Between
the years
of 1978 and 1981 Squeeze released (U.K.) Squeeze, Cool For Cats, Argybargy,
and East Side Story. Bang bang bang bang! Each album sold more than
the last and garnered better reviews. In between writing and recording
the albums they were touring exhaustively, and had finally managed
to make themselves reasonably well known in the States as well as
in Britain. But all that time on the road and living the rock and
roll high life was wearing on them. Chris and Gilson have both said
they were drinking very heavily at the time. When the band released
their fifth album, Sweets From a Stranger, it got good reviews but
commercially it bombed.
Their
sound had changed a lot, and apparently the public was not prepared
for it. Sweets was a stark contrast to the playful, happy sounds of
Argybargy and East Side Story. It wasn't just the lyrics and the album
cover that were dark; the music had a murky, slightly warped feel
to it too. In 1980, a year before it's release, Glenn had remarked,
"I think what I like about Squeeze is that we're able to keep that
element of amateurism in our shows. It's not a serious, intense experience."
But Sweets was a serious, intense experience! As a fan, I listened
to it almost exclusively when I was depressed.
Still,
it is a beautiful album with lovely melodies and haunting lyrics.
It's also some of Glenn's best singing, in my opinion. Glenn says
about the sound, "We had originally wanted Quincy Jones as producer,
looking for a kind of cross between straight R & B and the Jacksons.
For us, it's a whole new sound. But look at it like this: a group
maybe has 14 albums in its lifetime, so you might as well take as
many musical journeys as you can while you're alive."
Squeeze in 1982:
Gilson Lavis, Chris Difford, Glenn in white, John Bentley (bass),
and Don Snow (keyboards)
But
it didn't sell as well as East Side Story, and even if it had, it
seems the band had reached a point where they badly needed a break.
Glenn would later say, "I don't like Sweets From a Stranger much.
It sounds very tired and apathetic. Maybe that's clouded with my memories
of what it was like to be in the band at the time. It was not a joyful
record by any stretch of the imagination." (Musician Magazine, 1987)
Interpersonally things weren't as rosy as they used to be either.
In a Mojo Magazine interview from 1996 Gilson recalls, "There
was a wedge starting to form, a bit of us-and-them, with Chris and
Glenn on one side of the fence and the rest of the chaps on the other.
In their defence, I suppose to keep a sense of equilibrium when you're
being inundated with compliments like you're the new Lennon & McCartney,
and the pressure of writing a new album every year, was quite hard."
Ultimately,
Chris and Glenn decided to break up the band. It didn't sit very well
with Gilson, who was the only other founding band member left. Gilson
commented, "It's hard not to sound bitter, because it was a long
hard slog to get to where we were. We'd certainly not made any money
- for the first couple of years I was on 15 quid a week. I reached
the heady heights of 50 quid by the time we broke up, living in a
rented ground-floor flat. I was taken aback and pretty cross at the
time. I was also on the sauce." It appears there were bad feelings
on both sides, and neither Glenn nor Chris had contact with Gilson
for the next few years.
Glenn
describes the situation from his point of view, "I think we were on
self-destruct for a time before we split up. By that time we were
burnt out, five albums in five years, loads of tours and all that
stuff. It very frighteningly and very horribly stopped being enjoyable
. . . I remember specifically reading too many newspapers and thinking
our time was up, best get out while we could. I look back now and
think it was an absolutely mad way to think."
When asked by Mojo if the reviews had turned bad Glenn replied, "Yes,
that kind of thing, and being 25, 26, I felt too old. I just can't
see that point of view at all now. But the band was not as good as
it had been, and the record we made wasn't as good as the records
we made before. Rather than be sensible and take a rest, we split
up."
