WE’RE EASY
Why feuding Glenn Tillbrook & Chris Difford keep getting back together
GLENN Tilbrook and Chris Difford reckon they might have killed each other if they hadn’t split up Squeeze in Scotland in 1999.
The London pals had met as teenagers and started the band in Deptford, south-east London, in 1974 – with Glenn writing the music and Chris the lyrics.
They had already split up in 1982 but continued to work together, releasing an album as a duo in 1984 before reforming Squeeze in 1985.
But their relationship became turbulent again and Chris quit the band just before a tour. Glenn carried on but split Squeeze up after their final date of the tour in Aberdeen on November 27, 1999.
However, Glenn, 60, who with Chris releases Squeeze’s 15th studio album The Knowledge today, doesn’t remember that Scottish date with any sadness.
He said: “I wouldn’t say it was a bad time. We needed a break from each other. It was that or murder.”
Their fraught relationship still created some great singles, such as Cool For Cats and Up The Junction – which both reached No2 – and Labelled With Love, which reached No4.
And in 2014, they even went on tour as The At Odds Couple.
Glenn said: “There have been times when we’ve not gotten on and not communicated with each other but we’re now at a place where we have a lot of respect for each other.
“No relationship is plain sailing – whether it be personal or work – but over the years we’ve come to understand our differences and similarities and learnt to co-exist alongside each other.
“We know each other and understand each other better than we ever did in the past. We’re very different people but we recognise that. We’re not going to go on holiday or spend Christmas together but we do love each other and get on well.”
As well as the album – and a new single Patchouli, which is out on November 17 – the pair are touring with a new band and will play at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh, and Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.
Scotland, and its people, holds a special place in Glenn’s heart.
He said: “Scottish people have good hearts and get what we do.
“I’ve had some good times in Scotland. The second time I went there I was delivering records for someone and wore a pair of pinklegged trousers in Glasgow. That was not a good idea, as I was to find out.
“Aberfeldy is one of the most amazing places in the world. I fell in love with it when my wife was still touring with me about 20 years ago.”
In fact, if Scotland holds another independence referendum after Brexit, Glenn joked that instead of leaving the UK, Scotland should take over from England as the dominant country.
He said: “I think we’d be better together led by Scotland. I love Scotland. Regardless of what happens, I will always play shows there.”
In the late 70s and 80s, Glenn and Chris created sonic kitchen sink dramas about lust and falling in love with songs such as Goodbye Girl, Slap and Tickle and Is That Love?
While their songs may detail the everyday, there is political comment. When Squeeze performed on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show last year, the then Prime Minister David Cameron was also a guest. Glenn reworked Cradle to the Grave – the title track of their last album – to