Nine Below Zero have moved on from being a pretty good Mod band to being an excellent Blues outfit that were well worth getting to the Pavilion early to see.

Denis Greaves has got the voice and the whole band were spot on in delivering a driving set of songs that were the perfect start to the evening.

Squeeze are about a third of the way through a 43 show UK and US tour coinciding with the release of their brand new album The Knowledge.

It always seems to be difficult playing brand new songs when the majority of the audience would not have heard them so there were a fair few of their early hits spread through the set to strike the right balance and keep everyone happy.

The intent to vary the set list was apparent right from the start when they opened with Please Be Upstanding from The Knowledge followed soon after by Annie Get Your Gun before title track of their last album Cradle To The Grave.

Half way through we were treated to a funked up version of Cool for Cats which was ok but did not work quite as well as the original, still after playing that song for over thirty years it’s understandable that they want to try something different.

To emphasise the point they went straight into Another Nail in My Heart that was a straight delivery of the original and worked much better receiving a warmer reaction.

The thing with Squeeze is that there are so many songs that you remember as your favourite until another one comes along later in the set to make you rethink that.

The lyrically brilliant Take Me I’m Yours was a highlight for me along with a guitar solo introduction to the equally good Tempted.

To drive that home Goodbye Girl put in a welcome appearance near the end and then straight away we had Up The Junction and Labelled With Love three of the best pop songs of the late seventies/early eighties which ended the main set on a real high.

A three-song encore including Is That Love and a rapid Black Coffee In Bed kept the tempo going and the audience on their feet to the very end.