Time for Squeeze on a Monday night!
You know you are in a crowd of fifty-something's when there's a queue at the gents and the members of the audience can't stay in their seats for more than 10 minutes! There's a situation for Peter Kay to be considering while he watched the magnificent Squeeze deliver a monster set containing old and new alike, classic sing-a-long songs of the past and future classics in abundance.
The evening got off to a blistering start with our own Mancunian punk poet, John Cooper-Clarke as the support act. We were then treated to a five minute cameo by Peter as he took to the stage to introduce the band. 'Who wants to be at a concert on a Monday night?' he said. Well, I'd rather be here than watching re-runs or Coronation Street, wouldn't you?
This may be the latest re-incarnation of the band, but they were tight and thoroughly entertaining from the first chord of Hourglass, till the last note of Take me I'm yours, some 24 songs later. In between, there were classic renditions of Is that love, Labelled with love, Black coffee in bed, Up the junction, the brilliant Goodbye girl, Tempted and Cool for cats, but the pick of the bunch for me was A little slap and tickle, complete with a brilliant accordion and mandolin solo. The addition of Lucy Shaw on bass-vocals has also added a welcome additional facet to these songs.
Interspersed with these timeless classics was some brilliant new material from their 14th studio album, 'Cradle to the grave'. The pick of the bunch for me were Beautiful game (a song about soccer), Nirvana, Open and Snap Crackle and pop. I haven't heard the album before, but I'll be ordering my copy shortly as it sounds like great driving music to me!
Two cover versions also featured highly. The well-known Barbara Jo Allen classic 'Hopper Valley PTA' and the lesser known Tom Waits song 'I don't want to grow up'.
The band left the stage to a standing ovation and the crowd headed out into the freezing cold Manchester night. I can understand what Peter Kay was saying about staying at home on a Monday, but not tonight. The action was definitely worth the effort.
Words by The Record Peddler
Images by Loz
COMMENTS
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Love squeeze, seen Glenn Tilbrook solo loads of times in York too!
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He played a pub near me. £25.00 quid a ticket. You can fit about 40 people in.
