St David's Hall – 14/11/2019
Billed as “The Difford and Tilbrook Songbook Tour 2019, the Squeeze machine wheeled into Cardiff as part of a UK nationwide tour with a recent highly successful tour of the US under their belts.
The consistency of both Difford and Tilbrook as songwriters, both together and apart is quite remarkable and they never fail to delight wherever they play such is the public's love for their brand of classic British pop, which they still continue to produce to this day.
Before hitting the stage each member of the band is introduced on a giant screen serving ice cream cornets from a van and the screen was to become an integral part of the performance with each song getting it's own mini film during a frenetic and fast-paced set.
Opening with the excellent Footprints from their Babylon and On album it was great to hear songs that they rarely play, if at all, though for fans of their greatest hits, they were not neglected as the famous songbook was dusted down and big favourites like Up The Junction, Pulling Mussels and Cool For Cats interspersed with album tracks Big Beng, King George St and Mumbo Jumbo.
Supported by a great band which included Squeeze regular and powerhouse that is drummer Simon Hanson plus the nice inclusion of Melvin Duffy on pedal steel guitar, amongst other instruments, with all providing backing vocals that helped the songs to another level.
Both Difford and Tilbrook looked in fine form and appeared thrilled by the response of their audience with Hourglass and Slap and Tickle especially, getting the desired feedback with everyone on their feet singing along in unison and quite a sight to witness.
Whilst it would difficult to single out highlights in a quite remarkable evening, their slimmed down version of Tempted was quite sublime, with Tilbrook taking the lead with just his guitar for backing and the song building gradually to stunning finish.
Coming back with an encore of Take Me I'm Yours and Black Coffee in Bed it was the perfect ending with Difford and Tilbrook paying each other touching and heartfelt tributes and a friendship that goes way back to their first meeting way back in 1973.
Special mention to support for the evening Heaven 17 with an impressive set of their own featuring hits like Temptation and the superb (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang.
