Glenn Tilbrook – 14 May 2004, Cheese & Grain Frome

One Response to "Glenn Tilbrook – 14 May 2004, Cheese & Grain Frome"

KayJay says:

4 March 2010 at 10:36 am

Another night, another gig…..and despite almost identical setlists, they’re definitely not all the same. This part of Somerset rarely gets music or artistes of the calibre of Glenn (there was/were the Bluetones last year though…..) and it showed. Rob Reynolds, the support, was excellent once again, but was treated badly by a rising hubbub of conversation that all but drowned him out at
times…..it never fails to amaze me how people pay good money to go to a gig and chat throughout the support…and sometimes the main act too! So rude! Glenn and the Fluffers bounded on to a reasonable sized crowd, but it was clearly hard work to get through to them. The new stuff was greeted with apathy, apart from a few of us to whom it was familiar and welcome, and it was mainly the old Squeeze material that was most appreciated. For the “acoustic” bit Glenn launched into
Voodoo Child on electric, followed by SFP also on electric – I’d begun to wonder if the acoustic was going to come off the rack – but finally he strapped it on and did a peripatetic Goodbye Girl through the crowd, vanishing outside to the bemusement of a good section of the audience (and the complete bewilderment of the Cheese & Grain staff who’d “never seen anything like it!”). This was
followed by Black Coffee in the car park, and the audience finally got the point and began to loosen up. Back inside, Black Coffee became Reinventing the Wheel. So that was the encore shot! Further departure from the set list, Hostage and Genitalia bit the dust – perhaps Glenn felt it wasn’t worth the risk of losing the rapport he finally had by doing more new stuff, and slow new stuff at that – and the set continued with Hourglass, Parallel World (love what he’s done to this!), Up the Junction and Slap & Tickle. Take Me replaced Black Coffee in the encore, Untouchable went down well, and it was all over.
The bar being closed by this time, security were anxious to chuck us all out……by the time Glenn finally reappeared there weren’t more than a dozen stalwarts still waiting to see him and get various things signed. I managed to get my obligatory hug, Glenn agreed that it had been hard work but he’d enjoyed it, and I went home. Not quite buzzing, but happy. My husband thinks I’m daft to complain about audience reaction, but it can definitely make or break a gig for me….though good, this gig wasn’t a patch on Cardiff; Glenn was just as good, the band were just as good, the keyboards stayed up, but something was missing (probably the hens!!). There’s a certain magic that happens when the audience are with him from the off, a feedback that inspires him to greater heights, which in turn lifts the audience and makes a good gig memorable. Last night was good, very good, but for me not memorable. Not in any way Glenn’s fault, nor that of the band….they did their very best in the face of adversity, and pulled it off by the end. I suspect Frome won’t
see Glenn again though.

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Glenn Tilbrook – 14 May 2004, Cheese & Grain Frome

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