Glenn Tilbrook – 27 February 2010 – live at King George’s Hall, Windsor Suite, Blackburn
Let’s have your comments, ticket stubs, setlists and reviews then!
Glenn Tilbrook – 26 February 2010 – live at The Sage, Gateshead
Let’s have your comments, ticket stubs, setlists and reviews then!
Squeeze are to be honoured with a Heritage Award – a plaque on the site of their first gig (or the first gig where the building is still standing!) Fans who were at the original gig and would like to go to the unveiling can contact PRS for an invite.
Here’s the press release:
Legendary pop group Squeeze are to be honoured by the PRS for Music Heritage Award.
A special plaque will be erected in South East London where the original group Chris Difford (guitar, vocals, lyrics), Glenn Tilbrook (vocals, guitar, music),Jools Holland (keyboards), Harry Kakoulli (bass guitar) and Paul Gunn (drums) first performed, at the Greenwich Dance Hall in 1975.
PRS for Music set up the Heritage Award last year to recognise the unusual ‘performance birthplaces’ of famous bands and artists. Squeeze is the fourth band to be given the honour of receiving the permanent plaque.
Founding members Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook will be there to see the plaque unveiled in Greenwich on Tuesday March 23rd at 2.30pm.
PRS for Music Chairman, Ellis Rich said: “With its two very talented song writers, Squeeze has made an incredible contribution to the British music scene across three decades. Many of today’s most commercially successful and credible artists, ranging from Razorlight, Ron Sexsmith and Kasabian have all cited them as a major influence so it’s a real pleasure to be honouring them today with the PRS for Music Heritage Award.”
Chris Difford said:
“I’m humbled that the birthplace of Squeeze has been chosen to be marked in this way.”
Glenn Tilbrook said:
“It’s a pleasure to return to the place where we performed as Squeeze way back in 1975, I still buy my cheese just up the road!”
Squeeze had numerous hits in both the UK and US including “Cool for Cats”, “Up the Junction”, “Tempted”, Labelled with Love”, “Black Coffee” and “Hourglass”.
Anyone who was present at the first gig and is interested in attending the plaque unveiling ceremony or has photos of the performance should contact heritageplaque@prsformusic.com and will receive an official invite.
For more information please go to www.prsformusic.com/heritageaward
PRS for Music:
PRS for Music is the leading copyright and royalty collection society representing 65,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers. A not-for-profit organisation it ensures music creators are paid whenever their music is played.
Here’s the latest news from Chris in today’s press release:
Chris Difford, double Ivor Novello winner and founder member of the iconic and newly reformed Squeeze, continues to innovate and surprise with his new album ‘Chris, That And The Other’, the first release on brand new digital distribution venture ‘Saturday Morning Music Club’.
Rather than selling a CD or digital album of 12 songs through the usual channels, Difford aims to give fans more for their money than the standard iTunes jpeg. Over the course of a 12-week period, a “cluster” of media will be delivered direct to fans’ desktops each Saturday morning: the week’s lead album track, 2 b-sides, videos, photos and handwritten lyrics and notes – all for only one price.
All the content will be delivered straight to a single desktop application, which will allow users instant access to the music and other content – which can then be saved to the computer or transferred to portable devices. Media content will not be DRM-protected. Latecomers to the Saturday Morning Music Club need not worry about missing out as once material is made available it stays that way.“Its not an album, it’s an experience” says Difford. “Like in my childhood, the excitement of rushing to the record shop every Saturday … I’d love to bring that feeling back to buying music”. A single, ‘Like I Did’, will precede both the Music Club and a run of solo dates, while a physical release of the album is due for much later in the year.
Chris Difford is no stranger to giving back to his fans and the music community. He continually runs music-writing workshops, is involved in music therapy as well as teaching, while he is due to curate the inaugural ‘Songs In The Key of London’ concert at the Barbican on March 9th – this will bring together Difford, current and former Squeeze bandmates Glenn Tilbrook and Jools Holland, as well as the likes of Suggs, Blaine Harrison (Mystery Jets) and more, singing their favourite songs about London.
As for the record itself, ‘Chris, That And The Other’ is Difford’s third solo album, following 2007’s very well received ‘Last Temptation Of Chris’. It was recorded at The Pool in South East London and Jools Holland’s Helicon Mountain Studios, and produced by Leo Abrahams (Brian Eno / David Byrne).
Glenn Tilbrook – 25 February 2010 – live at Club Academy, Manchester
Chris Difford – 25 February 2010 – live at the Queen’s Hall Theatre in Cranbrook, Kent
You might be a Believer in Chris Difford but were you a believer in Sellaband? This was the way Chris had decided to fund his new album – with fans subscribing to the CD (and a great package of other benefits) in advance in order to pay for the production of the album through the Sellaband Web site. Unfortunately it’s just gone bankrupt and posted the following message on the site:
On Friday February 19th, SellaBand AG requested provisional suspension of payments (moratorium). This was granted by the Court in Amsterdam on the same day. Yesterday, Monday February 22nd, this moratorium was changed into bankruptcy, with appointment of, Mr Paul Schaink, an amsterdam lawyer, as trustee. The trustee wishes to inform the ‘Sellaband community’ that, apart from a few technicalities, the completion of a transaction with a potential buyer of the business, is to be expected soon, in order to make a fresh start, safeguarding both the rights of Believers and Artists. More news will follow shortly.
On behalf of the trustee,
Johan Vosmeijer
CEO SellaBand
Chris had planned to launch his Saturday Morning Music Club with the resulting money. Let’s hope he can still go ahead.
So who thinks they’ll get their money back? (especially the big believers who contributed thousands of dollars) I’d love to hear your views.
Glenn Tilbrook and the Fluffers – 23 February 2010 – live at the Anchor and Hope, Charlton – electronic night with Glenn on keyboards.
My stomach is still sore from laughing at the gig. At times music threatened to break out, but it was pure comedy all the way for me. I’ll post some videos as soon as they’re up on YouTube in the meantime, let’s have your reviews!
Here’s what Glenn had to say on Twitter:
Gig last night was fantastic! We raised £193.85 for LHS over the last 2 nights, thanks to everyone for your generosity
Glenn Tilbrook and the Fluffers – 16 February 2010 – live at the Anchor and Hope, Charlton
Chris will be playing the Queen’s Hall Theatre in Cranbrook, Kent on 25 February. Tickets are £15.00 with £12.00 for concessions and £7.50 for students at Cranbrook schools. Book tickets through the Queens Hall Theatre site. Should be a great evening. Chris will be supported by Rich Lown, a singer/songwriter from the south coast.
Okay, here’s the bad news – you missed Glenn Tilbrook performing ‘Up the Junction’ with The Feeling. As The Feeling’s Web site says:
The Feeling on Radio 2 on Saturday, 11th Feb 2010. This Saturday afternoon, The Feeling will be appearing on Dermot O’Leary’s BBC Radio 2 show (which is being hosted by Fun Lovin Criminals’ Huey Morgan while Dermot’s on holiday). The band will have a natter about Little World Festival and play some songs with a special musical guest (ooh!). The show starts at 3pm and you can listen online wherever you are at Radio 2‘s website. And if you’re out and about on Saturday afternoon, you’ll be able to catch-up online for seven days.
The good news is that you can either listen again at Radio 2 or thanks to the marvel that is Adam of squeezeliveblog you can download it here.
Glenn is currently in the studio trying out a few tracks with Nine Below Zero with the possibility of an EP before their joint tour. Those of you who have checked out Snipturn‘s excellent YouTube Channel will have seen Glenn playing acoustic double bass with Dennis Greaves and Mark Feltham on the classic Nine Below Zero track ‘The Story of Nathan John’.
‘The Story of Nathan John’ is the standout track from the 2009 album ‘It’s Never Too Late!’ released on Ikon Originals. Glenn plays ebo, hand claps and backing vocals on ‘You’re The Man’, banjo on ‘The Story of Nathan John’, backing vocals on ‘I’m So Alone’, sitar on ‘A Man Out of You’, Wurlitzer piano on ‘Fairweather Friends’ and plain old guitar on ‘You’. Classic!
Anyone who saw The Raglans play as support to Glenn Tilbrook will have been impressed – great songs, lively performance and loads of character. Their EP ‘Where Do We Go From Here?’ (available from the Quixotic Records Shop) has four tracks. Luke and Stephen play many of the instruments, but who’s this on electric guitar, bass and additional backing vocals? Glenn Tilbrook. Who’s on drums? Simon Hanson. And on the Wurlitzer? Stephen Large. Just to cap it off there’s additional backing vocals and hand claps from Dennis Greaves of Nine Below Zero.
Glenn produced tracks 1 and 2 ‘In The Night’ and ‘The Afterthought’ and it was recorded at Glenn’s 45 RPM Studios in Charlton.
I’m currently loading the complete archive of Squeeze tour dates onto packetofthree. It’ll take a while. It’s possible because of all the good work done in creating the booklet for the live album ‘A Round and A Bout’ 20 years ago which listed (almost) every gig date up to 1990.
I need your help for one tiny (but very important) detail. That is – I need to know the exact date of the Squeeze gig at Greenwich Borough Hall in April 1975. If you were there, if you have a ticket or flyer, if you have a diary entry, then please get in touch – leave a comment.
By the way, isn’t it about time ‘A Round and A Bout’ got a DVD release?
Glenn Tilbrook – 9 February 2010 – live at the Anchor and Hope. Here are the videos of the night from Snipturn‘s excellent YouTube channel. Please click to view.
Back in 1980 a common question by American interviewers was ‘What does Argy Bargy’ mean? It wasn’t the most sensible idea for an album title. Chris’ answer was “Well in India I’m told it means respectable vegetable, but in England it means a bit of pushing and shoving.”
Here’s final proof of that statement, the Ahjee Bhajee in Pinner, Middlesex.
Many thanks to the ever reliable Dave Summersell for sending this in.
Black Sugar Transmission: Spiky on the outside, Squeezy on the inside?
As fascinated as I was to hear about the massive 4-album Squeeze tribute project, Squeeze Revisited, I really had no idea what to expect from the resulting tracks.
After all, the participants are largely unknown artists (although Chris Holland is doing a song!), and they’re basically unpaid too. They are people from all over the world, recording the songs with whatever tools they have available to them, and sending the almost-finished product to Burning Sky Records to be mastered into a cohesive album collection. Kind of a pig in poke!
But as David mentioned recently in the comments to my original post, the first song is up now on the Squeeze Revisited MySpace page, and I have to say, I love it! Because I don’t want to make this too long, I will simply tell you three things I love about it:
- It still really sounds like Slap and Tickle, but it also feels fresh and new
- It has a dance beat, but there’s also something sensuous about the song – it’s sexy Slap and Tickle!
- You can hear every single word clearly
That’s all. Go listen for yourself; I think you might like it too!
Glenn Tilbrook, Chris Difford, Jools Holland – all on the same bill on the same evening in London.
Songs In The Key Of London
8pm
9 March 2010
Barbican Hall
The artists featured are: Chris Difford, Blaine Harrison (of Mystery Jets), Jools Holland, James Hunter, Mike Lindsay & Becky Jacobs (of Tunng), Natty, Rico Rodriguez, Chas Smyth, Suggs, Glenn Tilbrook, Kathryn Williams & more.
The life and times of the capital have been immortalized in song by many a musician. From the bustle of the music halls to the riot of the punks, from London to LDN, the tradition is rich, a city celebrated, commiserated and eulogized through song. Co-curated by songwriter Chris Difford of Squeeze, this show brings together singers and songsmiths of the old school and new, in a celebration of songs about the city.
Check their Website or MySpace site.
