Squeeze’s Chris Difford, Glenn Tilbrook reveal the strangest fan encounter they’ve had: ‘She wins the award’
Squeeze’s Chris Difford, Glenn Tilbrook reveal the strangest fan encounter they’ve had, what audiences can expect from their 2019 tour.
The band Squeeze is celebrating its 45th anniversary in the best way possible — by hitting the road.
Founding members Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook are kicking off their tour, titled Squeeze Songbook 2019, which will highlight some of their numerous beloved hits, including “Tempted,” “Pulling Mussels From a Shell” and “Cool for Cats,” as well as some rarely played gems for fans.
SHA NA NA'S JOCKO MARCELLINO TELLS ALL
Glenn Tilbrook (right) and Chris Difford of Squeeze. Photo by Ebet Roberts/Redferns/Getty
And the British artists have plenty of reasons to celebrate. The rock group has released 15 studio albums over the years and were hailed by Rolling Stone as “The Lennon and McCartney of their generation.” If that weren’t enough, Elton John liked their 1993 album “Some Fantastic Place” so much that he bought 20 copies to ensure it was easily accessible in his various homes.
Reflecting on their decades-long musical partnership, Difford and Tilbrook spoke to Fox News about some of the inspirations before their songs, how being compared to The Beatles was in some ways “damaging,” as well as the strangest encounter they’ve ever had with a fan.
Fox News: What's the strangest or most unusual encounter you've ever had with a fan?
Chris Difford: I don't know. There was one occasion actually where somebody managed to come to one of our concerts and get into the dressing room under the auspices of being a singing telegram. She got into the dressing room and she did sing and then she started to cry because she'd realized the enormity of her mistake, do you remember?
Glenn Tilbrook signing autographs for fans (Photo by Ebet Roberts/Redferns)
Glenn Tilbrook: I do. Only now you say that, I do remember that.
Difford: Yeah and she sang "Goodbye Girl" if I remember rightly, and it was extraordinary of her to go to such great lengths to get into our dressing room. So I think she wins the award.
Fox News: It’s been said the name Squeeze was inspired by what some have claimed was the worst Velvet Underground album. Is it true?
Tilbrook: That is indeed the truth. It was inspired by the album called "Squeeze," although recently a restaurant that I eat in has started playing that record and I've come around to liking it now.
Lou Reed of the Velvet Underground performs on stage at the New York Society for Clinical Psychiatry annual dinner, The Delmonico Hotel, New York, 13th January 1966. (Photo by Adam Ichie/Redferns)
Difford: Really? Wow!
Tilbrook: Yeah, it's got some hidden gems on it I think. But at the time we thought it was funny to name it after the album that I think Lou Reed and John Cale had left by the time that record was cut.
Fox News: Chris, I understand that Glenn was the only one who responded to your notice for a guitarist. What happened?
Difford: Yeah, I put an ad in a sweet shop window in 1973 for a guitarist to join a band. I didn't have a band or a record deal, it's just me and I guess my imagination. And I'm very grateful that Glenn was the only person to pick up the phone and call because we spent all this time together and written some fantastic songs. It's defined my life or our lives so it's quite incredible what fate can achieve, I think.
Left to right: John Bentley, Chris Difford, Gilson Lavis, Jools Holland (wearing sunglasses), Glenn Tilbrook, posed, studio, group shot (Photo by Fin Costello/Redferns)
Fox News: Glenn, you told Rolling Stone that being compared to The Beatles was in some ways damaging. How so?
Tilbrook: I think that was the only time I think we were slightly knocked off course a bit. It's a lovely, a massive compliment to be compared to them. I think, certainly speaking for myself, I feel like our writing got a bit, as the Australians would say, up itself. We were too conscious of what we were doing and I don't think we'd been that way before. I think after that period of time, a year or so, we drifted back down to Earth again. It's a massive compliment. It's was a lovely thing.
Fox News: Elton John was a big fan of 1993's "Some Fantastic Place." How did the two of you find out about this?
Difford: Well, he was a friend of mine at that time and the thing that was very incredible was that he went... he always goes to record shops and buys records. I don't know if he still does, but in those days he went and bought like 10 copies of that album and I thought that was a really nice thing and he actually said that in public too, so that helped.
Fox News: Was there ever a song that you didn’t think would become a hit, but it turned out to be one anyway?
Difford: "If I Didn't Love You" is a big song in America and not so big in the UK and that always surprised me in a nice way. I've always been very optimistic about the songs that we've released. We've had such a different perspective on our success. One minute we had hits and then the next minute we didn't and then we were back in the charts. So we had this ebb and flow to our career. So I think something like "If I Didn't Love You" was a bit of a surprise when it suddenly got played on the radio over here. It's good.
Fox News: What's the story behind "Tempted"?
Difford: The original story behind "Tempted" is we're going on another American tour. I got on a taxi and I started writing down what I saw lyrically. I don't know the course of time of how long it took, but then I gave Glenn the lyrics and then Glenn put the music to it. It's an extraordinary song. It's one of the most played songs that we have in our catalog.
Fox News: What about "Cool for Cats"?
Tilbrook: Originally it was written about the social circle we were moving in at the time, being young and being... we were almost entirely centered in our own little world. I remember hearing Chris sing those lyrics for the first time and thinking he's just nailed what our lives are about now. It's lovely to be able to look back on that and see how we were as youngsters.
Fox News: What was the inspiration behind "Take Me I'm Yours"?
Difford: [It was] written very early on in our career. I don't know a lot of songs lyrically I find that it takes a while to discover what they're about. You write them down, they're almost negatives of a photograph that need to develop and with that one, it's still developing.
Fox News: Squeeze has been an inspiration for many artists, but who have been some of the artists that have inspired you over the years?
Tilbrook: I'm constantly inspired still by The Beatles and I know a lot of people would say that. What they achieved in their short career is massive and still has an ongoing effect I think on a lot of music. So there's that on one hand, R&B and hip hop on the other hand... I really enjoy that sort of music, but I try and filter that through into what Squeeze do and see what comes out the other end.
Difford: The Beatles were a major influence growing up in my household; my elder brother was a big Beatles fan. He used to play the Beatles all the time. It was a very incredible time for music I think, and like Glenn, I tend to veer in all different directions for inspiration these days. There's an artist called Dave in the UK, he's got a fantastic record called "Psychodrama" and lyrically it's one of the most stunning records that I've heard in many, many years. Then, on the other hand, I quite like listening to people like Kurt Elling and Gregory Porter who are primarily jazz singers who sing jazz songs. I think lyrically jazz music is an incredible genre too.
Squeeze today. — Danny Clifford
Fox News: According to reports, there were some breakups and re-formations involved. It’s been said the band broke up in 1982, reformed in 1985 and then disbanded in 1999. How did the two of you ended up reuniting again?
Difford: Well, we've had the new Squeeze as it were together now for 12, 14 years and it's an incredibly more inspiring lineup than we've ever had. We got together at that point and talked about the things that we wanted to do. One of them was to record some new songs, but it took quite a considerable amount of years for that to happen. I guess as you get older you get to respect what's the passing of time more and the benefits for the mistakes that you've made, speaking for myself. You get to learn those things and it becomes more rewarding to put more of yourself into the band. Whereas maybe speaking for myself again, I wouldn't, might not have done that in the past.
Fox News: What has kept the two of you in the band going after so many years?
Tilbrook: I think we've gone through that, every band that stays together for a while has a period of success and some people manage to sustain that. We had our success curve and we became less popular and came through that. Since we've been back together this time, as Chris said, we're more, I think, appreciative of where we are now. We also have more ability to approach our entire catalog and the musicianship I think has gotten even better than it's ever been. So it's a wonderful place to be, to have so many songs to look on, to nurture and to bring to life again. It feels like the best time ever in Squeeze to me.
Squeeze is hitting the road with the Squeeze Songbook 2019 tour. — Photo by Ebet Roberts/Redferns
Fox News: What can audiences expect from the Squeeze Songbook 2019 Tour?
Tilbrook: We've dug deep into our songbook. We've been working together now for 45 years, which seems incredible, but there we are, it's a fact. In that time we've written hundreds and hundreds of songs and we decided to rule nothing out. So Chris and I both made a list and we put the list together and selected an incredible amount of stuff that goes all over our career from beginning to the latest thing we did a couple of years ago. So I think the audience can expect some surprises in a good way, and I think they can expect also to hear some things that they're familiar with as well. So it's a good mixture. We've got a great band.
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