‘When it went double platinum, Andy Burnham gave us the award’: how Courteeners made Not Nineteen Forever

Liam Fray, songwriter/vocals, guitar

I had the lyrics to Not Nineteen Forever before the band existed. They were in a little red book of poems and scribbles that got me a place on the creative writing course at the University of Salford. Most of what became the songs for our first album, St Jude, were in that book. As well as uni, I was working five nights a week at the Night & Day bar in Manchester, but in a nightclub I’d be the dude scribbling in the corner while everyone else was dancing or copping off.

Not Nineteen Forever was probably inspired by a specific incident, although I can’t remember it exactly. The first line, “She had to peel me off the pavement”, could have happened on many a night out then. “Front-crawled the crowd down the stairs” is because the staircase at the 42nd Street club was so tight you’d have to literally front-crawl over people. The chorus: “You’re not nineteen forever, pull yourself together”, sounds like the sort of thing somebody might have said to me, but it could easily have been me giving myself a telling off after waking up with a fuzzy head.

I got the chords when I was trying to work out Someday by the Strokes but got the finger positions muddled up. I’d taken a bag of washing to my parents’ house and was working on it in my old bedroom when my dad poked his head in and said: “It sounds all right, that.” Not Nineteen Forever was one of the last songs I wrote before I convinced my three best mates to form the band. I told them: “If you don’t do this with me, I’ll be playing acoustic guitar on my own in Manchester pubs for ever.”

You never think a song’s going to resonate 20 years later, but it’s become easily Courteeners most popular song. Ironically, it initially charted at No 19, but years later when it went double platinum Andy Burnham – who comes to our gigs – presented us with the award in the Britons Protection pub. The song’s taken on a poignant dimension now. At gigs I see our original fans together with their kids – who are 17, 18, 19 – and they’re all singing: “You’re not nineteen forever, pull yourself together.”

Stephen Street, producer

Courteeners had just been signed by a major label who asked me if I could go to Manchester to meet them as they had expressed interest in working with me. I saw them play in one of the university halls and it was mind-blowing. They already had a devoted following who were singing along with the lyrics the way Smiths audiences used to. I’d produced the Smiths, so it was right up my avenue.

In the mid-2000s there’d been a resurgence of indie guitar bands: Arctic Monkeys, Kaiser Chiefs and Kasabian. In a way Courteeners were the last hurrah of that kind of hugely popular guitar group. The next thing I knew we were all in Olympic studios in London recording the album. I was excited to work with them. Not Nineteen Forever was a ready-made anthem and stood out, but so did Cavorting or What Took You So Long?

With a band like Courteeners, you want to capture their performance. Like the best bands, they were like a little gang: us against the world. So we recorded live, only using click tracks to set the tempos. Their arrangements were short and concise and didn’t need much editing. Liam and Conan [Daniel Moores]’s guitar parts were intrinsic to the sound – I lent Conan a nice old vintage Telecaster – and I found the emotion in Liam’s voice really attractive.

When they’d started out in a garage, Liam had to shout to be heard over the guitar, but in the studio I vaguely remember telling him he didn’t need to. When I saw the lyrics to Not Nineteen Forever written down it hit me how good they were. “Older woman and an ever so slightly younger man” always makes me laugh. He was 19. The “older woman” was probably 21 or something.

When the album came out I was perplexed by the lukewarm reaction from elements of the press – probably because it was another four lads with guitars – but it’s a really strong collection that I think still stands up today. The reissue of St Jude went to No 1 15 years after it first came out. I’d never had that happen before in my career: I was quite emotional.