Squeeze are <!-- Please do not change "are" to "is". This article uses British English. -->an English rock band that came to prominence in the United Kingdom during the new wave period of the late 1970s, and continued recording in the 1980s, 1990s and 2010s. In the UK, their singles "Cool for Cats", "Up the Junction", and "Labelled with Love" were top-ten chart hits. Though not as commercially successful in the United States, Squeeze had American hits with "Tempted", "Black Coffee in Bed", and "Hourglass", and were considered a part of the Second British Invasion.
In the vast majority of their material, lyrics are written by Chris Difford and music by Glenn Tilbrook, who are guitarists and vocalists in the band. The duo were hailed as "the heirs to Lennon and McCartney's throne" during the band's initial popularity in the late 1970s. The group formed in Deptford, London, in 1974, and first broke up in 1982. Squeeze then reformed in 1985, and disbanded again in 1999. The band were also noted as a launchpad for the successful careers of their keyboard players, Jools Holland and Paul Carrack.
The band reunited for tours through the United States and United Kingdom in 2007. followed by another album, The Knowledge, in October 2017.
Career
First incarnation: 1974–1982
The band's founding members in March 1974 were Chris Difford (guitar, vocals, lyrics), and Glenn Tilbrook (vocals, guitar, music). Difford claims that in 1973, he stole 50p from his mother's purse to put a card in a local sweetshop window to advertise for a guitarist to join his band, although he was not actually in a band at the time. Tilbrook was the only person who responded to the advertisement. Difford and Tilbrook began writing songs together, and soon added Jools Holland (keyboards) and Paul Gunn (drums) to form an actual band. The group performed 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 Squeeze.
Gilson Lavis replaced Gunn on drums, and Harri Kakoulli joined on bass in 1975.
Squeeze's early career was spent around Deptford in south-east London, where they were part of a lively local music scene which included Alternative TV and Dire Straits. Though the group was initially signed to Miles Copeland III's BTM Records, the label went under in late 1976, and so their 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 their self-titled debut album (1978) were produced by John Cale for A&M Records. 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 UK Squeeze owing to legal conflicts arising from a contemporary American band called "Tight Squeeze". The "UK" 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 UK Squeeze up to and including 1985's 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 No. 2. John Bentley replaced Harry Kakoulli on bass in 1979 following the release of the LP. Several Difford & Tilbrook tracks have been featured on officially sanctioned Squeeze compilations, and Tilbrook's official site lists Difford & Tilbrook as a Squeeze album.
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. Thomas 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 and China Crisis, 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.) In addition, a minimally remixed version of "This Summer" became a No. 32 UK hit in 1996, a year after the original version peaked at No. 36. Despite this, A&M once again dropped Squeeze from their roster in late 1996.
Squeeze embarked on their 'Spot The Difference' tour of the US in July 2010, which continued in the UK in November and December. The CD Spot The Difference, a re-recording of Squeeze's classic hits, was released in August 2010 to accompany the tour.
On the US tour, during a performance of "Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)" live on the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon show, Stephen Large played the keyboard solo on an Apple iPad.
In September 2010, Stephen Large left the band and was replaced by Steve Nieve, who had played as a session musician with Squeeze and Difford in the past, but had not—until this line-up change—ever been an official member of the group. However, within a matter of months, Large returned to the Squeeze line-up as Nieve left the band.
This line-up of Difford/Tilbrook/Bentley/Large/Hanson continued to tour throughout 2011 and 2012. A 20-track live recording, Live at the Fillmore, was issued on iTunes and as a limited-edition white vinyl double LP in April 2012.
Prior to their 2012 UK tour, Squeeze announced on the Radcliffe & Maconie show on BBC Radio 6 Music that they would be selling live recordings of every night's show on the tour at each venue via a 'Pop up Shop'. When the tour commenced, each live recording the band sold also came with a 4-song bonus disc entitled Packet of Four; these were studio recordings of new Squeeze songs, their first studio recordings of new material in 14 years.
On 11 February 2013, Tilbrook and Difford performed a live cover of the Beatles' song "Please Please Me" on BBC Radio 2. They were joined by Paul Jones on harmonica. Alongside other contemporary artists, the performance was part of a 50th anniversary celebration of the original recording of the first Beatles album of the same name in the same period of time. A documentary of the recordings was shown by BBC Four on 15 February 2013.
Beginning in the autumn of 2014, Difford and Tilbrook began touring as a duo, playing Squeeze hits in smaller venues in the UK. Squeeze, still operating as a full band, also continued to play occasional festival shows through 2014 and 2015. In early 2015, Squeeze announced that bassist John Bentley would play his final gig with the band on 24 July. In an interview, Bentley announced his replacement will be Lucy Shaw (also the bassist for Tilbrook's backing band The Fluffers), which was officially confirmed by Squeeze in August.
In 2016–2018 the band continued to tour, in the US, Australia and extensively in the UK.
Cradle to the Grave
From 2008 forward, Difford and Tilbrook repeatedly stated in interviews that they planned to produce an album of new Squeeze material; they alluded to this in on-camera interviews at V Festival in both 2008 and 2011. In January 2010, it was announced that they would be spending part of the coming summer in Italy together writing songs for a new Squeeze album, and in an interview on BBC Radio Wales on 10 November 2013, Tilbrook stated that Squeeze would be recording between January and March 2014. However these sessions never took place and Tilbrook ended up recording and releasing the solo album Happy Endings.
Around the same time, it was announced that Squeeze would be providing the music for a BBC drama called Cradle to Grave, based on the autobiography Going To Sea in a Sieve by Danny Baker. Squeeze debuted the song "Cradle to the Grave" on their 2013 tour, whilst Difford and Tilbrook were photographed with Danny Baker on the set of Cradle to the Grave.
Recording for the album finally got underway sometime in 2014/2015, and in April 2015, Difford announced on his Twitter feed that he had listened to a "first mix" of the new album. In July, Squeeze announced on their Facebook page that the album was entering the mastering stage. Cradle to the Grave, the band's first album of original material since 1998 received its official release on 2 October 2015. A limited edition of 1000 copies were released through the band's own Love Records at the end of August. and was recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's iconic "Maida Vale Studios".
Present activity
Squeeze performed in front of David Cameron on BBC's The Andrew Marr Show in January 2016 and used the performance to protest against the then-Prime Minister by changing the lyrics to their song "Cradle to the Grave".
left|thumb|The band in 2017
In July 2017, the band announced a North American tour, along with two line-up changes: the replacement of Lucy Shaw as bassist with Yolanda Charles and the addition of Dirty Vegas frontman Steve Smith as percussionist and backing vocalist. The band also announced an Australian tour for 2018, and revealed that they were in the midst of recording a new album.
In August 2017, Squeeze revealed the title of their fifteenth studio album as The Knowledge. A new single, "Innocence in Paradise", was released ahead of the album. The Knowledge was released on 13 October 2017.
The band has continued touring through the UK, Ireland and North America. A tour was announced on the official Squeeze website for 2020 in Australia and New Zealand, but was indefinitely postponed due to scheduling problems.
On 13 August 2019, the band officially announced the addition of a seventh member, guitarist Melvin Duffy. Duffy had played as a session musician on Squeeze's previous two albums, and at occasional live shows.
In September 2019, Squeeze were joined at the Louisville, Kentucky Bourbon & Beyond Festival by ex-Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters front-man Dave Grohl on drums, for a performance of the 1982 hit "Black Coffee in Bed".
In February 2020, it was announced that Yolanda Charles had departed the band, and new bassist Sean Hurley (who had filled in for Charles on bass on a few 2019 dates, including the date Dave Grohl guested) would be replacing her. In April of that year, Tilbrook, while discussing an upcoming scheduled gig, mentioned that it would be the "very first gig with our new bass player! A chap called Owen Biddle, who used to play in a band called The Roots." However, the show in question was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new line-up of Squeeze, with Biddle permanently replacing Hurley, began touring in 2021.
In November 2022, in response to the United Kingdom cost of living crisis, the band announced that proceeds from their Food for Thought EP would be donated to food banks and asked fans attending their UK tour to bring donations for the Trussell Trust.thumb|The band in 2023In September 2023 Tilbrook said that Squeeze intended to record their next two albums in Los Angeles, including one collection of new material and another consisting of previously unrecorded songs written in the band's very earliest days. The album Trixies was due to be released in March 2026.
On 8 June 2024 the band were special guests for Richard Thompson, on the final night of his UK tour, at the Royal Albert Hall.
On 17 May 2026, Squeeze appeared on the first episode of the 68th series of Holland's Later... with Jools Holland programme. At his request, Holland performed "Take Me I'm Yours" with the band.
Style and influences
Style
Stylistically, Squeeze have been characterised as new wave, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic proclaimed the band to provide "one of the links between classic British guitar pop and post-punk". In a January 1988 interview by Music Connection, when addressing Squeeze being thought of as a punk band, Glenn Tilbrook commented "I never thought that we were [a punk band] – although I thought we were influenced by it to a certain extent".
Influences
Squeeze were inspired by 1960s rock bands The Kinks and The Beatles, In addition, members of Squeeze have cited artists including David Bowie, Elvis Costello, Jimi Hendrix, King Crimson and Greg Lake, Nick Lowe, The Rolling Stones, the Velvet Underground and Lou Reed, and The Who College rock band the Replacements, particularly bassist Tommy Stinson, also professed an admiration for the band. Many artists in the Britpop genre also took influence from the band, particularly Blur, whose guitarist Graham Coxon called Squeeze an "amazing band" and named Tilbrook's voice as "one of my favourite ever English singing voices." Later artists who named Squeeze as an influence include American Hi-Fi, The Caulfields, Kasabian, Nightmare of You, Razorlight, and Space.
Many bands and artists who would later achieve phenomenal success would begin their careers opening for Squeeze, including Dire Straits, The Jam, R.E.M., The Specials, U2 and XTC.