From: Adrian Lewis (adrianl@psy.uq.edu.au)


Paper: "Time Off" - Brisbane (Australia) street paper
Author: Matt Connors
Title: "Lads from Northern Britain" (ho ho)


Over their nine year and five album career, Teenage Fanclub 
have been somewhat infrequent visitors to our sunny climes. 

The Glasgow lads first paid a visit in 1992 to promote 
Bandwagonesque, their major label debut and stunning second album. 
To this day, the shows are remembered by many as musical triumphs.

The Fannies didn't return for some two years. Thirteen, the band's 
third LP, had received harsh treatment from some sectors of the 
musical press. The band hastily returned to the studio and recorded
Grand Prix in September of '94. Before it's release in early '95, they
found a hole in their schedule. Australia fitted the bill nicely.

"It must have been December '94, I think," says a loquacious Norman Blake.
"We enjoyed that tour. We had a really good time. It was the second time we'd
been there but it was the first time that we'd been on our own. We had a 
really good time and we really enjoyed it. We're looking forward to coming 
back. It's a perk of the job, that. Gettin' away from home when the weather's 
miserable.

"It's strange for me being in a warm place in December, actually. I guess 
I've kind of grown up with being miserably cold. I guess I kind of like 
it in some ways. A couple of weeks won't do me any harm. I've never spent
Christmas Day or New Year's day away. I'd imagine that's when you'd notice
that it's really weird, when you've got some kind of seasonal celebration 
or special day when it's hot. Like you've got Santa? I bet you see these 
guys being rushed out of department stores wearing red suits, these old men
getting cardio-vascular treatment. I'm sure it'd be pretty strange, but I 
could get used to that too."  
 
This time 'round, Teenage Fanclub are heading South to promote their dazzling 
fifth album, Songs from Northern Britain. An overflowing excursion into a 
world of saccharine melodies and perfect harmonies, it proves that Teenage 
Fanclub are well and truly back. Not that they think about it much. During a 
conversation concerning tha album and tour, things quickly turn to other topics. 
Norman, it seems, just likes to talk.

"I think people are pretty much the same the world over," he muses. "I think 
the are, probably because of things like MTV and stuff like that. And like
the globalisation of companies like Levi's - people are wearing the same
clothes and seeing the same adverts. I'm sure the Pepsi Max adverts you get
are the same as the ones we get. It's probably part of that. People tend to 
be much the same, but it's probably always been pretty much like that anyway,
I suppose."

Surely not all of the world? Are you doing Japan on your way down here?

"Now that's a place that *is* different. It's very strange - a real culture 
shock when we go there, yeah. I think we're going to go for about eight days,
or so. We've done pretty well there over the years. I think it's getting 
different there now. The people are a bit more forward now and are prepared
to come up and dance around at gigs and jump around and go crazy. It's certainly
a really amazing place. I've always reall enjoyed the times I've been there.
Paul and Gerry have said to me before that they really don't like the food in 
Japan so I think for a lot of people going from Japan to Australia is a great
move. I suppose the other thing is that it's really disorientating. You can't 
really get around town unless you speak Japanese and you can't read ths signs
or whatever. You don't realise how much you use those things till you don't 
have them. When we get to Australia, where things are pretty much the same as
they are here in many ways, it can be really good. I've seen people get off the 
plane and get a plate of chips stright away."

As Teenage Fanclub eat their chips at the airport, they can look back at what's 
been a hectic year. Apart from releasing the album, the band has toured the UK
and US, supporting Radiohead in the States.

"We supported them for six weeks in America. It was good fun cause they're really
nice people. They looked after us on the tour and made sure we got a decent amount
of time on stage and gave us good soundchecks and all that. It was really nice.
They were really nice people."

What's the reaction to the new material been like?

"As far as I can tell people are pretty positive. Since we've been around such a 
long time we've built up a bit of a fan base. We tend to get the same people coming
back to see us and hopefully they're bringing a few of their friends along each time.
People seem to like the new songs as well. This has been our most successful album, 
so far. Our last album got to number seven in the British charts and this one got to
number three. I mean, they're in and out - they're in for a day and then they're back
out. It was the best chart entry we've had for an album, so that was good. We'd never
had a single in the top twenty and we got one (for 'Ain't That Enough').

"It's great when you see that people are getting into what you're doing, or whatever,
or coming along to see you. The turnouts for the shows have been better than we've had
for a long time, so that's all good."