Squeeze are 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.
The vast majority of their material is written by Chris Difford (lyrics) and Glenn Tilbrook (music) who are guitarists and vocalists in the band, and the group's only consistent members. 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, which has included more than 30 musicians over the years amidst constant line-up changes, has also been noted as a launchpad for the successful careers of their former keyboard players (and occasional vocalists) Jools Holland and Paul Carrack.
The band reunited for tours through the United States and United Kingdom in 2007. In 2010, they issued Spot the Difference, an album of newly recorded versions of older material. The band's first album of all-new material since 1998, 2015's 'Cradle to the Grave, became their highest-charting album of original material (i.e., excluding "greatest hits" compilations) in the UK. The band continues to record and release new music, including The Knowledge (2017) and Trixies (2026), as well as tour.
Contents
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". The Australian band had only released one album, The Squeeze Is On, in 1978, alongside several singles. In spite of this, the English band's 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.
Difford & Tilbrook duo: 1983–1984
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, 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.
Second incarnation: 1985–1999
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; hence, Jools' brother Christopher Holland, then aged 17, played and toured as a second keyboardist in 1985. Christopher had also played Hammond organ on the album's fourth single "Heartbreaking World", which was sung by Jools Holland. However, Christopher Holland's tenure was short-lived, for he had signed to I.R.S. Records and was pursuing a solo career, so he was replaced by an official new member: Andy Metcalfe of The Soft Boys and The Egyptians. A bassist in those groups, Metcalfe played keyboards with Squeeze. His tenure as the band's sixth member lasted 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, from which no charting singles were taken in the UK, and the band was dropped from their long-time label A&M.
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), Steve Nieve, and Bruce Hornsby 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 My Sleep" received significant airplay on modern rock stations, and in Canada "Satisfied" was a top 50 hit. However, Reprise dropped the band after this album. Following this, drummer Gilson Lavis was let go in 1992, and replaced by Nieve's Attractions bandmate Pete Thomas. Paul Carrack also returned to the band in 1993.
Solo years: 2000–2006
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 Difford and bassist Keith Wilkinson were both favourable to the idea and drummer Gilson Lavis expressed interest, Jools Holland felt he was too busy with current projects to participate. Even more crucially, Glenn Tilbrook eventually decided against a band reunion at that point in time.
Still, Difford and Tilbrook's friendship continued, and Difford sat in for a few songs at a Tilbrook solo gig in Glasgow in December 2005.
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 30 April. 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 line-up 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 (in Deptford) on Thursday 12 July; this was actually billed as a "warm up" gig prior to the upcoming US tour, and was followed by GuilFest 2007. They toured the US in August 2007, supported on various dates by Fountains of Wayne, Will Hoge, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Aimee Mann, 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. Television appearances and live shows in the US and UK followed in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
The band were honoured with a Heritage Award by PRS for Music in March 2010. A plaque was erected at Greenwich Dance's The Borough Hall on Royal Hill in Greenwich, London where they had performed their first gig.
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.
Style and influences
Style
Stylistically, Squeeze have been characterised as new wave, post-punk, pub rock and power pop. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic proclaimed the band to provide "one of the links between classic British guitar pop and post-punk". Squeeze have also been labelled as punk and pop 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, and the songwriting partnership of Difford and Tilbrook has attracted comparisons to that of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, a likening the band have expressed "mixed feelings" about. In addition, members of Squeeze have cited artists including David Bowie, Elvis Costello, Donovan, The Blockheads' Ian Dury, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, King Crimson and Greg Lake, Nick Lowe, Glenn Miller, Ramones, The Rolling Stones, the Velvet Underground and Lou Reed, and The Who as sources of influence or inspiration.
Legacy and influence
Squeeze have been cited as an influence by several bands and artists. American new wave singer Marshall Crenshaw cited Squeeze as one of the primary influences for his 1982 self-titled debut album. 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, the Killers, 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.
Members
Current members
Glenn Tilbrook – lead guitar, keyboards, vocals (1974–82, 1985–99, 2007–present)
Chris Difford – rhythm guitar, vocals (1974–82, 1985–99, 2007–present)
Stephen Large – keyboards, backing vocals (2007–present)
Simon Hanson – drums, percussion, backing vocals (2007–present)
Steve Smith – percussion, rhythm guitar, vocals (2017–present)
Melvin Duffy – pedal and lap steel guitars, dulcimer (2019–present; session/touring 2015–19)
Owen Biddle – bass, backing vocals (2020–present)
Danica Dora – backing vocals, keyboards (2024–present)
Leon Tilbrook – guitar, backing vocals (2026–present)