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Squeeze were an English rock music band that came to prominence in the New Wave period of the late 1970s. 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," and "Hourglass," among others.
Squeeze, in some incarnation, will be back together and touring in November 2007 in the UK according to Pollstar
The band's founding members in 1974 were Chris Difford (guitar, vocals, lyrics), Glenn Tilbrook (vocals, guitar, music), Jools Holland (keyboards), and Paul Gunn (drums). Gilson Lavis replaced Gunn on drums and Harry Kakoulli joined on bass in 1976. Their self-titled debut album was produced by John Cale for A&M Records, and released in 1978. In Australia, 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. The name "Squeeze" was taken from Squeeze, the "unofficial" 1973 Velvet Underground album.
John Bentley replaced Harry Kakoulli on bass in 1979. Jools Holland was next to exit in 1980, with keyboard duties 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".
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. Further bolstering this argument is the fact that several Difford & Tilbrook tracks have been featured on officially-sanctioned Squeeze compilations.
Squeeze was 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.
This situation meant that further line-up changes were inevitable, and tracing the group's line-up from this point on is extremely tricky. For instance, 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 (and perhaps mercifully) 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. Then, 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 Chris Braide.
Squeeze (Glenn Tilbrook and others [Not Difford])played their final gig on 27 November 1999 in Aberdeen, Scotland. Squeeze mainstays Difford and Tilbrook have since embarked upon solo careers, and the band is now defunct.
However, in 2003 Difford and Tilbrook once again collaborated on a song for Tilbrook's solo album Transatlantic Ping Pong, and in 2004 they collaborated with music journalist Jim Drury on the retrospective Squeeze: Song By Song. Difford also stopped by to sit in for a few songs at a Glenn Tilbrook solo gig in Glasgow in December of 2005. The songwriters have declared that they are better friends now than they ever were while in Squeeze.
Jools Holland, meanwhile, hosts the popular BBC Two Later with Jools Holland music programme, to which Gil Lavis often contributes drums and percussion as one of the program's "house musicians".
Chris Difford signed to Luna Records in 2006 and released a live album and DVD, South East Side Story on 7 August 2006.
In early 2007 it was announced that Difford and Tilbrook would reform Squeeze for a limited number of shows at the end 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, 'The Essential Squeeze', on April 30th.
