TEENAGE FANCLUB’S NORMAN BLAKE AND RAYMOND McGINLEY DISCUSS MORTALITY, ENJOYING ICE CREAM WITH NIRVANA AND THE MIXED BLESSING OF NEVER QUITE HITTING IT HUGE
By Jon Wiederhorn
THERE WAS Atime at the dawn of the alternative rock explosion when Scottish quartet Teenage Fanclub seemed destined for rock stardom. They toured with Nirvana, performed on Saturday Night Live, and Spin rated Bandwagonesque as the best album of 1991, ahead of Nirvana and R.E.M. Suddenly, every media outlet wanted a piece of the bedraggled, jangly rockers, who were touted as alt-rock saviors.
“It was a really exciting time for us,” says guitarist and vocalist Norman Blake. “We got to tour the world and play these amazing places. We played a huge venue in Stockholm, and after Nirvana’s soundcheck we left with them and found a little play park. We all bought ice cream cones and ate them sitting on this swing set. That was really memorable because in the middle of all this craziness, we had this private, innocent moment with these nice, friendly people from America.”
Critics and alt-rock purists embraced Teenage Fanclub, but Bandwagonesque was ultimately a sales disappointment for the record company, which hoped it would be platinum within a few months. For Teenage Fanclub, however, the album allowed them to keep playing shows and recording music, which was all they had ever strived for.
“I’ve always felt we’ve been quite lucky,” says lead guitarist and vocalist Raymond McGinley. “Maybe a lot of people see us as a band that should’ve been more successful. But that’s not a bad perception to have because it means they think you’re good and you didn’t get what you deserved. In our minds, we never expected to go platinum. That was never a goal. We’ve gotten to be a band for 34 years and make a living doing it — and we’re still going.”
“We never went into this band with any expectations, so as a consequence of that we’ve never been disappointed,” Blake adds. “There are endless accounts of people saying, ‘Well, if the record company had done this or that, they would have been huge.’ But we’ve never thought that way. We just love making music together.”
Teenage Fanclub’s positivity and sustained enthusiasm for their craft has been the key to their survival and cult-level success. Since the release of Bandwagonesque, they’ve
