SQUEEZE WILL PERFORM AT EXPRESS LIVE! IN COLUMBUS, WEDNESDAY AUGUST 18TH, 2021
In the 1980s, it’s easy to picture Chris Difford, the lyricist for the rock band Squeeze, as a spy. He would roam from pub to pub, with a notebook in hand, and add witticisms to bits of overheard conversation.
As Squeeze begins its first post-COVID tour of the United States, the aptly named “The Nomad Tour,” Difford said writing lyrics is more of a desk job.
“I just sit here in my shed and the ideas come to me,” said Difford, whose band will make a stopover in Columbus for Aug. 18 date at the Express Amphitheater. “That would have been the case many years ago but not so much anymore. I do eavesdrop, but that was more prevalent in the early days though. I don’t chase songs; it either appears to you or it doesn’t.
“I don’t think it is healthy to sweat the small stuff. You have to engage yourself in the journey of being a song writer and let the songs come to you.”
The tour, which interwines a series of headlining dates and serving as the opening act for Hall & Oates, was scheduled to make up for the 2020 dates that were canceled by COVID. The band will be made up of Difford and lead singer/guitarist Glenn Tilbrook as well as Stephen Large (keyboards), Yolanda Charles (bass) and Steve Smith (percussion).
While Squeeze’s lineup has fluctuated over the last 40 years, there has been one constant: Difford has produced the creative wordplay and Tilbrook has provided the hooks & tight melodies for an impressive portfolio of songs: Tempted, Black Coffee in Bed, Up the Junction, and Hourglass. Rolling Stone magazine dubbed Difford and Tilbrook as “the New Wave’s John Lennon and Paul McCartney.”
“(McCartney) once asked which one I thought I was, John or him,” Difford mused. “I said I didn’t think either one. I was more like George (Harrison) or Ringo (Starr).”
Clad in a white polo shirt and jeans, Difford seems quite at home in a Zoom interview from his shed – a densely decorated room with souvenirs and posters. A collection of swaying wind chimes provided a twinkling soundtrack to the interview.
During the pandemic, Difford conducted a series of online songwriting classes and seminars from his shed.
“It’s a joy to meet so many songwriters from around the country who haven’t had a chance to perform because the stages have gone dark,” he said. “I send them tasks for them to do, like write a song in four hours and they do that very well.”
Difford’s relationship with Tilbrook began with petty theft. Difford stole 50 pence (the U.S. equivalent of 62 cents) from his mother’s purse to print out handbills advertising he was looking for a guitarist. Tilbrook was the only person who responded.
“I think there was a mutual fascination, enthusiasm and ambition. I thought he was incredible and when he sang, it was beautiful,” Difford said. “It took a good two to three months before we fell into each other’s pockets.”
At times, the relationship between the two has been tested by time and distance. In the book, Squeeze: Song By Song, the two appeared to have very different takes on many of their most classic tunes.
“It didn’t surprise me really,” said Difford who co-authored the book with Tilbrook and Jim Drury. “If the song was a tree, we’d both look at it from a different angle and see a different version of the same tree. That’s really a part of who we are.”
“(These days) I hope we are looking at the same picture from the same angle. We both want to make our history stand out as a songwriting team and as a band. It takes a lot of work and I have to say Glenn does an incredible job of balancing all of that.”
Unlike most of the bands who found success in the 1980s, Squeeze’s sound has continued to get stronger and stronger. The band split up in 1982, reformed in 1985, only to break up in 1999.
When the VH-1 program Bands Reunited attempted to get the band together again in 2004, Tilbrook was asked if he would consider reforming the band. He mused, “I would love to embrace some of them and punch some of them in the face.” The reunion, not surprisingly, didn’t materialize that year.
Three years later, the group reunited and has been together in some form or another to the present.
Each time the band reformed, Difford and Tilbrook seemed to find a way to satisfy fans with releases like Some Fantastic Place (1993), Play (1991), and Cradle to the Grave (2015).
Cradle to the Grave peaked at 12th on the United Kingdom’s album charts, the band’s second highest placement behind Ridiculous (which peaked eighth in 1995).
“It was really good, really fulfilling,” Difford said of Cradle to the Grave. “It was produced really well. It sounds great. Being what they are, the charts are not something I wake up thinking about anymore, but it was a great return to form in many ways.”
The spark of reinterest continued with The Knowledge, which peaked at 21st on the charts. The album has much more of a political, topical feel than some of their ‘80s music, covering a wide range of topics from waning libidos (“Please Be Upstanding”), covered up child abuse (“The Final Score”), and “tales of aging hippies,” (“Innocence in Paradise”).
“It’s a coming together of many different ideas, I suppose,” Difford said. It’s not my favorite album at the moment, but I am sure that will change. “Sometimes it takes a long time to find a place and a respect for songs that you wrote a long time ago. It takes time to reflect and to understand where you’ve been.”