Welcome to our latest newsletter! In a surprising turn of events, last weekend's concert turned into an impromptu wet 'n' wild extravaganza! The band gave a splash-tacular performance, leaving the audience soaked but smiling. Who needs sunshine when you've got rock 'n' roll and rain showers?
Since last year's "Get Smart" tour, we've included many more songs from that album, starting our live set with "Standing in the Rain." From the photos and video clips, you can see how the British weather rose to the occasion on Friday evening, joining us on stage with a deluge of rain in perfect synchronicity! Despite the downpour, we had a great time, and the atmosphere was friendly, relaxed, and celebratory. The next day featured Haircut 100, who presumably enjoyed a "Fantastic Day"! Next time we’re out in the open, we’ll play it safe and open with “Get Ready To Go!” We won't be covering "Riders on the Storm" anytime soon!
Nevertheless, the occasion provided an opportunity to recall other songs that celebrate the weather. The Sugarplum song "Holiday in England" immediately comes to mind, capturing a vivid description of similar sudden passing rain showers.
The song was written in Cornwall, where the weather can change abruptly as it passes across the narrow peninsula. It can be sunny on the south coast and raining on the north coast, or vice versa—simultaneously!
In fact, the whole Sugarplum album "Blue Summer Days" captures the summertime experience with metaphors and memories that mention the feeling of the sun on your skin, the smell of summer evenings, the sound of summer fetes and lawn sprinklers, the buzz of bees in flowers, the swirl of fairground rides and memories, and the oppressive heat of summer nights.
Here’s a link to a couple of previous newsletters that dig deep into the Sugarplum- Blue Summem Days story - click on the pictures.
https://www.hilorecords.co.uk/blogs/new-blog-post/holiday-in-england-the-new-squire-newsletetr
https://www.hilorecords.co.uk/blogs/new-blog-post/blue-summer-days-welcome-to-the-latest-newsletter
Another rain recollection is Squire's cover of The Beatles' "Rain" on the flip side of the "Eight Miles High" single. This version, recorded in Nashville, was arranged to evoke a ‘sunshine pop’ West Coast feel, as if The Monkees had covered it or The Beatles themselves had recorded it in Los Angeles with the Wrecking Crew! It captures the folk-rock feel of the "Rubber Soul" album rather than the psychedelic leanings of "Revolver."
Of course, "Rain" never appeared on "Revolver," ending up as the flip side of the "Paperback Writer" single.
The Beatles' single is curious not only because their recording was deliberately sped up during recording and then slowed down for singing, along with many other manipulations such as backward tape effects, but also because the photos on the sleeve are reversed, so John & George are holding their guitars left handed, and Paul is now right handed!, and the B-side purports to be the A-side, making the whole record a mirror image of reality.
In fact, Squire also made a second recording of "Rain" to recapture The Beatles' complex recording methodology, and that version remains unreleased—for now! You can hear a snip of it here!
Thank you to everyone who has bought the latest T-shirt in the color variation everyone was asking for on tour. We still have a few left, so hurry up and grab one for the summer. We only have two left of the original black-on-grey and the latest magenta-on-light-blue, and once they’re gone—that's it!
We’ve added a size chart to the pages to help you decide, and if you get the size wrong, don’t worry, you can return it for another size!
We have also added a few of the 2024 Mods Mayday LPs and CDs on the website. If you missed them at the Mods Mayday London gig in May, we’ll remind you that it features Squire's unique LA mix of "Stop That Girl" and the single mix of "Circular Motion." Both tracks are unavailable anywhere else! The album also contains tracks from Secret Affair et al.
Meanwhile, let's all look forward to the summer and enjoy listening to "Blue Summer Days." Here is a link to the album on Spotify.
All the best from Squire