Tuesday, 3 October 2017
715 Hello Teenage Fanclub - Star Sign
Chart entered : 24 August 1991
Chart peak : 44
Number of hits : 16
These lot are another example of a band that couldn't extend its fanbase, only one of their hits managing a third week in the charts.
Teenage Fanclub originated in the Belshill suburb of Glasgow and formed in 1989. Norman Blake was born in 1965 and started a band called The Pretty Flowers which included future Soup Dragon Sean Dickson. They split up and he formed The Boy Hairdressers in 1986 which came to include guitarist Raymond McGinley and drummer Nigel McDonald. They released a three-track EP "Golden Shower" in 1987 with Norman writing all the songs. It's very much in the C86 vein, amateur-ish production, fey lyrics and excruciating off-key harmonies.
Norman also started an on/off relationship with the band B.M.X. Bandits. He played guitar and co-wrote four of the songs on their 1990 LP sarcastically titled "C86". There are one or two good ideas knocking around but the tinny production and raw vocals soon grate.
In any case B.M.X. Bandits were someone else's baby. Duglas T Stewart was in charge and Norman wanted his own outfit, hence the founding of Teenage Fanclub. Norman recruited Raymond and Francis to his new band and added bassist Gerard Love. Francis left during the sessions for their first album but would later return to the band. He was replaced by Brendan O' Hare.
Their debut LP , "A Catholic Education" was released in June 1990 on the Paperhouse record label. It's quite a heavy affair, although the tracks "Heavy Metal " and "Heavy Metal II" aren't quite that, with a sludgy mix of guitars and murky vocals and Velvet Underground and JAMC references. The opening track "Everything Flows" was released as a single and is an interesting mix of glam guitars with echoes of Bowie's Boys Keep Swinging and the sort of drowsy vocals more associated with the shoegazing scene. The song itself is unfocused and somewhat meh but it did indicate their subsequent direction of travel.
In October 1990 they released a live cover of The Beatles' "The Ballad of John and Yoko" recorded in New York that July. There was no B-side just the band's engraved autographs on the flip. The harsh vocals, melodic bass line and metallic sound actually remind me of Joy Division.
In November 1990, they released separate singles in the UK and the US. "God Knows It's True", about saying the wrong thing, is an attractive tune, with some good guitar work from Raymond, rather let down by a murky production. In the US they released "Everybody's Fool" a heavier affair produced by Bob Clearmountain with self-defeating expletives aimed at a junkie clothes horse.
Then Alan McGee came calling and "Star Sign " was their first release on Creation. "Star Sign" was written and sung by Gerard who has a lighter singing voice. The breezy melody is reminiscent of The Byrds while the scuzzy guitars put me in mind of a Husker Du in their poppier moods. The song is a dismissal of New Age superstition with a repeated hookline of "seen it all before". I like it but it was perhaps a little ahead of its time.
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Around this time, TF received praise from Kurt Cobain and it looked like they would be huge in the States. However, label antics saw "Bandwagonesque" stall after initial strong sales and they never made a serious dent over there again.
ReplyDeleteI'm a huge fan, in any case.