Teenage Fanclub - Primary Education (1995)

Teenage Fanclub emerged from the Glasgow C86 scene, emerging from the ashes of The Boy Hairdressers, a band featuring Raymond McGinley, Norman Blake and Francis Macdonald. Following a brief period in which Blake was a member of BMX Bandits, the three former bandmates reunited and joined up with Gerard Love to form Teenage Fanclub. Initially lauded for the sonically dense, guitar-driven anthems that heralded them as unexpected stars of the alternative rock era, the perception of the band transformed over time, eventually earning the group a reputation as pop craftsmen famous for a distinctive brand of classicist '60s- and '70s-style power pop and folk-rock. The group was fortunate to have three talented singer/songwriters in Norman Blake, Gerard Love, and Raymond McGinley, and the band was albe to mix sludgy guitar riffs and memorably hooky choruses that drew inspiration from iconic guitar rock bands like Big Star, Badfinger, and the Byrds.  Their first album 'A Catholic Education', released in 1990 on Paperhouse, is not really typical of their later sound, with the possible exception of 'Everything Flows', as it was mostly written by Blake and McGinley, and record included several songs originally intended for The Boy Hairdressers. After recording his drum parts, Macdonald left the band to resume his university studies, but some of them were later re-recorded with Macdonald's replacement, Brendan O'Hare, because they weren't satisfied with the results of the original recording sessions,[5] and because they wanted to involve O'Hare in the album. 

They followed the album with the EP 'God Knows It's True' before being signed by Creation Records, and their first album for the label, 'The King', was a semi-improvised collection recorded in a single day. It was originally intended to be a very limited release, but it was not that well-received, garnering some critical reviews for its self-confessed shambolic guitar thrashes and cover of Madonna's 'Like a Virgin'. The band really broke through with 1991's 'Bandwagonesque', which was also released in America on the Geffen label, and which hit number one on Billboard's Heatseekers chart, spawning three Top 20 modern rock hits with 'Star Sign', 'What You Do to Me', and 'The Concept'. 'Bandwagonesque' was more deliberately constructed, the hooks became stronger, the guitar riffs were brought under control, and the harmony vocals took shape, and it topped Spin magazine's 1991 end-of-year poll for best album,[7] beating Nirvana's 'Nevermind,' their Creation stablemates My Bloody Valentine's album 'Loveless', and R.E.M.'s 'Out Of Time'. 'Bandwagonesque' was always going to be a hard act to follow, and so it was no surprise that their next album 'Thirteen', received mixed reviews on release, as it had perhaps too much to live up to. 

Brendan O'Hare left the band during this period because of musical differences, and he was replaced by ex-Soup Dragons drummer Paul Quinn, and his first recordings with the group on their fifth album 'Grand Prix' helped it become both a critical and commercial success in the UK, breaking the top ten for the first time. In the U.S., however, they failed to regain the ground that 'Thirteen' had lost them, and it didn't fare anywhere near as well there as it had done in the UK. With three song-writers in the band it's no surprise that they were able to add new songs to the b-sides of all their singles, and even release the odd non-album EP as well. In the first of two posts, here are all those b-sides, as well as a few compilation appearances, from the first six years of their existence, and just how prolific they were is proved by the fact that the third disc is made up almost solely of b-sides from the two singles extracted from 'Grand Prix' in 1995. And if, like me, you are thinking of rushing over to Youtube to hear their version of 'Between Clarke And Hilldale' at the right speed, then be warned that what you are hearing is exactly as the band recorded it, and as the record company decided to release it, resulting in the most hated and derided piece of work in their entire career.   

Track listing

Disc I - 1990-1992
01 Primary Education (b-side of 'Everything Flows' 1990)
02 Speeder b-side of 'Everything Flows' 1990)
03 Don't Cry No Tears b-side of 'Everything Flows' 1990)
04 The Ballad Of John And Yoko (single 1990)
05 God Knows It's True (single 1990)
06 So Far Gone (b-side of 'God Knows It's True')
07 Weedbreak (b-side of 'God Knows It's True')
08 Ghetto Blaster (b-side of 'God Knows It's True')
09 Long Hair (b-side of 'The Concept' 1991)        
10 I Saw The Light (recorded 1991, from the 'Scotland On Sunday EP 2005)
11 Kylie's Got A Crush On Us (from the free cassette with Select magazine 1992)
12 Free Again (single for 'International Pop Underground - Vol XXVI' 1992)
13 Bad Seeds (b-side of 'Free Again')
14 Mr Tambourine Man (from 'Ruby Trax - The NME's Roaring Forty' album 1992)
15 B-Side (aka 'Maharishi Dug The Scene') (b-side of 'What You Do To Me' 1992)
16 Life's A Gas (b-side of 'What You Do To Me' 1992)
17 Filler (b-side of 'What You Do To Me' 1992)

Disc II - 1993-1994
01 Mine Exclusively (single by Big Star with Teenage Fanclub 1993)
02 Patti Girl (b-side of 'Mine Exclusively' by Teenage Fanclub with Big Star)
03 Belt (from 'Volume Seven' compilation CD 1993)
04 Don's Gone Columbia (b-side of 'Radio' 1993)
05 Weird Horses (b-side of 'Radio' 1993)
06 Chords Of Fame (b-side of 'Radio' 1993)
07 Four Strong Winds (b-side of 'Hang On' 1993)
08 Genius Envy (b-side of 'Norman 3' 1993)
09 Older Guys (b-side of 'Norman 3' 1993)
10 Golden Glades (b-side of 'Norman 3' 1993)
11 Goody Goody Gum Drops (from the 'Thirteen EP' 1993
12 It's Hard To Fall In Love (from the 'Thirteen EP' 1993
13 Between Clarke And Hilldale (from the 'We're All Normal And We Want Our Freedom'

                                                                                       Arthur Lee & Love tribute album 1994)
14 Mad Dog 20/20 (from 'DGC Rarities' album 1994) 

Disc III - 1995
01 Burned (b-side of 'Sparky's Dream' 1995)     
02 For You (b-side of 'Sparky's Dream' 1995)
03 Headstand (b-side of 'Sparky's Dream' 1995)
04 Try And Stop Me (b-side of 'Sparky's Dream' 1995)
05 That's All I Need To Know (b-side of 'Sparky's Dream' 1995)
06 Who Loves The Sun (b-side of 'Sparky's Dream' 1995)
07 My Life (b-side of 'Neil Jung' 1995)                     
08 Every Step Is A Way Through (b-side of 'Neil Jung' 1995)
09 The Shadows (b-side of 'Neil Jung' 1995)
10 Traffic Jam (b-side of 'Neil Jung' 1995)
11 Hi-Fi (b-side of 'Neil Jung' 1995)
12 I Heard You Looking (b-side of 'Neil Jung' 1995)
13 Total Weirdness (from the 'Jabberjaw' benefit album 1995)    

Thanks to Ken for the suggestion