“I'm delighted with the turn out,” says a beaming GLENN TILBROOK. “The first time I played in Cork, there were three people there. Then there were five the next time and seventeen the time after that.”
OK, well the respectable, all-seated crowd at Cyprus Avenue may still be pretty small beer for Squeeze's lauded co-frontman, but for a man famous for responding to the smell of a crowd of any size, the lure of the solo acoustic circuit makes perfect sense. Tilbrook clearly thinks so, because a mere peek at his MySpace diary for the next few months is enough to make musicians half his age shudder. Let's see: lengthy solo Irish jaunt? Check. Acoustic dates in Japan in January? Sorted. New solo album in spring? Yeah, that'll do. Major UK jaunt to support it? Pencilled in already. New Squeeze album in the works? Mooted....and on it goes. I'll inevitably sound like my Mum here, but I'm knackered just reading that itinerary.
Anyway, tonight it's simply Glenn in a wide boy pinstripe suit, two rather attractive acoustic guitars (one a very desirable 12-string), two electric fans, two bottles of water and one P.A system. Oh, and the little matter of a jaw-dropping set of songs. This latter factor does tend to give him a head start in such low-key situations, after all.
Because this is one of those nights which makes like a master class from start to finish. Opening with one of Squeeze's surprise later hits, 'Heaven Knows' and immediately grabbing 'Take Me I'm Yours' by the scruff of the neck after a hilarious story about a Squeeze biopic where the band foil a gang of Middle Eastern terrorists, he's got us gobbling out of his hands in under ten minutes.
As you might imagine, he paces the set superbly. He's generous with the hits – 'Another Nail In My Heart' (complete with awesome, note-perfect guitar solo) and the perennial 'Up The Junction' come before the end of the first set – and mixes and matches these with strategically well-chosen covers such as the catchy, pub-rockin' favourite 'I Hear You Knockin'', Fleetwood Mac's 'Oh Well' and – against the grain – Jimi Hendrix's 'Voodoo Chile'. Yeah, I know what you're thinking, but he pulls it off with aplomb.
Sensibly, he keeps new material to a minimum, though he treats us to a new tune from his forthcoming solo album,'Pandemonium Ensues' called 'Through The Net' which comfortably passes muster, and another recent solo highlight 'Parallel World' also admirably holds its' own. He cherry picks from Squeeze's album tracks like the connoisseur he is too: strapping on his 12-string for a moving 'Some Fantastic Place' and proving that 'Vanity Fair' can soar even without Del Newman's strings. Then there's 'Tough Love' (“she cannot take it when he tells lies and sneaks off out of the room/ returning like someone's lost balloon”) which in only three minutes reminds us that where describing the minutiae of life is concerned, few have ever done it better than Squeeze lyricist Chris Difford.
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The home strait is a hit-stuffed jamboree. An energetic 'Annie Get Your Gun' kicks down the door; 'Tempted' is colossal even without Paul Carrack and 'Is That Love?' still sounds the greatest Number One that never was. Well, unless you lived in Israel at the time, that is. 'Slap And Tickle', meanwhile, provides the biggest surprise to these ears, with the Giorgio Moroder-goes-Krautrock synth pulse of the original re-shaped as a dirty, proto-rap delta blues. It's breathtaking and when he follows through with the killer double-whammy of 'Goodbye Girl' and 'Pulling Mussels From The Shell' you can't fail to go home with a mile-wide grin on your boat race.
Such is the pure joy of the occasion that almost two hours have passed by the time he finally departs. As is always the way with such memorable evenings, it feels like it's been closer to five minutes and we depart safe in the knowledge we've been treated to an absolute gem of a show.
As I said before, it's common knowledge Glenn Tilbrook is as at his happiest when on the road and Chris Difford even goes so far as to say “Glenn can tour until all his tyres go flat”in Jim Drury's book 'Squeeze: Song By Song'. But when you've got songs of this calibre to punt out, well this reviewer for one can only hope his RV keeps passing its' MOT.
(http://www.myspace.com/glenntilbrook)
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