Merry Christmas from Squire! The Squire Fan Club Newsletter

Welcome to the latest Squire Fan Club newsletter, and the last before Christmas. We will be back in the New Year, which we hope will the fun filled explosion of live music and new releases we expected for this year, along with more discoveries from the archive!

In our previous Christmas newsletter, we reflected not only on how the band, and indeed every band and musician, had missed out on performing in front of an audience due to the pandemic, but also how much we were looking forward to returning to the stage this year! As the year progressed so we managed to add six dates to the calendar, only to find we were unable to play either due to illness or cancellation. In the end we managed only one date - but it was a fun filled event and we hope to do at least that next year!

So we focused on the continuing series of single re-releases. Every one a surprise, and a delight as each record provided yet another splash of colour to the year! Having already released ‘My Mind Goes Round In Circles’ in Light Blue and Milky Clear, and ‘No Time Tomorrow’ in Red and Pink vinyl during 2020, we started 2021 with a release of ‘Girl On A Train’, not only in the original Blue and Magenta sleeve, but the re-issue also included a special version in the planned Yellow and Red sleeve! We told the story of how the colour change happened at the sleeve printers, and how the abandoned sleeve design had become a legendary Squire artefact, only ever seen in a ‘mock up’ version.

The next release took everyone by surprise! In advance of a planned remix of Anthonys first solo album, ‘Passengers On Trains’, we released the ‘Live In Tokyo’ CD! This special performance was recorded in 1995 in Japan to coincide with the Passengers On Trains LP, and the live intimate performance included acoustic versions not only of the solo material but also some Squire classics! Due to ongoing delays at the pressing plants worldwide, the solo release is now planned for next year. 

The next single release in the re-release series was also a surprise! ‘Every Trick (In The Book Of Love)’ had been planned as the first single release from the ‘Get Smart’ album but in the end was only delivered as a 12 inch single, the 7 inch version was held over in favour of releasing ‘Jesamine’. So ‘Every Trick’  finally got its 7 inch single release, and in Pacific Blue and California Sunset Orange vinyl, it looked and sounded fantastic!

The next release was just as vibrant, Jesamine appeared in a blaze of Neon Pink and Cool Silver, and captured the summer mood perfectly as everyone emerged from lockdown and looked forward to some normal life! 

Finally we ended the year with the fantastic ‘The Young Idea’, which was pressed in black, white and a special black and white two tone disc to match the monochrome colouring of the sleeve! This was combined with the new The Young Idea tee shirt and even came with a limited edition tote bag to create a special Squire bundle for Christmas!

The unfolding year also provided a regular dig into the archives and unearthing of many unheard recordings. As we missed playing live, so we celebrated Squire’s many live performances, with clips from the 100 Club recorded in September 1982, the Electric Ballroom from 1979 where we played ‘My Girl’ and examined the soul influence of Squire. We revisited the Swindon concert of 1982 which had became the live side of the ‘Fan Club Album’ and we finally heard the opening songs and full introduction! We visited Toronto, Canada  in 1985 and enjoyed the screaming fans and yet another blast of Squire!

The re-releases also provided an opportunity to examine the pre Get Smart era and found us enjoying the original demos of ‘Girl On A Train’, ‘Don’t Cry To Me’, ‘Every Trick’, ‘Standing In The Rain’ and ‘Jesamine’ and even uncovered an unreleased song, ‘Hey! Hey Hey Hey!’ 

The making of Get Smart, which was the continuing theme of the year, gave us the chance to play unheard versions of ‘The Life’ with a different melody, the LA mix of ‘Stop That Girl’, consider the London mix of ‘When I Try, I Lie’, and enjoy the rehearsal tape of ‘Has Our Love Gone Bad’ with the Get Smart horns. We also got to look at the art behind Get Smart! and consider the style of Squire.

Moving on to the September Gurls era, we finally got to hear the driving mono mixes of ‘September Gurls’ and ‘Debbie Jones’, while we ended the year on the radio in California, first on KROQ with Rodney Bingenheimer recorded in 1983 during the mixing of ‘Get Smart’, and Squire’s first LA live performances, and finally in San Francisco on KUSF in 1985 which included the ‘all star jam session’ and more unheard songs such as ‘Red Painted Dream’.

As you can see, the releases and archive recordings added up over the months and contributed to the ongoing cataloging of the Squire legacy, providing many deep and thoughtful opportunities to listen and consider not only how the records were made but add to the bands catalogue.

We have found the weekly email summary continues to be well received and is a great success, and a good way to let you know what’s coming up in the newsletter, and we have managed to keep to our schedule of weekly newsletters!

The newsletters remain our favourite way to share our ideas and discoveries from the archives, remind you of all the upcoming releases, concerts and share other news. They are all here on the website for you to read in your own time! According to our records, we have published sixty nine newsletters so far!! We also have the Squire Facebook page, and a special Squire FB Fan Group page that you can join by clicking on the public group logo here, and we also copy links to the newsletter on Twitter! 

We also post all the archive videos on YouTube, and plan to start adding some of the previous videos to Facebook and Instagram for the benefit of new fans who have just joined us and want to find out more about Squire on their preferred channels. Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube and Bandcamp have all the music streaming, and so you can keep up with Squire wherever you go for your daily diet of music and social media! Alongside that, we are always mindful of the Squire fans that have followed us from the very beginning and hope you are enjoying looking back with us over the timeline, and will stay with us as we look forward to next year and some big surprises! We are so blessed with your loyalty and perseverance as we've struggled through the year with the unexpected!  

To close the year you can join in the chorus of what seems to have become Squire’s Christmas song!

Merry Christmas and have a safe and Happy New Year from Squire!


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