Chris Difford sounds amused by the idea of an anniversary tour. “Forty-six years together as songwriters,” he corrects gently. “We’ve got hundreds of songs and fourteen albums to preserve and to love. So this time, we’re just coming out and showing off.”
Squeeze are calling it The Songbook Tour—a victory lap for one of pop’s most literate duos, still standing decades after Difford and Glenn Tilbrook started writing songs in a South London kitchen. It’s not a comeback, a cash-grab, or a nostalgia act, Difford insists. It’s a celebration. “Normally we’re promoting a record,” he says, “but this time, we’re promoting a lifetime.”
The band will hit America for a six-week run, including a stop at Louisville’s Bourbon & Beyond Festival. “It’s one of the first times we’ve played a festival in America,” Difford says. “I’m looking forward to seeing how festivals are organized there.” Pause. “I imagine there’ll be a stage and a bunch of somewhat dirty people standing in the piping after every song.”
Difford laughs easily, but beneath that dry humor is the same meticulous craftsman who wrote “Up the Junction,” a story-song without a chorus that somehow became one of the great British singles. “I never really think about it other than it being a great song,” he says. “I’m proud of it. I don’t know how these things happen.”
When Cool for Cats came out in 1979, Squeeze were already doing things backward. Their debut had been produced by John Cale, who famously tossed out the band’s repertoire and demanded they write an entirely new album in the studio. “We didn’t really have much studio experience,” Difford recalls. “The first record kind of ran away from us. Cool for Cats brought it back to what Squeeze really meant.”
It was also gleefully filthy. “There’s quite a bit of sex on Cool for Cats,” Difford admits, chuckling. “Not just sexy—masturbation and everything else. We were young. I was a little all over the place lyrically, but naivety’s a good thing. I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
If Difford’s younger self was cheeky and chaotic, his current solo work shows a man who’s still restless but more reflective. His 2018 solo album Pants—a darkly comic narrative about loneliness, secrets, and midlife repair—came out of nowhere. “We recorded ten songs, then twelve, then twenty-three,” he says. “I had to stop and ask, ‘What is this?’ It became a story, which I then wrote down, but I haven’t released it yet.”
The record follows a middle-aged man adrift and amused by his own crisis. “I was that person at one point,” Difford says. “It’s about finding a relationship and then owning your past. Could be a stage play, really. I just haven’t found the right place to shut it down.”
Musically, Pants zigzags through styles—Latin grooves, ukulele flights, cabaret pop—but it all makes sense to Difford. “That’s down to my collaborator, Du Hale Dean,” he says. “He writes in whatever style fits the lyric. I’m lucky to have two great songwriting relationships at once—Glenn, and Du. Very lucky.”
He’s also had help keeping Squeeze in the conversation. Record Store Day saw the release of new versions of “Tempted” and “Take Me I’m Yours” featuring Erykah Badu, Questlove, Robert Glasper, and James Poyser. “There’s actually a full album of Squeeze covers,” Difford reveals. “But there’s some legal issue, so we’re just releasing one single at a time. Erykah’s version of ‘Tempted’ blew me away. Elvis Costello sings one, Todd Rundgren does another—it’s extraordinary. The problem is, nobody signed contracts.”
He says this with the weary amusement of someone who’s seen every side of the business. “It’s funny,” he muses. “For years, nobody covered Squeeze songs. I thought, we’ve written plenty that are coverable! But people said, ‘They sound too much like Squeeze.’ That’s a good point, actually.”
Still, Difford knows how to spot staying power. “When we announced the UK tour, it almost sold out before anyone in the band said a word,” he says. “That was an incredible gift. I’m grateful for the songs—they’ve given me everything.”
He’s also grateful, he adds, for never knowing what will hit. “I can’t tell you when a record’s going to chart,” he laughs. “I listened to Taylor Swift’s new single today and knew instantly it’d be a hit. But with us? Never had a clue.”
Critics once called Difford and Tilbrook “the Lennon and McCartney of the New Wave,” a comparison he takes with typical modesty. “It was very nice, but I don’t know where the similarities are apart from two people writing songs,” he says. “What’s not to like about the Beatles, though? There’s definitely a Beatle-ish link in Glenn’s melodies and my storytelling.”
And the future of Squeeze? “No plans to make another record,” he says flatly. “The industry’s changed so much. There’s no reason to make an album just because that’s what we’ve always done. Unless we’ve got great songs, we’ll just be who we are.”
Which, for a band that’s been “who they are” for nearly half a century, is reason enough.
Listen to the interview above and then check out some tracks below.
