The Guardian

                                  June 5, 1995

SECTION: THE GUARDIAN FEATURES PAGE; Pg. T8

LENGTH: 520 words

HEADLINE: ARTS: POP:  TEENAGE FANCLUB;
Shepherd's Bush Empire

BYLINE: Adam Sweeting

 BODY:
    YOU CAN tell a lot about a band from their choice of cover versions. As
their tumultuous set rampaged to a close,  Teenage Fanclub  ripped through Alex
Chilton's Free Again, and a souped-up version of the Beatles' Rain. The Teenies
have never made any secret of where they're coming from. More to the point,
they've rediscovered a clear idea of where they're going.

    If 1991's Bandwagonesque seemed too epic not to herald a major breakthrough,
the subsequent Thirteen found the Fanclub travelling if not in reverse, then at
least sideways. But now it's 1995 and they've made Grand Prix, an album which
perfectly distils so many golden pop moments that it's as if it has always
existed, in theory if not in fact. They seem to have heeded their own advice,
included in the opening track, About You: "take my time and I can find my way".
    Reservations have been expressed in some quarters about Norman Blake's newly
-acquired beard, which does have the alarming effect of making the guitarist a
dead ringer for Richard Branson if you're standing further than 10 feet away.
However, it also lends an air of mild surrealism to his antics as master of
ceremonies, as Blake rabbits on about his band, the press, and the new album.

    Where Grand Prix (the disc) sounds crunchy and crystalline, the live sound
is beefier and growlier, as if they've sampled in some roars and howls from a
Formula 1 pit-lane. The vocal harmonies are rougher and less pretty, while their
playing stampedes along with remorseless muscularity. Grunge? Pah! The Fanclub
have chewed it up and spat it out.

    As the front rows bounced and heaved under dramatic washes of green and blue
light, the band peeled off short, sharp highlights from their catalogue - a
choppy What You Do To Me, a sprawling Alcoholiday, an adorably janglesome
Sparky's Dream.  At the moment,  Teenage Fanclub  are playing the game of their
lives. Tomorrow, the world?