Squeeze are one of those bands that in the late seventies and early eighties especially couldn’t put afoot wrong, but even aside from their much lauded early catalogue they never stopped making great music, though with only two albums this millennium it has been a little thin on the ground. Tonight, though we miss Chris Difford, who hasn’t made the trip due to fear of flying, we do get Glenn Tilbrook in sublime form and a band that more than do justice to the legend.
Opening act the ‘Punk Poet’ of old Leeds Town, John Cooper Clarke is now a ‘doctor’ it seems, and Dr. John Cooper Clarke has an act that has stayed distinct and rather similar to the time I caught him 30 or so years ago. He still has that same fluid delivery, the same old jokes and amidst tales of Ladas and Snooker players of the 80s and chinos with razors and lists and lists and tales of a martial career long and largely pointless (his words not ours) “A wedding is a funeral where you can smell Your Own flowers” his thick accented delivery throws up ore than a few moments of mirth and keeps the crowd well-entertained.
It’s an interesting and rather cool warm up to a rock show with more than a few cool one liners my favourite being “A failed marriage led to a successful divorce – we split the house – I got the outside.” Ir’s with a huge and warm applause that sees Dr. John leave the stage…
Squeeze themselves waste no time getting down to the nitty gritty – opening with ‘Please Be Upstanding’ from their rather fine most recent album ‘The Knowledge’ before flooring me with my favourite song of theirs ‘Pulling Mussels From the Shell’. I must admit to being rather taken aback hearing what I consider to be their most perfect slab of pop barely four minutes into their set!
There’s another taste of the new with ‘Patchouli,’ again from the latest album, before the soulful ‘Hourglass’ – the band’s biggest US hit sees some rather meaty rock guitar from Glenn ably backed up by the big sound from the five piece band replete with keys, bass, drums and percussion. The crowd of course are already dancing and I bump into drummer Simon’s friend Clair i the pit who’s just here on holiday and been commandeered into taking a few photos.
The Astor is packed tonight and the applause after every song is huge even for two further new tracks – the ‘football song’ ‘Final Score’ with its jazzy feel and expansive keys, and the wonderful ‘Rough Ride’ one of my favourites from the latest album even if it isn’t all ‘live’ coming with ‘piped in’ choir and opera singer. All the same both are greeted with further huge applause, and it’s gratifying to see that – a band backing their new material even when they haven’t played Australia for 30 years. After all Squeeze is much more than just that early 80s pop – the band these days have a much richer and more complex sound.
Another thing I love about this evening is that there’s a remarkable lack of camera phones here, and there’s almost a shock of seeing people at a show just loving and grooving to the music without having to document every second.
Next up ‘Annie get your gun’ takes it right back- the non album track from the 1982 singles collection it was always a favorite, though for the first time the reception is a little subdued. There’s a lump in the old throat as the band strike up ‘Labelled with Love’ with Steve Smith foregoing percussion and taking to the front of stage for an acoustic turn which sees the crowd swaying arm in arm. I get goosebumps and I never get goosebumps, there’s even a laugh from Glenn as the crowd come in early with their applause before the final verse!
A couple from Squeeze’s only other album this millennium are up next – the title track from that album ‘Cradle to the Grave’ (incidentally and incredibly Squeeze’s highest charting album ever) which sees Glenn wantonly strum a ukulele as the whole band swings and second track ‘Nirvana’ which opens with a flourish of keys and sounds remarkably like vintage Gilbert O’Sullivan. Whilst tracks from the latest were fresh in the audience’s mind this pair despite their potency seem lost on many.
‘Another Nail in My Heart’ one of Squeeze’s finest surely wins the crowd back instantly as they belt it out word for word – it’s perfect pop and Glenn’s guitar solo just soars. Wow.
The Knowledge album gets two final workouts with ‘Departure lounge’ which to me still sounds almost Floyd-like almost as if we’ve inadvertently stumbled into a Roger Waters gig, before it injects ELO-style synthesizer voices and a more upbeat interlude. It’s all rather grand and bold but quietens the crowd before ‘Albatross’ with its almost Folky wheeze begins with background vocals and no drums before building to an acoustic frenzy,which belies its simple charm. Glenn even name-checks Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, who of course did another song by that name, many moons ago.
The dark thrust of ‘Take Me I’m Yours’ – bass heavy and entrancing, drummer front of stage with just a snare, banging military style raises some of the loudest cheers of the night before we segue into the wonderful ‘tempted’ with its bluesy solo. The Fender is cast aside and the Gibson is out for ‘Wicked and Cruel’ my favourite from the ‘Play’ album – I love this live version – the slow burn and the hard rocking solo “How could anyone be so wicked a cruel” indeed.
‘Goodbye Girl’ Starts the crescendo of hits from the early career, it’s a song with an almost underlying calypso to it that plays out wonderfully before ‘Up the Junction’ elicits screams of approval as the crowd sing along word for word. It’s an unprecedented second ‘goosebump moment’ with a lyric that documents a moment in English real life that is sadly fading away, Glenn smiles as if knowingly and I go deaf with the cheers.
The synthesizer kicks in for ‘Slap and Tickle’ which sports some storming drums, it’s a song that perhaps has Squeeze’s hardest edge and that’s underlined by another killer solo from Tilbrook. And with that it’s the end of the set proper.
After a rather short interlude between the encore it’s ‘Cool For Cats’ that surfaces next. Percussionist Steve Smith sings and makes a good fist of it as he strums the acoustic, and whilst he’s not quite nailed the vocal it’s a decent stab and with an additional guitar breakdown inserted, it turns out to be quite a song.
It’s debatable of course if ‘Is that Love’ is Squeeze’s finest hour, its certainly right up there and it’s certainly their most Beatles-like number and if crowd response is anything to go by you’d have to give it the nod, just.
We end a great night with the evergreen ‘Black Coffee in Bed’ from 1982, it’s a song full of soul like Otis Redding that I remember being floored by back in the day. Tonight it includes a nice extended jam which adds band intros. It’s only guitarist and lyricist Chris Difford that is missing due to his fear of flying, and of course it’s therefore Glenn who gets the biggest applause as the jam continues. We’re implored to “Show you love by singing after me” and of course we do. It’s the only way to close a perfect night.
The worst thing of course about reviewing a final night of any tour is that no one who reads your review will be able to get down to the next gig (unless in this case you’re in Tokyo or in a few weeks time Scotland). All I can say is that if you knew about the shows and didn’t make it down then you missed a real treat. Squeeze may not have has a full compliment of original members but the music stood up proud and loud. Of all the great bands of the era, live these guys are pretty peerless.
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