Teenage Fanclub have come a long way from their humble beginnings on the fringes of shoegaze, and looking back, it’s interesting to observe their gradual shift towards a more melodic sound as Norman Blake and Gerard Love matured as song writers. A trio of releases adjacent to Britpop – 1993’s ‘Thirteen’, 1995’s ‘Grand Prix’ and 1997’s ‘Songs From Northern Britain’ – brought major success and enthusiastic press, and it’s easy to hear why. On those records, the band added a world of melody to their guitar dominated sound, creating the almost perfect 60s homage for the delight of 90s music fans. Decades on, they are albums that still stand up among the era’s very best.
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RECORD STORE DAY 2019: Real Gone’s top picks
When Record Store Day first began, it was a great idea. Those who were regulars at independent record shops like Avalanche in Edinbugh and Resident in Brighton could potentially get their hands on very limited, exclusive items. It was a celebration of record buying culture, more than anything. Over the years the event has grown. After all of the major labels sensed a potential cash cow, it increasingly became about reissuing stuff en masse at inflated prices.
Record Store Day has become an event full of mixed feelings. There are now tales of people not actually visiting their local (and favourite) stores on RSD as the crowds of unfamiliar faces have made the experience quite stressful. People queue for hours in the hope of finding one of the many artificially created rarities – a lot of which seem to appear on ebay just hours later at even more inflated prices. In recent years, there have even been dealers “pre-selling” their RSD wares on the internet up to two days before the event that was supposed to get people into their shops.