Squeeze

by Parsley Post to Twitter

PARSLEY'S COMMLOCK
Concert Review : Squeeze, Hammersmith Apollo 05/12/07
To me, Squeeze were to the 70s and 80s what The Hollies were in the 60s : a pop hit machine. Their string of hits have an element of quirkiness and great lyrics that are very 'London'. I saw them reprise their greatest work a few years ago at the Royal Albert Hall. Whilst it was a good concert, and quite fun to see them there, I felt they had hit a more mainstream success by getting a couple of gigs at the Hammersmith Apollo.

The Apollo is an historic music venue. Under its original name, the Hammersmith Odeon, it was not only the climax date on lots of UK tours, but it was even a meeting place for the likes of Cliff Richard & The Shadows to get on their tour bus. In 1973 my Mum took me there to see my first concert ever - Gary Glitter. This was in his heyday, before he got airbrushed out of popular music histories. Someone had added a 'G' to the label on 'litter' bins in the area so they said 'Glitter'.

My brother took me to the Odeon for my next concert - Paul McCartney & Wings. I remember wanting to know how much a ticket tout would give me for my ticket, thinking I might be able to make money. Tonight at the Squeeze gig there were plenty of touts to greet me on arrival, but also plenty of people selling tickets they'd bought too many of. I could have got a seat for £15 rather than my standing ticket, which cost £35 plus £4.75 booking fee. Anyway, I wanted to see Squeeze! Plus I was with my friend Rosehip and several of his chums.

Being December there was a definite air of Christmas festivity. Last time I was here was for the League of Gentleman's Christmas panto. The first pantomime in the venue tonight was the silly overcrowding, which meant you felt like you were in a constant state of pushing past someone or having them push past you. I think I can safely say that the most common age for the audience member was forty-something. Most seemed to be carrying plenty of weight and be fairly well 'bevvied' up. I mention it because it seemed to be somewhat difficult to retain a personal dignity. I suspect that the beers encouraged an overly relaxed flatulence amongst the audience, because I seemed to be surrounded by an air which was rather unpleasant.

Despite being 6 foot 2, I managed to find a large gentleman pushed himself in front of me blocking my view. He proceeded to sway this way and that, and sing along at the top of his voice. I decided imitation would express the sincerest amount of annoyance. I bellowed the next chorus into his ear and he seemed to get the message.

My friends decided to move further forward. This was a good move. Although people seemed furious that we would dare to move forwards, when we got there it turned out they had been blocking fairly vast areas nearer the front where we could stand without annoying anyone particularly.

All this time Squeeze were breezing through their hits - the likes of 'Another Nail In My Heart', 'Up the Junction' - and some other songs I didn't know. Casting a sideways look I could tell that the audience didn't know these ones either, as they would temporarily stop mouthing the lyrics.

Mercifully, Squeeze are a band that do actually sound like they used to, although having become familiar with the studio mixes I found myself a little disappointed when the live mix didn't raise the keyboard parts appropriately. I did meet the very nice Jools Holland (Squeeze's original keyboard player - not playing tonight) once, and when I complemented his magnificent keyboard parts he was at pains to give the authoring credit to guitarist Glen Tilbrook. I don't think the mostly 'rock' sound was just a problem with the mix. In 'Cool for Cats' both Chris Difford and Tilbrook played regular guitar with no one playing the 'slide' that makes the verse so distinctive.

An enormous backdrop screen on which video clips were playing accompanied the live performance. This left every other element of lighting rather redundant. For one number a succession of stills of great double acts appeared. Difford and Tilbrook were included in the stills along with the likes of Morecambe and Wise, Batman and Robin and many others. With all the beer that was going down I was also put in mind of legendary barroom singalong merchants Chas & Dave. Bang on cue they appeared on screen.

Tilbrook's hair was a flailing mass as if he was in a wind tunnel. When the backdrop was watery he could have been the figurehead on some surreal ship. The Squeeze boys are both mainly Fender Telecaster men, and Rosehip and I felt that our friend Thyme (Steve Hillier - another Telecaster man) could have given them a run for their money. Still, I left satisfied that not only had they written great songs but they were still capable of playing them too, and certainly performed to the great satisfaction of their fans.

parsley@gardenrecords.com [www.gardenrecords.com]