Legendary Bellshill band announce brand new album coming this year alongside UK tour

A legendary Bellshill band that inspired Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain have announced a new album release coming this Autumn.

Teenage Fanclub made the announcement today that their brand-new album,‘Nothing Lasts Forever’‘, will come out September 22 via their own label ‘PeMa’ in the UK and Europe while the record-label Merge will release the album in the US.

Alongside the announcement, the band shared the lead track music video for the album opener ‘Foreign Land’ shot by a longtime collaborator of the band, Donald Milne. You can watch the new music video HERE.

Back in 1992, Teenage Fanclub supported Nirvana on the European leg of the ‘Nevermind’ album world tour - the bands enjoyed a close relationship with each other, so much so that Kurt Coban would call Teenage Fanclub ‘the best band in the world.’

To promote the new album Teenage Fanclub will embark on an extensive UK tour, covering major cities across Britain.

Speaking about their latest music video ‘Foreign Land’, vocalist and guitarist Norman Blake said:”The song is about moving forward, not dwelling on the past.

“We shot the video in Hamilton Mausoleum, near Glasgow. Given that the album is called Nothing Lasts Forever we thought it would be appropriate to shoot a video inside a tomb”.

The album’s message is simple. Don’t look back, only forward. It’s meant to represent the end of an era, and that’s exhibited in the sound of the tracks themselves - reflective vocals and melancholy melody’s.

Teenage Fanclub’s ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ track-list

1. Foreign Land
2. Tired Of Being Alone
3. I Left A Light On
4. See The Light
5. It’s Alright
6. Falling Into The Sun
7. Self-Sedation
8. Middle Of My Mind
9. Back To The Light
10. I Will Love You

Raymond McGinley, one of the original founders of the band, said of the album: “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.

“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.”

Norman Blake continues:“These songs are definitely personal. You’re getting older, you’re going into the cupboard getting the black suit out more often. Thoughts of mortality and the idea of the light must have been playing on our minds a lot.

“The songs on the last record were influenced by the breakup of my marriage. It was cathartic to write those songs. These new songs are reflective of how I’m feeling now, coming out of that period.

“ They’re fairly optimistic, there’s an acceptance of a situation and all of the experience that comes with that acceptance. When we write, it’s a reflection of our lives, which are pretty ordinary.

“We’re not extraordinary people, and normal people get older. There’s a lot to write about in the mundane. I love reading Raymond Carver. Very often there’s not a lot that happens in those stories, but they speak to lived experience.”

While the vocals and the finishing touches on ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ were recorded at Raymond’s place in Glasgow, the music was recorded in an intense ten-day period in the bucolic Welsh countryside at Rockfield Studios, near Monmouth in late August.

The band that recorded ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ - Blake, McGinley along with Francis Macdonald on drums, Dave McGowan on bass and Euros Childs on keyboards - arrived at the residential studio without a fixed plan. Their confidence and ease with working together meant the record came together incredibly quickly.

Looking for positives while faced with the grim realities of the 21st century feels very Teenage Fanclub - a band who’ve been a force for good for over three decades and who can effortlessly turn melancholy into glorious, chiming harmony.

Teenage Fanclub Summer 2023 UK tour dates

• November 3 – Belfast - Queen’s University - Mandela Hall
• November 5 - Glasgow - Tramway Theatre
• November 6 - Aberdeen - Tivoli Theatre
• November 7 - Edinburgh - Assembly Rooms
• November 8 – Leeds - Brudenell
• November 9 - Gateshead - Sage Hall 2
• November 11 - Manchester - RNCM Theatre
• November 12 - Sheffield - Leadmill
• November 13 - Bath - Komedia
• November 14 - Birmingham - Town Hall
• November 17 - London - EartH
• November 18 – London – EartH

(All venues seated except Leeds)

Sweet Baboo will support on all Oct/Nov 2023 dates except San Sebastian.