Squeeze’s hit making days may be long behind them but the band have a remarkable longevity: as Chris Difford mentioned from the stage, he and Glenn Tilbrook have now been writing together for 50 years. However rather than being reduced to trotting out choice oldies on the ‘Rewind’ heritage pop circuit, they are still a significant draw in their own right with the Hammersmith show pretty well sold out, despite the fact there was another London date a few days later in their South East London heartland at the Indigo2. Judging from the average age it was an audience that has stick with them loyally from the early days.

Despite a well presented stage and lights show, there are no gimmicks to them, just songs and so after they bounded on stage to a ‘its time for Squeeze’ announcement, it was straight into that every first hit single ‘Take Me I’m Yours’ with a funky, almost danceable groove to it, sadly undermined by a muddy sound which fortunately righted itself in time for ‘Hourglass’, with the words tumbling out rat-a-tat fashion on a chorus with all seven band members singing.

Proof of the quality of their catalogue came in the way an all time classic ‘story song’ in ‘Up the Junction’, faithfully rendered, was slipped in three songs in without fanfare. Sporting slicked back hair and a dapper three-piece suit, Glenn Tilbrook’s voice is virtually unchanged and still sounds remarkably youthful.

The advantage of a full length set is that while all the hits were there, they played far far more than that, and indeed mix the set up from tour to tour so fan favourites and deeper cuts can be played.

On this occasion, these included soundtrack obscurity ‘What Have They Done’, ‘Cradle to the Grave’ (which I always associate with the dramatised memoirs of fellow Deptfordian Danny Baker), and ‘Letting Go’, and some of them were significantly longer, more complex and less overtly commercial than the stuff I am familiar with as a more casual fan.

‘F-Hole’, another song where not just the songwriting but the Difford and Tilbrook vocal harmonising justified the Lennon- McCartney comparisons that are always made, then segued into ‘Labelled With Love’, with a bit of the chorus left to the crowd. With the passing of years, I enjoyed the countrified approach that so turned off this young fan of their earlier New Wave sounding stuff, with multi instrumentalist Melvin Duffy playing some very fine pedal steel, which indeed he did on several occasions during the set to give the sound an added dimension.

Squeeze have always had a social conscience- I recall a local NHS choir joining them last time I saw them at the Albert Hall- and this time the title track of recent EP ‘Food for Thought’ had biting lyrics very relevant to recent Government failings and the current cost of living crisis, namechecking the Trussell Trust who were collecting food donations in the foyer. Stephen Large’s keyboard solo had an incongruously jaunty feel to it, but I guess that is in keeping with the bittersweet nature of so many of their songs.

They have never been a heavy band by any stretch of the imagination but the 1-2 of ‘Pulling Mussels from the Shell’ and a spiky ‘Is That Love’ were the most significantly rocky yet and got quite a few people at the front to their feet for the first time. Unfortunately during ‘Annie Get Your Gun’ (one of several songs where my first thought was ‘wow, I forgot about that one as well’) a ruckus broke out in a corner at the front among people old enough to know better with Glenn even having to briefly stop the song.

At this stage the set was still mixing the familiar and less obvious, and ‘Someone Else’ with a rare dual Difford and Tilbrook vocal was followed by an impressive pair of oldies re-recorded for the EP in ‘Electric Trains‘ and ‘The Very First Dance’, the latter with some funky Level 42-esque eighties undertones.

Nevertheless ‘Goodbye Girl’, with an almost calypso feel, started a run of hit singles that got people to their feet even in the balcony, followed by ‘Tempted’ with Glenn singing some parts acapella, and ‘Another Nail From My Heart’, then Chris’s moment in the spotlight as he deadpanned his way through ‘Cool for Cats’, sounding a little faster and rawer than the original and climaxing with a ragtime style piano solo from Stephen.

The keyboard player then got a synthesiser solo introducing the first encore of ‘Slap and Tickle’, never my favourite Squeeze song, and indeed the song closed with further synth work battling with an unusually ragged guitar solo from Glenn. They then closed with ‘Black Coffee In Bed’, showcasing what a fine white soul voice Glenn has, but dragged out by solo slots for each band member.

However that was a solitary indulgence as those songs- a remarkable 23 in a hour and 45 minute set – otherwise spoke for themselves. Truly one of Britain’s underappreciated national musical treasures.

Review and Photos by Andy Nathan

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

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Power Plays w/c 15 April 2024

ENMY The Ledge (FiXT)
KAROBELA Get Hard (indie)
KATH & THE KICKS Neptune (indie)
THE BEE TELLERS River Poem (Black Sand Records)
LAUREN FREEBIRD Like A Bomb (indie)

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09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003-2023
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2023
14:00-16:00 KATARINA PEJAK – Pearls On A String (Ruf Records)

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