Squeeze and Boy George perform terrific sets to large crowd at NYC’s Central Park

By John Curley

Beautiful weather greeted the concertgoers attending the outdoor show at Central Park SummerStage in Manhattan on the evening of Tuesday, September 17th featuring Squeeze and Boy George. Squeeze, led by founding members Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook, and Culture Club vocalist Boy George were on a joint tour of the United States. They both performed 75-minute sets before a large and very enthusiastic crowd.

Boy George and his talented backing band performed first. He was in good voice throughout his set and spoke to the crowd frequently between songs. His set had quite a few highlights. The cover that he and his band did of Tubeway Army’s “Are ‘Friends’ Electric?” was outstanding. The synth on the song was spot on. Many in the crowd danced during the performance of Culture Club’s “Church of the Poison Mind”. And the crowd danced and sang along at the top of their voices to Culture Club’s “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?” Boy George shared the lead vocal on that with his backing vocalist.

Boy George ceded the lead-vocal spot on the song “Kylie T-Shirt” to vocalist Vangelis Polydorou. Boy George was a coach on the UK version of the TV talent show The Voice and met Polydorou, who was a contestant, on the show. Impressed with Polydorou, Boy George brought him on this tour and gave him a vocal spotlight moment during the set.

Boy George gave a terrific vocal performance on the cover of the Dave Berry song “The Crying Game” that was the theme song for the 1992 film of the same name. The performance of the Culture Club song “Karma Chameleon” had the crowd singling along loudly to Boy George’s lead vocal. It received a big cheer from the crowd at the end. The set closed with an excellent cover of Prince’s “Purple Rain” that once again had the crowd singing along. Both Boy George and his backing vocalist gave great performances on the song.

Following an interval of about 25 minutes, Squeeze took the stage to a massive roar from the crowd. Squeeze’s touring band includes Glenn Tilbrook (vocals, lead guitar), Chris Difford (rhythm guitar, vocals), Stephen Large (keyboards, backing vocals), Simon Hanson (drums, percussion, backing vocals), Steve Smith (percussion, rhythm guitar, backing vocals), Melvin Duffy (pedal and steel lap guitar, dulcimer), Owen Biddle (bass, backing vocals) and Danica Dora (backing vocals, keyboards).

Squeeze’s setlist was heavy on the hits. They kicked off with “Take Me I’m Yours,” which had Tilbrook and Difford in great vocal form and included some impressive guitar work by Tilbrook. “Hourglass” received a tight performance with a great lead vocal by Tilbrook that was supported by good backing vocals. The crowd sang along in full voice to the wonderful performance of “Up the Junction,” which had impressive work by Large and Hanson on keyboards and drums, respectively, as well as a top-notch lead vocal by Tilbrook.

Tilbrook spoke to the crowd a bit about the two albums that Squeeze worked on earlier this year. One of the albums is of new songs and the other is comprised of songs written when Tilbrook and Difford first began their songwriting partnership in the 1970s. That introduction was followed by a tight performance of a tune from the forthcoming album of new songs, “One Beautiful Summer,” that had terrific vocals by Tilbrook and Difford. Tilbrook explained that the song was based on a true story of two senior citizens in a U.K. nursing home that had both lost their partners and fell in love with each other when they met at the nursing home.

A deep cut from the East Side Story album, “Someone Else’s Heart,” received an excellent performance on which Difford and Tilbrook did stellar vocal work. That was followed by performances of three consecutive songs from 1980’s Argybargy album. First up was an outstanding performance of “If I Didn’t Love You” that had the crowd singing along at the top of their voices. Difford and Tilbrook once again gave great vocal performances, and Tilbrook added a terrific guitar break. The crowd seemed to particularly enjoy singing along to the song’s most memorable lyrics, which are “Singles remind me of kisses / Albums remind me of plans.” Difford, Tilbrook and company pulled out all the stops on the wonderful performance of “Pulling Mussels (From the Shell).” The crowd continued their singalong to Tilbrook’s lead vocal. Large contributed some nice keyboard work to the song and Tilbrook’s guitar break was perfect. And the crowd cheered loudly and sang along during the performance of “Another Nail in My Heart,” which included a fantastic lead vocal and guitar break from Tilbrook.

Performances of two songs from the forthcoming album of songs that Difford and Tilbrook wrote at the start of their partnership were then performed. “You Get the Feeling” had a nice Tilbrook lead vocal with effective backing vocals. “Trixie’s Hell on Earth” was given a tight performance by the band that backed Tilbrook’s lead vocal perfectly. The crowd gave enthusiastic responses to both songs.

From that point on, the remainder of Squeeze’s set featured one hit after another. Large contributed some impressive accordion playing to “Goodbye Girl,” that also featured stellar vocals by Tilbrook and Difford. An extended version of “Slap & Tickle” had some nice synth work by Large, tight drumming by Hanson and a strong vocal and nice guitar work by Tilbrook. A rocking take on “Is That Love?” had the crowd singling along at the top of their voices once again. Tilbrook did some particularly impressive vocal work toward the end of the song.

Tilbrook contributed a nice guitar bit to the intro of “Tempted.” Since the crowd had been singing along for most of Squeeze’s set, the band ceded lead-vocal duties to them for the second verse of “Tempted” and they did a nice job with it, which Tilbrook noted when the verse ended. And Tilbrook added some bluesy guitar to the end of the song. Difford took on lead-vocal duties on “Cool for Cats.” The performance of the song was tight, featuring Large’s keyboard work, effective backing vocals and great guitar playing by Tilbrook.

Squeeze then went right into the penultimate song of the evening, an extended version of “Black Coffee in Bed” that included snippets of other songs, some improvisations and introductions of the individual band members. The show closed out with an impressive cover of T. Rex’s “Get It On” for which Boy George and the saxophone player from his band joined Squeeze onstage. Boy George and Tilbrook shared the lead vocal. The crowd gave it a huge cheer at the end.

Before Squeeze left the stage, Difford spoke to the crowd about what a long journey the band has had in their performances in New York City over the years, going from CBGBs to Central Park. New York City crowds at Squeeze gigs have always been enthusiastic. And Squeeze provided the Central Park audience with yet another memorable performance in the Big Apple.

The joint USA tour featuring Squeeze and Boy George ran through Sunday, September 22nd, with its closing show in Orlando, Florida.

Boy George’s full tour dates can be found at https://boygeorgeandcultureclub.net/tour/.

Squeeze’s full tour dates are listed at https://www.squeezeofficial.com/.

Squeeze’s setlist was as follows:
Take Me I’m Yours
Hourglass
Up the Junction
One Beautiful Summer
Someone Else’s Heart
If I Didn’t Love You
Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)
Another Nail in My Heart
You Get the Feeling
Trixie’s Hell on Earth (Glenn Tilbrook song)
Goodbye Girl
Slap & Tickle
Is That Love?
Tempted
Cool for Cats
Black Coffee in Bed (with snippets of several songs, improvisation and band introductions)
Get It On (T. Rex cover, with Boy George)