Music enthusiasts are in for a treat this summer as legendary artists Squeeze and Boy George are set to light up the stage at the Bob Hope Theatre on August 18. This eagerly awaited event promises a night of iconic hits and electrifying performances that fans won’t want to miss.
Squeeze, celebrated for their pioneering contributions to the new wave genre, have been captivating audiences since the 1970s. With timeless hits like "Cool for Cats," "Tempted," and "Up the Junction," Squeeze's clever lyrics and catchy melodies have secured their place in music history. The band continues to thrill fans with their energetic live shows and enduring tunes.
Co-headlining with Squeeze is the legendary Boy George, the charismatic frontman of Culture Club. Renowned for his distinctive voice and unique style, Boy George became a pop culture icon in the 1980s with chart-topping hits such as "Karma Chameleon," "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me," and "Church of the Poison Mind." His performances are known for their vibrant energy and unforgettable showmanship.
Tickets go on-sale Friday, June 21 at 8:00AM via Ticketmaster.com and Adventist Health Arena box office.
About 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."
"Take Me I'm Yours" showcased a nervy, inventive band, providing a blueprint for Cool for Cats, the 1979 album that established Squeeze as one of the leading New Wave groups. Boasting the poignant "Goodbye Girl," the dexterous
storytelling of “Up the Junction” and the jaunty wit of the title track, Cool for Cats was one of the defining LPs of New Wave, bettered only by the colorful, muscular Argybargy, the 1980 sequel that featured "Another Nail in My Heart" and "Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)." Squeeze teamed with producer Elvis Costello for East Side Story, a 1981 masterpiece with “Tempted,” their first song to crack the American charts.
Success caused some ripples within the band. After releasing Sweets from a Stranger in 1982, Squeeze split. Difford and Tilbrook continued their collaboration with a self-titled LP in 1984, then reunited most of the Argybargy-era lineup for Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti in 1985. This incarnation of Squeeze recorded Babylon and On, the 1987 album that gave the band its first American Top 40 hit with the exuberant "Hourglass."
Squeeze spent the first part of the 1990s delivering such exquisitely crafted records as Play and Some Fantastic Place, albums that showed the group easing into a reflective middle age. By the time they delivered Ridiculous and Domino in the second half of the '90s, they were considered forefathers of Britpop, the swinging sound spearheaded by such Squeeze disciples as Blur and Supergrass.
After the supporting tour for Domino concluded in 1999, Squeeze went their separate ways. Difford and Tilbrook launched solo careers that would continue after they reunited as Squeeze in 2007. At first, the revived Squeeze was a touring outfit, only heading into the studio in 2010 to cut Spot the Difference, a collection where they re-recorded their greatest hits. Difford and Tilbrook added keyboardist Stephen Large and drummer Simon Hanson to the lineup during this time, eventually taking the revitalized group into the studio to record Cradle to the Grave, the 2015 album that found the band reconnecting with the dynamic, tuneful eclecticism of their 1980s heyday. Two years later, The Knowledge proved Cradle to the Grave was no fluke.
With bassist Owen Biddle, pedal steel guitar and guitarist Melvin Duffy and percussionist Steve Smith joining Difford, Tilbrook, Large, and Hanson, Squeeze has stayed on the road through the early 2020s, taking time to record the Food for Thought charity EP in 2022. This is the version of the band that's kept the sound and spirit of Squeeze alive during its fiftieth year, a half-century distinguished by some of the smartest and sweetest guitar-pop made during the rock & roll era.
About 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 ‘Karma Chameleon’ and ‘Do 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 Club’s split in 1986, Boy George released his debut solo single ‘Everything I Own’, 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 1993’s ‘At Worst… The Best of Boy George and Culture Club’ 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.
Turning his attention to DJ-ing in 2007, Boy George has performed sets in Australia, Dubai, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Canada, the UK, France, Brazil, Belgium, and Russia, amongst others.
Boy George has written and released three memoirs; 1995’s Take It Like a Man, 2005’s Straight, and 2023’s Karma.
All have become UK best sellers, with Straight staying in The Sunday Times’ best-seller list for six weeks.
In January 2016, Boy George became a coach of the fifth series of The Voice UK, with his act Cody Frost reaching the series’ final. After a successful series, Boy George then became a coach on the sixth season of The Voice Australia in 2017, with his contestant Hoseah Partsch finishing in second place. In early 2017, Boy George participated in the US series The Celebrity Apprentice, alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger, finishing in second place. In 2022, Boy George participated in ITV’s ‘I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!’
In 2016, Boy George reunited with Culture Club for a 40-city tour which saw the band play to sold out crowds in Australia, Japan, and the USA, before culminating at The SSE Arena, Wembley in London.
2017 saw Boy George team up with Dior, starring in the new campaign for Dior Homme, and in October 2018, Boy George and Culture Club released their first album in almost 20 years, ‘LIFE’. Boy George unveiled ‘Clouds’ in March of 2020, the first release via his own label BGP (Boy George Presents). He self-shot the video on iPhone.
Boy George debuted at Number 1 on the Official Vinyl Singles Chart for his collaboration with Kim Wilde – ‘Shine On’! Boy George & Culture Club recently performed a series of exclusive UK outdoor shows as part of Heritage Live Concert Series for 2021, which will include a very special date at Kenwood House on Hampstead Heath in July 2022.
In 2020, Boy George unveiled new album This Is What I Dub, Vol. 1, the first body of work to be released independently via his own label, BGP (Boy George Presents). A piece of his visual artwork, entitled ‘When Things Get Dark Look For The Light Switch’, was sold as part of the #ArtForHeroes campaign, where donations exceeded £1millon for the UK’s NHS heroes during the coronavirus pandemic.