One Last Squeeze…?

Glenn Tilbrook discusses the new Squeeze album, the current tour, and the band’s future

by William Harris

                When Ninevolt caught up with Squeeze frontman Glenn Tilbrook, he was sitting in a hotel room in Kentucky, two weeks into the band’s current US tour…a tour which, he assures us, is “going great.”

                Squeeze are currently on the road in support of their 12^th studio album, Domino, released jointly in the US through the band’s own label, Quixotic, and Valley Entertainment.

“I feel very proud of it,” says Tilbrook, as any good parent would.  “For the most part, it’s worked out really well.  The album took us the least amount of time to record out of any of our records.  We had seven weeks in which to record and mix the album, so what it did…having that sort of self-imposed deadline made it quite a more energized album than perhaps one we’ve done for a long time now, in terms of the approach that we had to laying down tracks, to try and get as much stuff done.  While by no means all of the album is live, a lot of it was recorded live.  On, for instance, ‘Domino,’ that was the first take on the first day of recording, and it just worked out great; that sort of set the spirit for the whole album, really.”

                As far as his personal favorites, “I’m very proud of ‘Donkey Talk,’ actually.  I really like the way that song worked out, lyrically and musically.  It’s quite a dark subject, but I sort of like the treatment of it.  ‘Domino’ I’m very fond of.  And ‘Little King,’ actually; it’s turning out to be a really great live song.’”

                There is not, however, a single.  Not in the UK, not in the US…not at all.

                “We didn’t release a single, and we’re not going to release a single.  One of the things about starting our own label in Britain was that we wanted to avoid being in that sort of marketplace.  Quite frankly, it’s a marketplace you get swamped in unless you spend the highest amount of money to get visibility.  A, we don’t have that sort of money, and B, I just sort of wanted to avoid all the sort of things we’ve made mistakes with over the past years of being with major labels.

Over here, for our last five albums, they’ve all come out on different labels.  We’ve spent lots of money making videos and lots of money mixing, so every record of ours since 1980 has ended up in debt.  No self-respecting business would ever run that way, yet that’s the way we ran for years and years and years.  So, now, by not making  records and not releasing singles, Domino has gone into profit and will enable us long term to continue making records…which is surely the aim, y’know.”

When Squeeze performs at the Boathouse on October 26^th, fans of the band will notice one particularly conspicuous absence:  Chris Difford, co-writer with Tilbrook of virtually the band’s entire catalog.  Although he’s most definitely present on Domino, his days of touring with Squeeze seem to be at an end, unfortunately.

“Chris has been sober for 7 years.  We had a tour booked in February, which he withdrew from the day that we flew out here, and that was in order to go back into a clinic, because he felt that he was in danger of falling off the wagon.  Well, he didn’t fall of the wagon, but one of the things that he realized while he was in was that touring compromises his personal safety from that point of view too much for him to enjoy it.  He decided that, rather than do that, he’ll stay at home and be a…”  Tilbrook laughs.  “…a happy chappy.  Which is a decision that I fully support.”

So he will, then, continue to record with Squeeze…?

“The thing is that we…the remaining people…were left in a position.  Chris and I had this discussion about whether, because he wasn’t touring, we should just stop then and there, or carry on and promote Domino.  My position is that I would rather Chris was here; I would rather he was in the band.  But I’m also in the position of enjoying Squeeze as a four-piece.  But, ultimately, I don’t feel right about touring with Squeeze as a four-piece, so I think this will be the last thing that we do as Squeeze for the time being.

I’m going to work on a record of my own next year, and after that, I know that Chris and I want to carry on working together.  We’re going to find out which way that’s going to work for both of us, I guess.”

Meanwhile, the band’s touring line-up will remain the same as it is on Domino…excluding Difford, of course.  There will, however, still be a Chris on hand:  keyboardist Chris Holland, younger brother of the band’s former keyboardist, the legendary Jools Holland.  The former did a bit of work on the band’s “reunion” album, Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti, and its subsequent tour, but Domino is his first album as a full-fledged member of the band.

When the tentative theory that Squeeze’s line-up is forever fluctuating is suggested to Tilbrook, he admits that, “yes, I think all our keyboard players we’ve had in at least twice!”  But, he adds, “I’m really proud of this line-up; I really like (it).  For my own record next year, I want to try to use the same line-up.  Of course, whether I actually end up doing that or not…it’s a bit of a way down the line.  But I’d like to; I really like this band.”

Tilbrook is also renowned for taking the occasional solo acoustic jaunt.  “It’s something I very much enjoy doing.  I think my acoustic shows are quite loose, and I like them for that.  But, y’know, I love the thrill of playing with a band, so I don’t want to sacrifice that.”

While several songs from Domino will be incorporated into Squeeze’s live set, casual fans who know little more than Singles - 45s And Under will not likely leave their concerts disappointed.  “We’re in the process now of still sort of learning different songs, not all of them new ones, so, although the set hasn’t been changing over the last week, we’re about to start changing it.

The thing about Squeeze that I like, which may work both for and against us, is that there’s a definite line through all of our records.  With the exception of the very first album, there are some songs from all of our albums that could quite happily fit on all the other albums.  D’ya know what I mean?  We’ve always sounded like a band, regardless of who’s been in the band, and the band has always had a sound that revolves around myself and Chris’s vocal sound and the way that we write songs.  That makes the set easier to slot.”