Time puts everyone in their place; except Squeeze. The London group, which emerged on the scene in the second half of the seventies new wave With its complex but no less catchy songs, it never had huge success. If anyone thought that the years would bring them back to their rightful place, they were wrong: after a recording career lasting almost half a century, they continue to be a cult band. Their status as distinguished support players may have been affected by the fact that they barely played live outside of the UK, Australia and the US; In Spain, in fact, there has never been an opportunity to see them live, an omission that will be remedied this Saturday when they perform in Barcelona at the Feroe 2025 event, alongside Nick Lowe, The Jayhawks, The Tallest Man on Earth and others. Which proves I’m still in trouble.
A lot of good things have been said about Squeeze, and the best one is clearly nonsense. In the 1980s, their leaders and songwriters, Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford, both guitarists and singers, were said to be the heirs to the Lennon/McCartney throne. An absurd assessment, given that Giovanni and Paolo composed separately, unlike these two gentlemen —that’s the look they convey through the Zoom camera— who in 1973, when they had a band but no concerts or a record label, established a working method that persists today: Difford is responsible for the lyrics and Tilbrook is responsible for the music.
“We are different composers (from Lennon and McCartney),” says Tilbrook (68), smiling and talkative. “When I met Chris I was 15, he was 19, and he immediately started passing me lyrics to which I put music.” They met thanks to an advertisement that Difford placed in a shop window; In their first year together they wrote nearly a hundred songs. “You could say we fit in very well,” says Difford (71), from Brighton, phlegmatic but graceful. For three years they didn’t stop composing. “We had nothing else to do. Looking back now, I think we wrote so many great songs that we became legends to our friends… And to no one else!” Tilbrook jokes from his home in London.
In the British capital, in the mid-1970s, if you blinked you missed something. Pub rock was giving way to punk. But the stridency of this style, new for the time, did not interest this couple of designers. “The aggressiveness of punk wasn’t in our personality. We listened to more sophisticated music,” Difford says. “When punk rock came out I felt a little… I don’t know, wary,” Tilbrook confirms. But I went to see a Generation concert, I loved what they did and it fueled what we initially created at Squeeze.
That mix of pop gourmet and the electric vibes were captured in their first albums: Tight (1978), which went unnoticed; Cool for cats (1979), which contained classics from his repertoire such as Slap and tickle, up to the crossroads AND Cool for cats; Argibargia (1980)… “One of the keys to Squeeze,” says Tilbrook, “is that we’ve always had the ability as composers to play exactly what we want. Early on we had very obvious influences: Kraftwerk, The Beatles, jazz, Sergio Mendes… Everything was there and part of the mix that we were.”
And, above all, in their fourth album, history of the east sidefrom 1981, co-produced by Elvis Costello. “It made us gain confidence, which allowed us to record very quickly and make the album sound more spontaneous,” explains Tilbrook. “Having a producer like Elvis Costello opened a lot of doors for us musically. He was an inspiration,” admits Difford. That album included several memorable singles, such as Is this love?, Labeled with love OR Attemptedwhich, in fact, entered the list of ten best sellers in the United States. Singular case, since then Attempted It was sung not by Tilbrook or Difford, but by keyboardist Paul Carrack.
“I wouldn’t have sung it like Paul,” admits Tilbrook. “That’s why he sang it. It’s a wonderful song. We thought about it a lot and when Paul sang it it was perfect.” Squeeze’s relative fame is also based on the fact that subsequently renowned musicians were part of their lineup, such as keyboardists Jools Holland (now famous TV presenter) or Paul Carrack (close collaborator of Roxy Music, Nick Lowe and member of Mike + the Mechanics).
However, overwork and perhaps other excesses led to the group’s dissolution in 1982. “I don’t think drugs and alcohol played a role in the band’s decline in the ’80s,” Difford maintains. “I can’t speak for others, but for me it was a very tough time. We were tired musically, we had been on the road for a long time, we had released a lot of albums…” The leaders then founded the duo Difford & Tilbrook, with little impact, after which, in 1985, Squeeze returned to their old habits.
Difford and Tilbrook’s reputations as composers remain intact to this day. Without being conventional songwriters, their often complicated songs are easy to listen to. A good example is Is this love? with that chord at the end of the chorus that refers to classical music. “I love that song,” Tilbrook says. “In those days I liked to introduce little jokes into the music, and The Move recorded a song called night of fear (1966), which had a lot of Beethoven in it. So it occurred to me to add my classic side too. The chorus is inspired by Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture. That was my joke! And I enjoyed doing it, because it works well musically.”
Curiously, both agree on the song from their catalog that satisfies them the most. “If I had to pick one of my favorites it would probably be A fantastic place: It’s amazing and I love it,” says Tilbrook. “My favorite lyric? It changes every day, but today I would say that’s the case A fantastic place. It’s a beautiful song. It’s based on a friend of ours who had leukemia,” agrees Difford.
Despite their unanimously accepted talent, Squeeze never had a number one hit on the charts. Two of his songs, Cool for cats AND up to the crossroadsthey reached number two in the UK chart. Their best-selling albums are anthologies. “We’re not in the same league as other bands that have been very successful. But success is what you do with your band and with your life, really,” Difford says.
“For us,” Tilbrook continues, “it wasn’t difficult to play different styles, and we never had a formula. That’s why all our albums are different from each other, and that makes it hard for people to perceive who you are. It’s not that I refuse to make simple music; what I do is what I know how to do. I’m not trying to sound smarter, or anything. For me, composing is always about what I’m attracted to. I’m proud of our repertoire, and many of our songs have stood the test of time well. But success was never important to us. “We were focused on making records and trying to make a mark.”
They are preparing two new albums, one of which with songs written in 1974 (it will be titled Trixies and will be released next March). But their usual songs continue to be heard, now through streaming platforms. streaming which also reach younger listeners. “Him streaming It doesn’t make any money,” says Tilbrook, “but there’s one thing I like about it: if our music was only available on record, all those twenty-year-olds would never have heard of us. But through streaming They find us. “Over the last ten or fifteen years you look at the audience data and you see that it’s getting younger and younger, which is surprising.”
They claim they have never argued over a song. “I work with lyrics that I like. Luckily, Chris writes a lot of them and I don’t put them all to music. So I can’t complain about any of them,” says Tilbrook. This is how his partner explains it: “First I write the lyrics and then Glenn composes the music. He’s like Bernie Taupin and Elton John, but without a bank account”, he says smiling. “When I met him,” he adds, “I was amazed by Glenn and our songwriting. We worked really well as songwriters and we made each other better pretty well. It continued to happen throughout our careers. We supported each other as songwriters.”
And, despite this, they do not consider each other close friends, but rather work colleagues who get along well. “Honestly,” Tilbrook chimes in, “the relationship we have is professional. The nice thing is that we can focus on what we do together and not have to worry about exchanging Christmas cards.” For Difford, “our relationship is professional and based on establishing a way of composing. On one occasion, Pete Townshend (guitarist of the Who) said he had never received a Christmas card from Roger Daltrey (singer of the Who), and it’s more about that, going to work and going out occasionally with a partner.”
