Squeeze at the Brighton Centre – Review

And after almost 50 years together the creative partnership of Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford is in rude health, putting on a energetic show which dusted off all the singles (45s and under), juicy old album tracks, and a couple of spritely new songs.The late Mark E.Smith once said: "If it's me and yer granny on bongos, it's the Fall." The same can more or less be said of Squeeze and Difford and TIlbrook but the latest iteration of the band sounded sharp and added some very welcome impetus to some of those big hits of yore.

Squeeze standards such as Take Me I'm Yours, Up the Junction, Hour Glass kicked things off nicely, the former with those irresistible driving drums and the latter with very resistible, quirky chorus which you wonder if they've ever regretted writing. Still it was the late 80s and I seem to remember MTV liking it.

Squeeze anoraks were treated to a largely forgotten song from the soundtrack to the film adaptation of Raymond Brigg's When the WInd Blows, a downbeat number from Argy Bargy (album three of 16!), and the lesser-heard F-Hole, from their most critically acclaimed album 1981's East Story, transforming the slightly out-of-character but wonderful string-laden neo-psychedelic nightmare into a buff large-venue bruiser.

F-Hole segued straight into Labelled with Love (as it had done on the long-player) and with added slide guitar Glenn Tilbrook's vocals were as soulful and as plaintive as they were way back when, and despite probably playing the song for the millionth time in their long careers, it sounded as good as it ever did.

Similarly, the majestic but blissfully simple Annie Get your Gun sounded as fresher than most forty-year-old three-minute songs.

But it wasn't all just a late 70s and 80s nostalgia trip. Both Cradle to the Grave and Letting Go, from 2015 and 1991 held their own against the old chestnuts.

Even better were the tunes taken from the band's new EP Food for Thought, the best of which being the title track which takes a swipe at the growing malaise of Sunak's/Truss's/Johnson's Britain.

Lyricist Chris Difford puts the boot into Brexit and the Government ("Pay less taxes ditch red tape, cosy contracts for their mates") and society's injustices.

It also namechecks the Trussell Trust, which tackles hunger and poverty in the UK, and is supported by the band for the second successive tour.

The show ended with a torrent of rabble-rousing and enthusiastically delivered oldies, with absolutely no sense of phoning it in.

With the intro of Goodbye Girl the previously stern-looking, cross-legged security sentinels abandon their posts and the aisles and front rows are flooded with happy gig-goers.

A final salvo of Another Nail in My Heart, Tempted, Cool for Cats, was followed by encores of a synth-drenched Slap and Tickle, and Black Coffee in Bed, reborn as the uptempo footstomper the band always wanted it to be.

It’s great to hear them sounding so reinvigorated and managing to sneak in some interesting tunes (old and new) while at the same time giving the punters their full quota of bangers.