Most of the world knows him as the lead singer of Squeeze which isn’t very accurate because Chris Difford sang on many tunes plus their biggest hit is predominantly sung by Paul Carrack and Jools Holland did a few.
No matter, Glenn returned to do another one of his awesome solo-accoustic shows which is a mix of new stuff (from his current album Pandemonium Ensues), Squeeze hits, covers he loves (namely “Voodoo Child”) and off-the-cuff comedy. Personally, I think he loves to travel across America in his RV singing to a decent-sized crowd in intimate venues. The first time I caught him was at the Cactus Cafe. I missed his Antone’s appearance but I made sure I saw the big Squeeze reunion tour last Fall. When he showed up on the Austin Chronicle for a date at the Saxon Pub, I definitely had to go since his record is a personal favorite this year. Glenn’s solo appearances are better because he has an audience who will let him do his thing as opposed to the crowd only interested in the “hits.” Whether or not I would want him to return to the Saxon Pub is another matter.
Surprisingly, he opened with “Black Sheep,” (a Top 30 song on my stream for another week!). The favorites were delivered which usually matches the contents of Singles 45 and Under, a frequent staple in most people’s music collections if you’re around my age. He only did the first half of Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well,” because he said he couldn’t remember how the rest went. Glenn did more new material than I expected. I was happy he did, I was just worried over him losing the crowd. I think Austin made him feel more welcome though, he mentioned some of the poor turnouts in previous cities.
Whenever you attend a Glenn Tilbrook performance, expect to participate. We got to be the chorus for Pandemonium‘s opener “The Best of Times,” Squeeze’s 1982 track “Black Coffee in Bed” (the first full video I saw on MTV) and the 32 congo beats on the bridge of “Hourglass,” while his guitar replaces the saxophone (really a digital effect he spent three days programmer). The part which brought the house down was when he stopped at the bridge on “Goodbye Girl” to ask for a volunteer to play the guitar. Not a wise request to make in Austin, there’s at least a dozen of them anywhere you go here. Glenn was lucky he did get overrun on the stage. A really skilled gentleman arrived first, took over the rhythm so he was freed up to utilize his 12-string to undertake a bitchin’ solo.
After the show, I got to meet him again (Mark and I got autographs in 2003), tell him how much I enjoyed the book I received from Christmas from Mark a while back. Glenn autographed it! (Scan of it later). I wished him success for the remainder of the tour and hopes he comes back again. Next time I’m dragging a friend. I will be campaigning to get each Millard to do the same (Mark, his brother Scott and sister Barb who was there with me).
It was great to finally meet the man who was a big part of getting me hooked on MTV in 1982!