Oop! Nearly missed this one!

Sorry for the delay in posts, readers! Things have been busy at work, and as that pays slightly more than blogging about Squeeze (at least for the moment), I had to pay attention.

Anyway, Jonathan Ross promises "music from Squeeze" on his radio show in a few hours. It's on BBC Radio 2 from 1000 to 1300 hours (or 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.). I'm thinking that may mean live in the studio? But I could be wrong.

Squeeze- Lighting Up The Beacon and seeing stars in NJ

There's nothing better than walking into Squeeze Reader Towers on a Summery Saturday afternoon and finding an inbox full of lovely letters from our readers :0)

As it's such a nice day here, I've decided to take my mail bag outside into the Squeeze Reader Garden and have a picnic... C'mon you're all invited!



Squeeze reader Hernando Lammers, has sent in a link to his brilliant photos of our heroes playing the Beacon Theater:

Click here to see his Flickr album!


Ah, it's lovely to be sat under a tree having a picnic with you all.
There's enough tea and cakes here for everyone, so please eat, drink and be merry!




Now last (but not least), those nice people at Kweevak have sent in a link to their groovy review of the Starland Ballroom gig:

"Squeeze is tight. The reformed power popsters that took the stage on Monday, August 6, 2007 at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, New Jersey had a firm grip on their past as they tore through a rapid 90-minute set of their biggest hits."

Click here to read the complete review, with photos and setlist.


And with that, it's time to open up a nice bottle of wine and put some Squeeze on the boom box.


Hernando and Kweevak, 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

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

Squeeze vs. The Police, a steel cage match!

Well, not quite. But a guy at the Huffington Post is very pointed in his assessment of Squeeze vs. The Police. I'm sure you all would guess where I would fall in this category.

My iPod seems to like the Police, despite my own tastes. I only have about one-quarter their greatest hits album on there, and in random shuffle often I have to skip through two of their songs to get to a band that I want to hear. (Why, yes, I do program my own iPod. But if I can't skip through songs occasionally, I don't feel like I'm really listening.)

Also, I gotta wonder about some of those commenters on that site. What was that one guy's point, that he likes Soundgarden? Non sequitur much? Maybe he just likes to drop in conversation that he likes Chris Cornell just kind of randomly. Sheesh.

Squeeze in a Roundup

Not a round up of Squeeze (sorry, this week has been busy preparing for next week's trip to the Bay Area to see Squeeze), but Squeeze got included in the San Jose-area's Metro includes them in a round-up:

Squeeze: BACK IN the '70s, an English band called Squeeze eked out a little niche somewhere between the New Wave pop rock of Elvis Costello and the British synth-pop of the Human League, but ironically scored their biggest with the comparatively earthy and soulful "Tempted." Founding members Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook put the show back on the road, employing the help of longtime bassist John Bentley and other members of Tilbrook's touring band. (Mike Connor) Squeeze performs on Tuesday (Aug. 14) at 7:30pm at Mountain Winery, 14831 Pierce Riad, Saratoga. Tickets are $55–$85. (408.998.TIXS)

Is it just the former-academic-publishing-company-worker in me that finds it funny that the marriage of Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, country singers also mentioned in that round-up, means that they are the McGraw-Hills?

New Jersey Praise

The paper that Tony Soprano takes liked the show at the Nokia Theatre, and promote the show that will in Atlantic City tonight. (Or maybe it's just the paper's blog? I can't tell from this.)

Not sure if the reviewer interviewed Glenn or not, or if Glenn said this as part of his stage patter:

"We haven't played any new songs tonight, because, well, there aren't any," said Tilbrook, no doubt a bit sensitive since he declared in 2004 that a tour without new songs is the "kiss of death."

He said that? Maybe I'm just getting old, but I don't remember that!
Anyway, the Star-Ledger continues:

But along with pitch-perfect renditions of such staples as "Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)" and "Hourglass," the band pulled out the more obscure "I Think I'm Go Go," roared through the power-pop of "Trust Me to Open My Mouth" and added a break to the new-wave drollery of "Cool for Cats" that was almost funky.

Daily Squeeze

So... there's a preview in the New York Daily News, where Difford gets in one or two quotes, but they are quintessential Difford, of course.

Boston set list :0)

A lovely squeeze reader has sent in the set list for Boston:

"Here is the set list from last night's Boston show. i think I missed a song, but this list is pretty complete.

They totally rocked!!!

1. Take Me I’m Yours
2. ….. … ?? missed it
3. Picadilly
4. Hourglass
5. If Its Love
6. I Think I'm Go Go
7. There's no tomorrow
8. Electric trains
9. Some fantastic place
10. This Summer
11. Messed Around
12. Walkaway
13. Slaughtered, Gutted & Heartbroken
14. Annie get your gun
15. Another Nail
16. Goodbye Girl
17. If I Didnt Love You
18. Pulling Mussls from a shell
19. Slap and Tickle

Encore

20. Tempted
21. Is that love
22. Black Coffee in bed"


Thank you! You rock :0)

Setlist from Cape Cod!

It's an exciting time to be a Squeeze fan isn't it?

As I was doing some in-depth research for today's blog (drinking coffee and looking through my inbox), I came across this...

Franny from the squeezefan Yahoo Group, managed to get a copy of the setlist:

Take Me I'm Yours
Slightly Drunk
Hour Glass
Up The Junction
Third Rail
Electric Trains
Some Fantastic Place
Melody motel
Messed Around
Walk Away
Slaughtered, Guttered, Heartbroken
Annie Get Your Gun
Another Nail
Goodbye girl
Piccadilly
If I didn't love you
Pulling Muscles
Slap & Tickle
Cool for cats
---------------
Tempted
Is that love
Black Coffee In Bed

Franny, we salute you :0)


If any squeeze readers out there would like to share their photographs, setlists, reviews or just their sheer joy of going to a Squeeze gig, then please send them to us via the power of email:

thesqueezeREMOVE THIS BIT IN CAPITALSreader@googlemail.com


Don't miss out! Sign up for the Squeeze mailing lists:
Squeezefan
Diffworld (For all things Chris Difford)
Glenn_list (For all things Glenn Tilbrook)

First review in!

The Boston Herald gave them a thumbs up:

On occasion the band strayed from its Beatles template with mixed results. Some arty, spacey patches lost the crowd, but Tilbrook’s tight rockabilly and blues guitar licks brought them back mid-set. But mostly Squeeze stuck to its tried but not tired formula of indefatigable hooks, wowing the crowd with the great “Annie Get Your Gun” and another perfect pop tune, “Pulling Mussels (From the Shell).”

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)

Squeeze in more Squeeze in Baltimore

The Baltimore City Paper points out that it's a Squeezey week in Maryland, with a show at Pier Six on Aug. 8 and a showing of One for the Road at Gardel's on Aug. 2, complete with a talk by director Amy Pickard and a costume party. Is someone going to show up as Glenn with the long-flowing locks?

Raves over Guilfest

I'm more than a week late on this (sorry!) but the reviewer for something called In The News raved over Squeeze's headline appearance at Guilfest.

A shout out to our reader who was looking for set lists --- this probably isn't a set list but the reviewer listed many of the songs played that night, possibly in order!

(And I'm quoting from the middle here, because I try to avoid printing entire articles. The reviewer also has some nice words to say about Messed Around and Up The Junction, and not so nice words about Cool For Cats.)

This was Squeeze's party and everyone was invited to revel in the emotional one-two delivered by Some Fantastic Place and Goodbye Girl; the anthemic Mussels In A Shell and the electronica meets honkytonk of Slap And Tickle; a knockabout version of Slightly Drunk swung into the euphoric Tempted which was met with a roar of approval from the crowd.

Ents24.com also has a slightly muted rave, compared to the above review, but ultimately proclaims the return as triumphant.

If this is what the U.S. has to look forward to, I'm now officially excited! (As if I hadn't been before.)

The Phoenix promos Squeeze

Nice little article in the Phoenix before the shows at the Bank of America Pavilion in Boston and the Melody Tent in Cape Cod.

Heroin addiction, alcoholism, neurosis, friends at each others’ throats . . . all the things you’d expect to encounter in a film about Metallica. But in the story of a generally cheerful pop group like Squeeze?

You gotta respect a writer that read the whole biography (or at least, can fake it well), but cheerful pop group? A quick glance at Singles 45 and Under (OK, I admit, I don't actually own this compilation and I had to fake this one by looking up the track list) has: a con artist, pregnancy and poverty, heartbreak (twice!), temptation and loneliness. Hm, and that's before we get to the second half. Actually, all those things mentioned in the part quoted above eventually become subjects of their songs. Had I time, I'd atually match the trouble with the song....
The Cape Cod Times also weighs in with a long interview, which also features Difford naming who he thinks are the best lyricists of his pop era.

American thoughts....

Chris Difford spoke with the Associated Press about the upcoming American tour. Read his thoughts on the failed VH1 reality show, giving away solo CDs, and the "boxing ring of silence."

I wonder if the Essential CDs and DVDs will be available for purchase at the shows? I think it would make a lot of sense, but since when did everything in Squeeze history have to make a lot of sense?

Also, I forgot to list their first American show! Not that it matters, because it's sold out (and according to an anonymous commenter (hi!) it sold out in two hours). They start their tour in the Tupelo Music Hall in Londonderry, NH. That is going to be one busy two weeks. Wow.

Guilfest photos on Flickr

We're trawling the web for Squeeze nuggets!

Some groovy photos from the Flickr community:

martinfinnis - Guilfest 2007 Photos

murky - Guilfest 2007 Photos

(While you're there, check out shots from Chris and Glenn's solo gigs- just put their names in the search box and off you go!)


And big thanks to squeeze readers the ledevilefamily , who sent in this link:

"Hi,

there are photos from guilfest at

http://www.haldenphotography.com

scroll to the end of the page to see them"


(Credit - Banner photographs taken from the martinfinnis photostream)

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)

Guilfest chat

Chris and Glenn appeared on BBC Radio 2 to talk about Guilfest. (I presume before Guilfest.) I don't know what they're saying, since I don't have Real Player, but I hope it's good.

Squeeze play Guilfest today! (Coverage on BBC Radio 2)

Top Of The Bill!

Squeeze are headliners at today's Guilfest.

To those who are going to the Festival- Have a wonderful time :0)

(And, as always, any reviews or photographs will be gratefully received!)


For those of us who won't be there, remember to tune into BBC Radio 2 for their coverage:

BBC Radio 2- Guilfest Page (You can also listen online here)

For those in the UK, then set your dials to 88-91 FM.

Or you can listen to Radio 2 on digital cable TV:

Virgin Media (Telewest): channel 902
NTL: channel 402

On Freeview: channel 702
On SKY: channe l0102

... Or you could always listen in on DAB Radio!


Official Guilfest website

Official Squeeze website

Squeeze warm up The Albany tonight!

Play On!

It's the moment that we've all been waiting for...

A warm up show at The Albany, Deptford!


For all the Squeeze fans who got tickets to tonight's gig-

Have a fantastic time!
(and remember to tell us all about it :0)