ARCADE MACHINES
“We’ve been buying guitars and amps for years,” says Teenage Fanclub’s Raymond McGinley, relaxing in his Glasgow home on the eve of the release of the band’s 10th studio album Endless Arcade. “But we always end up coming back to those first things we bought. We were lucky to get it right 35 years ago!”
Lucky feels like a colossal understatement when you look over the inventory of gear that the band picked up during their formative years and that they continue to use to this day. Rising from the mix on Endless Arcade – the band’s first album since 2016’s UK Top 10 hit Here – is a mouth-watering array of vintage equipment: two early 1960s Fender Jaguars, a 1950s Tweed Fender Deluxe, an early 1960s Epiphone Casino, a 1970 Gibson ES-335, a couple of delectable Martins and a 1950s Guild acoustic. The whole lot was acquired for what can only be described as peanuts, back in the halcyon days when vintage Fender offsets could be picked up for less than £300. Today, you’d consider yourself to have bagged a bargain if you paid 10 times that.
“I’ve had two main guitars all the way through Teenage Fanclub,” says McGinley. “One of them I bought in 1983 from the Guitar Player shop in Rochdale, a sunburst 1963 Fender Jaguar. It was £265 and it’s still my main guitar.
