Labelled With Love
Good quality VERY rare video recorded from Top Of The Pops 1981. Squeeze are an English band that came to prominence in the United Kingdom during the New Wave period of the late 1970s, and continued recording successfully in the 1980s and 1990s. They are known in the UK for their hit songs “Cool for Cats”, “Up the Junction”, “Tempted”, “Labelled With Love”, “Black Coffee In Bed”, “Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)”, and “Hourglass”. Though not quite as commercially successful in the U.S., “Tempted”, “Hourglass” and “853-5937” were all American chart hits for Squeeze, and the band have a dedicated following there and continue to attract new fans. All of Squeeze’s hits were written by band members Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford.
The group formed in Deptford, London in 1974, and first broke up in 1982. Squeeze then reformed in 1985, and broke up again in 1999. The band reunited for tours through the United States and United Kingdom in 2007, and this touring version of Squeeze has continued into 2010. The band’s founding members in March 1974 were Chris Difford (guitar, vocals, lyrics), Glenn Tilbrook (vocals, guitar, music), Jools Holland (keyboards), and Paul Gunn (drums). The group played under several names, most frequently “Captain Trundlow’s Sky Company” or “Skyco”, before selecting the band name “Squeeze” as a facetious tribute to The Velvet Underground’s oft-derided 1973 album of the same name.[citation needed]
Gilson Lavis replaced Gunn on drums and Harry Kakoulli joined on bass in 1976.
Squeeze’s early career was spent around Deptford in SE London, where they were part of a lively local music scene which included Alternative TV and Dire Straits. The group’s early singles and debut EP, 1977’s Packet of Three, were released on the Deptford Fun City Label.
Squeeze’s first EP and most of its self-titled debut album (1978) were produced by John Cale for A&M Records. Cale had been a member of Velvet Underground from whose album Squeeze took their name. However, the debut album’s two hit singles (“Take Me I’m Yours” and “Bang Bang”) were produced by the band themselves, as the label found Cale’s recordings uncommercial.
In the United States and Canada, the band and album were dubbed U.K. Squeeze due to legal conflicts arising from a contemporary American band called “Tight Squeeze”. The “U.K.” was dropped for all subsequent releases. In Australia, the same name change was used due to legal conflicts arising from an existing Sydney-based band also called “Squeeze”. Albums in Australia were credited to U.K. Squeeze up to and including Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti.
The band’s second album, Cool for Cats (1979), contained the band’s two highest charting UK singles in “Cool For Cats” and “Up The Junction”, both of which peaked at No.2. John Bentley replaced Harry Kakoulli on bass in 1979 following the release of the LP.
Argybargy (1980), the band’s third album, was also a UK hit. It was additionally a mild breakthrough in North America, as the single “Another Nail In My Heart” was a No.56 hit in Canada, and second single “Pulling Mussels From The Shell” received airplay on U.S. rock radio stations.
Keyboardist Jools Holland left the band for a solo career in 1980. Keyboard duties were taken over by highly-rated singer-keyboardist Paul Carrack, a former member of British soul-pop band Ace, who scored a major international hit with the song “How Long.” Carrack had also been a member of Roxy Music.
In 1981 the band cut perhaps their best-known album, East Side Story. It was produced by Elvis Costello and Roger Bechirian, and featured Carrack’s lead vocals on the radio hit “Tempted”. Carrack himself left after the release of East Side Story, and was replaced by Don Snow. This line-up recorded the Sweets From A Stranger LP in 1982. Negative reviews, the stresses of touring, and conflict between band members led Difford and Tilbrook to break up the band later that year, after releasing a final single, “Annie Get Your Gun”.
Difford and Tilbrook confirmed during an interview at the V Festival in 2008 that they planned to produce a record of new Squeeze material. However, as of yet, no new Squeeze material has been played live in concert.
Squeeze did release Spot The Difference, an album of newly recorded versions of older material, in August 2010. The album contained classic Squeeze songs painstakingly reproduced in such a fashion that fans are invited to ‘spot the difference’ from the original versions. Please visit my other Channel. Keep Rockin!.
Credit to : Squeeze
