Hi and welcome to the latest newsletter where we review the concerts so far, look back on our recent trip to Scotland last week and consider next years expectations!
First of all thank you to everyone who has made it to the gigs - and thank you to Secret Affair for making us ‘special guests’, and being so wonderful to play with! We have been going from strength to strength on the dates, and every gig has has a special memory! We really enjoy meeting and speaking to the fans before and after the show, and its here that we pick up all your suggestions for future set list inclusions, ideas for new records, parallels to other bands you follow, stories of how you discovered Squire etc. We appreciate that so many of you have followed us from school days! And we can usually recall the gigs you first saw us, and records you first bought, and are happy to sign old records sleeves - as well as new ones! We’re always close to the merch table for a chat after the gig!
It seems ages since the first Nottingham and Newcastle weekend of shows. Since then we played Liverpool, Leeds and Sheffield, Southampton and Cardiff, Manchester and Birmingham, Shoreham and Guildford,
and last weekends epic Carlisle/Edinburgh/Glasgow adventure! Most trips made driving through the rain!
Each set of dates share a geographical proximity and are easily recalled along with views from van windows, various back stage rooms and food allocations, next day searching for breakfasts and enjoying regional differences! We try and take a short ‘on stage’ panorama video from each gig soundcheck to remember what the view into the club looks like! Here's the view from on stage in Manchester,
which was a classic sticky floor club venue, whereas the Edinburgh venue was a fantastic dome ceiling ballroom!
We’re catching up on all the uploaded clips, photos and comments on Facebook and YouTube, and enjoying seeing some of the highlights from the shows. We’re particularly excited about how the Get Smart songs have been received, and its interesting to see ourselves playing back on line. Something we never got to see back in the day. Then, the gigs would come and go with nothing recorded. Now we can be a fan of Squire as well and catch up with all the social media! Please send us any pictures and video clips or post them on line on Facebook, or send us links to your own YouTube channels, we would love to assemble a document of this special time.
For those who haven’t been able to make it to the shows, the set starts with ‘Standing In The Rain’ coincidently the opening song when we played in Dublin in 1984! Indeed, it seems half of Ireland came to the Shoreham show! It was great to meet you all. And we always enjoy seeing fans who show up with interesting artefacts like this Squire t-shirt and home made ‘Kings Road’ single cover!
Some of you have been to two or three consecutive shows -thanks for the dedication!!
The set continues with a rousing blast through the singles, 'The Face Of Youth Today', 'It's A Mod Mod World' and 'Does Stephanie Know?', before settling on the A-side of 'My Mind Goes Round In Circles'. This gives us a chance to pair it with 'No Time Tomorrow' - a song we hadn’t played for ages, but sits perfectly alongside ‘Stephanie’ and ‘Circles’
We then introduce the 'Get Smart' sequence! 'Jesamine', which has always worried us because the single depends on the horn parts with prominent trumpet solo - but the new live version sounds really confident! This is followed by 'You’re The One' - now played at breakneck speed it has evolved into a perfect Byrds/Beatles powerpop 60’s track! One of our favourites! Then 'Every Trick (In The Book Of Love)' which always gets a rousing cheer!
That concludes the mod/pop sequence of the set, but we continue with more 'Get Smart' songs and morph into the mod / soul streak of 'Stop That Girl', and 'You Don’t See Me', followed by 'I Don’t Get Satisfaction' and 'B-A-B-Y Baby Love'! 'You Don’t See Me' is becoming a clear winner in the sequence, while 'B-A-B-Y Baby Love' sounds very sophisticated for an early Squire song, full of pathos and teenage observation, married to a great melody and rhythm.
It’s perhaps the song that may be the most familiar and oldest in the set, but has found a new lease of life and sounds fantastic! The final two of 'The Young Idea' and 'Walking Down The Kings Road' provide the barnstorming finish!! Thanks to Greg Gutbezahl for these pics from the Glasgow date!
Of course, count the songs that didn’t make it this time…. 'Girl On A Train' for example. Someone at the Guildford concert shouted for 'Saturday Shopping'! Someone else begged us to play 'Don’t Cry To Me', and 'Noonday Underground'! We’d like to include, 'I Know A Girl', from the many requests. Then there’s the classic ‘mods mayday’ sequence of 'Live Without Her Love' and 'I've Got You On My Mind', which have been set aside while we perform a shorter set. Where is 'Debbie Jones' or 'The Place I Used To Live'? Have we ever played 'Over You'? How long since we played 'September Gurls'? And 'The Youth Of Today Are Gonna Make It'? Classic Mod Squire! There are too many songs! We haven’t touched 'Get Ready To Go' or 'Has Our Love Gone Bad,' or tried any of the songs on the latest Get Ready To Go' album! We hear that in Japan, bands are covering 'I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend' and 'Teenage Girl'! Indeed, the 'Fan Club Album', which included those songs, was a surprise hit on the merch stall!
So the tour is going really well, and taking up all our energy for now. We now have London and Blackpool to look forward to. Next year we already have Gillingham, London Mods Mayday, Crawley, and a few more ‘secret dates’ already penciled in. Headline sets means more Squire songs so let us know your favourites!
All the best from Squire!