Welcome to the wisdom of Brendan O’Hare come into the parlour, take off your shoes and relax in the vibe-heavy environment of the Teenage Fanclub interview. But don’t expect to find a reason for living, a pertinent insight into the wheels and cogs of one of our most wonderful pop groups. Instead, pull up a chair and delve into a Pandora’s Box of nonsense.

The World is knocking on the Fannies’ door these days. After last year’s charming debut LP ‘A Catholic Education’, a string of storming live appearances and fab singles like ‘Star Sign’ and the newie, ‘The Concept’, Glasgow’s greatest export since Kenny Dalglish are much in demand. But it’s something they’re not altogether comfortable with.

“I don’t mind doing interviews, we have to do a lot these days, but I can’t really think of much to say,” explains Norman Blake.

“I hope nobody’s expectin’ me to tell them how to live their life. I’m too busy tryin’ to cope with my own.”

What you’re reading is an interview by default, an aborted attempt at the on-the-road article. However, with the cancellation of the Liverpool gig because of an electrical fault at the venue (“Don’t worry, it’s not a big college town,” they guffaw in Spinal Tap mode), we’re holed up in an excellent Manchester hostelry. Drinking, however, is being kept to a most respectable minimum.

Norman: “It’s difficult to drink on tour, I don’t perform well.”

Norman: “We used to get really drunk. We had a crazy night at Glasgow Tech once. The sound check was at five o’clock but we weren’t on stage until two in the morning. There was nothing else to do…”

Brendan: “We tried to pass the time by looking for the pub with the least atmosphere, but it was so boring when we found it that we just had to get drunk. I’d sobered up by the time we played, but Norman was fuckin’ wrecked. I don’t know how he stood up.”

The worst is when you lie down and your bed turns into a helicopter.

Brendan: “I like that! You mean when you close your eyes and things start spinnin’? I used to get drunk just to get that feelin’, have a few beers and wait for take off."

Who would have thought that, at the tail end of 1991, Creation Records would l be responsible for three of the most exciting albums of the year? Primal Scream have already set the house ablaze, My Bloody Valentine are waiting in the wings, and, best of all, next week sees the release of Teenage Fanclub’s ‘Bandwagonesque’.

Steeped in history, the album evokes recollections of Alex Chiltons’s Big Star, Neil Young, The Beatles, even the Bay City Rollers. It’s been finished since May and regular Fanny followers already seem familiar with the bulk of the songs, if the previous night’s gig is anything to go by.

“There was one guy down the front singin’ along to everythin’, but he didn’t actually know the words,” says guitarist Raymond. ” I was watchin’ him move his mouth up and down goin’ ‘wumma, wumma, wumma’ or somethin’ like that. I fancied givin’ him a lyric sheet to help him out.”

It’s all part of the charm and confusion that is Teenage Fanclub. Check the titles on ‘Bandwagonesque’ and they appear to be very little resemblance to the actual songs, particularly ‘The Concept’. Any thoughts, Brendan?

“Well, as I said earlier, the concept behind ‘The Concept’ is that there is no concept. That’s the whole concept. Will you use that? I hardly ever get quoted in interviews.

I’d quite like to get the word ‘flange’ into the interview as well, so can you ask me a question that would necessitate that?”

Norman: “It’s doesn’t really mean anything, it’s just a bit of a piss-take on concept albums. The best thing about it is that we might actually get banned in Germany because of the cover. It’s got a picture of Casper the Friendly Ghost and an Iron Cross on it, and the Germans think it might be a bit neo-Nazi.

The Iron Cross is just a laugh at Heavy Metal bands, Motorhead used to use it quite a bit. I don’t think there’s any problem with Casper the Friendly Ghost.”

Raymond: “Maybe they think he’s Casper the Friendly Fascist”

Nice title, though. As bassist Gerry explains, the titles always come first, with the songs often following many months later. “We just write things down on a piece of paper and put them in a box. We worry about the songs later.”

Brendan: “We’ve already got six or seven good titles for the next album, we could actually get the sleeve done up now and sort the music out some other time.”

‘Hammer On’ and ‘Mustard Gas’ are among the Fanclub classics-in-waiting. In the meantime we have ‘Bandwagonesque’ beauties like ‘Alcoholiday’ (“Alcohol and holidays, two pretty good things are the best of times,” says Norman), but Raymond has wimped out and change one of his songs from ‘Chignamero’ to ‘I Don’t Know’.

“’Chignamero’ is actual Bratislavic for cheese,” lies Brendan.

Raymond: “Nah, it doesn’t mean anything, I couldn’t live without it.”

Brendan: “How it actually started was when we were mucking’ about with an eight-track machine, and if you say Raymond’s name and play it backwards it comes out as ‘il nagum chignamero’.”

Raymond: “I’m not sure if that’s correct, Brendan.”

Brendan: “Somethin’ like that, anyway. We do have some backward messages on ‘Satan’, if you listen very carefully.”

Such as?

Gerry: “I’m wearing a blue shirt.”

Brendan: “Bless my cotton socks.”

Norman: “Helicopters!”

Brendan: “Very deep.”

Teenage Fanclub are equally as playful on stage. At Manchester University they rib each other between numbers. When Norman’s guitar lead packs up early on, Brendan fills the time with his own capella number: “We’re pi-issed, you paid to get i-in!”

Norman returns with a beaming grin, his cherubic face an little round glasses making him look not unlike an indie Spoilt Bastard. He breaks into the guitar riff to ‘20^th Century Boy’ but quits after a few seconds, while the audience find themselves bobbing up and down to silence.

“I like to do stuff like that,” he says afterwards. “The other night I started playin’ that Rainbow song ‘Since You Been Gone’. I don’t mean to, it just came out like that. I do ‘Paranoid’ as well, that goes down pretty good.”

Quite what America will make of all this when the Fannies make a serious assault in the next few weeks remains to be seen. They’re on the same US label as Nirvana, and they believe the time is right for tough and ready guitars to go crazy across the pond.

Brendan: “I think Geffen have got this plan to make us the new Bryan Adams. Quite how they’re gonna make four people into Bryan Adams remains to be seen, but they’re gonna have a go anyway.”

The Fannies are keen to get ‘Bandwagonesque’ into the shops to help get rid of the bad taste their quickie out-takes album ‘The King’ left in their mouths.

Gerry: “Everythin’ got out of hand. The stuff would have come out on bootleg at some point, so what we wanted to do was shove it out really cheap. Rather than people paying a fiver for a shite quality tape they could get a good quality album for about £3.49.”

Raymond: “It didn’t really work, shops weren’t treatin’ it like a proper release and chargin’ full whack.

"It got a little out of hand and we didn’t want people to think it was us rippin’ them off so we deleted it straight away.”

Forget the comparisons to pop that’s gone before – half the people who accuse the Fannies of ripping off Big Star haven’t ever heard Big Star – and just wallow in the shoddy noise cut from cloth. ‘Bandwagonesque’ is the kind of intuitive guitar rock that made REM great, that inspired a generation to grow their hair, that makes sad journos tap their feet and drink lots of beer.

Teenage Fanclub are making music that could win wars, melt hearts, shake trees, and make all that went before totally surplus to requirement. Wouldn’t you agree Brendan?

“The concept behind ‘The –"

SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!