BELLSHILL rockers Teenage Fanclub will be ticking a new Glasgow venue off their bucket list next month.  

The alternative rock band will take to the Tramway stage for the first time ever as part of their upcoming UK tour which follows the release of their “reflective” 11th studio album Nothing Lasts Forever on September 22.

Singer and guitarist Raymond McGinley says he “never thought for a second” they would still be recording new music more than three decades after the release of their debut album A Catholic Education in 1990.

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“It’s not something we expected,” he says, “and it’s not something that we in a way have any continuing expectation of.

“We made the first album, but we had no expectations thereafter, other than we wanted to get in a van and drive off to go and play shows in different places.

“But each time we’ve made an album, we don’t assume anyone will still be interested.

“I’ve got no idea if there’ll be another album, but I thought the same thing 30 years ago so we like to try and stay as present as we can.”

Laughing, he adds: “This is better than working for a living. We’re lucky we do this, but we also chose to do this and thankfully we’ve managed to keep doing this.”

Glasgow Times:

In 2021 Teenage Fanclub, which also features band members Norman Blake, Francis Macdonald, Davie McGowan and Euros Childs, released Endless Arcade which became their first Top 10 album since 1997.

One of the recurring themes on Nothing Lasts Forever is light, both as a metaphor for hope and as an ultimate destination further down the road. 

Raymond says: "We never talk about what we’re going to do before we start making a record.

"We don’t plan much other than the nuts and bolts of where we’re going to record and when.

"That thing about light was completely accidental; we didn’t realise that until we’d finished half the songs.

"The record feels reflective, and I think the more we do this thing, the more we become comfortable with going to that place of melancholy, feeling and expressing those feelings."

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The band’s upcoming show on November 5 will be their first time performing at Tramway as they decided to play in places they haven’t played before on their tour.

Raymond explains: “We’re doing a tour of theatre type places which we haven’t done before.

“After 30 years we’re trying to something a little bit different.

“I live in Pollokshields so it’s a neighbourhood show for me.

“The last time I played anywhere close to home was when we played at the Plaza Ballroom in about 1994.”

He continues: “It’s great to play in Glasgow, we always get a great reaction.

“It’s great to be on stage in your hometown and people like what you do.”

So what can the audience expect at next month's show?

“We're lucky as a band that the people who come to see us seem happy to go with us playing the usual mix of new and old stuff,” Raymond says.

“We like to play new songs off this album, the previous album, going all the way back to A Catholic Education, so it will be a mix of stuff.

“Some bands get cursed with one song everyone wants to hear, but we’ve been quite lucky people seem happy for us to do something broader than that.”

Teenage Fanclub will perform at Tramway on Sunday, November 5.

You can find out more HERE.