TFC on the radio

Set your alarms-on-phones type things: Teenage Fanclub are doing a session for Vic Galloway on Bank Holiday Monday. BBC Radio Scotland.

Teenage Fanclub dates for your diary or iCal or whatever it is you use

Three Teenage Fanclub sessions coming up later this month:

# May 26th – Live in session with Radcliffe and Maconie on BBC Radio 2
# May 27th – Live in session with Marc Riley on BBC Radio 6 Music
# June 9th – Live in session with Lauren Laverne on BBC Radio 6 Music

Downloadable: Teenage Fanclub

A treat from RCRDLBL today: Baby Lee, a track which will be well-known to Marc Riley fans as it's been floating about on his 6Music show for about a year. Yes, it's early fruits of the new Teenage Fanclub album.

[Buy: A Catholic Education]

Tour dates: Teenage Fanclub

Oh, and while we're reviving the 90s, Teenage Fanclub are off on tour:

May 1st – Koko, London
May 27th – The Academy 2, Manchester
May 28th – The Leadmill, Sheffield
May 30th – The Academy, Dublin
June 1st – The Warehouse, Aberdeen
June 2nd – ABC, Glasgow
June 3rd – The Liquid Room, Edinburgh
June 4th – The Cockpit, Leeds
June 6th – The Academy, Bristol
June 7th – The Academy 2, Birmingham

And that's probably all the excuse we need to post this:

Teenage Fanclub weekend: ATP

From earlier in the year, this is Teenage Fanclub doing Don't Look Back at the behest of The Breeders, at All Tomorrow's Parties:



[Part of Teenage Fanclub weekend]

Teenage Fanclub weekend: Reading 1991

One of the joys of YouTube is the transfer of old VHS tapes to digital, bringing with it crystal clear clarity of how ropey the original recording was. This, squirreled away in the analogue past, is a three chunk piece of TFC's 1991 Reading set, starting with the mighty God Knows It's True, then The Concept (again) and Satan:



[Part of Teenage Fanclub weekend]

Teenage Fanclub weekend: What You Do To Me

More from the Fanclub - this is 1981's What You Do To Me:

Teenage Fanclub-What You Do To Me (1991)
by yrascals

[Part of the Teenage Fanclub weekend]

Embed and breakfast man: Teenage Fanclub

It's possible to spend too much time with your head in your hands at the thought of late-period Creation Records, dominated by the supermarket white bread of Oasis. It's worth remembering, though, that the label also found space for a lot of artisan loaves in its oven. Not least with the lifelines thrown to The Boo Radleys and Teenage Fanclub, which extended the lives of interesting bands and gave them the space to create some interesting, memorable stuff.

Kurt Cobain once called them the best band in the world - and although, to be fair, that was a plaudit he handed out the way Jim Jones distributed poisoned squash, he was usually quite wise in where he bestowed it.

This weekend, let's pay tribute to the Fanclub. Still a going concern after two decades, there's to be a new album this year.

First up, this is The Concept. A concept single, from the non-concept album Bandwagonesque:



A Teenage Fanclub education
Teenage Fanclub play the Sundae On The Common in Clapham on the 25th July.
Official site
Teenage Fanclub on MySpace
Teenage Fanclub on LastFM
Teenage Fanclub on Spotify
Teenage Fanclub on Wikipedia

Buy Teenage Fanclub
Songs From Northern Britain | Download Songs From Northern Britain
Bandwagonesque | Download Bandwagonesque
Thirteen | Download Thirteen

More videos across the weekend
What You Do To Me
Live: Reading 1991
Don't Look Back live at All Tomorrow's Parties

Daniel Johnston and his chums

The package tour. Besides the over-sugared NME affairs and 80s specials, you don't get many packages any more. Daniel Johnston is doing his best to revive the concept, though, with a UK and European jaunt featuring short sets from Scout Niblett, Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse, James McNew of Yo La Tengo, Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub and Jad Fair of Half Japanese. The friends will also provide backing band duties for Daniel during his headline set. You'll want to know the dates, of course:

18th July - berns, stockholm
19th July - sticky fingers, gothenburg
20th July - rockefellar, oslo
23rd July - Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow
24rd July - New Century House, Manchester
25th July - Indigo2, Millennium Dome, Greenwich
26th July - BBC Maida Vale Session - no fee
27th July - Whelans, Dublin
28th July - Whelans, Dublin

Embed and breakfast man: The TAM Commandments weekend

Back in 1993, when the New Wave Of New Wave was desperately trying to cope with the weight of being The Coming Thing, These Animal Men issued their Ten Commandments. This weekend, we bring you those Commandments, in full, each illustrated with a video which may support or knock down their suggestion. We'll get to TAM themselves , ooh, somewhere late on Sunday.

The commandments, in case you forgot to laminate them and carry them around with you at all times, are:

1. Get a Catholic education - represented by Teenage Fanclub
2. Poor is beautiful - represented by Pulp
3. Respect is earned - represented by Erasure
4. Never tell your parents - represented by Shinowa
5. Don't be ashamed of your adolescence - represented by Suede
6. If you've got it, flaunt it - represented by Marine Research
7. Love's good, but not as good as wanking - represented by Dubstar
8. Amphetamines are where it's at - represented by These Animal Men
9. Never trust a crusty - represented by Chumbawamba
10. Taboo is a dirty word - represented by Luke Haines

So, number one: Get a Catholic education. Or, rather, get A Catholic Education, Teenage Fanclub's 1990 album. This is Everything Flows from that album, performed live for the much-missed Snub TV:

More Morag

Last Monday, Teenage Fanclub in Manchester:

I made huge efforts to get to the uni (oops. Sorry academy 2) early because I've got a crush on vera cruse. Because i'm so early I loiter and talk to the guy on the door who hollered 'alright trouble. i didnt think it was country and western night tonight' and then I'm pissed off when I realise they started at 7.45 but that soon evaporates when I realise its becuase there's going to be a Eugene Kelly set too. Wooooooo-hooooooooo!

I catch the last couple of vera cruse songs and find it hard to explain to myself just why they matter to me. Its another Scottish guitar band who like nirvana?but so what? They are more than that and I love them for that special something that means they do it for me. Pure and simple.

Next up its Eugene Kelly, an unexpected and quite wonderful treat.
Vera Cruse are his backing band for a set of what he calls `old man's blues' He ploughs his usual miserable, melodic and wittily perceptive furrow. I love him. When he walked on stage a few people cheered very loudly - I was one of them - but most people ignored him. He shrugs and says "that's showbiz". The first song is my favourite, I think it's new. It begins "stop the press/ I'm in a mess/ I kissed a girl to shut her up/ it didn't work." He declines requests to play any captain America tunes but does tell us he used to be in a band called the vaselines. Someone cheers and he
says "Was it really that great? I don't think so." He plays a
fantastic version of 'Jesus don't want me for a sunbeam' and an audible murmur goes up from the crowd "listen. He's playing a nirvana song" Bah. Try opening your ears. No matter; I feel smug and deeply content. If only the bmx bandits were here too I'd be in heaven.

It's easy to forget just how brilliant the fannies can be. I mean they've been putting out consistently great records for so long I kind of take them for granted; they always hover just outside my top ten. Perhaps it's because, whilst they always delight, they tend to lack the ability to surprise and awe. This means they can appear a bit workmanlike on occasion - they do so tonight once or twice - but truly I think it's a case of they know what they like and what they
can do. And they really do do it pretty fucking well. I wish critics would get over the Byrds comparisons; yes they clearly love west coast harmonies but they turn them into touchy and poignant songs about northern Britain. And that means more to me than mr tambourine man ever will.

Within a minute of appearing on stage `God knows it's true' kicks in and all at once my faith is restored; what a fantastic record. Timeless and with a hook that buries itself deep into your heart.

Norman promises us songs from every album; by the time they reach the final sparky's dream they have more than fulfilled the promise. I think it was perhaps skewed towards earlier stuff but maybe that's just me, because these are the songs I cherish most. Nothing disappointed. They did a cracking version of verisimilitude, which is my favourite fannies song, and when they sang "what you do to me' I felt an unexpected lump in my throat: memories of indie discos of yore when boys looked like girls and girls all looked pretty.

The biggest problem was finding a space to dance and a gap in the setlist so I could nip to the bar. The room was packed; busier than I've seen for ages, its good to see they inspire such love. I was at the front for a long time but eventually moved back and was very irritated by someone talking VERY LOUDLY behind me. I wondered why no-one asked them to shut up but then realised the culprit looked suspiciously like Manchester's number one twat in hat and mindful of what happened last time I simply moved again.

Of course there was an encore - it was obvious not least because the most requested song hadn't been played yet -so they returned after Norman had `nipped out for a wee'. Everything flows was majestic, and then, finally, came a singalonga version of The Concept. It's got to be a contender for best opening lines ever:
"she wears demin wherever she goes/ I think she's gonna get a record by the status quo/ oh yeah. Oh yeah. Says she won't be forced against her will/ she don't do drugs but she's on the pill/ oh yeah / Oh yeah. I din't mean to hurt you ooooh yeah..."

fucking genius.

I leg it out quickly, I don't want to have a taxi battle, and at the bottom of the stairs some smiley people are giving out flyers. I take one and think nowt; then I look again; its vera cruse and of course I have to say something. The singer is nearest so I say "excuse me, I think you're brilliant"; he looks deeply bemused when, for some reason, I start wittering on about how I got here really early and still missed half the set but saw them on the loose tour and really loved the album', I realise he now looks a wee bit
scared so I say `aw, don't worry. I'm just super geeky indie girl' and then he looks relieved and thanks me and says I'm not a geek. And then I run off.

Outside there is a blanket of snow. I had no idea. It looks
beautiful and I start laughing but then think oh fuck. There's hardly any cars about. How am I going to get home? I start trudging up oxford road and by chance a cab pulls up. It seems to be the only taxi running in Manchester. I go home feeling deeply content with
being alive.