SQUEEZE RETURN TO GLASGOW FOR SPECTACULAR SELL OUT SHOW
New Wave power popsters Squeeze are back on the road, and sees them return to the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow with their Food For Thought tour, supported by Salford’s punk poet Dr John Cooper Clarke. The band will once again support The Trussell Trust on their upcoming UK tour. The Trussell Trust provide emergency food and support to people locked in poverty, while also campaigning for change to end the need for food banks in the future. Squeeze aim to help to raise food, funds and awareness of the 1,200 food bank centres across the UK.
First up is social commentator Dr John Cooper Clarke, who amused the audience with his rapid-fire poems of cultural and political topics, and anecdotes of life experience. Often referring to himself on stage as “Johnny Clarke, the name behind the hairstyle”, his 40-minute set, including his well-known Beasley Street poem was well received by the Glasgow audience, and he made way for the headliners.
Squeeze are now in their 48th year in the music business, having originated in 1974 after Chris Difford put a sign in a newsagent’s shop advertising for a guitarist for his band, which didn’t exist at the time. Glenn Tilbrook was the only one to reply, and shortly after adding keyboard player Jools Holland and Paul Gunn on drums, they formed the original line up of Squeeze, and took their name from the 1973 album by The Velvet Underground. The line up has changed dramatically over the years, with members coming and going throughout, however the nucleus of Difford and Tilbrook remains. Often referred to as Deptford’s Lennon and McCartney, they have churned out a number of hit singles and albums and continue to produce new music to this day. Tonight’s set would see a couple of new tracks but as is always the case, the sold-out crowd are here for the dozen or more classics they are soon to be entertained by.
Taking to the stage to debut hit Take Me Im Yours, the roars of approval were deafening as they churned through the hits which followed. The band are in fine form as always, Glenn Tilbrook on guitars and vocals and Chris Difford on guitars and backing vocals are a formidable duo. Hourglass, a special cheer for fans favourite Up The Junction, Pulling Mussels From The Shell and Annie Get Your Gun, the bands last single before splitting in 1982. After a one-off reformation in 1985, the band decided to carry on, and went back to recording and playing live.
The hits kept coming, with Goodbye Girl, Tempted and Cool For Cats closing the main set. After a short break, the band would return for a 2-song encore, 1979’s Slap and Tickle and a big singalong in Black Coffee in Bed from the 1982 album Sweets From a stranger, and the evening was done.
Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook may be approaching a half century of working together, but the fact they continue to sell out gigs all over the country is testament to the quality of their output, with a string of hit chart singles and albums throughout the years and gigs to remember. Thankfully they show no signs of slowing down, the songs tonight sound as fabulous as they always have and they continue to produce new material on a regular basis. Glenn Tilbrook is up there with the best of the UK’s long line of top singer songwriters. As long as they keep writing and performing, the fans will continue to sell out the shows. A band you really have to see live to appreciate just how good they are.
Photographs & Review by Stephen Wilson
