Glenn Tilbrook – 23 July 2005, Trowbridge Festival Trowbridge

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KayJay says:

7 March 2010 at 4:31 pm

Bit of a long review, but I do remember really enjoying this gig….
I’ve driven past the festival site almost every year for a long time but never gone before…..why go to a folk festival? But the prospect of a dose of the Glennlove after something of a famine overcame my concern that £38 was a lot to pay to see him when there was no-one else on the bill I wanted to see, so off I trundled. It’s what I imagine Glastonbury used to be like before the
commercialisation and steel fences….more hippies than you could shake a stick at, dressed in the weirdest outfits, hoards of kids, new-age stalls, Thai massage tents, all very laid back; on a lovely Saturday afternoon it was very appealing…..spoiled for me by being there alone….a festival can be a lonely place.
Anyway, I took up my position in Tent 1 just before the evening session was about to start, having been beaten to the barrier by the Proclaimers fans and knowing Glenn wasn’t due on till 11.30pm…..a loooong wait. First up some blokes from Galicia playing the bagpipes….sorry, unfair; a fusion of Celtic and rock that was pretty good, though it got a bit samey by the end. Next the
flowers of Scotland themselves, surprisingly entertaining and still singing with a Scottish accent you could cut with a knife it’s so thick. The crowd were clearly here mainly for the Proclaimers, and it was packed solid and very sweaty….and if I could find out who farted…….
After this most people left, at least temporarily….giving me a chance to hog some barrier myself (just to the right of Glenn, David!!) ….something to lean on was much appreciated by this stage. The crowd reassembled for some Irish bloke who thought he was Van Morrison (apologies to any Paul Brady fans out there but he left me cold), then it was….er….this chap from south-east London with a dubiously-named band. Looking fetching in striped trousers (the same ones as at Up The Creek by the looks of the photos….I hope he had time to stick them in the washing machine in between!) and a beige-ish teeshirt, he opened with Cash Machine….the audience was obviously not familiar with his solo material, as it all fell a bit flat…..I think I was the only one bouncing manically up and down and singing tunelessly along, though the Squeeze numbers met with more approval and by the end of the set the crowd was roaring for more. The setlist was pretty much as at Greenwich with the absence of Reinventing the Wheel and Pulling Mussels. I was delighted to see that Lucy (looking enchanting) and Stephen are now providing backing vocals, something I thought was lacking in the Fluffers, given that Squeeze’s (and Glenn’s) songs depend on backing vocals and harmonies for their sound. Stephen almost demolished his keyboard stack halfway through the set, there was the application of copious amounts of gaffer tape and, when this proved inadequate, a complete rebuild. Neptune was fantastic, Asian Teens great, Hostage lovely….Slap and Tickle was a stormer, and so was Take Me…..Stephen seemed to have stuffed up his microphone and Glenn was forced (!) to perform a long guitar solo until finally Stephen’s vocoder thingy worked and he could segue into Funky Town….just excellent. Then followed the trashing of the equipment…all dismantled and scattered round the stage, followed by the entire band lying in a heap in the middle….one of those rock ‘n’ roll moments where I regret not having taken the camera. I was somewhat amused by the chap behind me calling for an encore….I don’t know what on……
And so I found myself at one in the morning eating crepes with chocolate and wondering if I would be able to find my car again…..and still chuckling. Just brilliant. Roll on next time, whenever that is…..but with a bit of company for preference.

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Glenn Tilbrook – 23 July 2005, Trowbridge Festival Trowbridge

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