In
1989, A&M quietly
released Squeeze's eighth album, Frank. Many fans never even knew
it came out, including myself. Glenn recalls, "We had this period
with A&M in 1987, when they were squarely behind us and pushed us.
It worked: Babylon And On was our best selling album - which may surprise
some people - and 'Hourglass' charted and '853 5937' did in America.
But with Frank, the last album we did with A&M, it was a real step
backwards. They put it out and might as well not have for all the
push it got."
Even worse, A&M dropped Squeeze completely after the relative commercial
failure of Frank. This was quite a shock to the band, as A&M had been
their label from the very beginning. Ten years after the fact, a reflective
Glenn said, "At the time we were dropped by A&M I had never considered
the possibility of being dropped. That was how remote it was. To actually
have it happen to you was a great way of saying, Well, better get
on with it properly. I think we slept-walked through Frank to a large
extent, and they were probably right to drop us. It focused our minds
wonderfully for [the next album] Play, which was the first record
we did where we thought, It's not a case of whatever we do we'll be
absolutely fantastic, we have to work at making it good. And
I don't think we've stopped since then. I feel like every Squeeze
album has the potential to be the last one. You never know if you're
going to be tossed out at the end of it."
Promo picture
from the Babylon and On era. Top row: Keith Wilkinson, Gilson Lavis,
Jools Holland (who must be standing on a stack of phone books). Bottom
row: Glenn, Chris, and Andy Metcalfe.
Within
two days they were signed with another company, Reprise. They released
their incredible new album Play, only to be dropped by Reprise too!
Sadly, just as Squeeze seemed to be hitting their stride and had gotten
all of the kinks worked out, they were losing their backing in a major
way. Glenn and Chris were forced to tour as an acoustic duo for that
album in order to raise money for a tour with the full band later.
They did the best they could, having to completely rework all of their
songs to adjust to just two guitars and vocals. Glenn said, "The idea
is to look through your songs to see which ones work best in that
format, bearing in mind that we're not by any stretch of the imagination
amazing instrumentalists." Luckily, they had good material to work
with, and their songs held up under the necessary paring down of instruments.
Glenn becomes even less
"guitar shy" on the album Play. He said at the time that it was their
most guitar-oriented album yet. Photo from Michelle Kane's collection
Play
was in many ways a turning point for the band. Glenn has referred
to it as marking their "Renaissance period". Artistically,
Glenn and Chris were in top form and writing some of their best stuff.
A Record Collector article read:
After
the initial rush of success in the late 70's with hits like "Cool
For Cats" and "Up The Junction", Squeeze were widely considered
to be one of the finest pop bands in Britain. But the 80's proved
to be a lean period for the group and despite several fine singles,
only two reached the Top 10. Now after a quiet couple of years Squeeze
return to the spotlight with a new album, Play, well received by
the critics on both sides of the Atlantic; and a new record label,
Reprise. Play is something of a departure for the band: Difford
and Tilbrook's cheeky East London songs are conspicuous by their
absence.
Squeeze
were growing up, and Chris and Glenn's songs were touching on more
mature themes. Chris has said his lyrics were becoming more and more
autobiographical. They wrote largely about the same things, but in
a different, more personal, more introspective way. And the thing
is, they did it really well! The songs had tended in the past to be
either very light and poppy or very gritty, but this new Squeeze "voice"
was treading the fine line in between the two. Chris said, "I
guess the earlier songs, like 'Cool for Cats' and that sort of thing
were very much written at a time when adolescence was prevalent within
the group and within me in particular. Now I'm 37 and I'm a different
person in some ways from the person I was when I was writing 'Cool
for Cats.' And all the band has reached the thirtysomething mark.
As a lyricist, I don't find that restricting. I think it's interesting
to find myself writing about the deeper sides of relationships, if
you like."
For
example, Chris writes about the difficulty of moving on, even when
all signs point to a relationship being over, in the song "Letting
Go". Glenn sets it to music with a truly unusual vocal line that
convincingly describes the enormous and conflicting range of emotions
connected with the situation. Glenn says it is one of his top ten
Squeeze songs, "Lovingly crafted and super shiny, this is the
acceptable face of our eccentricity." Chris comments "Playing
this live recently on our acoustic tour, I realized just how great
Glenn's voice can be, tender and very powerful." Another song,
"Sunday Street", seems to me to be about a father looking
forward to having weekend custody of his kids. More than ever Glenn
and Chris were writing about "real-life" topics, and doing
it with incredible skill.
But
it was not MTV fare.
Miles Copeland said about Play, "We got a huge deal at Warners,
huge. Delivered the record. But there wasn't a single on it, and by
the second week it was obvious that Warners had moved on to the 20
other groups they'd signed. It started becoming difficult to get people
on the phone. They were nice as could be, but when these huge companies
sign 10 acts, they expect nine to go away. And were they emotional
about whether Squeeze were one of the nine that went away? Probably
not."
Squeeze
then went back to A&M for their next album, Some Fantastic Place,
but their problems with record companies and financial backing would
continue throughout the decade. They released 10 albums in the 90s,
but six of them were either compilations of their previous work or
live albums. They only released four albums of new songs, each on
a different label. Their last album, Domino, was done on Glenn's own
independent label, Quixotic Records.
Squeeze lineup
for Some Fantastic Place: Pete Thomas (drums), Paul Carrack (keyboards),
Chris, Glenn, and Keith Wilkinson (bass).
Glenn
was asked how he felt about the situation in a 1997 interview with
Guitarist Magazine. "I wish we'd sold more records and that our
career, as far as sales were concerned hadn't nosedived in the way
it did…You want people to like what you do, but I think that's
true of anyone who plays music. The other thing, at least 50 percent
of it, is that you're pleased that you're doing it and not doing it
for the wrong reasons. I've been really pleased with the last three
Squeeze albums [Play, Some Fantastic Place, and Ridiculous]. I think
they're some of our best records and I'm very proud to say that this
far down Squeeze's career."
