Squeeze – 19 November 2012 – live at the Colston Hall, Bristol

Here’s Goodbye Girl performed as the encore with the band in the audience!

6 Responses to "Squeeze – 19 November 2012 – live at the Colston Hall, Bristol"

Ross says:

20 November 2012 at 6:15 pm

After 19 years of my Dad playing me his Squeeze records, this was my first time seeing the band, and I was very excited! And what a show it was.
It all kicked off with a Bang (Bang!) accompanied by bright green lights which matched Glenn’s new shoes and were reminiscent of that original vinyl of the song. Annie Get Your Gun was up next, followed by a brand new version of one of my favourites, Without You Here. I was shocked to see a Domino song actually getting some attention, and it was an interesting new twist on a beautiful lyric. Glenn played this one on a little keyboard, also used for the next song Slap and Tickle, which sounded just as good as the Old Grey Whistle Test thirty odd years ago!
The band now dropped their instruments and came to the front for Tommy, which Glenn described as ‘a song about a very unpleasant man’- currently my favourite out of the new ones. The amusing Top of The Form followed, and you know any song which references Starsky and Hutch is instantly going to be good! It was a nice surprise to hear No Place Li-Li-Li-Liiiike Home next and even more so to hear my favourite of Glenn’s solo efforts- Still.
Is That Love? I certainly thought so as they powered through the next song. The boys now had a quick change of instruments, and gave us a couple of intimate acoustic songs. Stephen got the accordion out, John plucked away on his tiny acoustic bass, Simon made one drum sound like a whole kit, Chris strummed away on his acoustic and Glenn was magnificent on his ukulele. The audience sang the second chorus on our own in Labelled with Love, and the instrumental was sublime in Take Me I’m Yours.
The band returned to their instruments, with Glenn continuing on the ukulele for the next two. The first of Chris’ two solo numbers of the night, Cowboys Are My Weakness, was accompanied by a montage of characters from the American West in the background. Brand new From the Cradle to the Grave was genius, and the video including younger and older versions of the band members was hilarious. Glenn was back to breathtaking guitar soloing on the ever-welcome Hourglass, and he then invited us all to clap along to Some Fantastic Place, which had a new strumming pattern. Next up was Honey Trap, with Chris singing instead of Glenn (who sang in the original demo on the Arse about Face EP).
After Another Nail, still sounding like it did in 1980, we were given another of Chris’ solo efforts, On My Own I’m Never Bored. They finished on a string of hits: lots of handclapping and ‘do-do-dododo’-ing in a very audience-interactive Tempted, a brilliant video to the best ever love song ever Up the Junction, and of course you can never go wrong with Pulling Mussels (another great video focusing on Squeeze t-shirts over the years). After a couple of minutes of enticing, the lads returned for a superb encore- Cool for Cats, Black Coffee (minus the guitar solo?!) and an acoustic Goodbye Girl which was very similar to the Live in New York version. The band continued to play as they headed off to the Pop Up Shop.
I met all five of the band, who signed my CD and tour brochure, and also got a photo with Mr Tilbrook himself, who is simply wonderful. A quick dash for the station and we made the last train of the night just as it arrived! All in all it was a great concert. The set list was certainly a good mix! It’s nice to see that Glenn and Chris have acknowledged how good each other’s solo work is and are happy to share it, and it was great to see some old songs revived, in particular Without You Here and No Place Like Home. The Pop Up Shop was a huge success, and I am listening to my superb copy of the concert as I write this! The new Packet of Four EP is equally brilliant. It was my first Squeeze gig and hopefully won’t be my last; it has left me excited for the upcoming album whenever it ‘pops up’! Some fantastic show!

Reply
1. packetofthree says:
  
  21 November 2012 at 10:03 pm
  
  This is such a stunning review Ross, I can’t thank you enough. It captured the night perfectly.
  
  Reply
  1. Ross says:
    
    21 November 2012 at 10:20 pm
    
    You’re very welcome. I’m glad you liked it although it can’t really express quite how good they were! Thank you for your amazing website!
    
    Reply
Andy Holdcroft says:

8 December 2012 at 3:34 pm

Isn’t this great?

Reply
Andy Holdcroft says:

8 December 2012 at 4:34 pm

Isn’t this great?

Reply
Clare Sherman says:

9 December 2012 at 3:50 pm

That`s not a bad way to end a show!

Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply