I Probably Won't Look Back Anymore

I went to see Teenage Fanclub (TFC) at Umeda Club Quattro for their first Japan tour in five years.
It's been over a month and I still haven't organized my thoughts, but I felt I had to write something now that they've actually come, so I'm just jotting this down (the title is random, too).


TFC is a pretty special band to me; after all, they were the first band—and the first foreign act (is that an outdated term? I mean foreign musicians)—that I bought tickets to see of my own volition.
I've written about them on Note twice before. I wrote about what I felt when I went to see their Japan tour five years ago, both five years ago and four years ago.

This Japan tour is for the release of their new album, "Nothing Lasts Forever."
Having said that, they actually released another album before this one called "Endless Arcade." Before that album came out, Gerard Love (Gerry), who had been a bassist, songwriter, and vocalist for his own songs for many years, left the band, making it the first album with the two-songwriter system of Norman and Raymond (both on guitar and vocals).
It was 2021, the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. A Japan tour wasn't possible, and just as I was starting to feel a bit detached (the shock of Gerry's departure was a big part of that), the news came out last year that a new album was dropping, as if to say, "Don't let that happen!"
Before that, they used to release an album every two years in the 1990s, but since 2000, the intervals started stretching to three to five years. This time, it was only two years. Oh, did they get motivated? Or perhaps, with the pandemic making it impossible to tour as they wanted, they had more time to think and spend on creation.

What I felt watching the live show this time was that Norman really does have a great voice. His appearance and personality are more on the goofy, lighthearted side, but when he sings, he's a handsome frontman. He combines warmth, freshness, and melancholy.

Basically, they have a style where they sing their own songs, and Raymond hardly does any backing vocals. On the other hand, Norman sings non-stop (laughs).
The backing vocals for Gerry's parts are left entirely to Euros on keyboards.

Euros (or Euros) used to be in a slightly eccentric band called Gorky's Zygotic Mynci and is currently active as a solo artist.
He is from Wales. It seems they have a history and culture different from both England and Scotland. Super Furry Animals and Duffy are also from there (when I looked it up, there were even more famous people like Tom Jones).

Francis on drums harmonized throughout "Planets," which he co-wrote with Norman, and he also sang backing vocals on other songs here and there. He was an original member at the time of formation but left shortly after (he was like 19 back then, so I'm sure a lot happened), and he returned after more than a decade.

And then there's Dave McGowan, about whom I wrote something rather rude last time due to the shock of Gerry's departure. He is likely the youngest of the five and participates in various bands, including Belle and Sebastian, as a handy session man in Glasgow (well, there are many people like this in Glasgow).
He originally joined TFC as support on keyboards and guitar, but after the departure of bassist and vocalist Gerry, he has firmly supported the bottom end of TFC and never oversteps, not even doing backing vocals. He used to have a tough image with a shaved head, but this time he felt somewhat softer. If you look closely, he has round eyes and a beard, making him look like a teddy bear.
I saw Dave drinking water before a certain song, and then he sang backing vocals on the next one. I wonder if he was nervous about the next song having backing vocals and moistened his throat? What a cute guy (my impression has changed too much).

Nothing Lasts Forever—it's a profound title. If you had to sum up what you felt after going through the COVID-19 pandemic, this might be it.
Things you thought would always be there, people you thought would always be around.
In fact, there are musicians who passed away due to COVID, and cities that were locked down when the pandemic hit. They might have had their own things to ponder as they couldn't tour.

We Japanese fans were also looking forward to them coming to Japan to perform at least in Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka whenever they released a new album. But since that was skipped for the previous work, there was a feeling of "Long time no see!" on both sides.

During the songs and between them, the members (especially Norman) were smiling and happy to be reunited. We fans felt the same way.Thank you for coming back!

To boil it down, that's all there is to it, but I'll write a little more.

They are definitely key people in the music scene as well. They emerged from Glasgow in the late 80s and gained worldwide acclaim with their 1991 second album "Bandwagonesque," which combined simple, melodious songs with the grunge sound ignited by Nirvana.

(The first track, "The Concept," has become an anthem. It was performed at the end of the main set at this concert, and the audience sang along in a chorus. I sang under my mask, too. Everyone was wrapped in euphoria.)

There are plenty of other masterpieces, and it wouldn't have been strange if they had become even more popular after '91, but it felt like they were selling gradually rather than exploding.
That might be partly due to their slightly shy nature, but I think they had the idea that they didn't want to break their own pace.

Artists who break through in rock often have various stories in their background (such as a harsh upbringing), and sometimes that is demanded of them. Their laid-back demeanor seemed unrelated to such things, and conversely, I felt a sense of familiarity.

The music video for "Back To The Light," included in their latest work, is somewhat mysterious.
It's like a video of foreign scenery set to music that you might see late at night. I think it's probably scenery from their home ground of Glasgow, or somewhere in Scotland or Wales, but not only do the members not appear, the angle doesn't even change for the first chorus. I was a bit confused (laughs).
Even after that, the scenery changes, but the members don't appear, and no animals appear either, and it ends with a promotional image for the new album.
But I thought this was a very good music video where you can purely enjoy beautiful scenery and good music. And I also feel it's their own antithesis to the clichéd music videos where band members appear.

Teenage Fanclub - Back To The Light (youtube.com)

I wrote that, but when I watched the music video for another song, the members were there properly lol.
This song is the lead track of the album and is up-tempo for them; it's not a heavily distorted sound, but Raymond's guitar and Euros' keyboards add a bit of an Indian-like spice?

Teenage Fanclub - Foreign Land (youtube.com)

I remember a statement in one of their past interviews where they said, "We have a healthy disrespect for the music industry."
They even wrote a song with a mocking title like "Commercial Alternative."
I think the reason they have always lived in their hometown of Glasgow is to protect the important thing of continuing to make music at their own pace.
I want them to continue their activities forever, and I'll do my best starting tomorrow, looking forward to the next album and their next visit to Japan.