Hey, it’s Glenn Tilbrook‘s Birthday.
Man, I know he’s old, because he’s older than me. Once I started playing music for money I lost the desire to go see live music as a an audience member. But my good friend Steve dragged me to a Squeeze show. He knew it would be the one pop act that would get me in the Melody Tent.
Squeeze had lost all their money and atomized — quite a common thing in the music world. We were expecting a rock band like you see in the video, and instead we got Tilbrook and Chris Difford (the weird, croaking-voiced guy that sings Cool For Cats) singing and playing guitars like a couple of buskers. I liked it better, I think.
I’m hard pressed to come up with a name of a pop musician who can simultaneously write such strong material, sing it well, and play the guitar as inventively as Tilbrook. The list is fairly short for any one of those three things, now that I think of it.
Pop music is supposed to be lively, fun, unserious, jolly, and cheap and accessible. Pop music is supposed to be: Squeeze. Happy Birthday, Glenn!
3 Responses
;unk in england produced some great acts…squeeze along with xtc were both very good.
Did someone mention XTC?
Your excellent taste should come as no surprise.both bands captured equally valid but different snapshots of English life