SQUEEZE / BOY GEORGE 2024
Sun, September 22, 2024| Dr. Phillips Center| 7:30PM
SQUEEZE
Celebrating their fiftieth anniversary with an extensive international tour, Squeeze are one of rock's vital institutions, a band who carved out a distinctive place in the pop firmament with their vibrantly melodic, perceptive songs. Those songs were written by Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook, the composers who remained at the heart of Squeeze since its inception in 1973. Such early New Wave hits as "Up the Junction," "Cool for Cats," "Another Nail in My Heart" and "Tempted" led critics to label Difford and Tilbrook the "next Lennon and McCartney," an assessment that wasn't proven to be hyperbole. The ensuing decades found Squeeze building a formidable body of work, a songbook that continues to expand with the release of the vigorous comeback albums Cradle to the Grave and The Knowledge, a pair of records Squeeze delivered in the late 2010s after a nearly twenty-year hiatus from the studio.
Over the years, Squeeze saw a few hiatuses and breaks, not to mention players cycling through the lineup. Throughout it all, Difford and Tilbrook were the constants. The pair met when Tilbrook answered a "musicians wanted" advertisement Difford placed in a local south London shop. Keyboardist Jools Holland joined shortly afterward, then the band adopted the name Squeeze, cheekily taking the moniker from the disparaged final Velvet Underground album that featured none of the group's original members. Improbably, founding Velvet Underground member John Cale wound up playing a crucial role in Squeeze's early career. In 1977, after Gilson Lavis came aboard as their drummer and Harri Kakouli became the group's bassist, Cale produced Packet of Three, Squeeze's debut EP, and a good portion of their eponymous 1978 debut. The band produced two cuts on Squeeze, including their breakthrough hit, "Take Me, I'm Yours."
BOY GEORGE
When Boy George first appeared on Top of the Pops with Culture Club in 1982, he instantly had people talking. The New Romantic pop sensations went on to achieve seven UK Top 10 singles, nine Top 10 singles in the USA, and nine Top 20 singles in Australia - including âKarma Chameleonâ and âDo You Really Want to Hurt Me - and sell over 100 million singles and 50 million albums worldwide. In 1984, the band picked up the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, and the awards for Best British Group and Best British Single at the BRIT Awards.
Culture Club became the first group since The Beatles to have three Top 10 hits in America from a debut album, and the first group in music history to have an album certified diamond in Canada.
After Culture Clubâs split in 1986, Boy George released his debut solo single âEverything I Ownâ, which reached #1 in the UK and reached the Top 10 in an additional eight countries. In a solo career spanning three decades, Boy George has released nine studio albums, as well as 1993âs âAt WorstâĻ The Best of Boy George and Culture Clubâ compilation album.
Aside from performing music, Boy George also wrote the lyrics and co-wrote the music to Taboo, a stage musical based on the New Romantic scene of the early 1980s, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Musical Score.
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