Squeeze are back – with a new single, album ‘The Knowledge’ and massive UK tour.

Trailed by a new single Innocence in Paradise, the band will release The Knowledge on 13 October ahead of a large-scale nationwide tour. The news comes two years on from the critically-acclaimed Top 20 success of their last studio album Cradle To The Grave.

Produced by frontman Glenn Tilbrook, Andrew Jones and Laurie Latham, The Knowledge was recorded at 45 RPM Studios in Charlton, and finds Glenn and songwriting partner Chris Difford once again in the company of drummer Simon Hanson and keyboard wizard Stephen Large, plus a couple of new faces; Yolanda Charles on bass and Steve Smith on percussion.

Very much part of the fabric of South London, their hometown heritage, flows through the album as resolutely as the mighty majestic Thames. Greenwich’s own Maryon Wilson Park is name-checked in the chorus of the softly shuffling Patchouli, while Every Story is a heartfelt poem to the people and places that shaped their upbringing – “You can do much worse than being here,” sings Glenn with masterful understatement.

A more sombre note of austerity echoes across Rough Ride, lamenting the struggles faced living in the capital, its ultimately hopeful message enriched by guest performers also from South London, namely the Lewisham & Greenwich NHS Choir and the Thorntree School Choir. There’s also a powerful tribute to the National Health Service in ‘A&E’, essentially a protest song railing against underfunding and low public sector wages.

Elsewhere, Glenn (vocals, electric guitar) and Chris (vocals, acoustic guitar) address all manner of issues, from schoolboy footballers abused by predatory coaches (Final Score) to veteran obsessive record collectors (Albatross), from erectile dysfunction (Please Be Upstanding) to their own lengthy – and not always harmonious – relationship (the jaunty pop ska closer Two Forks).

Squeeze first formed in 1973, shortly after Chris and Glenn had begun their songwriting partnership, brought together by an ad in a sweetshop window. By 1977 they had made their recording debut and enjoyed a string of hits which lasted until 1982, the maturity of their songs outliving their initial burst of chart activity on the back of New Wave. Over the years there have been solo careers and occasional separations, but the Ivor Novello Award-winning duo reunited 10 years ago to relaunch Squeeze and have been touring, writing and recording together since.

 

Squeeze 2017 Tour Dates:

Thursday 5th October – Rhyl Pavilion
Friday 6th October – Birmingham Symphony Hall
Saturday 7th October – Birmingham Symphony Hall
Monday 9th October – Milton Keynes Theatre
Tuesday 10th October – St David’s Hall, Cardiff
Thursday 12th October – Brighton Dome
Friday 13th October – Colston Hall, Bristol
Saturday 14th October – De Montford Hall, Leicester
Monday 16th October – Pavilion Theatre, Bournemouth
Tuesday 17th October – G Live, Guildford
Thursday 19th October – Regent Theatre, Ipswich
Friday 20th October – Nottingham Royal Concert Hall
Saturday 21st October – London Indigo 2
Monday 23rd October – Hexagon Theatre, Reading
Tuesday 24th October – Southend Cliffs Pavilion
Thursday 26th October – Sheffield City Hall
Friday 27th October – Cambridge Corn Exchange
Saturday 28th October – IC, Harrogate
Monday 30th October – Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
Tuesday 31st October – Usher Hall, Edinburgh
Tuesday 2nd November – Sage 1, Gateshead
Friday 3rd November – Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Saturday 4th November – Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
Monday 6th November – Royal Albert Hall, London