Welcome to the latest newsletter! Firstly, congratulations to Adrian Watts who won last weeks 'White label' competition!
In case you missed last weeks exciting draw, his name was successfully picked by Chanel who is keen to participate in future competitions!
Thank you for everyone who has visited to read the newsletters, got to purchase the latest single release, and looked at all the other goodies on the website! We hope we can ‘keep you satisfied’ with all the regular updates!
This week, we are having a last lingering look at the 1979/1980 Squire line-up. On Saturday, 29th March 1980, Squire played at The Venue, Victoria in London, a big theatre owned by Virgin Records, hence the design of the façade signage.
The concert was the start of a tour pre-booked to promote the ‘Circles/Stephanie’ single release, though the single recording session had been delayed, eventually taking place on March 24th and 25th and mixed on April 2nd, and finally released in May. Nevertheless, the band were keen to get back on stage for the first time since the Secret Affair / Squire ‘Dancing In The Streets’ tour of Autumn 1979 and their final ‘Christmas’ show at the Acklam Hall, in Notting Hill on 21st December.
The Venue concert was recorded through the live sound PA mixing desk and reveals the band, a few days after the recording session, accomplished and excited about the upcoming release. The set list was relatively unchanged from the previous year, except to highlight the upcoming single.
The show starts with an extended intro to Does Stephanie Know, to allow the live mix engineer to adjust instrument and voice levels, and then kicks into a frenetic and exciting blast through the repertoire! Its all here, the I-Spy singles, the Mods Mayday tracks, the breathless timing and explosive drumming! The overall performance sheds light on the bands energetic stage presence during the era, with no lazy gaps between songs, and a sound that belies the fact Squire were just a three-piece ensemble!
The original tape box shows the set list, a mixture of songs played throughout 1979, still featuring the songs on the Mods Mayday album, but now including new tracks that would later emerge on Hits From 3000 Years Ago, including To Keep Me Satisfied, and the three live songs, Noonday Underground, Modern Love In A Modern World and Make Love To You, that opened Side Two of the original release when it was firs treleased as the Anthony Meynell solo album in the red sleeve. Eagle eyed Squire fans may notice the hand written Side Two running order on the original red sleeve mistakenly follows the order on the live cassette, corrected for the later red/white/blue sleeve re-issue!
The oldest song in the set was the cover of The Supremes Back In My Arms Again, a throwback to the early days of Squire, while The Young Idea would finally get a release as a seven inch single in 1984 on the Squire Fan Club Recordings label. The set list was as follows:
- Does Stephanie Know
- Face Of Youth Today
- I've Got You On My Mind
- Back In My Arms Again
- I Know A Girl
- My Mind Goes Round In Circles
- To Keep Me Satisfied
- B-A-B-Y-Love
- The Youth Of Today Are Gonna Make It
- Young Idea
- Sandy
- Live Without Her Love
- Walking Down The Kings Road
- Noonday Underground
- Modern Love
- Make Love To You
- It's A Mod Mod World
Encore
- Walking Down The Kings Road
- My Mind Goes Round In Circles
Although various bootlegs have been circulating for years of this concert, this is the first time you can hear the sound from the original master tape! Below is the encore version of ‘My Mind Goes Round In Circles'.
We have compiled a special playlist on YouTube that contains the first six songs of the live set, and plan to release the concert in entirety if there is enough interest! So please let us know. Click on the picture below to link to the session!
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All the best from Squire!