The Scotsman

                             June 16, 1995, Friday

SECTION: Pg. 16

LENGTH: 640 words

HEADLINE:  Teenage Fanclub,  The Queen's Hall Edinburgh

BYLINE: By Tom Lappin

 BODY:
    NEVER in the history of facial hair crime has an offence caused as much
outrage as Norman Blake's wispy, gingery beard.

    The trouble is the ugliness of the Blake hirsute appendage almost detracts
from the beauty of some of the music  Teenage Fanclub  unveiled to the world on
the recent Grand Prix album.


    After a brief supporting interlude from Palace Brothers (plaintive,
grunged-up country - pretty fine) Blake and his Bellshill brethren take the
stage to confirm a few long-held assumptions about Scotland's foremost
indie-rock foursome.

    Bassist Gerard Love is one of the finest writers of adrenalin- fuelled,
melodic pop almost-hits this decade. Star Sign, Radio, the recent Sparky's Dream
are effortlessly infectious, but their catchiness is undermined by Love's
chronic inability to sing.

    Second guitarist Raymond McGinlay has added a couple of superior
compositions to the Fanclub repertoire in About You and Verisimilitude but he's
no Jeff Buckley either.

    In the end it is left to Blake to pull the ragged ends together, but his
puppy-dog matiness somehow takes the edge off what, objectively, should be a
killer set.

    Charisma is the missing ingredient, but the tunes are there by the plateful.