Pretending To Put The Squeeze On Music Fans (From The Bolton News)

Pretending To Put The Squeeze On Music Fans

7:42am Wednesday 24th June 2009 in

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DOUBLE headers are becoming very fashionable for concert goers these days and there’s a great pairing on in Liverpool as part of the annual Summer Pops Festival.

Squeeze and The Pretenders both came to prominence at the end of the seventies and between them have had dozens of hit singles and albums.

Chas Cole, who heads CMP Entertainment, who has promoted the Summer Pops Festival from it’s inception, is very happy that he has managed to secure both bands.

“We’re delighted to bring two such hugely influential bands to the Summer Pops Festival.” He said recently.

Influential indeed, as Squeeze has been cited as a major influence by many of today’s artists and writers.

Lily Allen, The View, The Feeling and Razorlight have all stated that the group’s music has been important to them.

The band has always been centred around Chris Difford and Glen Tilbrook, and it is they who write the songs.

The perfect combination of Tilbrook’s melodies and Difford’s lyrics resulted in some of the most memorable songs of the era.

‘Take Me I’m Yours’, ‘Labelled With Love’ and ‘Tempted’ (with lead vocals by Paul Carrack who had taken over the keyboards when original member Jools Holland left for a solo career), were all major hits for the band between 1978 and 1981.

But their biggest hits were a brace of number twos from their album ‘Cool For Cats’, namely the title track of the album and ‘Up The Junction’.

The band split up in 1982 for three years and then again in 1999.

But then in 2007 the band reformed, as usual with Difford and Tilbrook along with John Bentley (bass), Stephen Large (keyboards) and Simon Hanson (drums).

As well as the touring, the band plan to record a new album and Difford and Tilbrook have recently been awarded an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution To British Music and the Nordoff Robbins Icon Award.

“We can’t wait to come back to Liverpool and we’re looking forward to playing the Echo Arena and the Summer Pops Festival for the first time.” Singer Glenn Tilbrook.

The Pretenders aren’t debutants at the Summer Pops as they appeared two years ago, a show that singer Chrissie Hynde obviously remembers.

“The band had such a ball at the Summer Pops in 2007 that we all wanted to come back and rock Liverpool again.” She said.

Hynde, who hails from Akron, Ohio (the same city that spawned Devo), formed the band in 1978 and made an instant impact.

Outspoken and utterly uncompromising, she appealed to both sexes as with her trademark black eyeliner and black jeans, she was incredibly sexy.

As a singer and songwriter, she has a unique style, and her vocals are unmistakeable.

The band had massive hit with ‘Stop Your Sobbing’ a cover of the old Kinks number – and she and Kinks’ frontman Ray Davies were an item for a while and have a daughter together.

Another link with the Summer Pops is that Chrissie also had a child with Jim Kerr who she was married to form 1984 to 1990. Jim Kerr’s band Simple Minds will be playing the Summer Pops on July 21st.

Other hits for The Pretenders were: ‘Back On The Chain Gang’, ‘I’ll Stand By You’, ‘I Go To Sleep’ and the chart topping ‘Brass In Pocket’.

Chrissie also had a hit with UB40 with a cover version of Sonny and Cher’s ‘I Got You Babe’.

Many personnel changes have plagued the band throughout their history, and eventually The Pretenders became the name for Chrissie with a group of musicians of her choosing.

In March 2005, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The band these days consists of Chrissie, original drummer Martin Chambers (who returned to the band in 1993 after being sacked in 1986), James Walbourne and Nick Williamson.

Squeeze and The Pretenders will be appearing at the Echo Arena, Liverpool at 8.00 on Thursday 16th July. Tickets are £23.50 and £28.50 and are available from the Box Office on 0844 8000 400, Ticketmaster on 0844 847 1616 or online at www.accliverpool.com (a booking fee may apply).