Glenn Tilbrook: Teaming up with Beautiful Landing at Leeds Brudenell Social Club
GLENN Tilbrook & Beautiful Landing play Leeds Brudenell Social Club on June 11 as one of three warm-up shows for Glastonbury Festival.
Fifty years since he first answered an advert placed by Chris Difford, looking for like-minded sorts to form the Deptford band that became Squeeze, an ending is nowhere in sight.
Squeeze made their recording bow with the Packet Of Three EP in 1977, leading to such enduring pop classics as Take Me I’m Yours, Cool For Cats, Up The Junction, Another Nail In My Heart, Tempted, Labelled With Love, Black Coffee In Bed and Hourglass, alongside landmark albums Argybargy, East Side Story and Some Fantastic Place.
Squeeze’s demise in 1998 – not permanent – saw Tilbrook embark on a solo career that spawned the albums The Incomplete Glenn Tilbrook in 2001 and Transatlantic Ping-Pong in 2004.
In 2009 came Pandemonium Ensues, made with his solo band The Fluffers, followed in 2011 by The Co-Operative, an album of spirited original songs and covers with his friends from Nine Below Zero.
2014 brought Happy Ending, Tilbrook’s most personal and political solo work in a series of evocative portraits of time, people, and places, featuring writing and vocal contributions from Chris McNally, Simon Hanson (Fluffers/Squeeze drummer), Dennis Greaves (Nine Below Zero) and his children Leon and Wesley.
Squeeze re-formed in 2007 and have kept Tilbrook, 65, busy touring around the world, but he still finds time to take his solo show out on the road from time to time.
Now he is joined by Beautiful Landing, a young five-piece indie band from South East London to leaf through the Squeeze and solo back catalogues, complemented by covers and surprises.
Chantel McGregor: Opening the new season at Selby Town Hall
SELBY Town Hall launches its autumn season of music, comedy, theatre, poetry and more with tonight’s 8pm gig by virtuoso blues rock guitarist Chantel McGregor.
This multiple British Blues Award winner will be performing with her power trio, supported by melodic blues band Blue Nation.
Programmed by Selby Town Council arts officer Chris Jones, the programme for September through to the new year includes BAFTA, Ivor Novello, Blues Award, BBC Folk Award and Edinburgh Comedy Award winners, Grammy nominees, chart toppers and multi-million selling songwriters.
Highlights include the December 16 return of Squeeze guitarist, singer and lyricist Chris Difford who, alongside musical partner Glenn Tilbrook, has written a cavalcade of timeless songs, from Cool For Cats to Labelled With Love and Up The Junction, turning the mundane into the beautiful and the urbane into the exquisite for over forty years.
Christmas Difford: Special Selby show for Chris Difford
“While Squeeze continue to sell out major theatres and concert halls around the world, this is a rare chance to hear those classic hits, and the stories behind them, in a special Christmas show following the band’s big autumn tour [visiting Harrogate Convention Centre on November 2].
Delivering another festive musical feast on December 10 will be Mari Wilson, the Neasden queen of soul and high priestess of hairspray, performing her Eighties hits and tunes of Yuletide yesterdays in A Mari Christmas.
Legendary Irish folk sextet Dervish, who received a Lifetime Achievement accolade at the latest BBC Folk Awards, will perform on November 25. “Fronted by Cathy Jordan, regarded by many as the most distinctive voice in Irish traditional music today, the band have performed across the globe at festivals such as Glastonbury and Rock In Rio and on bills alongside some of the biggest names in music, from James Brown and Neil Young to Sting and even Iron Maiden,” says Chris.
Folk devotees can look forward to further visits from singer-songwriter and session guitarist to the stars John Smith, who will play in a double headliner with Katherine Priddy on November 3, and festive supergroup St Agnes Fountain, promising seasonal sparkle in early December 1.
Jon Gomm: December 2 gig in Selby. Picture: Tom Martin
Look out for a debut visit on September 22 by singer-songwriter Luke Concannon, frontman of folk-pop duo Nizlopi, whose single JCB Song was a platinum-selling number one in December 2005.
Patience has paid for Jones with the December 2 booking of “jaw-droppingly skilful guitar supremo Jon Gomm”. “I’ve wanted to book for aeons,” he says.
The Comedy Network will be coming to Selby for the first time this autumn for a series of four Sunday night shows, each featuring a headliner, support and a compere for an introductory price of £10.
“Over the years, the club has helped nurture the careers of some of comedy’s biggest names with past headliners such as Russell Howard, Bill Bailey, Roisin Conaty and Greg Davies,” says Chris.
Sofie Hagen: On tour with her Fat Jokes
“The opening event on Sunday night includes Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Phil Ellis and BBC Radio 4 News Quiz writer Katie Mulgrew, with later shows featuring Britain’s Got Talent runner-up Robert White on October 30 and BBC New Comedy Award winner Steve Bugeja on December 18.”
Full-length comedy shows are on the way from campaigning GP turned comedian and TV mainstay Dr Phil Hammond on September 30; Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Sofie Hagen in Fat Jokes on October 8; TV and radio regular and Taskmaster survivor Mark Watson in This Can’t Be It on November 17 and Phoenix Nights star Justin Moorhouse in Stretch & Think on January 20.
On the theatre front, York Shakespeare Project’s tour of The Tempest, the last play of their remarkable 20-year journey through all of Shakespeare’s plays, visits Selby on September 28.
Amy Trigg: Bringing Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me to Selby on her debut tour
On her first UK tour, on October 15, Amy Trigg’s extraordinary debut, Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me, tells the Women’s Prize for Playwriting-winning story of a young woman born with spina bifida navigating her twenties amid love, loneliness and street healers.
On November 20, storyteller and Edinburgh Fringe favourite James Rowland is back with his big-hearted story of a remarkable teenage friendship, Learning To Fly.
“This autumn programme is one of the most eclectic we’ve had in a fair few years,” says Chris. “From blues guitar hero Chantel McGregor to Radio 4 favourite and TV producer extraordinaire Henry Normal with his brand-new show of poetry, jokes and stories [Sit Down Poetry, October 22], there’s a proper mix of performances, including award winners, platinum-selling artists, a Grammy nominee, a GP and a pub quiz [The Thinking Drinkers’ Pub Quiz, October 21].
Normal behaviour: Henry Normal takes a seat for his Sit Down Poetry on October 22
“I’m particularly excited to be welcoming The Comedy Network, our first ever regular comedy club. Run by Avalon, one of the biggest names globally in live and broadcast comedy production, it offers audiences the chance to see acts who may well be filling arenas in years to come, alongside some established circuit favourites.”
One disappointment for Chris: “I was most looking forward to the return of Illinois indie-Americana quintet The Way Down Wanderers on November 10. They’re my favourite band ever to play at the Town Hall (and I’ve seen a lot!).
“Life-affirming, joy-filled music performed with an enthusiasm you wish you could bottle. This show had already been delayed for two years by Covid, and I really couldn’t wait to have them back with us, but they’ve just cancelled their UK tour.”
For tickets, head to selbytownhall.co.uk, call 01757 708449 or visiting Selby Town Hall in person.
Cancelled alas: The Way Down Wanderers have called off their UK tour, scuppering their already delayed Selby returnon November 10
Jools Holland: No Friday fry-up at Wackers, but a feast of a blues, ska and boogie-woogie set with Chris Difford, Lulu and Ruby Turner at full power at York Barbican
JAUNTY Jools Holland loves York. One of his favourite gigs, one of his favourite places, he says, as he makes his dapper way to the grand piano.
“Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he”, you might sneer, “he’s just playing to the crowd”. Let CharlesHutchPress know if he uttered the same sentiment at Harrogate Conference Centre tonight!
The thing is, Londoner Jools does love York, and in particular he loves the pensioner’s meal deal with a free cup of tea at Wackers. Except that, on arrival, he discovered his favourite fish and chip joint was no more; the chips were down, permanently; another sad change since he last toured pre-pandemic.
He cheered, we cheered, he shouted, we shouted, as he played the chirpy ringmaster once more, introducing his speciality acts, bantering to and fro with the full house, and revelling in the company of his restored rhythm and blues orchestra.
After all those Covid months of cobwebbed closure and silent nights, the sight of a stage stuffed to the gills with brilliant players brought joy uncontained to a Barbican gathering that was up for a party from the off.
To one side were Jools’s brother, Christopher, beneath a natty hat on keyboards, guitarist Mark Flanagan and stand-up bassist Dave Swift. Squeezed in at the back was Gilson Lavis, as imperturbable as the late Charlie Watts, on drums.
To the other side was a multi-storey horn section, and to misappropriate the style of a certain Christmas Carol: on the fifth day of November, York-loving Jools gave to us: three trumpet players, three trombones, five gold saxophones. Forever on the move, in the swing, they urged each other on, enjoying each solo spotlight as much as the audience.
In the middle, pulling the strings, was Jools. Oh, and yes, sir, he can boogie, boogie woogie, all night long, or more precisely from 8.20pm to 10.07pm, on his piano. A big screen showed his flying fingers in close-up and the cut of his dandy tailoring too.
That screen combined graphics with live footage, opening with the image of theatre curtains, later showing photographs of Holland, Lavis and special guest Chris Difford in Squeeze days.
Jools plugged his new lockdown album Pianola. Piano & Friends – out on November 19 on Warner Music – most notably for the irresistibly perky, fabulously funky single Do The Boogie, co-written with Mousse T, and when filling in for Tom Jones’s vocal on the soulful Forgive Me. Morris Dance, an instrumental homage to his dog of that name, was a blast too.
The vocalists kept a’coming: tour regulars Louise Marshall and Lucita Jules; then Chris Difford, immaculate in a blue suit, white shirt and scholarly specs, with a deliciously dry-humoured line in anecdotes.
Take Me I’m Yours acquired ska trim, a 1974 Difford-Holland composition was aired for the first time, and a big-band Cool For Cats ended with Difford clouded in dry ice as he recalled Cliff Richard’s propensity for doing likewise whenever he shared the Top Of The Pops studio with Squeeze. “I thought he had no legs,” deadpanned Difford, newly tagged “Cliff Difford” by Jools as he departed.
From The Selecter’s Pauline Black to Marc Almond to Beth Rowley, Jools has had a canny knack of picking just the right vocalists for framing their songs in ska, blues and brass-powered settings. To that list now add Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie.
Yes, enter Lulu, now 73, all in black, even for the darkest of dark glasses, for an unnamed opening shot of the blues and a quick dig at British music for being “wet” before The Beatles before a knock-out version of Ray Charles’s Hit The Road Jack. Glasses off, how else she could she finish but with her teen anthem. Well, you know, you make her wanna Shout. Come on now, who didn’t join in, hands jumping, heart’s bumping? We all did!
How could Jools top that? It must be time for blues royalty, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby. Here comes Ruby Turner, first warming up with a couple of looseners, then hitting her stride in I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free, and then…the moment. Ruby Turner overdrive, as she reached for gospel glory in Peace In The Valley, waking up the entire neighbourhood. The Barbican rocked, the earth moved, time for a breather.
Of course the triple-decker encore had to have the obligatory Enjoy Yourself as the meat in Jools’s sandwich. The years may be going by as quickly as you wink, but how good it felt to still be in the pink on a Friday night in York, as the fireworks went off all around us in the night sky as we departed.
Review by Charles Hutchinson
Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra play Leeds First Direct Arena on December 17; doors, 6.30pm. Box office: firstdirectarena.com.
GLENN Tilbrook will play The Crescent in York on March 13…next year.
As far away as the gig is, nevertheless tickets have gone on sale already for the solo show by the Squeeze singer, songwriter and guitarist, now 63.
More than 45 years after he first answered an ad placed by Chris Difford, looking for like-minded sorts to form the Deptford band that became the evergreen Squeeze, an ending is nowhere in sight.
Squeeze made their recording bow with the Packet Of Three EP in 1977 and a multitude of hits ensued: Take Me I’m Yours; Cool For Cats; Goodbye Girl; Up The Junction; Pulling Mussels; Another Nail In My Heart; Tempted; Labelled With Love; Black Coffee In Bed; Is That Love and Hourglass, complemented by such albums as Argybargy, East Side Story and Some Fantastic Place.
A series of solo albums have ensued, kicking off with 2001’s The Incomplete Glenn Tilbrook, followed by 2004’s Transatlantic Ping-Pong and 2009’s Pandemonium Ensues, made with his solo touring band The Fluffers. In 2014 came the mostly acoustic Happy Ending, his most personal work to date with its series of evocative portraits of time, people and places.
Presented by The Gig Cartel, tickets for Tilbrook’s show cost £20 at seetickets.com.
Jools Holland: on tour for 32 autumn and winter dates
BOOGIE WOOGIE pianist Jools Holland and His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra
will be joined on tour for the first time by veteran singer Leo Sayer, as well
as original Squeeze compadre Chris Difford.
Both Sayer and Difford will perform at York Barbican on November 11,
Harrogate International Centre on November 27 and Leeds First Direct Arena on
the 32-date itinerary’s closing night, December 20. Sayer, but not Difford,
will be a guest at Holland’s Sheffield City Hall show on December 3.
Tickets for Holland’s 24th autumn and winter tour will go on sale at 10am on Friday (February 7) via Ticketmaster, See Tickets, Ticketline and Stargreen, as well as the venues.
Leo Sayer: touring with Jools Holland’s orchestra for the first time in 2020
Joining
jaunty Jools too will be two long-term participants, gospel, blues and soul
singer Ruby Turner, who has written songs with Holland, and original Squeeze
drummer Gilson Lavis. Regular vocalist Louise Marshall will be there each show
too.
Sayer,
71, who became an Australian citizen in 2009 after moving to Sydney, New South
Wales, in 2005, charted in the Top Ten with all of his first seven hits between
1973 and 1978: The Show Must Go On, One Man Band, Long Tall Glasses (I Can Dance),
Moonlighting, You Make Me Feel Like Dancing, the chart-topping When I Need You and
How Much Love.
Further
success followed with I Can’t Stop Loving You (Though I Try) and More Than I
Can Say in 1978, Have You Ever Been In Love in 1982 and Thunder In My Heart,
contributing vocals to Meck’s number one in 2006.
Chris Difford: Squeezing in autumn and winter dates with Jools Holland
Difford, Holland’s fellow Squeeze co-founder, has worked through the
years with Glen Tilbrook, also writing with Elton John, Paul Carrack, Lisa
Stansfield, Bryan Ferry, Helen Shapiro, Elvis Costello and Holland too, who
calls him “the John Lennon of London, the John Betjeman of Blackheath and the Alain
Delon of Deptford”.
Holland and his orchestra have performed previously with Eddi Reader, Lulu,
Joss Stone, Fine Young Cannibals’ Roland Gift, Spice Girl Melanie
C and Marc Almond. For his 2020 tour, UB40 featuring Ali and Astro will join him for
three November gigs in Guildford and London.
Jools is recording his next album, whose focus will be on piano
stylings, duets and collaborations with top instrumentalists, for autumn
release.
Tickets for York Barbican, where Holland last played on October 31 2019, will be on sale on 0203 356 5441, at yorkbarbican.co.uk or in person from the Barbican box office; Harrogate, 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk; Leeds, firstdirectarena.com; Sheffield, 0114 278 9789 or sheffieldcityhall.co.uk.
