I’ll make no question of it: I worship Teenage Fanclub, moving from England last year, the Fannies are not just one of the many great Scottish bands I love, but just one of my favourite bands.
When it was announced that they were to play the renovated Kelvingrove Bandstand (which the band themselves campaigned for), it was always going to be a special evening, as I had never seen them before; the boys from Bellshill haven’t played Glasgow in three years and judging from the busy crowd upon arrival, you can feel that the city is excited to welcome them back.
Openers, and friends of the headliners, Linden start the evening playing well crafted pop songs that for some reason really strike a lot like late Fanclub (some inexplicable reason).
Their lead singer possesses a fantastic voice, and this carries the band’s effective set of soulful numbers, some from a new record expected early next year.
Not many mistakes here; this is a band that’s professional, and with the singer also alternating between guitar and keys it stands to only highlight the groups comfort in performance, they also tell us they have been working with Edwyn Collins recently, sounds promising.
The grey clouds bleed a little into the night darkening around us, it’s 9pm and still dry, the crowd now considerably larger than before with people streaming in as the buzz around the bandstand grows.
The announcer keeps the introduction short and sweet: that when the approval was given for the organisers to revamp this historic bit of Kelvingrove Park, this moment was their first thought; by now, I’m pretty damn excited.
Teenage Fanclub come out to much applause and go straight into ‘It’s All In My Mind’ from the superb Man-Made, the sound is good and the band proceeds to strut through their shimmering pop, gleaming with summertime on ‘Ain’t That Enough’.
The vocal harmonies by the three exceed even my most fanboy of expectations, the singing in this band is such a massive part of why they have so many fans right around the world, their honeyed vocals soaring over such bright instrumentation, the guitars here sounding with a performance simply honed and perfected over the years.
Over the next half we are treated to classic numbers from Grand Prix and of course Songs From Northern Britain, such as ‘About You’, ‘I Don’t Want Control Of You’ and the shining ‘Don’t Look Back’.
Fanclub then produce such a sweet and euphonious version of ‘Baby Lee’, with such nuance and joy, that I can barely hide my amazement, the three way harmonies just leave you wide eyed, it is exactly what I expected but then so much more.
The setlist seems to be a definite nod to the fans with some unexpected numbers from the considerable Fannies catalog, numbers such as ‘My Uptight Life’ and a real gem for the die-hards in ‘Did I Say’.
Watching Raymond McGinley all the way through all of this, but apart from observing his deft ability in all areas of his playing, you notice how much he is a big drive behind this band, always focused on the beat and rhythm and never missing a trick; making ‘Can’t Feel My Soul’ a freight train of distortion immersed in deep feeling.
It all feels a little too magical as the crowd surges from out of their seats and starts bouncing and dancing to the encore of ‘Everything Flows’, the band now letting loose as the ethereal chords and guitar lines surge on and on; bravo boys, bravo.
Words: Matthew Thomas
Photos: Stewart Fullerton
