Squeeze at The Albany (May 4)

Yours truly has been sat in the corner of squeezereader towers sniffling and sneezing all week.

"Achoo!"

Frank, my faithful newshound has been bringing me cups of Lemsip and a fresh box of tissues on the hour.
The rain is beating down hard onto the windows and the world looks grey and uninviting until...

"Woof!"

Frank's tail sticks up and he bounds across the room with the graceful poise of a bull in a china shop. Chairs and desks part company while pot plants crash down and with a big bump! all the Chocolate bars from the vending machine scatter across the floor.

With one big bound for a dog and one giant step for squeezefans everywhere, Frank lands on my lap and waves an email at me.

Wowzers! Squeeze are going to be making an appearance at Chris Difford's benefit concert!

Hugging Frank I take a swig of my Lemsip and smile. Those grey rain-filled clouds don't look so bad after all!


Chris Difford's Benefit Concert takes place at The Albany Arts Venue, Deptford on Sunday May 4. Doors open 7:30pm and the show starts at 8pm.

Tickets cost £12:50 and are available from the Albany Box Office on 020-8692-4466, or check out their website at: www.thealbany.co.uk


Many thanks to Sandra (from The Albany) for the email :0)

She also tickles our aural tastebuds with this little teaser...

"... there’s a rumour that one of the special guests will be a certain dark haired pianist from the old days…"

I wonder who that could be? Will he be there from the start, or will he arrive later...?

Mountain Winery Review & Setlist

A Bit Of A Mountain Whinery!

It's near the end of the late shift here at Squeeze Reader Towers (UK).

As I sit looking out at the starry sky, I'm just about to power down my computer, when I hear a "ding!"

YES! We have some Squeeze news neatly landing in my inbox!

Lovely Squeeze Reader Chris Baker, has sent in a link to a review of the Mountain Winery Show:

"Without Holland or Carrack around, Tilbrook was unquestionably the star of the show, and his guitar solos showed the same melodic verve as his vocals. During the closing “Black Coffee in Bed,” he was effusive in his excitement about the show and the entire tour, pointing out that five years ago he and Difford were more likely to be involved in a knife fight than to share a stage. But on this night, anyway, there was a lot of love going around."

The review seems more preoccupied with the ex-Squeeze members who weren't there... and (even though I was on the other side of the big pond), to say this about Chris Difford's singing:

"...rather monotonal vocals were nothing exceptional"

does deserve a big slap in the mouth with a well-oiled croissant.

At least the review credited Stephen 'Lord' Large as "versatile...making a good impression" and said that Squeeze (and their support band) Fountains Of Wayne, were "... simply about songs, and the two bands delivered enough tasty pop to satisfy any musical sweet tooth"


Here's the setlist (courtesy of The Mercury News article):

Take Me I’m Yours / Up the Junction / Footprints / Piccadilly / I Think I’m Go Go / Love Circles / Another Nail From My Heart / Electric Trains / Some Fantastic Place / Messed Around / This Summer / Annie Get Your Gun / Slaughtered, Gutted and Heartbroken / Slightly Drunk / Goodbye Girl / Hourglass / If I Didn’t Love You / Pulling Mussels (From the Shell) / Slap and Tickle / Cool for Cats // Tempted / Is That Love / Black Coffee in Bed


And as I watch the clouds slowly drift in front of the starry sky, I switch off my computer and make my way home, wandering if a well-oiled croissant should have been included in Cluedo?

If not, it most certainly should be.

Photos, setlists and more in our bulging mail bag!

I was sat at my desk in the glorious surroundings of Squeeze Reader Towers, when the postman presented me with a bulging bag of mail!

And what brilliant mail is is...


1. SOLD OUT AT THE BEACON!


Firstly, big thanks to squeeze reader Ian Siegel for this great photo of the Beacon Theater, NY.

It warms the heart to see Squeeze's name in lights :0)

2. STARS IN OUR EYES!

Smiling like a cheshire cat, I delved down deeper into the sack of mail to find a lovely link from Joe.

"So where does the link lead to?" I hear you ask...

... To some groovy photos from the Starland Ballroom gig!



Click here to see Skyco's photos on Flickr


3. Ringing In The Good Times At The Nokia!

And last (but by no means least), big thanks to Daniel, who has sent in the setlist for the Nokia Live show:

2007-08-02
Nokia Theatre
New York, NY USA

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:39:29]
01 Take Me I'm Yours
02 Slightly Drunk
03 Piccadilly
04 Hourglass
05 Up the Junction
06 I Think I'm Go Go
07 Third Rail
08 Electric Trains
09 Some Fantastic Place
10 Annie Get Your Gun
11 Melody Motel
12 Messed Around
13 Walk Away
14 Slaughtered, Gutted and Heartbroken
15 Another Nail in My Heart
16 Goodbye Girl
17 If I Didn't Love You
18 Pulling Mussels From The Shell
19 Slap and Tickle
20 Cool for Cats
21 [encore break]
22 Tempted
23 Is That Love?
24 Black Coffee in Bed

And if you visit his site at nyctaper, then there's a wonderful surprise** waiting for you!

** The concert itself!

Ian, Joe and Daniel- we salute you :0)


If you'd like to send us any Squeeze tidbits, and see your name in lovely print, then please fire an email off to us at:

thesqueezeREMOVE THIS BIT IN CAPITALSreader@googlemail.com

All it took was reading a book

There I was, sat at my desk in the luxurious surroundings of squeeze reader towers and what should I see?...

A great picture of Chris & Glenn that I haven't seen before :0)

... And there's some writing too!

All it took was reading a book
Difford and Tilbrook reform as Squeeze

From Boston Now:

First they were friends, then they were band mates, then the band broke up and they stopped talking to each other altogether.

It's a simplistic way of looking at it, but that's how Glenn Tilbrook sums up his relationship with Chris Difford and the 80s hit-making machine they fronted, Squeeze.

Or at least that was his take on things before he started working with music journalist Jim Drury on a retrospective book on the band's career called Squeeze: Song by Song.

"I think I learned more about Chris from reading that book than I did in knowing him for 27 years," Tilbrook said. "So it started with getting to know each other again and eventually that led us to see if we wanted to play music together again."

Instead of heading into the studio to try and make new music, the pair got together with some of the musicians from their past and started playing the songs that made Squeeze a staple of the FM dial for so many years.

"The first time we actually saw each other in years was at a photo shoot for a best of CD they're putting out in the UK, which was a little embarrassing," he said. "Once we got into the rehearsal space and started playing, though, it all fell back into place pretty quickly."

While both Tilbrook and Difford have put together strong solo careers in the years since Squeeze officially broke up (1999), neither of them wanted to bring any of that material to the table for the current tour. "One of the things that's happened since we broke up is a lot of young musicians are telling us what a big influence we were on their music, which is great because it shows us what we write has stood up for itself over the years," he said. "So why not play it for the fans."

Squeeze play the Cape Cod Melody Tent tonight and the Bank of America Pavilion tomorrow.

Text: John Black

Squeeze Official Website
Squeeze Official MySpace

To everyone going to the Cape Cod & Bank Of America Pavillion concerts- have a great time :0)

Photos from The Albany :0)

BIG thanks to Ian Siegel for sharing his excellent photographs with the squeeze reader.

Ian- we salute you :0)

(click on the photos to see a bigger image)

Difford & Tilbrook live in Kent!

And here they are!...

Photo: Martin Rordam

No, yours truly hasn't been at the wine, but thanks to an eagle-eyed member of the Glenn_list, I am thrilled to report that Messrs. Difford and Tilbrook played live at the 'Return To The Summer Of Love Festival' last Saturday!

The dashing duo were unbilled, but gave everyone a thrill as they took to the stage and played Take Me I'm Yours, Pulling Mussels (From The Shell), Is That Love?, Tempted, Labelled With Love, Cool For Cats and Up The Junction.

I hope you can feel the excitement as I type! (As there is indeed more!)

Check out this rather lovely post on 'That Truncheon Thing', and there might be another surprise there waiting for you :0)



Thanks to Helen (from the groovy Glenn_list) for discovering this gem of news, for Martin R for the brilliant photographs and Frank from That Truncheon Thing blog.

Squeeze confirmed for Guilfest '07

IT'S TRUE!!!

"Dates for GuilFest 2007: 13th, 14th and 15th July 2007!"


Click here for the Official Guilfest website.

"GuilFest is proud to announce that Squeeze will be headlining the main stage on Saturday July 14 2007.

This will be the only summer show for this hugely influential British band and the first time their founder members Glen Tilbrook and Chris Difford have performed together as Squeeze since 1998. The public can expect to hear the classic hits such as Cool for Cats, Up the Junction, Labelled with Love, Hour Glass and Take Me I'm Yours."