffen in the US and Creation Records in the UK, brought Teenage Fanclub a measure of commercial success. Bandwagonesque was more deliberately constructed, the hooks became stronger, the guitar riffs were brought under control, and the harmony vocals took shape. Bandwagonesque won Spin magazine's 1991 end-of-year poll for best album, beating Nirvana's Nevermind, their Creation stablemates My Bloody Valentine's album Loveless, and R.E.M.'s hugely successful Out of Time.
The subsequent, Thirteen, was more grungy than Bandwagonesque in style. It suffered scathing reviews on release, possibly motivated by a backlash against the critical praise heaped on Bandwagonesque and also instigated in part by the group who, with typical honesty (and probably fatigued by the protracted recording process), did not hide their disappointment with the album from interviewers. Brendan O'Hare left Teenage Fanclub during this period due to "musical differences" to be replaced by Paul Quinn (formerly of the Soup Dragons).
Grand Prix, Teenage Fanclub's fifth album, was both a critical and commercial success in Britain, becoming their first top ten album. Released at the height of Britpop it almost certainly benefitted from being released on the Creation records label. In America however the band failed to regain the ground that Thirteen had lost them. Around this time Liam Gallagher of Britpop giants (and labelmates) Oasis called the band "the second best band in the world" — second only to Oasis.
Songs from Northern Britain followed Grand Prix and built on the former's success. The album's folky, acoustic sound resonated with listeners, and was their highest charting release in the UK and contains their biggest hit single to date, "Ain't That Enough."
The follow-up album, Howdy!, released on Columbia Records in the UK after the demise of Creation, continued the sound of Songs from Northern Britain. The album, however, was poorly marketed and ultimately a commercial failure. Francis MacDonald rejoined as the drummer for the tour supporting the album.
In 2002, they released Words of Wisdom and Hope with cult icon Jad Fair of Half Japanese.
Their final release on a Sony label, Four Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty-Six Seconds - A Shortcut to Teenage Fanclub, collected the Fanclub's best songs along with three new songs (one from each member).
Their next album, Man-Made, was released on 2 May 2005, on the band's own PeMa label. Man-Made was recorded in Chicago in 2004, and produced by John McEntire of Tortoise.
The band began work on their ninth album in August 2008, booking an initial three weeks at Leeders Farm recording studio in Norfolk. Teenage Fanclub official website. "Work Starts on a New Album!"
Discography
Studio Albums
- A Catholic Education (1990)
- The King (1991) #53 UK
- Bandwagonesque (1991) #22 UK, #137 US
- Thirteen (1993) #14 UK
- Grand Prix (1995) #7 UK, #68 Japan
- Songs from Northern Britain (1997) #3 UK
- Howdy! (2000) #33 UK
- Words of Wisdom and Hope (2002) Jad Fair
- Man-Made (2005) #34 UK
Compilations
- Deep Fried Fanclub (1995) Compilation
- Four Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty-Six Seconds - A Shortcut to Teenage Fanclub (2003) [1] #47 UK
Singles
Trivia
- The band are affectionately known as "The Fannies" and "The Bellshill Beach Boys"
- In 2006, the band held two special concerts (in London and Glasgow) playing their 1991 album Bandwagonesque in its entirety.
- Teenage fanclub were regulary name-checked by Kurt Cobain in interview and described by him as "the best band in the world".http://www.clashmusic.com/live-review/teenage-fanclub:-tennents-mutual
References
External links
British alternative rock groupsCreation Records artistsPower pop groupsScottish rock music groups1990s music groups
Teenage FanclubTeenage FanclubTeenage Fanclubティーンエイジ・ファンクラブTeenage FanclubTeenage Fanclub青春歌迷俱乐部
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenage Fanclub
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
Links
http://en.sonorika.com/teenagefanclub/biographyhttp://en.bioandlyrics.com/teenagefanclub
