Concert #61 - Squeeze at the Wiltern Theatre (June 5, 1990)

My second time to see the Squeeze, who had become one of my favorite bands. I had a good floor seat, about fourteen rows back, dead center. No Paul Carrack and no Jools Holland in the line-up. But they had Jools' little brother, Christopher Holland, a good keyboard player himself, he even looked a bit like Jools.

Before the show, they were playing some truly great music via de PA system and I badly wanted to know who the artist was. So I went to the soundboard guy and he showed me the just-released Jools Holland album titled  "World Of His Own". The song that caught my ear was "Architectural Number", the album's opening track, so although not there, Jools still left his mark.

Other then "Tempted", I don't remember any of the songs they played. nor could I find their set list on the Internet. But it was a good show.


The opening act was an all-female band called the Rebel Pebbles. They were  totally forgettable, no wonder I haven't heard of them since.

Here's the lip-synched original version of "Tempted":

Concert #39 - Squeeze at UC Irvine (February 19, 1988)

 In 1987 I discovered "In My Tribe", the brilliant second album of the equally brilliant 10,000 Maniacs. The album hit me like a train, I could not get enough of it. Led by Natalie Merchant, the Maniacs came to Southern California in 1988, but not as a headlining act. It didn't matter to me, I went to see them anyway.

The headliners were the Squeeze, a British band I knew little about. The show took place at UC Irvine's Bren Event Center. I sat in the lower section, at the "50 yard line".

Natalie Merchant

The 10,000 Maniacs were not an exceedingly polished band, their sound was somewhat raw, but I had fun watching Natalie and the boys. They played a few songs from "In My Tribe", plus a few I didn't know. Then the Squeeze came out and I immediately said to myself "I can tell why the Maniacs are not the headliners". 

Squeeze sounded tight, they were a true band of professional musicians that were in a different league altogether. In addition to permanent members Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford, the line-up also included Jools Holland, who later went on to achieve greater fame on his own. It was a great night - I got to see the Maniacs and then got exposed to a band that since then has given me tons of pleasure.

Bren Event Center (UC Irvine)

Bren Event Center (UC Irvine)