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April 30, 2002
The gig in Kansas City was fantastic! We arrived to a very smiley,
yoga induced, chilled Steve Poltz, who presented straw cowboy hats
to Suzanne and myself. They were emblazened with red stars that said
"Sheriff". I don't know Steve well enough but I suspect
he's just being nice rather than kinky. I'll have to get him liquored
up to see if he has a thing for cowgirls. As I manned the tshirt stand,
Steve Poltz changed into a rather dashing Glenn Tilbrook grey ringer
tshirt and guess what ladies, I saw Steve's nipples! He took his shirt
off right in front of me. Visit www.poltz.com
for more dreamy Steve info!
A
very young,pretty thing asked to sign up on the mailing list and feeling
the Glenn love, I happily handed over the pen. She paused and then
said disappointed, "Oh. Is this Steve's mailing list?" I
told her no, it was Glenn's, to which she replied, "Glenn's not
really my thing. I'm more into young and fun music." So I leaned
closer to her, feigning deafness and when she moved forward to tell
me again how she didn't like Glenn, I head butted her. What? Just
kidding. Glenn's music: not young and fun? She is a crack ho. I just
smiled at her and made faces behind her back.
The
set list:
-
Letting Go
-
Messed Around
-
This Is Where You Ain't
-
Tough Love
-
Vicky Verky
-
Piccadilly
-
This Summer
-
Touching Me, Touching You
-
Another Nail
-
Some Fantastic Place
-
The Truth (with an amazing
guitar solo)
-
If I Didn't Love You (really great...more so than usual)
-
Sunday Breakfast Treat
-
Pulling Mussels
-
Goodbye Girl
-
I'm a Believer
-
From A Whisper To a Scream (with Brian, a fan who sang with Glenn.
Fantastic! Brian later came up to me and said the night was one of
the best in his life. It was really sweet! You could tell he was digging
singing harmonies with Glenn.)
-
Cash Machine
-
Drinking Wine Spo-dee-odee
-
Up the Junction
-
In Quintessence
-
Interviewing Randy Newman
-
Tempted
-
I've Returned
-
Hourglass
-
Parallel World
-
Is That Love
The
gig was really great tonight. I had talked to a reporter the day before
who is writing a story about the documentary for the Dayton paper
and it just reminded me of how funny things have turned out. 15 years
ago, I lived in Dayton, OH and listened to Squeeze and now I'm on
the road with Glenn having made a movie about him. As Hans would say,
"It's Great to Be Alive!" Had to stay an hour after the
gig because Glenn recorded the show and was sorting out things in
his technical world. He ended up leaving behind his crutches behind
(which we had to retrieve the next morning)...I think mentally, he
has already healed his ankle. Krist Noveselic from Nirvana was playing
the club next to our hotel but we had had enough rock for one night
so it was up the
woodland hills to bedfordshire as the cute pink english people say.
(it means time to go to bed.)
I'm writing to you from
sunny Kansas City, MO. Sorry I haven't written in so long but it has
been a hectic few days. I don't even remember where I last wrote from.
Hmmmm...let's see...I think it was from Denver. Randy Newman and Glenn
never met up...Randy wanted to go bowling and Glenn preferred Putt -
Putt® so they couldn't agree. Just kidding...it was just impossible
for them to see each other because of the schedule.
There were a few "meet
and greets" at local English pubs that went down a treat. Glenn just
hung out to chat with friends and I hung out to pester all of them to
buy shirts and CD's. Had an interesting chat with one bar customer who
had no clue who Glenn was. I proceeded to sing an array of Squeeze
songs (he had heard none of them and after I humiliated myself by
sharing my 'interesting' singing voice, he then had the cheek to
comment that he hoped the Squeeze songs sounded better when Glenn sang
them!). I then went down the list of artists from the 1950's onwards
who might sound remotely like Glenn, he was not registering any of
them. Finally, I mentioned the fact that Mark Knopfler is a Glenn
supporter and Glenn sang on his solo album and the guy's eyes lit up
and he said, "Okay, gimme 2 CD's. I love Mark Knopfler!" Sheesh....I
had to work hard that night.
A few fans had brought
along a guitar and Glenn very kindly took a few requests. One fan
named Tom (I think) actually sang harmonies with Glenn on Parallel
World and on It's Over which was great! After we said
goodbye to the lovely folks at WAR Records in Boulder, we drove
to Omaha, Nebraska. The roads were bad and the weather was really
horrible. We later found out that there were twister sightings not too
far away. Having a few hours before the gig at the Music Box, Glenn,
Suzanne and I did loads of really rock and roll things. Like, laundry.
Oh yeah, and we bought fish cakes and ate them and then watched a
rather fantastic, riveting show called "When Things Go Horribly
Wrong" or as Glenn would say "When Animals Do Unfortunate
Things" We watched footage of a poor soul who had a bull stick his
horn ALL THE WAY up his bum. It was truly painful to watch but of
course we had to and then talk about it for days afterwards. Glenn
even felt compelled to mention it onstage that night.
Speaking of which, it
was a great gig and I stood behind the merch stand pawning Glenn's
goods and watching the show. Much to my and Suzanne's chagrin, Glenn
hobbled without crutches to the back of the venue and perched himself
(standing) precariously on a stool...not the best way to heal a badly
sprained ankle and foot and I found myself shouting to him in worry,
"Mind your foot!" I fought the urge to stand behind him in case the
stool wobbled over causing him to fall, but I figured he's a grown man
and he wouldn't hobble around if it hurt too much. I sold some shirts
and I even managed to write down the set list! Here it is: (the first
few aren't in order since I was busy getting the shirts together and
such)
-
Messed Around
-
This is Where You
Ain't
-
In Quintessence
-
I Hear You Knocking
-
This Summer
-
Take Me I'm Yours
-
Tough Love
-
Some Fantastic
Place
-
The Truth
-
Touching Me,
Touching You
-
If I Didn't Love
You
-
Interviewing Randy
Newman
-
Always On My Mind
- (my all time fave)
-
From A Whisper To A
Scream
-
Up the Junction
-
The Elephant Ride
-
Hourglass
-
Other World
-
I'm a Believer
-
Goodbye Girl -
(accompanied by a fan who adlibbed some "She's Gone" lines as
if it were a Hall and Oates song. Interesting.)
-
Pulling Mussels...
-
California Dreamin'
-
Annie Get Your Gun
-
I Won't See You
-
Voodoo Chile
-
Black Coffee in Bed
-
Is That Love
-
Another Nail
-
Tempted
We left Omaha the next
morning and drove to Sauget, IL. Midwestern peeps are my peeps and it
was nice to experience that familiar Midwestern-y smell. Can't explain
it but it is a fresh combination of earth, springtime and well, the
Midwest. I could be completely off base here and living in my own
smelly world. We checked into the hotel and the loading and unloading
of several million bags has become tiresome. This roadie life is a
hard life! I'm trying to fit in though by wearing lots of black
t-shirts and not bathing often. I could've sworn Glenn's guitars were
lighter on the last tour. (probably because I didn't have to carry
them. I think Glenn has put a few lead weights in the cases since I
have to lug them now.)
Onto the gig called POPS
which is sandwiched nicely between two strip clubs. Tom, the promoter
was lovely and helpful and presented Glenn with an autographed poster
from Peter Tork. Sauget was the first gig with the opener Steve Poltz.
Steve is a really nice guy and proceeded to sing a song about "Monkeys
coming out of your ass" and the crowd sang along...you gotta love
that! Before Glenn went onstage, he played "By the Light of the
Cash Machine" on his 12 string (without singing along). I found
myself singing the words in my head and thought it would be great if
Glenn did an acoustic album of his songs....instrumental only....so
fans could sing-along karaoke style with the records. Had Glenn not
been two feet away from me, I would've been singing my heart out. The
Karaoke album could be huge! Maybe not. (I'd buy it anyway) I stood
back and sold t-shirts and CD's while Glenn took the crowd to the
space next door in his typical walkabout way and Tom and I had a
gossip on who has played the club in the past and who he loves to see
(Glenn being on the love list). Met a lovely fan named Jennifer who
was bubbly and enthusiastic about meeting Glenn, which I found
adorable. Jennifer was so excited and kept saying to me, "I'm such a
big fan!". Bless her. Aren't we all!
Also had a lovely woman
come up to me and compliment me on the website! Hoorah! It is really
fun being able to talk to fans directly about the documentary and the
site.
The set list for the gig
in Sauget, IL:
-
Cash Machine -
(love that one)
-
Touching Me,
Touching You
-
Take Me I'm Yours
-
Tough Love
-
-don't know since I
went and ordered a pizza-
-
I Won't See You
-
Slap and Tickle
(a first! I never heard Glenn play this one acoustically..FAB!)
-
Goodbye Girl
-
This Is Where You
Ain't
-
Piccadilly
-
When the Hangover
Strikes
-
Other World
-
Can't Buy Me Love
-
The Truth
-
Is That Love
-
Hope Fell Down
(a second! I never heard Glenn play this one live either!)
-
From a Whisper to a
Scream (accompanied by a fan who shouldn't quit his day job)
-
Always On My Mind
-
Pulling Mussels
-
Hourglass
-
California Dreamin'
-
Up the Junction
-
Tempted
-
Another Nail for My
Heart
After saying goodbye to
lovely Tom, the promoter, we went back to the hotel. Cue bad
television and watching the inside of our eyelids.
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