GLENN TILBROOK, LIFE AFTER “SQUEEZE”

By Rob Nagy
While London’s punk music scene was at an all time high in 1978, a little known quintet was crafting a style and unique sound that would soon become “Squeeze”. A bridge between the British pop and post-punk era, Squeeze was anquered by the songwriting team of Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook. They would later be heralded by some critics as the Lennon and McCartney of the 1980’s. With Difford penning the lyrics and Tilbrook crafting the music, Squeeze would go on to record some of the finest pop songs of the 20th century of which a handful are classics twenty some years later.

Success was easily found by “Squeeze”on their home turf of England earning top ten status with “Take Me I’m Yours” and “Up The Junction”, gaining popularity in America was not so easy. It wasn’t until 1987 that the band broke the U.S. Top 40, a decade after their debut, with the song “Hourglass”. Squeeze gradually developed huge cult following in the U.S. carrying them well into the 90’s with a body of work that included “Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)”, “Tempted”, Black Coffee In Bed” and “If I Didn’t Love You”. Feuding between band members, creative differences and the pressures of being chained to a major record label, opened the door for a number of musicians to join “Squeeze” only to end up leaving. Through it all Tilbrook and Difford remained continuing to crank out well crafted songs that got lots of radio exposure on college and alternative stations but had difficulty cracking the main stream airwaves, getting just a taste of what should have made the band as big as any of the super groups of the time. By 1982 Tilbrook and Difford had enough and “Squeeze” was disbanded only to regroup again in the not too distant future. In spite of this, Tilbrook had no intention of ending his collaborations with long time friend and band mate Difford. Both artists had a strong desire to pursue solo efforts. Over the next three years various band members worked with a variety of musicians and musical styles reuniting as “Squeeze” in 1985 for a charity event. With the core of the original line-up in place, “Squeeze” opted to stay together and released “Cosi Fan Tutti” earning positive feedback from the industry but generating less than dazzling record sales. “Babylon and On” soon followed becoming an unexpected hit reaching number 14 in the U.K. earning the band their biggest U.S. hit “Hourglass” climbing to number fifteen. A world tour was highlighted by shows at New York’s Madison Square Garden and the prestigious Reading Festival. Success was short lived as the band endured lots of bumps and bruises over the next five years releasing several records to look warm responses. By the early 90’s Difford and Tilbrook started to branch out and began playing solo acoustic shows as a duo in the club circuit while continuing with Squeeze who, continued to struggle to maintain a consistent line-up. A variety of compilation cd’s were released in the U.S. and abroad. With contractual obligations satisfied with A & M Records, Squeeze signed on with the much smaller independent label Quixotic Records. They released their last album “Domino” in the fall of 1998 before finally calling it quits as a band. “I always enjoyed being in Squeeze” says Tilbrook, “But there was always an element of struggle attached to that. I don’t say that’s a bad thing. But to struggle for most of that time ultimately becomes quite hard.” Tilbrook added, “If it were that hard I would have changed things sooner so I was happy with the continuity of being in Squeeze and me and Chris (Difford) working together.” Tilbrook officially kicked off his solo career in 2000 with the release of the single “Parallel World”. A year later he released his first full-length album, “The Incomplete Glenn Tilbrook” followed up by the 2004’s “Transatlantic Ping Pong”. Tilbrook aggressively performed both solo and fronting his own band “The Party” of which a couple members, along with Tilbrook, would go on to form his current band “The Fluffers”. Going under the name “The Band”, they toured the U.K. making their U.S. debut at the high profile annual music conference “South By Southwest”. “The Fluffers is the first real band I have been in since Squeeze.” Says Tilbrook. “We all live within ten minutes of each other so we are able to rehearse and discuss ideas. With Squeeze everyone lived all over the country so it was difficult to get together unless we were recording or on tour.” Tilbrook added, “I’ve discovered so much about myself, the songs as a performer and myself as a person on stage. “The last five years I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. Perhaps I shouldn’t feel as happy. Things aren’t as good as I would wish them to be. I’m doing what I’ve always wanted to do and I’m lucky I can make records and say to myself, I’m really proud of this and can let it go and people can discover it or not.” Still, Tilbrook recognizes the down side of no longer being with a group that has the stature of Squeeze or the budget and marketing blitz of a major record label. “I feel somewhat of an outsider from the music business”, says Tilbrook. “I think some of that is now through choice. The world I operate in is unlikely to deliver high sales for me and that’s a bit of a disappointment. I am not willing to go through the compromises I think would be necessary to reach a larger audience unless it was on my own terms, which is what I am doing now.”