Welcome to the latest newsletter!
The weeks have flown by since the early May Mods Mayday concerts! We barely had a moment to reflect on the great fun we had as an expanded four-piece band with James playing second guitar and Casio VL-Tone, but now its time to get our guitars ready again, and look forward to some summer weather and join in with the festival season!
And with the summer weather comes a new Squire Tee Shirt - in White & Navy!
Summer brings a plethora of of open air boutique sized music festivals, and Squire are playing one in our ‘home town’ of Haslemere in Surrey this Friday 5th July!
This is especially relevant to us because not only is it going to be a fun open air gig, but we represent the local music scene as well!
Looking back over the Squire archives reveals that it is indeed a rare event for Squire to be playing outdoors! - but it has also been the marker of many an eventful and memorable occasion! The first foray into ‘al fresco’ culture was at the Surrey Free Art Festival, which was the forerunner of the Guilfest festival (which has just taken place on 29/30th June at Stoke Park, Guildford - featuring The Stranglers, The Vapors & From The Jam, all Guildford bands!!).
Squire played at The 9th Surrey Free Arts Festival, which was held at the Guildford University on Saturday July 1st 1978, and was notable because it was a very early Squire show, occurring a month before we were due to support The Jam at the Guildford Civic Hall on 30th July.
The gig was made even more eventful because of some shenanigans in the dressing room area which caused a fire, for which Squire were blamed - and we were banned from ever playing at the University ever again! The program for the show describes Squire as playing rhythm ’n’ blues with a touch of Dr. Feelgood! - And notes the addition of a new guitarist!
A year later we played another open air festival, at Bisley Pavilion near Woking, for the Bisley Music Festival on August 18th 1979. This was again a local affair, Bisley is adjacent to Woking and the local hall Bisley Pavillion, is famous for hosting many infamous rock acts in their early days, such as Queen, Status Quo, Slade, Thin Lizzy, later becoming a Northern Soul venue in the 1980s and hosting Wake Up Woking events before they moved into Woking.
The Squire Bisley gig was notable for many reasons. Primarily it was the very last Squire show as a four piece band, as guitarist Steve Baker quit immediately after leaving the stage! We went on to play our residency at the Wellington, Waterloo that evening as a three piece. Secondly the photo reminds us we were being courted by the manager of the VIPS, who owned the Twist and Shout Records shop and label in Battersea, and went on to create the Fire records label.
We first met at the ROK records singles launch in Trafalgar Square. The picture of the single launch below, shows Squire and The VIPS standing close to each other. The VIPS are with the guitar. Squire in the matching red Harrington jackets!
Their manager then squeezed them onto the Bisley bill after we swopped gig contacts, and there they are standing on the grass in front of Steve Baker, watching us!
The ‘back of the truck’ stage set up is fascinating, and always reminds us of similar impromptu stage settings you'd see in early rock ’n' roll photos, such as the photo of John Lennon and The Quarrymen on the day they met Paul McCartney!
Indeed, the journey of Squire over that year tells a poignant story: from unknown local hooligans preparing for a fateful concert with The Jam in July 1978, to a heartfelt farewell in August 1979, marking the departure of a band member and our last local gig. This arc is filled with all the excitement and drama that unfolded in those intervening months, that we've often discussed in previous newsletters.
It would be many years until we played outside again. Mersea Scooter Rally in 2007 and the Isle of Wight in 2011 spring to mind. Here is Squire on stage at the Qube Rye Seafront August Bank Holiday Isle Of Wight concert, with The Purple Hearts and Pope on the same bill!
Finally, to celebrate the summer we have launched a new Squire 'It's A Mod Mod World' Tee Shirt! While on tour many of you asked for a white tee shirt and so here it is! White with Navy Blue print!