Teenage Fanclub have announced their new album Nothing Lasts Forever will land in September with a run of UK tour dates shortly after.
The band will headline at Manchester’s RNCM in November. The Manchester gig is one of 12 UK dates they will play culminating in two shows at London’s EartH.
To accompany the announcement, Teenage Fanclub have also shared a video for the lead track and album opener Foreign Land shot by Donald Milne.
Speaking about the track, 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 promises to centre around the theme of light as a metaphor for hope and destination down the road. The album took this form by co-incidence according to the band’s songwriters Norman Blake and Raymond McGinley.
“We never talk about what we’re going to do before we start making a record” explains Raymond McGinley. “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.”
Whilst Norman Blake adds, “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.”
When do Teenage Fanclub headline at Manchester’s RNCM?
Teenage Fanclub headline at the RNCM Manchester on 11 November 2023. The Manchester gig is one of 12 dates they have announced:
3 November – Belfast, Queen’s University, Mandela Hall
5 November – Glasgow, Tramway Theatre
6 November – Aberdeen, Tivoli Theatre
7 November – Edinburgh, Assembly Rooms
8 November – Leeds, Brudenell
9 November – Gateshead, Sage Hall 2
11 November – Manchester, RNCM Theatre
12 November – Sheffield, Leadmill
13 November – Bath, Komedia
14 November – Birmingham, Town Hall
17 November – London, EartH
18 November – London, EartH
Image of Teenage Fanclub courtesy Donald Milne
