Squeeze

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Squeeze are an English band that came to prominence in the New Wave period of the late 1970s, and continued recording successfully in the 1980s and 1990s. The group formed in London in 1974. They are known for their hit songs "Cool for Cats," "Up the Junction," "Tempted," "Black Coffee In Bed," "Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)," and "Hourglass," among others.

Squeeze broke up in 1999, but reunited for a tour through the U.S. and UK in 2007, and issued a live album culled from the American leg of the tour. Though Squeeze has not issued an official statement as to whether they'll continue on as a group now that the tour has ended, the band's current record label is promoting a contest with a prize consisting of tickets to "a future Squeeze show", indicating the band plans to remain together. Also on the last date of the tour at the Isle of Man Villa Marina, Glenn Tillbrook announced at the end of the set that they would "have to do it again sometime soon and keep going."

[edit] Career

[edit] 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 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 self-titled debut album was produced by John Cale for A&M Records, and released in 1978. 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.

John Bentley replaced Harry Kakoulli on bass in 1979, following the successful Cool for Cats LP. Argybargy, the band's third album, led to the exit of Jools Holland 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".

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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. Jools' brother Chris Holland played a few gigs as a second keyboardist in 1985, but 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, when he was replaced by Matt Irving.

Jools Holland left Squeeze again in early 1990, and was not immediately replaced. In his stead, the band used session musicians such as Irving, Snow, Steve Nieve, Bruce Hornsby and Carol Isaacs. Then drummer Gilson Lavis was let go in 1992, and replaced by Nieve's fellow Attractions bandmate 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's lineup during their final years 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. Following the release of that album, 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.

Nevertheless, 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.

[edit] 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 game 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.

Still, Difford and Tilbrook's friendship continued, and in December of 2005 Difford sat in for a few songs at a Glenn Tilbrook solo gig in Glasgow.

[edit] Third incarnation: 2007

In early 2007 it was announced that Difford and Tilbrook would reform 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 30th. 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. Instead, 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, UK, Difford and Tilbrook, each singing and playing acoustic guitars, played a 7-song set of Squeeze classics to an enthusiastic reception. 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 a week later at GuilFest 2007. They toured the U.S. in August 2007, supported on various dates by Fountains of Wayne, Will Hoge, and Cheap Trick..

In November, 2007, the band released Five Live, 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.

[edit] Band member timeline

[edit] 1974-1982

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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

Legend = orientation:horizontal position:bottom

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PlotData=

 width:20 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4)

 bar:Glenn Tilbrook from:01/01/1974 till:31/12/1982 color:lead
 bar:Chris Difford from:01/01/1974 till:31/12/1982 color:guitar
 bar:Jools Holland from:01/01/1974 till:31/12/1980 color:keys
 bar:Paul Carrack from:01/01/1981 till:31/12/1981 color:keys
 bar:Don Snow from:01/01/1982 till:31/12/1982 color:keys
 bar:Harry Kakouli from:01/01/1974 till:31/12/1979 color:bass
 bar:John Bentley from:01/01/1980 till:31/12/1982 color:bass
 bar:Paul Gunn from:01/01/1974 till:31/12/1976 color:drums
 bar:Gilson Lavis from:01/01/1977 till:end color:drums

</timeline>

[edit] 1985-1999

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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

Legend = orientation:horizontal position:bottom

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PlotData=

 width:20 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4)

 bar:Glenn Tilbrook from:01/01/1985 till:end color:lead
 bar:Chris Difford from:01/01/1985 till:31/12/1998 color:guitar
 bar:Jools Holland from:01/01/1985 till:31/12/1990 color:keys
 bar:Andy Metcalfe from:10/10/1985 till:31/12/1987 color:keys2
 bar:Matt Irving from:09/09/1989 till:31/12/1990 color:keys2
 bar:Paul Carrack from:01/01/1992 till:31/08/1994 color:keys
 bar:Don Snow from:01/01/1996 till:31/12/1996 color:keys
 bar:Christopher Holland from:01/01/1998 till:31/08/1999 color:keys
 bar:Chris Braide from:01/09/1999 till:end color:keys
 bar:John Bentley from:01/01/1985 till:03/03/1985 color:bass 
 bar:Keith Wilkinson from:04/01/1985 till:31/12/1996 color:bass
 bar:Hilaire Penda from:01/01/1998 till:end color:bass
 bar:Gilson Lavis from:01/01/1985 till:01/01/1993 color:drums
 bar:Pete Thomas from:01/01/1993 till:31/08/1994 color:drums
 bar:Andy Newmark from:01/09/1994 till:31/12/1994 color:drums
 bar:Kevin Wilkinson from:01/01/1995 till:31/12/1996 color:drums
 bar:Ash Soan from:01/01/1998 till:end color:drums

</timeline>

[edit] Discography

[edit] Studio albums

• U.K. Squeeze, March 1978
• Cool for Cats, March 1979
• Argybargy, February 1980
• East Side Story, May 1981
• Sweets from a Stranger, May 1982
• Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti, August 1985
• Babylon and On, September 1987
• Frank, September 1989
• Play, August 1991
• Some Fantastic Place, September 1993
• Ridiculous, November 1995
• Domino, November 1998

[edit] EPs

• Packet of Three, July 1977, November 1979 (reissue)

[edit] Live recordings

• A Round and a Bout, March 1990
• Live at the Royal Albert Hall, 1999
• Five Live, November 2007

[edit] Compilations

• 6 Squeeze Songs Crammed Into One Ten-Inch Record (incl. the 2 U.K. Squeeze singles, 3 remixed Cool For Cats singles, plus "Goodbye Girl" live), U.S. 1979
• Singles - 45's and Under, November 1982
• Classics, Vol. 25, 1987
• Greatest Hits, April 1992
• 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
• Gold (retitled North American issue of Big Squeeze), 2005
• The Squeeze Story, June 2006
• Essential Squeeze, April 2007

[edit] 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.