Event Reviews

The late seventies and eighties had some great bands, not least of which were Squeeze with their seminal songs defining an era for many a young man of the time.

Who cannot relate to Up The Junction? Who can fail to be moved by Labelled With Love? Who cannot prevent themselves dancing to Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)? Nobody, certainly, amongst this sell-out crowd that’s for sure, as they stormed forward to take their places at the front of the auditorium en masse.

Jools Holland may no longer be involved but, thanks to keyboardist Stephen Lord, his absence is barely missed as Messrs Tilbrook & Difford rolled back the years for the first time in over a decade, performing most of the hits; Hourglass, Tempted (By The Fruit Of Another) and Annie Get Your Gun being amongst the highlights, whereas some of the later hits such as This Summer and Electric Trains were strangely left out.

There were some minor problems. Tilbrooke split his trousers during the opening number, Take Me I’m Yours, and Chris Difford suffered a nosebleed through Nail In My Heart, but the standard of musicianship remains superb with Difford’s voice clearer now than, possibly, it has ever been, especially when singing Love Circles.

Cool For Cats, featuring an outstanding blues break at its heart, and the superb Black Coffee In Bed closed the show after nearly two hours, leaving the crowd to spill out into the wet and wild winter’s night feeling a good twenty-five years younger than they did when they entered.