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Thursday, December 09, 2010

Cut price knives and counterfeit pandas are all very well, but at Christmas time, nothing says 'I Love You' like a big Squeeze...


That's Lisa's Christmas present. I've no idea where she's going to keep them.

Within half an hour of emerging triumphant in a knitting auction on Tuesday night, Lisa and I headed straight to the Brighton Dome for Lisa's surprise festive treat: a Squeeze concert. I booked the tickets in March, which is remarkable because it means that (a) I managed to keep it secret for nine months, and (b) I didn't forget to go. The latter is probably more surprising.

We last saw Squeeze in December 2007, and a lot's changed since then. For a start, we now need a babysitter. Luckily I booked that in March too. This time around, the support band were The Lightning Seeds, which was handy as Lisa loved them in the 90s, and I regularly hummed 'Three Lions' whilst watching the football. They turned out to be remarkably good, although it's a shame Amelie wasn't there, as they'd clearly designed their stage backdrop with her in mind...


That's what Amelie would call "Two oranges".

From where we were sitting, Ian Broudie looked a lot like David Baddiel, which I found slightly disturbing, but fortunately he sings a lot better, and I spent most of their set wondering why I'd never bought a Lightning Seeds album. Before realising I had no money in the 90s and couldn't afford one.

As for the main event, Squeeze were, as ever, completely marvellous. This time, they had Steve Nieve on keyboards, who's supposedly best known as Elvis Costello's pianist, but to me will always be remembered as the leader of the house band on 'Tonight With Jonathan Ross'. That was before Wossy got the poofs in.

Other than that, the line-up was the same as last time, and if anything, performed even better. Admittedly they didn't play Lisa's favourite song ('Some Fantastic Place'), but I feel that's her own fault for preferring a song about death, rather than ones about betrayal, like any normal person. They played 'Tempted', so I went away happy.

In addition to that, Squeeze have made a bold attempt to move into the 21st century by introducing an elaborate boyband-style dance routine into their act...


Although at first glance it looks like five drunks dancing at a wedding. You've got to give them credit for trying though. It can't be easy at their age.

3 comments:

Dave said...

It will come as no surprise to learn that I have no idea who any of these people are.

Except Lisa of course.

I was trying to remember the last time i'd heard a live musician.  Then I remembered.  Sunday.

Kristy said...

We saw Squeeze a couple of times in the late 1980's. Or was it the early 90's? Before our now 16-year-old daughter came along to put a stop to that sort of thing (us having a fun night out, that is). Anyway, it was probably the last concert we saw that wasn't preformed by a classroom full of children. The dancing is similar.

Kristy said...

We saw Squeeze a couple of times in the late 1980's. Or was it the early 90's? Before our now 16-year-old daughter came along to put a stop to that sort of thing (us having a fun night out, that is). Anyway, it was probably the last concert we saw that wasn't preformed by a classroom full of children. The dancing is similar.