ONCE championed by Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain in their grungier youth, Teenage Fanclub don’t get out to play much these days. The Scots are spread out now beyond Glasgow, Norman Blake, for example, living in Canada, and they have made albums only irregularly since the Millennium, their latest arriving this autumn fully six years since Shadows, the space they have occupied since then.

New record Here has an immediacy to its title, as in here and now, although the songs by Blake, Gerard Love and Raymond McGinley have a timeless quality, evoking Big Star, The Byrds and their own rich history in making beautiful guitar music with gorgeous harmonies.

Formed in Bellshill in 1989, by now they could be a heritage act, one of those bands playing a favourite old album in track order, or performing to seated audiences at Leeds City Varieties. Instead, here they were on a November Sunday night, playing Stylus, the smaller of the two Leeds University halls, just as they might have done in earlier days.

There was no backdrop of the Here album sleeve cover; stage lighting was regulation issue; and the sound...well, what a disappointment it was to find yourself in a throwback to the late Seventies and Eighties: Drums were overpowering, vocals muffled, as if emerging from next door; and the guitars deprived of their grace.

When you play only sporadically and you have a new album to plug, freshly picked by Uncut as one of its Top Ten of the year, surely it would better to strive to do yourself justice, no matter how self-effacing you may be.

Ain’t That Enough, they sing in one of many songs to be undone by the circumstances, and no, it ain’t enough. You may still want to play to a standing audience, but at least give yourself the tools to make the goods works.

Compare and contrast with The Divine Comedy’s October gig at the City Varieties. Granted, Neil Hannon is a naturally more theatrical performer, dressing as a banker and then Napoleon to match his most recent albums, but he made sure everything was to his advantage. Teenage Fanclub? Great songs, great band, anything but great gig.