Teenage Fanclub at the Tivoli Theatre, Aberdeen

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A review from 5D Music & Theatre writer Maria Robertson.

Photos by Craig Chisholm Music Photography https://www.tumblr.com/craigchisholmmusicphotography

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I have to say I love the Tivoli, it’s such a lovely and historic venue in the heart of Aberdeen city.  It is an unusual choice for a bouncy band, however looking at the demographic of the room many of us were welcoming a nice comfy chair while we enjoyed some good tunes.  Also have to say there were rather a large proportion of the male of our species, and I did wonder how many of them play guitars themselves.  I saw several of my friends who are into the cool bands so it was nice on that level as well, to have a wee catch up with some friends.

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The support was a man with a guitar who introduced himself as Sweet Baboo, or Stephen (Black according to Wikipedia).  Apparently when he was 16 he thought that would be a good name for a band, now he’s 41 and stuck with it!  He had rather unusual lyrics about walking in the rain, or saying goodbye to a neighbour’s dog after taking it for a walk in covid times, or going into space with his 9 year old son.  He was entertaining with his story telling, and when he stopped the space song to tell us about the pyrotechnics and spaceship projection that he had planned, but did not like to upstage the main band!

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When the band did come on, there was Stephen again.  This time he was up the back, he played a variety of instruments: saxophone, guitar, keyboard and the all important maracas.  He is obviously a very talented musician and as someone with a fixation with the saxophone I definitely enjoyed his performance.

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Teenage Fanclub put on a great show.  They did a mixture of new and old material with the set list including: Alcoholiday, Falling Into The Sun, Self Sedation and I Don’t Want Control of You.  Norman Blake and Raymond McGinley are the only originals, and look rather different than when the band formed in 1989, understandably as we’ve all aged a bit since then!  The current line up have a great camaraderie on stage and you really felt they were having a great time playing together.

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Norman did introduce a few of the songs, and gave us a free science demonstration.  He commented on the slope of the stage and used his water bottle rolling down it to demonstrate what he meant.  The main focus was on the music though, which was of course what the sold out theatre full of people had got their tickets to hear.  It was a decent length of set, with a good mix of songs and giving each musician the chance to show off their skills.  I have to admit I thought I knew their music and expected to know some of the songs, but this was not really the case.  It was an enjoyable night out though, and at least I can take them off my list of bands I’d like to see live, happy in the knowledge that I have had that pleasure now.

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Further information: https://www.teenagefanclub.com/

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Maria Robertson is the Chief Music & Theatre Writer for the 5D Pop Culture Website and provides reviews & coverage of local Aberdeen music & theatre gigs. She’s an experienced writer for numerous sources and is a self-confessed live gig addict ever since seeing The Counting Crows at the Barrowlands in 1994.

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