Squeeze is an English
band that came to prominence in the United
Kingdom during the New Wave period
of the late 1970s, and continued recording successfully in the
1980s and 1990s. They are known in the UK for their
hit songs "
Cool for Cats," "
Up the Junction," "
Tempted," "
Black Coffee In Bed," "
Pulling Mussels ," and
"
Hourglass."
Though not quite as
commercially successful in the U.S.
, "Tempted",
"Hourglass" and "853-5937" were all
American chart hits for Squeeze, and
the band have a dedicated following there and continue to attract
new fans. All of Squeeze's hits were written by band members
Glenn Tilbrook and
Chris Difford.
The group
formed in London
in 1974, and
first broke up in 1982. Squeeze then reformed in 1985, and
broke up again in 1999.
The band has reunited for tours through the
United
States and United Kingdom
in 2007 and 2008.
Squeeze confirmed during an interview at the
V Festival in 2008, that they plan to write a new
record of material in 2009, during and after another tour of the
United States.
Career
First incarnation: 1974–82
The band's founding members in March 1974 were
Chris Difford (guitar, vocals, lyrics),
Glenn Tilbrook (vocals, guitar,
music),
Jools Holland (keyboards), and
Paul Gunn (drums). The group played under
several names, most frequently "Captain Trundlow's Sky Company" or
"Skyco", before selecting the band name "Squeeze" as a facetious
tribute to
The Velvet
Underground's oft-derided 1973 album
of the same name.
Gilson Lavis replaced Gunn on drums and
Harry Kakoulli joined on bass in
1976.
Squeeze's
early career was spent around Deptford
in SE
London, where they were part of a lively local music scene which
included Alternative TV and Dire Straits. The group's early singles
and debut
EP, 1977's
Packet of Three, were released on the
Deptford Fun City Label.
Squeeze's first EP and most of its
self-titled debut album (1978) were
produced by
John Cale for
A&M Records. Ironically, Cale had been a
member of Velvet Underground from whose album Squeeze took their
name. However, the debut album's two hit singles ("Take Me I'm
Yours" and "Bang Bang") were produced by the band themselves, as
the label found Cale's recordings uncommercial.
In the
United
States and Canada
, the band
and album were dubbed U.K. Squeeze due to
legal conflicts arising from a contemporary American band called
"Tight Squeeze". The "U.K." was dropped for all subsequent
releases. In
Australia, the same name
change was used due to legal conflicts arising from an existing
Sydney-based band also called "Squeeze". Albums in Australia were
credited to
U.K. Squeeze up to and including
Cosi Fan Tutti
Frutti.
The band's second album,
Cool
for Cats (1979), contained the band's two highest charting
UK singles in "Cool For Cats" and "Up The Junction", both of which
peaked at #2.
John Bentley
replaced Harry Kakoulli on bass in 1979 following the release of
the LP.
Argybargy (1980), the band's
third album, was also a UK hit. It was additionally a mild
breakthrough in North America, as the single "Another Nail In My
Heart" was a #56 hit in Canada, and second single "Pulling Mussels
From The Shell" received
airplay on
U.S.
rock radio
stations.
Keyboardist Jools Holland left the band for a solo career in 1980.
Keyboard duties were taken over by highly-rated singer-keyboardist
Paul Carrack, a former member of
British soul-pop band
Ace, who scored a
major international hit with the song "How Long." Carrack had also
been a member of
Roxy Music.
In 1981 the band cut perhaps their best-known album,
East Side Story. It was
produced by
Elvis Costello and
Roger Bechirian, and featured
Carrack's lead vocals on the radio hit "Tempted". Carrack himself
left after the release of
East Side Story, and was
replaced by
Don Snow. This line-up recorded
the
Sweets From A
Stranger LP in 1982. Negative reviews, the stresses of
touring, and conflict between band members led Difford and Tilbrook
to break up the band later that year, after releasing a final
single, "
Annie Get Your
Gun".
Difford and Tilbrook years: 1983–84
Difford and Tilbrook continued to work together, and released one
self-titled album as the
duo Difford & Tilbrook in 1984.
Although it is not officially a Squeeze album, to many fans
Difford &
Tilbrook is considered a "lost" Squeeze LP because Difford
and Tilbrook were themselves the only constant members of Squeeze.
Several Difford & Tilbrook tracks have been featured on
officially-sanctioned Squeeze
compilations.
The duo also contributed to a musical written and staged in
Deptford during this period, entitled
Labelled with Love
and based in large part on the music of Squeeze.
Second incarnation: 1985–99
Squeeze re-formed to play a one night
charity gig
in 1985, with all five members from the 1980
Argybargy
period—Difford, Tilbrook, Holland, Lavis, and Bentley. The
performance was such a success that the band unanimously agreed to
resume
recording
and touring as Squeeze. Searching for a different sound, the band
replaced Bentley with bassist
Keith
Wilkinson from the
Difford & Tilbrook sessions.
This line-up released the 1985 LP
Cosi Fan Tutti
Frutti.
The new LP featured complex double-tracked keyboard parts which
could not be duplicated by a single keyboard player in a live
setting, so Jools' brother Chris Holland played a few gigs as a
second keyboardist in 1985. However, Chris Holland was quickly
replaced by an official new member
Andy
Metcalfe of the
Soft Boys and
The Egyptians. A bassist in those groups,
Metcalfe would play keyboards with Squeeze. His tenure as the
band's sixth member would last until 1988.
In 1987, the sextet recorded the album
Babylon And On. A
successful release on both sides of the Atlantic, this album
contained the band's only US top 40 hits in "Hourglass" and
"853-5937"
Metcalfe left the band in 1988, leaving the
Difford/Tilbrook/Holland/Wilkinson/Lavis line-up to record 1989's
Frank. The LP was a commercial disappointment that spun
off no charting singles in the UK, and the band was dropped from
their long-time A&M label.
Adding a new second keyboard player in the person of
Matt Irving, the band issued the live album
A Round And A Bout on
I.R.S.
Records in March 1990. Jools Holland
left Squeeze again in early 1990, and was not immediately replaced.
In his stead, the band used session musicians such as Irving (who
was no longer an official band member), Snow,
Steve Nieve,
Bruce
Hornsby and
Carol Isaacs for the
1991 release
Play, which came out on the Reprise label.
This release again spawned no UK hits, although in the US the
singles "Satisfied" and "Crying In Your Sleep" received significant
airplay on modern rock stations, and in Canada "Satisfied" was a
top 50 hit. However, Reprise dropped the band after this one album.
Then drummer Gilson Lavis was let go in 1992, and replaced by
Nieve's fellow Attractions band mate
Pete
Thomas. Paul Carrack also returned to the band in 1993,
although by this point Squeeze was not so much a band as it was a
trade name for Difford and Tilbrook plus
sidemen.
Squeeze re-signed to A&M in time for 1993's
Some Fantastic
Place. After a period of commercial decline in the UK, lead
single "Third Rail" hit #39, becoming Squeeze's first UK
Top 40 hit in six years.
Squeeze's lineup during the mid-1990s changed constantly. Though
not an official Squeeze member,
Aimee
Mann was featured on vocals and guitar at many Squeeze shows
during 1994. Thomas also exited the band that year, and Carrack
doubled on snare and keyboards for a few gigs before session
drummer
Andy Newmark was brought in.
Then - still in 1994 - Carrack left, which allowed keyboardist Andy
Metcalfe to return to the band for a short spell, playing on some
live dates. Drummer
Kevin Wilkinson
(no relation to bassist Keith), formerly of
The Waterboys, was also added around this
time, replacing Newmark. He lasted through the 1995 album
Ridiculous, which was
recorded by the quartet of Difford, Tilbrook, Wilkinson and
Wilkinson. The album spun off three minor hits in the UK: "This
Summer", "Electric Trains" and "Heaven Knows". ("Heaven Knows" was
used as the closing song in the 1995 film
Hackers starring
Angelina Jolie.) As well, a minimally remixed
version of "This Summer" became a #32 UK hit in 1996, a year after
the original version peaked at #36. Despite this, A&M once
again dropped Squeeze from their roster in late 1996.
Following the release of
Ridiculous,
Don Snow (now known as Jon Savannah) returned to
Squeeze yet again as their touring keyboard player, but by 1997,
the Squeeze line-up had officially dwindled down to just Difford
and Tilbrook. That year the duo, billed as Squeeze, released the
non-album single "Down In The Valley" as a fundraising single for
Charlton Athletic F.C.
Tilbrook formed the Quixotic label for this and future
Squeeze-related releases, as well as releases by other
artists.
For the 1998 album
Domino,
the band was again a quintet consisting of Difford, Tilbrook,
bassist
Hilaire Penda, ex-
Del Amitri drummer
Ashley
Soan, and yet another returning keyboardist in the person of
Chris Holland.
Nick Harper often
performed with this version of Squeeze, providing additional guitar
and vocals. In January 1999, just days before a planned tour, Chris
Difford suddenly announced that he was taking a 'hiatus' from
Squeeze. The last venue for Squeeze with Chris was The Charlotte,
Leicester, England. The band subsequently continued as a quartet
led by Tilbrook, with
Jim Kimberley
replacing Soan on some tour dates, and Chris Holland exiting in the
autumn to be replaced by Tilbrook's other
frequent writing partner
Chris
Braide.
On 27
November 1999 in Aberdeen
, Scotland
, Squeeze
played their final gig before breaking up again. Difford and
Tilbrook embarked on separate solo careers shortly
thereafter.
Solo years: 2000–06
In 2003 Difford and Tilbrook collaborated on a song for the first
time since
Domino. The track, "Where I Can Be Your
Friend," appeared on Tilbrook's well-reviewed second solo album,
Transatlantic Ping Pong. In 2004 the pair worked with
music journalist Jim Drury on the retrospective
Squeeze: Song
By Song. In this book they declared they had become better
friends since breaking up the band than they ever were while
Squeeze was together.
However, a 2004 attempt by the
VH1 show
Bands Reunited to reassemble the mid-1980s
line-up of Squeeze (Difford, Tilbrook, Holland, Wilkinson and
Lavis) ended in failure. While bassist Keith Wilkinson was
favourable to the idea and drummer Gilson Lavis expressed some
interest, Jools Holland felt he was too busy with current projects
to participate, and, crucially, both Tilbrook and Difford expressed
reservations about working together in a band context at that point
in time.
Still, Difford and Tilbrook's friendship continued, and in December
2005 Difford sat in for a few songs at a Glenn Tilbrook solo gig in
Glasgow.
Third incarnation: 2007-present
In early 2007 it was announced that Difford and Tilbrook would
re-form Squeeze for a series of shows throughout the latter half of
the year, in support of Universal and Warner's re-issuing of the
band's back catalogue and the release of a new 'best of' album,
Essential Squeeze, on April 30. Jools Holland and Gilson
Lavis were unable to take part in the series of shows, as they were
touring under the "Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues
Orchestra" name for most of the year. However, John Bentley
re-joined on bass for the first time since Squeeze's last reunion
show in 1985. The rest of the lineup was fleshed out by members of
Tilbrook's touring band, The Fluffers: Stephen Large (keyboards)
and Simon Hanson (drums).
On 7 July
2007, at the "Return to the Summer of Love Party," at Hawkhurst
, Kent
, Difford and
Tilbrook, each singing and playing acoustic guitars, played a seven song
set. They played, in order, "Take Me I'm Yours," "Pulling
Mussels (From the Shell)," "Is that Love?," "Tempted," "Labelled
with Love," "Cool for Cats," and "Up the Junction."
The first actual
full-band Squeeze show since 1999 took place less than a week later
at their old haunt, "The Albany" (Deptford) on Thursday 12 July
which was actually billed as a "warm up" gig prior to the upcoming
US tour, this was then followed by GuilFest
2007. They toured the U.S. in August 2007,
supported on various dates by
Fountains of Wayne,
Will Hoge,
Big Head Todd and the
Monsters, and
Cheap Trick.
In November 2007, the band released
Five Live: On Tour in
America, a
live CD consisting of recordings from the American
tour. The title referred to the number of people in the band, not
the number of tracks on the 19-song CD. Television appearances and
live shows in the U.S. and UK followed throughout 2008, including a
headline appearance at
Beautiful Days on 15 August. After
the success of the 2007/8 tours (and successful sales of
re-released Squeeze records and the
Five Live: On Tour in
America album) it was confirmed that the current Squeeze
line-up will record a new album through 2009, where they already
have a tour of the States planned however whilst at Latitude
Festival in Suffolk in July 2009 they played no new material
Band member timeline
ImageSize = width:850 height:auto
barincrement:25PlotArea = left:100 bottom:60 top:0
right:50Alignbars = justifyDateFormat = dd/mm/yyyyPeriod =
from:01/01/1974 till:01/09/2009TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
format:yyyy
Colors =
id:lead value:orange legend:Lead Guitar
id:guitar value:tan1 legend:Guitar
id:bass value:gray(0.8) legend:Bass
id:drums value:yellowgreen legend:Drums
id:keys value:powderblue2 legend:Keyboards
id:keys2 value:yellow legend:Add'l Keyboards
id:lines value:black legend:Studio albums
Legend = orientation:horizontal position:bottom
ScaleMajor = increment:2 start:1974
BarData =
bar:Glenn text:"Glenn Tilbrook"
bar:Chris text:"Chris Difford"
bar:Jools text:"Jools Holland"
bar:Paul text:"Paul Carrack"
bar:Don text:"Don Snow"
bar:ChrisH text:"Christopher Holland"
bar:ChrisB text:"Chris Braide"
bar:Stephen text:"Stephen Large"
bar:Andy text:"Andy Metcalfe"
bar:Matt text:"Matt Irving"
bar:Harry text:"Harry Kakouli"
bar:John text:"John Bentley"
bar:Keith text:"Keith Wilkinson"
bar:Hilare text:"Hilaire Penda"
bar:PaulG text:"Paul Gunn"
bar:Gil text:"Gilson Lavis"
bar:Pete text:"Pete Thomas"
bar:Kevin text:"Kevin Wilkinson"
bar:Ash text:"Ash Soan"
bar:Simon text:"Simon Hanson"
PlotData=
width:10 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4)
bar:Glenn from:01/01/1974 till:31/12/1982 color:lead
bar:Glenn from:01/01/1985 till:30/11/1999 color:lead
bar:Glenn from:01/06/2007 till:end color:lead
bar:Chris from:01/01/1974 till:31/12/1982 color:guitar
bar:Chris from:01/01/1985 till:31/01/1999 color:guitar
bar:Chris from:01/06/2007 till:end color:guitar
bar:Jools from:01/01/1974 till:31/12/1980 color:keys
bar:Jools from:01/01/1985 till:31/12/1989 color:keys
bar:Paul from:01/01/1981 till:31/12/1981 color:keys
bar:Paul from:01/01/1993 till:06/06/1994 color:keys
bar:Don from:01/01/1982 till:31/12/1982 color:keys
bar:ChrisH from:01/06/1985 till:01/08/1985 color:keys2
bar:ChrisH from:01/01/1998 till:01/08/1999 color:keys
bar:ChrisB from:02/08/1999 till:30/11/1999 color:keys
bar:Stephen from:01/06/2007 till:end color:keys
bar:Andy from:02/08/1985 till:31/12/1988 color:keys2
bar:Andy from:07/06/1994 till:31/12/1994 color:keys
bar:Matt from:01/01/1990 till:31/12/1990 color:keys2
bar:PaulG from:01/01/1974 till:31/12/1976 color:drums
bar:Gil from:01/01/1977 till:31/12/1982 color:drums
bar:Gil from:01/01/1985 till:31/12/1992 color:drums
bar:Pete from:01/01/1993 till:01/06/1994 color:drums
bar:Kevin from:01/01/1995 till:01/06/1996 color:drums
bar:Ash from:01/01/1998 till:30/11/1999 color:drums
bar:Simon from:01/06/2007 till:end color:drums
bar:Harry from:01/01/1974 till:31/12/1979 color:bass
bar:John from:01/01/1980 till:30/11/1982 color:bass
bar:Keith from:01/01/1985 till:31/12/1996 color:bass
bar:Hilare from:01/01/1998 till:30/11/1999 color:bass
bar:John from:01/06/2007 till:end color:bass
LineData =
at:01/03/1978 color:black layer:back
at:01/03/1979 color:black layer:back
at:20/02/1980 color:black layer:back
at:08/05/1981 color:black layer:back
at:01/05/1982 color:black layer:back
at:01/05/1985 color:black layer:back
at:07/07/1987 color:black layer:back
at:01/09/1989 color:black layer:back
at:19/10/1991 color:black layer:back
at:19/06/1993 color:black layer:back
at:28/06/1995 color:black layer:back
at:09/06/1998 color:black layer:back
Discography
Studio albums
- Squeeze, March
1978
- Cool for Cats,
March 1979 (UK #45)
- Argybargy, February 1980 (UK
#32, Canada #26, U.S. #71)
- East Side
Story, May 1981 (UK #19, Canada #29, U.S. #44)
- Sweets from a
Stranger, May 1982 (UK #20, Canada #26, U.S. #32)
- Difford & Tilbrook: Difford & Tilbrook,
July 1984 (UK #47, U.S. #55)
- Cosi Fan Tutti
Frutti, August 1985 (UK #31, U.S. #61)
- Babylon and On,
September 1987 (UK #14, Canada #91, U.S. #36)
- Frank, September
1989 (UK #58, U.S. #113)
- Play, August 1991
(UK #41)
- Some Fantastic
Place, September 1993 (UK #26, U.S. #182)
- Ridiculous, November
1995 (UK #50)
- Domino, November
1998
EPs
Live recordings
- A Round and a Bout,
March 1990 (UK #50, U.S. #163)
- Live at the Royal Albert Hall, 1999
- Five Live: On Tour in America, November 2007
Compilations
- 6 Squeeze Songs Crammed Into One Ten-Inch Record
(included two Squeeze
singles, three remixed "Cool For Cats"
singles, plus "Goodbye Girl" live), U.S. 1979
- Singles - 45's and
Under, November 1982 (UK #3, U.S. #47)
- Classics, Vol. 25, 1987
- Greatest Hits, April 1992 (UK #6)
- Piccadilly Collection, August 1996
- Excess Moderation, November 1996
- Six Of One... (6-CD box set), October 1997
- Master Series, November 1998
- Up The Junction, August 2000
- Big Squeeze: The Very Best Of Squeeze, June 2002 (UK
#8)
- Gold (retitled North American issue of Big
Squeeze), 2005
- The Squeeze Story, June 2006
- Essential Squeeze, April 2007 (UK #25)
- The Complete BBC Sessions, September 2008
Singles
Note that the three 1984 singles by Difford & Tilbrook are included
on this chart. All these singles have been
reissued on various Squeeze compilations, and are retroactively
credited on these compilations as being by
Squeeze.
References
- Allmusic biography
External links
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