Scottish pop-rockers Teenage Fanclub are planning

to add a fifth member to their lineup for their next album with the inclusion of

fellow Glaswegian Finlay Macdonald on keyboards.

"He's a friend of ours from Glasgow and he's been playing with us for maybe six

months now," said Fanclub bassist Gerald Love at a sound-check prior to the

band's Dec. 13 show at the Roxy in Brisbane, Australia.

The addition of Macdonald, who is currently on-tour with the band, would be only

the second lineup change in the group's eight-year history. The first came after

the 1993 departure of original drummer Brendan O'Hare, who was replaced by

Paul Quinn.

Finlay Macdonald played

in an earlier group affiliated with the Fanclub, the BMX Bandits. Prior to working with Teenage

Fanclub, however, Finlay Macdonald's main project was his own band, Speedboat,

whose debut single was produced by Fanclub vocalist/guitarist Norman Blake and

released on Francis Macdonald's (no relation) tiny, Scottish label, Shoeshine Records.

The keyboardist gives Teenage Fanclub a much richer and fuller live sound,

allowing them to better reproduce the more textured material from their

latest album, Songs From Northern Britain, Love said. "I think [he'll

become a regular part of the band]," he added. "I'm sure he'll play on the next

record and on the next tour."

Having only toured in support of their alterna-country, heavily Byrds-styled

Songs From Northern Britain over the past six months, the Fanclub are

apparently already planning their next musical step.

The upcoming album is only in the preparation stage, however, Love said, adding

that the band would head into the studio next year, with plans to use a less

cohesive style of recording. "We've all got ideas and I think we'll start

recording within 1998. I think with the next one we want to try a new approach

where instead of going into the studio for one whole block we'll book maybe

three or four sessions in different places and just try and record four songs at

a time."

This would diversify the sound of the album as a whole, he added.

"Sometimes the songs or the styles within a record could be diverse but the actual sounds are recorded in the same time frame and using the same equipment, so sometimes it can homogenize a record," Love added. -- Nick Corr [Tues., Dec. 16, 1997, 3:00 p.m. PST]