Fan Reviews
UK 1999
(please send in your reviews here)

Glasgow, December 3rd, King Tut's

From Jo. Freebairn:

Not that long back from a brilliant gig tonight or maybe I should say last night (looking at the time) in King Tut's, it was just fab.

Glenn was on stage for at least 2 hours solid and played a great variety of Squeeze classics, his own songs and cover versions. He didn't have a set list, just let the crowd pick and choose - well, within reason anyway.

The place was well packed, I'm sure it must have been a sell out and I got to the front !

He started off with "Another Nail In My Heart". After that I can't remember much of the order till just at the end.

Here's just a few of the songs he did in between.

Some Fantastic Place
Goodbye Girl
Electric Trains
Interviewing Randy Newman
California Dreamin'
Tempted
Weather With You
Can't Buy Me Love
Annie Get Your Gun
Suspicious Minds   etc. etc. etc....................

There were many many other great songs but I'm too tired tonight to remember them all.

Crowd participation is one thing but Glenn took this quite literally, twice getting someone out the audience to join him on stage. Paul was first up but I can't remember the name of the song at the moment then a wee while later Scott came on and did a great vocals for "Cool For Cats".

Glenn finished off his main bit with "Up The Junction" before leaving the stage for a breather. He came back on for the encore and did "Labelled With Love" which he let us sing most of. Finally there was "Pulling Mussels From A Shell" and he was gone to echos of the crowd doing the tune to "Up The Junction".

I was just glad he did "Labelled With Love" after yelling it out for half the gig and asking nicely when I met him after the gig in Pleasure Island, Orlando. Thanks Glenn.

Managed to catch the 'last' train home with 30 seconds to spare.

From Helen Burns:

My second Glenn Pub Entertainer evening and this was to be the night I got up and duetted Temptation for Love with him (sure thing - and spend the rest of my life curling up into a foetal position with shame and embarassment every time I recall how I completely lost the harmony somewhere in the middle bit.  I think not.  Judging by Kris Briggs' comments, this must be a commonly held fantasy.  Perhaps we should form ourselves into a mutual support group;  or better still we could offer our services to Glenn as an all-woman backing ensemble.  We could call ourselves "The Squeezettes". Hmm.  Sounds vaguely pornographic.  Forget that as well.)

'The Leopard' as a venue can probably be described diplomatically as intimate and unpretentious.  It was pretty crowded for a December Sunday. GMT took to the stage at 9.15pm and waited a couple of minutes before the light/muzak operator realised he was there.

Thereafter followed a frenetic succession of songs, often without even a pause for a "cheers then" in between.  I tried to remember them all but failed miserably.  Maybe up to half of them were covers of other people's songs and a pretty esoteric mix they were;  from Voodoo Child and Wonderwall to Yellow Submarine.  It was stream of consciousness stuff.  The second song he did was Monkey Up a Tree (that may not be the right title) which was a Difford and Tilbrook song recorded by Dr Feelgood in 1976.  He had a few guest vocalists from the audience, including the Compulsory Embarassing Pissed Man who attempted to throttle Labelled With Love to death before G mercifully rescued it for posterity  (I'm in no position to mock - see 1st paragraph).

Of Squeeze songs there were most of the old favourites.  My husband was pleased to hear Cupid's Toy, which had been on his request list.  G succeeded in playing my 4 favourite Squeeze songs:  SFP, The Truth, Walk Away and Maidstone.  I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.  Believe me,  in a place like 'The Leopard' it takes a quantum leap of the imagination to consider yourself in Paradise.

He explained that his children now lived in Australia and how unhappy he was that they were so far away, but that they were on their way over to see him "as we speak".  He then played Without You Here,  dedicated to them.  Now, this was probably my least favourite song from Domino.  Interpreted as a romantic song I found it a bit slushy for my taste.  But Glenn's words have completely changed the context of it for me and consequently it's zoomed right up the charts.  Very poignant.  I really can't imagine how awful it must be to be separated from your kids.

I was looking forward to hearing Interviewing Randy Newman and wasn't disappointed by it.  Some of the lyrics made me laugh out loud.  He really is so good with words (eg. his Independent Tour Diaries) that it's a mystery to me why he hasn't written more over the years.

He played for 1 hour 50 minutes, including just one encore of 2 songs. It was a bit shorter than usual but I'm not complaining.  He gave it his usual energy, commitment and enthusiasm.  If there was little in the way of audience participation or inter-song chat that may well be because he had a long drive to London ahead of him after the show, which seemed to prey on his mind a bit.  He'd already driven down from Edinbugh that morning.  Also, some sections of the audience may not possibly have been totally receptive to some of the more subtle nuances of his sense of humour.  He still found time to sign a poster for us after the show, God bless him, even though he already had his snazzy silver parka on.  Very rock and roll!

From Liz Field:

After much deliberation (and lots of people e-mailing me to tell me I'd be mad not to go!) I plucked up courage to go on my own to Doncaster last night.  Much to my delight, the first people I saw when I walked into a rather seedy pub were David and Simone - not e-groupies due to their lack of internet access - put huge fans all the same, whom I had recently met at the Chesterfield gig.  After an hour or so of reminiscing over our favourite Squeeze moments, we were all ushered up to a small upstairs room.  It was small, sweaty and packed - absolutely perfect.

Glenn, as always, was on top form.  I can't give you any sort of set list, but he played for two hours - the usual mixture of Squeeze songs, covers and, of course, Interview with Randy Newman.  A few people got up for a song or two, most notably a girl called Jodie who jammed with Glenn as though they'd played together for years.  The venue was too small and tightly packed for any off the stage antics, but Glenn bantered with the audience, who revelled at every moment.

Glenn must have thought we were a mad lot in Yorkshire - try as he might, he couldn't get everyone to sing in time during a Smokey Robinson song and someone was very eager for him to sing Cool for Cats!

At the end, I asked him to autograph a Chesterfield ticket which Simone had found in her bag and told him that there were a lot of us there who had been in Chesterfield - to which he said "cool" - I think he was quite surprised. Actually, I had been amazed at how many familiar faces were there - although, sorry Stephen and Lynn - I looked for you but didn't see you. Then someone else came over and spoke to him so  I raced off the stage - feeling rather shy and embarrassed - a very rare occurrence for me!

Another great evening and I'm sure all of you out there will understand how great it was to meet Glenn, albeit very briefly, at last!

From Kay Jennings:

Finally feel recovered enough to say something about Wednesday's gig in Bristol. The morning saw me, ironically, heading for London (aware that Glenn was heading the other way!) - horrible journey, late for my daughter's Uni interview. Rushing back mid-afternoon - got lost, chucking it down with rain, blowing a gale, mucho stresso - home just in time to rush out again. It was a family occasion, both of my teenage daughters coming along this time; the older one, on returning from the loo, told me she'd passed Mr T in the corridor, wearing a 'cool' parka - 'he's quite short' was her comment! Glenn wandered on stage to plug his own guitars in and mess with the lights which were in his eyes, before launching into the well-known routine; his Smokey Robinson to our badly-timed Miracles, an excruciating rendition of Perfect Day towards the end, and my first 'experience' of the Space Oddity thing - not really sure what that was all about, but David Bowie obviously sings in a slightly lower key than Glenn! Of couse there were the tried and trusted favourites - Mud In Your Eye, Suspicious Minds, Ticket To Ride, I'm A Believer, Weather With You, I Hear You Knocking, Wine Spodie Odie ( a rotten song but a good excuse for a glorious guitar solo), Walk Away, SFP, Labelled With Love, Up The Junction, Another Nail, Tempted, Goodbye Girl......you get the picture. We were also treated to Introvert, Without You Here, and of course Interviewing Randy Newman, which gets better with every hearing; and I think I startled him slightly when he announced Guilty - I'd been going to ask for it and got a little excited! On suggesting that any who wished could join him on stage to perform, a chap called Stu got up and did a terrific version of It's Over (getting the words right when Glenn, who was harmonising, got them wrong as usual!), and rejoined him at the end for Take Me to allow Glenn to do twiddly guitar bits; and then there was the chap who played percussion on a plastic beer crate during Suspicious Minds..........and the drunken sods stood right behind me who sang loudly (usually the wrong words!) and shouted a lot (Charlton I can understand, but what's Torquay got to do with anything?)

All in all, a spiffing evening; two hours of perfection by the man my 17-year-old described as 'The Master'....oh, and I finally got to meet Vicky, a squeezelist member whose father by a bizarre and freaky coincidence I used to go to school with in the dim and distant past!

From Anne Thomas:

So, last night I dragged hubby to Newport as I didn't really want to go on my own. He wasn't really impressed with Squeeze and only went under duress!

When we got to Tj's there were only about 10 people in there Hubby went to the bar and I had a look around - and there he was, standing in front of me! I think he smiled back because I must have looked like a grinning idiot! That's when I plucked up the courage to ask if he would sign the poster that I'd "acquired" and my tickets. He was great - really friendly and that's how I sort of dropped the "furry Glenn" thing into the conversation. I told Glenn that there'd been a little discussion about his hood being "fur" when he was a vegetarian and that's when he laughed and said that it was artificial + then went and got it for me to see! He didn't say whether or not he was still a vegetarian - but he did tell me how much he loved his coat because he could stuff loads of things into the pockets!

After more "sensible" chat....off he went.

The gig was amazing! All the artists were very good....except the depressing poet.. but that's just my opinion :o) (Glenn also said that he liked the idea of this sort of gig where there were acts that you wouldn't normally see together - he was enjoying it.)

There wasn't a big crowd there - but we were enthusiastic. Ok.. I'll admit we were crap with the audience participation in Tracks of my Tears! About a third of the way into the set - he just took his guitar off + told everyone he was going for a p*ss! Off he strolled to the toilet and some made use of the few minutes to get another drink (including hubby!). The compere had missed Glenn saying where he was going and assumed he'd finished + was trying to encourage us to "Give it up for Glenn Tilbrook!!" lol. Some tried to tell him that he'd only gone for a wee... but he didn't understand.....(he was Scouse <g>...some of them have a problem with Welsh accents!) Glenn in the meantime was wandering through the audience...saw the chair next to me was empty..and sat down + asked me if I was enjoying the show!! I told him that it was great + he could carry on from here if he wanted! Then the compere spotted him  :o( + he went back onstage.lol Then he decided to have a change of scenery + went off the stage + stood by the window + we all followed (I was going to say "like sheep" but I'm Welsh + you'd get the wrong idea <g>).

Yesterday afternoon he was on Radio Wales along with a band called Cripple Creek. He invited them to Tjs last night too and they played a few songs with him. Glenn looked as if he was having a whale of a time with them - they sounded really good too.

As for the songs... totally brilliant! All the favourites were there aswell as a few surprises. I loved Interviewing Randy Newman and also They Cant Take That Away From Me was a great song.

We had a chat with Glenn after in the bar too. He's a lovely warm friendly "Bloke from Woolwich" and Michelle, just do it... just go up + say "hello" to him! It was easy!

BTW... hubby is now converted!