Squeeze – 16 November 1999 – live at Newcastle Telewest Arena

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packetofthree says:

19 February 2012 at 3:34 pm

Here’s a review of the night by Steven from the Yahoo Glenn List

It was an omen.

As I climbed out of the shower to get ready for my second Squeeze gig in as many weeks, Virgin Radio played Up The Junction. The scene was set for a good night.

Last week in Cardiff, Glenn had battled with – rather than played – his guitar, and the evening was beset with technical difficulties and poor sound quality. Newcastle Arena was going to be different.
* * *
“We are Squeeze, and this is what we do!”, announced Mr Tilbrook confidently before launching into the opener just before half past seven. Already he was in command, and the succession of classic songs in the first fifteen minutes cemented his position.
The polite applause gradually turned to genuine appreciation and banter with the audience even culminated in a James Brown impersonation! Somehow he got away with it in front of 4000 rampant non-Squeeze fans – most of whom were still finding their seats.
Things were going well and it was time to try something new. Glenn informed the uninitiated of his brief flirtation with Radio 2 in the summer and we were treated to “Interview With Randy Newman”. The lyrics were hard to make out, but the sound was pure Squeeze – complete with not one, but two false endings.
Footprints disappeared from the set, but no one really missed it as we got a couple of extra tracks from Domino instead. Little King is a storming live track, but my particular favourite was In The Morning. Chris B. briefly abandoned his keyboards to play acoustic guitar and Ash’s drumming was superb. Even without the customary distorted vocals of the album, it was an excellent demonstration to everyone of what Squeeze have been doing since they were last on Top Of The Pops!
The “invisible” lyricist was missed. The others tried with the backing vocals, bless them, but there was no “gravel” to it! If you stopped to think about it, we only had half of that magical partnership, a part time keyboard player, a bass player who doesn’t speak English and wasn’t that Marianne Faithfull’s drummer at the back? But what the hell. The sound was Squeeze, Glenn was enjoying himself again, and so were we.
But forty five minutes after it began, the night was over. We were on a high and ready to drive home with the car radio turned up loud.
And then someone mentioned that Blondie were also going to be on! “Are they still going?”, I thought to myself. Well, there wasn’t much on TV anyway, so we stayed. Sadly. Blondie may be many things, but they are not good live, not worth £22.50, and certainly NOT Squeeze!
But forget them, when are those Glenn solo gigs again…..?
Steven

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Squeeze – 16 November 1999 – live at Newcastle Telewest Arena

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