Squeeze: Take Me I'm Yours

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0:00:04 > 0:00:07- OK.- Yeah.

0:00:07 > 0:00:09One, two...

0:00:09 > 0:00:10Sorry, sorry.

0:00:10 > 0:00:12You know, the count?

0:00:12 > 0:00:14Yeah, the count thing, yeah, how does that go?

0:00:14 > 0:00:16One, two...

0:00:26 > 0:00:29# I never thought it would happen

0:00:29 > 0:00:31# With me and the girl from Clapham

0:00:31 > 0:00:33# Out on the windy Common

0:00:33 > 0:00:35# That night I ain't forgotten... #

0:00:35 > 0:00:39Bob Dylan said a song is anything that can walk by itself, you know,

0:00:39 > 0:00:43and Squeeze have written some songs that walk by themselves.

0:00:43 > 0:00:45# So here in the bar

0:00:45 > 0:00:49# The piano man's found Another nail for my heart

0:00:49 > 0:00:51# And here in the bar

0:00:51 > 0:00:54# The piano man's found Another nail for my heart... #

0:00:54 > 0:00:55There's probably a lot of people

0:00:55 > 0:00:57that don't even mention the name "Squeeze,"

0:00:57 > 0:01:00they don't necessarily know who you're talking about.

0:01:00 > 0:01:02But they do know the songs.

0:01:02 > 0:01:04# Pulling mussels from a shell

0:01:04 > 0:01:08# Pulling mussels from a shell... #

0:01:10 > 0:01:13Squeeze was definitely considered sort of a...

0:01:13 > 0:01:19solid, seminal band, who, you know, who could really write.

0:01:19 > 0:01:21They've written lots of songs that I just -

0:01:21 > 0:01:23I've loved so much I just wanted to hear again or play again,

0:01:23 > 0:01:26and have enjoyed playing, loved playing, and love listening to.

0:01:26 > 0:01:28# There's no other

0:01:30 > 0:01:34# Tempted by the fruit of another

0:01:35 > 0:01:40# Tempted but the truth is discovered... #

0:01:40 > 0:01:42I don't think there's many groups that had,

0:01:42 > 0:01:43that could write at that level.

0:01:43 > 0:01:46The songs were about London, the songs were even about,

0:01:46 > 0:01:48if you wanted to be particular,

0:01:48 > 0:01:50the songs were actually about South London.

0:01:50 > 0:01:54# In and out of Wandsworth, With the numbers on their names

0:01:54 > 0:01:57# It's funny how their missus Always looks the bleeding same

0:01:57 > 0:02:00# And meanwhile at the station, There's a couple of likely lads

0:02:00 > 0:02:04# Who swear like how's your father And they're very cool for cats

0:02:04 > 0:02:07# They're cool for cats (Cool for cats)... #

0:02:07 > 0:02:09I was painting what I was seeing lyrically

0:02:09 > 0:02:11and I think Glenn was doing the same with the music.

0:02:11 > 0:02:15We had a sound that was all our own, no-one else sounded like us.

0:02:20 > 0:02:23# It's really been some welcome You never seem to change

0:02:23 > 0:02:27# A grape to tempt your leisure Romantic gestures strange

0:02:27 > 0:02:30# My eagle flies tomorrow It's a game I treasure dear

0:02:30 > 0:02:37# To seek the helpless future My love at last I'm here

0:02:37 > 0:02:41# Take me I'm yours

0:02:41 > 0:02:44# Because dreams are made of this

0:02:44 > 0:02:53# For ever there'll be A heaven in your kiss... #

0:02:54 > 0:02:57I was brought up in South East London, I had an elder,

0:02:57 > 0:02:59elder brother who was seven years old than me.

0:02:59 > 0:03:01I remember him buying the Beatles first EP,

0:03:01 > 0:03:04and that making a big impression on me,

0:03:04 > 0:03:06although I was a bit of a Cliff and the Shadows fan,

0:03:06 > 0:03:07being you know, five, six.

0:03:07 > 0:03:12I remember pestering my mum to get some sort of instrument

0:03:12 > 0:03:15and eventually, an aunt gave us a piano,

0:03:15 > 0:03:17so that was the first instrument I had,

0:03:17 > 0:03:19and I used to love playing that.

0:03:19 > 0:03:23And then a year later I got a guitar.

0:03:23 > 0:03:26The first song that I ever wrote, I dreamt.

0:03:26 > 0:03:30I can play the song now and it's... I was 11!

0:03:30 > 0:03:33# Now you've gone You've taken my dreams away

0:03:33 > 0:03:36# I'm left alone And I just don't know what to do

0:03:39 > 0:03:40# Lonely with you

0:03:40 > 0:03:44# When you left me Life was hard

0:03:44 > 0:03:47# When you left me Alone by myself to die... #

0:03:47 > 0:03:49For a chorus, you know, it's not bad.

0:03:49 > 0:03:54My first introduction to music was in my parents' house

0:03:54 > 0:03:58in Greenwich, and my brothers were older than me,

0:03:58 > 0:04:01ten and 12 years older than me,

0:04:01 > 0:04:03and so they would battle for the stereogram.

0:04:03 > 0:04:06So that one minute you'd be listening to the Rolling Stones

0:04:06 > 0:04:09and Bo Diddley, and the next, it would be the Beatles and the Searchers.

0:04:09 > 0:04:12I used to write poetry on my school book,

0:04:12 > 0:04:14and an English teacher picked up on them,

0:04:14 > 0:04:17and instead of telling me off, like all the other teachers did,

0:04:17 > 0:04:21he actually said it was quite an inspirational thing for me

0:04:21 > 0:04:25to be doing at that age, and I guess somewhere in the subconscious,

0:04:25 > 0:04:29something said to me these poems could become music at some stage.

0:04:29 > 0:04:32When I was at school, and I was probably 14,

0:04:32 > 0:04:35I read Pete Townsend's interview in the Melody Maker

0:04:35 > 0:04:37about going around the world and meeting women

0:04:37 > 0:04:39and making money and taking drugs and all that sort of thing,

0:04:39 > 0:04:42I thought, "Hold on a minute, this is the job for me."

0:04:42 > 0:04:45I did think that was an appealing side to what I wanted to do,

0:04:45 > 0:04:48but that was very much secondary to the thrust

0:04:48 > 0:04:51of wanting to play music, you know.

0:04:51 > 0:04:53I really wanted to be in a gang, you know,

0:04:53 > 0:04:55I wanted to be in a band, like The Who and The Small Faces,

0:04:55 > 0:05:00and I couldn't do that on my own, so I put an advert

0:05:00 > 0:05:04in a sweetshop window, just to see if I could form a band really.

0:05:04 > 0:05:07I'd been together with Maxine, my first really proper girlfriend,

0:05:07 > 0:05:10for about a year and a bit, and we saw this advert

0:05:10 > 0:05:13in Blackheath village that Chris had put up,

0:05:13 > 0:05:15saying he wanted a guitarist for a band,

0:05:15 > 0:05:20whose influences were the Kinks, Lou Reed and Glenn Miller.

0:05:20 > 0:05:24I pretended that I had a record deal and that I had tours booked

0:05:24 > 0:05:25and all sorts of things.

0:05:25 > 0:05:28I just laced it up as much as I could just to see who would

0:05:28 > 0:05:30pick up the phone, you know.

0:05:30 > 0:05:33And Glenn was the only person that picked up the phone.

0:05:33 > 0:05:35I don't think I would have answered it by myself.

0:05:35 > 0:05:38Maxine said, "Go on, give it a go, you know,

0:05:38 > 0:05:40"you've got nothing to lose."

0:05:40 > 0:05:42Between when we met, and three years after,

0:05:42 > 0:05:45that was the most we ever hung out, and pretty soon after we met

0:05:45 > 0:05:49we wrote one song and without ever discussing it,

0:05:49 > 0:05:53it was the way that, it was the template for the way that

0:05:53 > 0:05:55we carried on working, which was Chris gave me lyrics,

0:05:55 > 0:05:58and I beavered away with tunes, and I was absolutely happy with that.

0:05:58 > 0:06:01We met in April of '73,

0:06:01 > 0:06:05and by July, August, together we'd written fifty songs.

0:06:05 > 0:06:08And we talked about Top of the Pops a lot

0:06:08 > 0:06:11and how we'd really love to be on Top of the Pops.

0:06:11 > 0:06:12That seemed to be our goal.

0:06:13 > 0:06:16When we first decided to form a band,

0:06:16 > 0:06:18and we didn't have a name for it at that point,

0:06:18 > 0:06:22Jools was the first to be recruited because Jools and Glenn

0:06:22 > 0:06:24were friends at school.

0:06:24 > 0:06:27And he played boogie woogie piano, which I'd never heard of.

0:06:31 > 0:06:33So it was unique, you know,

0:06:33 > 0:06:37he had a fantastic style, and very charismatic kind of guy.

0:06:37 > 0:06:39The elements that we all had,

0:06:39 > 0:06:43we felt though, as though we were, we were pretty clever.

0:06:43 > 0:06:45We were quite... I wouldn't say we were big headed,

0:06:45 > 0:06:48but we had that thing, which a lot of people in bands have,

0:06:48 > 0:06:50they play in a pub and stuff and they start

0:06:50 > 0:06:53when they're sort of 16, and they assume they're gonna be big.

0:06:53 > 0:06:55And with us it worked out, and it was true.

0:06:55 > 0:06:58And then our first bass player was Harri.

0:06:58 > 0:06:59We had a good following.

0:06:59 > 0:07:01all the Deptford and Greenwich and Blackheath

0:07:01 > 0:07:04and Lewisham following, and they loved us.

0:07:04 > 0:07:06And then we had various drummers.

0:07:06 > 0:07:10Eventually Gilson joined the band after an ad in the Melody Maker.

0:07:10 > 0:07:13I think I was the only one that actually owned their own drum kit.

0:07:13 > 0:07:15And I borrowed my mum's car, Mini,

0:07:15 > 0:07:17and I took the seats out to get my kit in there,

0:07:17 > 0:07:19and drove down and auditioned with them,

0:07:19 > 0:07:21and got the job, and that was it.

0:07:21 > 0:07:24So Gilson came and joined, and that changed everything.

0:07:24 > 0:07:28That then formed us into the thing that we needed to be.

0:07:28 > 0:07:31# Backtrack, back on the track

0:07:31 > 0:07:34# No-one understands me-he

0:07:34 > 0:07:37# Backtrack, back on the track Back to the way we used to love

0:07:37 > 0:07:40# Back on the track, Back on the track

0:07:40 > 0:07:43# Backtrack, backtrack, Backtrack... #

0:07:43 > 0:07:47It was the Jubilee, 1977, around that period.

0:07:47 > 0:07:50Punk was just coming along, the old guard were being pushed out,

0:07:50 > 0:07:54if you like, all that early King Crimson stuff that I listened

0:07:54 > 0:07:57to at school, suddenly was put at the back of my record collection.

0:07:59 > 0:08:01And the Clash were now at the front.

0:08:01 > 0:08:05# Backtrack, back on the track No-one understands me-he

0:08:05 > 0:08:07# Backtrack, back on the track... #

0:08:07 > 0:08:10There were so many groups that had just come up

0:08:10 > 0:08:13in the first flush of punk, and people that didn't know

0:08:13 > 0:08:16how to play really, hardly at all.

0:08:16 > 0:08:19And they really were, I think, a cut above, just their solidity,

0:08:19 > 0:08:23and the fact that they were writing their own stuff

0:08:23 > 0:08:25and it was very much its own thing.

0:08:25 > 0:08:28We really were the thing that was supposed to be punk,

0:08:28 > 0:08:31but we weren't quite aware of it. We didn't have Mohicans,

0:08:31 > 0:08:33but our musical spirit was

0:08:33 > 0:08:35in that it was a bit of like we couldn't care less.

0:08:35 > 0:08:38We made our own records on Deptford Fun City.

0:08:38 > 0:08:43By that time we had a manager, Miles Copeland, who was managing us,

0:08:43 > 0:08:45had connections in the music industry,

0:08:45 > 0:08:48and so he invited A&M Records down, and they'd just signed

0:08:48 > 0:08:53the Sex Pistols, and Derek Green from A&M Records signed us.

0:08:53 > 0:08:58John Cale produced the first album, who was with the Velvet Underground,

0:08:58 > 0:09:03and Miles Copeland, the manager, was friendly with, knew John Cale

0:09:03 > 0:09:07and he was the one who put Squeeze and John Cale together.

0:09:07 > 0:09:09John Cale sort of threw everything out,

0:09:09 > 0:09:13and made us write new songs for him.

0:09:13 > 0:09:14He just looked me straight in the face,

0:09:14 > 0:09:16he said, "You've gotta stop writing love songs."

0:09:16 > 0:09:18He said, "What do you know about love?"

0:09:18 > 0:09:21He said, "I want you to write something about something

0:09:21 > 0:09:22"that you've never been attached to."

0:09:22 > 0:09:23And I said, "What?"

0:09:23 > 0:09:28And he said, "Well, imagine being whipped by women,

0:09:28 > 0:09:31"and being sexually harassed and being tied up

0:09:31 > 0:09:34"and tied to a chair, of women licking you all over,"

0:09:34 > 0:09:37and, I've gone, "Well, I've hardly been born,

0:09:37 > 0:09:39"what are you talking about?" I had all that to come, you know.

0:09:39 > 0:09:45Sex Master, I mean, hah! yeah we had a go!

0:09:45 > 0:09:46# Cos it's here in my mind

0:09:46 > 0:09:49# How do you stretch out And who makes the climb?

0:09:49 > 0:09:51# Ponces by evening and Roundheads by day

0:09:51 > 0:09:54# Electric erections Please teach me again

0:09:54 > 0:09:56# Frustrated client Seeks a man of the world

0:09:56 > 0:09:59# Must be frank And know his hand relief well

0:09:59 > 0:10:01# Sex master keep you Back after school

0:10:01 > 0:10:04# Sex tells you with A very strict rule... #

0:10:04 > 0:10:07And I just thought, "This isn't gonna get us on Top Of The Pops at all."

0:10:07 > 0:10:10We delivered the album to A&M Records,

0:10:10 > 0:10:13and they said we love it but there's no single on there.

0:10:13 > 0:10:14And John had gone back to America by then.

0:10:14 > 0:10:19And then we did the single, Take Me I'm Yours,

0:10:19 > 0:10:22and that was very much run in the way

0:10:22 > 0:10:24Glenn wanted to run it musically,

0:10:24 > 0:10:28and he wanted to use a sequencer and altogether

0:10:28 > 0:10:30a more sophisticated approach somewhat,

0:10:30 > 0:10:32than the rest of the album.

0:10:32 > 0:10:35So we got a load of synths in, and played about

0:10:35 > 0:10:37in the studio for a day,

0:10:37 > 0:10:39and Take Me I'm Yours is what came out.

0:10:39 > 0:10:44# I've come across the desert To greet you with a smile

0:10:44 > 0:10:47# My camel looks so tired It's hardly worth my while

0:10:47 > 0:10:51To tell you of my travels Across the golden east... #

0:10:51 > 0:10:53The whole Squeeze formula was the singing where Glenn

0:10:53 > 0:10:56and Chris sang at the same time.

0:10:56 > 0:10:58Glenn would sing, and Chris would sing one octave lower,

0:10:58 > 0:11:00and that was the Squeeze sound.

0:11:00 > 0:11:08# Take me I'm yours Because dreams are made of this

0:11:08 > 0:11:16# For ever there'll be A heaven in your kiss... #

0:11:16 > 0:11:18The first time I heard the record being played,

0:11:18 > 0:11:22it was probably on John Peel or on a programme like that,

0:11:22 > 0:11:26and then going on Top Of The Pops for the first time.

0:11:26 > 0:11:29Great, we'd made it, you know, we got picked up in Rolls-Royce cars

0:11:29 > 0:11:32that the record company had sent, you know.

0:11:32 > 0:11:34The only time a Rolls-Royce came down my estate was,

0:11:34 > 0:11:35you know, somebody had died.

0:11:39 > 0:11:42I walked down to the local pub and when I walked in there was

0:11:42 > 0:11:45a lunchtime stripper, and she was taking her clothes off

0:11:45 > 0:11:48to Take Me I'm Yours, and I thought, "We've cracked it."

0:11:48 > 0:11:50Now we're getting somewhere.

0:11:53 > 0:11:55When we recorded the first album,

0:11:55 > 0:11:59Miles and Squeeze had had it in their back pocket

0:11:59 > 0:12:02that we would go and tour America, so we hired a van,

0:12:02 > 0:12:03we put all the gear in the back,

0:12:03 > 0:12:07and we literally drove all the way around America

0:12:07 > 0:12:12for six, seven weeks, staying at little motels,

0:12:12 > 0:12:13playing horrible little clubs.

0:12:13 > 0:12:16We went for three weeks, and stayed two months,

0:12:16 > 0:12:19and really lived in each other's pocket,

0:12:19 > 0:12:22and if we were tight before, we were really tight when we got back.

0:12:22 > 0:12:25We just played and played and played.

0:12:25 > 0:12:27So we took that experience into the studio.

0:12:27 > 0:12:31# And Davey Crockett rides around And says it's cool for cats

0:12:31 > 0:12:34It's cool for cats (Cool for cats)... #

0:12:34 > 0:12:36When we got to record the Cool For Cats album,

0:12:36 > 0:12:41we had a lot of the songs already written, and by that time

0:12:41 > 0:12:44we were a little bit more focused on what we wanted as a band, I suppose.

0:12:44 > 0:12:49The sound was becoming more apparent to itself.

0:12:49 > 0:12:51With Jools on the one hand, with his eccentric keyboard,

0:12:51 > 0:12:54the magnificent drumming of Gilson,

0:12:54 > 0:12:57which added so much to the songs,

0:12:57 > 0:12:59and Glenn was really beginning to find his feet, I think.

0:12:59 > 0:13:03I took sort of control of things at that point.

0:13:04 > 0:13:07And we were a band of very strong personalities,

0:13:07 > 0:13:09and I don't think I made myself very popular.

0:13:09 > 0:13:15He took on more control of the melodies, and the way

0:13:15 > 0:13:18that records should be, the production, I guess, you know.

0:13:18 > 0:13:20I was a little bit more interested

0:13:20 > 0:13:22in just going to the pub and having a drink.

0:13:22 > 0:13:25# She changes the mood a little I've been posing down the pub

0:13:25 > 0:13:28# I see in my reflection I'm looking slightly rough... #

0:13:28 > 0:13:31And we were always in the pubs.

0:13:31 > 0:13:34That was our world from which we sort of came up

0:13:34 > 0:13:36from above the parapets, you know.

0:13:36 > 0:13:39Most of what I was writing on the Cool For Cats album,

0:13:39 > 0:13:41and albums that followed, were from the imagination,

0:13:41 > 0:13:44but taken from characters that probably that I'd met.

0:13:44 > 0:13:46He, as a poet, and an artist,

0:13:46 > 0:13:50was responding to his world around him, and he was writing

0:13:50 > 0:13:54that world down and putting it into words and making it into songs.

0:13:54 > 0:13:57We were absolutely reflecting what we'd seen,

0:13:57 > 0:13:59and bouncing it back.

0:13:59 > 0:14:03I think one of the outstanding features of Squeeze

0:14:03 > 0:14:05was that they reflected their environment,

0:14:05 > 0:14:09that the songs were about their own geography.

0:14:22 > 0:14:25# I never thought it would happen With me and the girl from Clapham

0:14:25 > 0:14:29# Out on a windy common That night I ain't forgotten... #

0:14:29 > 0:14:33Up the Junction was pretty much inspired by Play For Today,

0:14:33 > 0:14:35that I used to watch when I was a kid.

0:14:35 > 0:14:37Those kind of kitchen sink dramas

0:14:37 > 0:14:39that were on Wednesday nights in black and white.

0:14:39 > 0:14:41They would be half an hour long

0:14:41 > 0:14:43and they would tell a story from beginning to end,

0:14:43 > 0:14:46and I would watch those and marvel at the way

0:14:46 > 0:14:49that they were put together and there were some fantastic writers

0:14:49 > 0:14:52that wrote those in those days.

0:14:53 > 0:14:57So, the idea of storytelling being something that began,

0:14:57 > 0:14:59had a middle and an ending,

0:14:59 > 0:15:02was always in my life from a very early age.

0:15:02 > 0:15:05Chris had written story songs before

0:15:05 > 0:15:08but this one, to me, really stood out.

0:15:08 > 0:15:13This is a copy of the handwritten lyric of Up The Junction,

0:15:13 > 0:15:17and it's nice to see it again,

0:15:17 > 0:15:20and it brings back a lot of memories of the way I used to write.

0:15:20 > 0:15:24I used to write in, you know, with a pen,

0:15:24 > 0:15:29and on this piece of paper, it resembles every piece of paper.

0:15:29 > 0:15:32Every lyric that I wrote was like this in those days.

0:15:32 > 0:15:35I never thought it would happen when me and a girl from Clapham

0:15:35 > 0:15:37out on the windy common, that night I ain't forgotten.

0:15:37 > 0:15:40When she dealt out the rations with some or other passions,

0:15:40 > 0:15:43I said "You are a lady." "Perhaps, she said, "I maybe."

0:15:43 > 0:15:50We were already in the studio recording, and at lunchtime

0:15:50 > 0:15:54the band went out to get their cheese and ham rolls,

0:15:54 > 0:15:56and I stayed behind and looked at this lyric,

0:15:56 > 0:15:59and it was one of those lovely occasions where

0:15:59 > 0:16:02I didn't really have to work at anything.

0:16:02 > 0:16:07And it must be a real struggle sometimes for Glenn

0:16:07 > 0:16:11to get my lyrics, and think, "How am I gonna put music to this?"

0:16:11 > 0:16:13What emotion does it seek?

0:16:13 > 0:16:16Some of the best stuff I've done has been to work

0:16:16 > 0:16:19instinctively and to not think through the process.

0:16:19 > 0:16:21It's not conscious thought,

0:16:21 > 0:16:23it's not this has to be this or that or,

0:16:23 > 0:16:26it's just about finding something that fits

0:16:26 > 0:16:28and flows, and that's the way that it works best for me.

0:16:28 > 0:16:33Music, like, you know, in a way is, it's kind of jolly,

0:16:33 > 0:16:36but you really feel a sense of heartbreak in it.

0:16:36 > 0:16:39And I think that's a very difficult thing to pull off.

0:16:39 > 0:16:43# I worked all through the winter The weather brass and bitter

0:16:43 > 0:16:47# I put away a tenner Each week to make her better... #

0:16:47 > 0:16:51I'm, in key change, it worked out brilliantly, it was total accident.

0:16:51 > 0:16:54# And when the time was ready We had to sell the telly

0:16:54 > 0:17:00# Late evenings by the fire With little kicks inside her

0:17:02 > 0:17:06# This morning at 4:50 I took her rather nifty

0:17:06 > 0:17:09# Down to an incubator Where 30 minutes later

0:17:10 > 0:17:13# She gave birth to a daughter Within a year a walker

0:17:13 > 0:17:19# She looked just like her mother If there could be another... #

0:17:19 > 0:17:21When I was at school, we used to read all the books that

0:17:21 > 0:17:23they made the movies of in the '60s.

0:17:23 > 0:17:25We didn't get to read the great literature, we read Sillitoe

0:17:25 > 0:17:27and Waterhouse, and all those things.

0:17:27 > 0:17:29I was part of that experiment, and Chris had that,

0:17:29 > 0:17:31but he had it in a three-minute song.

0:17:31 > 0:17:34I knew it was a great song because people really enjoyed

0:17:34 > 0:17:37the lyric of it, and when we played it live, people enjoyed it.

0:17:37 > 0:17:39And that's the greatest test, isn't it?

0:17:39 > 0:17:42I mean, if you write a great song, people in the audience smile

0:17:42 > 0:17:46and they love it, and they take the story home with them.

0:17:46 > 0:17:49That's really the job that you have as a songwriter,

0:17:49 > 0:17:51for people to own the stories themselves.

0:17:51 > 0:17:55# Alone here in the kitchen I feel there's something missing

0:17:55 > 0:17:59# I'd beg for some forgiveness But begging's not my business

0:17:59 > 0:18:03# And she won't write a letter Although I always tell her

0:18:03 > 0:18:07# And so it's my assumption I'm really up the junction. #

0:18:13 > 0:18:16And I remember we were doing very, very well in Britain,

0:18:16 > 0:18:18we were number two in the charts,

0:18:18 > 0:18:22and we were travelling around and playing drinking dens

0:18:22 > 0:18:26in North America, and it was so weird.

0:18:26 > 0:18:32Up the Junction was selling like 15,000 copies a day,

0:18:33 > 0:18:38which is a lot of records, and the industry was on fire in those days.

0:18:38 > 0:18:41People were selling lots of records.

0:18:41 > 0:18:43The industry's completely changed now.

0:18:43 > 0:18:44If I sold, you know,

0:18:44 > 0:18:4815,000 records a day now, I'd be Adele.

0:18:48 > 0:18:49That's a fine thought.

0:18:56 > 0:19:01Between Cool For Cats and Argybargy, I had met a girl who I married,

0:19:01 > 0:19:04and she lived in New York,

0:19:04 > 0:19:08and when one of the gang gets married, the dynamic does change.

0:19:08 > 0:19:12And although everybody was very supportive, I sensed the change.

0:19:12 > 0:19:13As great as our writing was,

0:19:13 > 0:19:18Chris and I were already heading in different directions, you know.

0:19:18 > 0:19:23I didn't feel particularly close to anyone in the band,

0:19:23 > 0:19:27but we were a great band, so I didn't really worry about all that,

0:19:27 > 0:19:29and as long as we got on with the work and then we'd ping off

0:19:29 > 0:19:32and have our social lives, increasingly more separately.

0:19:32 > 0:19:36Glenn was like a satellite that would come round the planet,

0:19:36 > 0:19:39and every now and again, I would kind of tap into whatever

0:19:39 > 0:19:43it was he was beaming down, and then he would go off again,

0:19:43 > 0:19:46and likewise I would do the same.

0:19:46 > 0:19:49# The case was pulled From under the bed

0:19:49 > 0:19:53# She made a call to A sympathetic friend

0:19:53 > 0:19:59# And made arrangements

0:19:59 > 0:20:02# The door was closed There was a note... #

0:20:02 > 0:20:05When I wrote the lyric for Another Nail In My Heart,

0:20:05 > 0:20:09I imagined it being like a bar room song, I guess.

0:20:09 > 0:20:14I didn't expect it to have a guitar solo after the first chorus.

0:20:14 > 0:20:16# So here in the bar The piano man's found

0:20:16 > 0:20:19# Another nail for my heart... #

0:20:20 > 0:20:23I think that I thought with Another Nail, it's time for me

0:20:23 > 0:20:26not to be a Blues guitarist, or Jimi Hendrix,

0:20:26 > 0:20:29but it's time to work out a tune, to make the tune

0:20:29 > 0:20:31an absolutely vital part of the song.

0:20:50 > 0:20:53Great guitar player. He's a tremendously underrated

0:20:53 > 0:20:55guitar player, because although he features them

0:20:55 > 0:20:57as part of an arrangement.

0:20:57 > 0:20:59He doesn't go in, I mean, I've seen him

0:20:59 > 0:21:02take longer solos, but he goes in for the melodic solo,

0:21:02 > 0:21:03that's incorporated in the composition.

0:21:05 > 0:21:09# That stupid old bug That kills only love

0:21:09 > 0:21:12# I want to be good Is that not enough?

0:21:12 > 0:21:14# So play me the song That makes it so tough

0:21:14 > 0:21:16# Another nail for my heart... #

0:21:16 > 0:21:19Glenn Tilbrook is one of the greatest singers in pop music

0:21:19 > 0:21:22that ever has walked the earth. He's unbelievable.

0:21:22 > 0:21:26I'm sure it's annoying to all his peers, he still sounds amazing now.

0:21:26 > 0:21:29He hasn't lost any of that tone, it's incredible.

0:21:29 > 0:21:32# I've had a bad time Now love is resigned

0:21:32 > 0:21:35# I've been such a fool I've loved and goodbyed

0:21:35 > 0:21:38# And here in the bar The piano man's found

0:21:38 > 0:21:41# Another nail for my heart

0:21:41 > 0:21:45# And here in the bar The piano man's found... #

0:21:45 > 0:21:48He always sounded like he was smiling when he was singing.

0:21:48 > 0:21:52He just always sounded quite happy about whatever was going on,

0:21:52 > 0:21:55and it just made you feel good.

0:21:55 > 0:21:59A Squeeze song would come on the radio and it just made me smile.

0:21:59 > 0:22:01And part of it was just, just his voice,

0:22:01 > 0:22:04just something about the sound of his voice.

0:22:07 > 0:22:09The thing that I think that Glenn is so good at

0:22:09 > 0:22:12in singing Chris's words, is that he can take idioms

0:22:12 > 0:22:15that are not found in ordinary pop lyrics

0:22:15 > 0:22:16and make them really singable.

0:22:18 > 0:22:22# They do it down on Camber Sands They do it at Waikiki

0:22:22 > 0:22:27# Lazing about the beach all day, At night the crickets creepy... #

0:22:27 > 0:22:30Pulling Mussels from the Shell was written

0:22:30 > 0:22:33as a sort of very stoned dirge, I think.

0:22:33 > 0:22:35You know, it was, it was a good tune

0:22:35 > 0:22:40but it was about three quarters slower than it ended up being.

0:22:40 > 0:22:46When I wrote Pulling Mussels, it was all white notes.

0:22:47 > 0:22:52# They do it down on Camber Sands They do it at Waikiki

0:22:55 > 0:23:01# Lazing about the beach all day, At night the crickets creepy... #

0:23:01 > 0:23:06The great thing about writing with Glenn in those days was,

0:23:06 > 0:23:09you know, he would disappear for a few weeks,

0:23:09 > 0:23:12and you wouldn't know what was going on,

0:23:12 > 0:23:14and then suddenly a cassette would arrive

0:23:14 > 0:23:16with all these demos on of these great songs,

0:23:16 > 0:23:19and it was like Father Christmas coming,

0:23:19 > 0:23:22it was just brilliant, you know, to hear your lyrics put to music.

0:23:22 > 0:23:25And I would say, "Yeah, that's really brilliant,"

0:23:25 > 0:23:29and you can hear, actually, from the brilliance of this demo,

0:23:29 > 0:23:32how much it actually sounds like Squeeze.

0:23:32 > 0:23:38I mean, we didn't really fall very far from the tree with this demo,

0:23:38 > 0:23:42I think, apart from Jools's fantastic piano playing,

0:23:42 > 0:23:46and Gilson's wonderful drumming, John Bentley's amazing bass playing.

0:23:46 > 0:23:50Apart from that, it sounds exactly the same as Squeeze.

0:23:54 > 0:23:57# A He-Man in a sudden shower Shelters from the rain

0:23:59 > 0:24:05# You wish you had a motor boat To pose around the harbour bar... #

0:24:06 > 0:24:08But I still have a fondness for these demos.

0:24:08 > 0:24:14They're almost like... songs in short trousers.

0:24:14 > 0:24:19# But behind the Chalet My holiday's complete

0:24:19 > 0:24:27# And I feel like William Tell Maid Marian on her tiptoed feet

0:24:27 > 0:24:31# Pulling mussels from a shell... #

0:24:31 > 0:24:33And the band injected that sort of vigour into it,

0:24:33 > 0:24:38that sort of verve, but the song was there, the song was there already.

0:24:38 > 0:24:41One of the things about being dictatorial is that

0:24:41 > 0:24:44unless you have immense charm, you're gonna create enemies,

0:24:44 > 0:24:46and I certainly think I did that.

0:24:46 > 0:24:49But everyone, I think, was happy with the band, except for Jools.

0:24:49 > 0:24:52His piano playing was great on Pulling Mussels,

0:24:52 > 0:24:56and all that stuff, it was fantastic and could only have been him.

0:24:56 > 0:24:59But a lot of the other stuff, the keyboard overdub,

0:24:59 > 0:25:02some of the hooky stuff, the melody lines in Another Nail,

0:25:02 > 0:25:04and that, I was doing.

0:25:04 > 0:25:06So you know, that must have been

0:25:06 > 0:25:09either frustrating or annoying, sometimes.

0:25:14 > 0:25:17When I joined Squeeze, you know,

0:25:17 > 0:25:21he was as much a part of it as Glenn and Chris really, to me,

0:25:21 > 0:25:25you know, his style, not only style of his playing,

0:25:25 > 0:25:30but his image, and his style, and his energy,

0:25:30 > 0:25:34was a major factor towards the whole thing of Squeeze.

0:25:37 > 0:25:39# I take Sally-Anne, You take Sue

0:25:39 > 0:25:41# We'll get a wiggle on what to do

0:25:41 > 0:25:43# Doing the mess around... #

0:25:43 > 0:25:46The songs we were doing, we mostly did Chris and Glenn's songs,

0:25:46 > 0:25:50and of course they were great, they were fantastic songs.

0:25:50 > 0:25:52But I've always ultimately been driven by the music that

0:25:52 > 0:25:56I play, that's what, rather than, you know, the idea of just

0:25:56 > 0:25:59being in a successful group is great, of course you like that,

0:25:59 > 0:26:02but the real thrust of it has to be the music that you're playing.

0:26:02 > 0:26:10He's such a gifted guy who was playing what he saw as, you know...

0:26:11 > 0:26:12..what was pop music,

0:26:12 > 0:26:15some of which he liked and some of which he didn't.

0:26:15 > 0:26:18Jools started to think about making his own albums,

0:26:18 > 0:26:20and quite rightly so, because he had

0:26:20 > 0:26:23a canon of his own work that he needed to express.

0:26:23 > 0:26:26He was never gonna do that under the Squeeze banner,

0:26:26 > 0:26:30because it was a vehicle put together by Glenn and I for our songs.

0:26:30 > 0:26:33At that point, I thought the group was written in stone.

0:26:33 > 0:26:34We got John Bentley in,

0:26:34 > 0:26:38and John really took us to another level, too.

0:26:38 > 0:26:41Everything was perfect as far as I was concerned,

0:26:41 > 0:26:44so when Jools left I was really upset.

0:26:44 > 0:26:47And I remember going to Gambardella's cafe

0:26:47 > 0:26:49in Blackheath Village with Jools, and he said,

0:26:49 > 0:26:51"you know, I'm gonna have to leave the band.

0:26:51 > 0:26:55"I've been offered this TV show," and I cried.

0:26:55 > 0:26:56You know, it was, I remember crying,

0:26:56 > 0:26:59and thinking, "This is the end of the band."

0:26:59 > 0:27:01It never was what it was again,

0:27:01 > 0:27:04you know, there was something there, a dynamic that just shifted.

0:27:04 > 0:27:07The saddest thing for me, and I loved the Squeeze music,

0:27:07 > 0:27:08was the people. Cos I loved the people,

0:27:08 > 0:27:11and we used to have such great laughs together, you know.

0:27:11 > 0:27:15But of course, the more success there is,

0:27:15 > 0:27:17generally the less of a laugh there is.

0:27:17 > 0:27:21# You won't get dressed You walk about

0:27:21 > 0:27:23# Now, is that, is that

0:27:23 > 0:27:26# A teasing glance has pushed me out

0:27:26 > 0:27:28# Now is that, is that... #

0:27:28 > 0:27:30Squeeze had gone through this big turmoil.

0:27:30 > 0:27:32Jools had left the band

0:27:32 > 0:27:36and they were ready to record a new album, they had no keyboard player,

0:27:36 > 0:27:41and as they were going into the studio, almost the following week,

0:27:41 > 0:27:45to start to record East Side Story, they kind of offered me the job.

0:27:45 > 0:27:49Now, I don't know, I didn't know whether I was joining the band,

0:27:49 > 0:27:51if I was doing the album, or what I was doing,

0:27:51 > 0:27:54but I was really just interested.

0:27:54 > 0:27:56Paul brought such a lot to the table.

0:27:56 > 0:28:00His sense of musicality is absolutely total,

0:28:00 > 0:28:03and he can empathise with other people's ideas.

0:28:03 > 0:28:07I think the next record that we made, East Side Story,

0:28:07 > 0:28:10was our first sort of mature album,

0:28:10 > 0:28:13and I think we were pushing forward still, at that point.

0:28:13 > 0:28:18The original plan was, I don't know realistic this was,

0:28:18 > 0:28:23whether it was ever real, but there was a sort of notion that

0:28:23 > 0:28:25East Side Story was gonna be a double album,

0:28:25 > 0:28:29and there would be a side produced by Nick Lowe, a side produced by me,

0:28:29 > 0:28:31a side produced by Dave Edmunds,

0:28:31 > 0:28:32and a side produced by Paul McCartney.

0:28:32 > 0:28:35And I don't really know how far that conversation went,

0:28:35 > 0:28:37whether it was just something that was said

0:28:37 > 0:28:41over a couple of drinks, or whether it was ever more than a notion.

0:28:41 > 0:28:45Elvis is a huge music enthusiast, you know,

0:28:45 > 0:28:48which an awful lot of musicians are not.

0:28:48 > 0:28:53But the second part of what it brought is the approval, you know.

0:28:53 > 0:28:55"I'm Elvis Costello, and I'm cool and edgy,"

0:28:55 > 0:28:58and therefore some cool and edgy people will say,

0:28:58 > 0:29:01"OK, I'll give Squeeze a try." That's how those things work.

0:29:01 > 0:29:05I think when you're working with somebody externally too,

0:29:05 > 0:29:08that you both admire, it really raises the game.

0:29:08 > 0:29:12Elvis Costello gave us the courage, I think, to step up and say,

0:29:12 > 0:29:15"OK, we're not just this really great pop band,

0:29:15 > 0:29:16"but we can do this, as well."

0:29:20 > 0:29:25# She unscrews the top of A new whiskey bottle

0:29:25 > 0:29:28# And shuffles about in Her candlelit hovel

0:29:29 > 0:29:33# Like some kind of witch With blue fingers in mittens

0:29:33 > 0:29:38# She smells like the cat And the neighbours she sickens

0:29:38 > 0:29:42# The black and white TV Has long seen a picture

0:29:42 > 0:29:46# The cross on the wall is A permanent fixture

0:29:46 > 0:29:51# The postman delivers The final reminders

0:29:51 > 0:29:55# She sells off her silver And poodles in china... #

0:29:55 > 0:29:56Labelled With Love, all right,

0:29:56 > 0:29:58was inspired by looking at a photograph

0:29:58 > 0:30:01in a photographic book, Cartier Bresson,

0:30:01 > 0:30:04and there was this woman sitting at a bar and, you know,

0:30:04 > 0:30:07I just suddenly got his image of this person sitting in a pub

0:30:07 > 0:30:10and, um, you know, how in the Second World War

0:30:10 > 0:30:12she might have gone off with an American pilot.

0:30:12 > 0:30:17# During the wartime an American pilot

0:30:17 > 0:30:21# Made every air-raid a time of excitement

0:30:21 > 0:30:25# So she moved to his prairie and married the Texan

0:30:25 > 0:30:31# She learnt from a distance how love was a lesson... #

0:30:31 > 0:30:33When I saw Labelled With Love,

0:30:33 > 0:30:37and, indeed, really with any of the songs that we wrote,

0:30:37 > 0:30:40there was never a direction from Chris as far as to what it should be.

0:30:40 > 0:30:43It was a totally open book for me,

0:30:43 > 0:30:45which was a lovely position to be in.

0:30:45 > 0:30:48It would just be what it conjured up in me,

0:30:48 > 0:30:51and to me it just seemed like it was a country song.

0:30:51 > 0:30:55# Drinks to remember I, me and myself

0:30:55 > 0:30:59# Winds up the clock and knocks dust from the shelf

0:30:59 > 0:31:03# Home is a love that I miss very much

0:31:03 > 0:31:08# So the past has been bottled and labelled with love

0:31:08 > 0:31:12# The past has been bottled and labelled with love

0:31:12 > 0:31:16# The past has been bottled

0:31:16 > 0:31:23# And labelled with love. #

0:31:23 > 0:31:26I just thought that Labelled With Love was a good story song

0:31:26 > 0:31:29and it didn't really matter what rhythm it was in.

0:31:29 > 0:31:31I think we were all of us getting a little worn out

0:31:31 > 0:31:34with that dumdumdum new wave rhythm.

0:31:34 > 0:31:38It...it hemmed in the story telling and they had taken their time

0:31:38 > 0:31:39over a couple of their earlier...

0:31:39 > 0:31:42Like, Up The Junction isn't really very fast.

0:31:42 > 0:31:46It's got a much more like the Kinks sort of feeling of space.

0:31:46 > 0:31:50And we both, you know, all of us sort of jammed a lot of words in.

0:31:50 > 0:31:52Sometimes that can be exciting,

0:31:52 > 0:31:54sometimes it gets in the way of the communication.

0:31:54 > 0:31:57All I could do was think about, "My God,

0:31:57 > 0:31:59"this lyric's going to have to be sharp to get it past him."

0:31:59 > 0:32:03It's like having an inspirational teacher when you're at school, isn't it?

0:32:04 > 0:32:09# I bought a toothbrush, some toothpaste, a flannel for my face

0:32:09 > 0:32:14# Pajamas, a hairbrush, new shoes and a case

0:32:14 > 0:32:20# I said to my reflection "Let's get out of this place"

0:32:20 > 0:32:26# Passed the church and the steeple, the laundry on the hill

0:32:26 > 0:32:29# The billboards and the buildings

0:32:29 > 0:32:33# Memories of it still keep calling

0:32:33 > 0:32:35# And calling... #

0:32:35 > 0:32:40We were recording a version of Tempted,

0:32:40 > 0:32:43which Glenn was singing, and Elvis said, "Why doesn't Paul sing this?

0:32:43 > 0:32:45"It seems natural for Paul to sing it."

0:32:45 > 0:32:49They had this resource in the band of Paul Carrack

0:32:49 > 0:32:52and that seemed, of all the songs that they had,

0:32:52 > 0:32:54the one that he could really transform.

0:32:54 > 0:32:58I was delighted cos I just thought it was such a great song.

0:32:58 > 0:33:01I mean, I suppose privately Glenn might have thought

0:33:01 > 0:33:03it was a bit of a liberty for me to suggest

0:33:03 > 0:33:05he didn't sing a song that he had written but...

0:33:05 > 0:33:07Of course, I was immensely disappointed

0:33:07 > 0:33:11and then as soon as he sang it, it was...just had to be.

0:33:11 > 0:33:12It just was so right.

0:33:12 > 0:33:14It was so great, it was so natural.

0:33:14 > 0:33:17I would never, ever, ever have sung it like that.

0:33:17 > 0:33:24# I bought a toothbrush, some toothpaste, a flannel for my face

0:33:24 > 0:33:28# Pajamas, a hairbrush, new shoes and a case... #

0:33:28 > 0:33:31Tempted was literally written on the back of a fag box.

0:33:31 > 0:33:35I was going from Blackheath to Heathrow Airport

0:33:35 > 0:33:37and I just wrote down what I saw.

0:33:37 > 0:33:42# Passed the church and the steeple, the laundry on the hill

0:33:42 > 0:33:44# Billboards and the buildings

0:33:44 > 0:33:49# Memories of it still keep calling

0:33:49 > 0:33:51# And calling

0:33:51 > 0:33:56# But forget it all I know I will

0:33:58 > 0:34:02# Tempted by the fruit of another... #

0:34:02 > 0:34:04Tempted, as a lyric, really, is, again,

0:34:04 > 0:34:08written for somebody else, in my imagination.

0:34:08 > 0:34:10It's not particularly about me, you know, I was very loyal.

0:34:10 > 0:34:13I wasn't tempted by any fruits of any...any other person.

0:34:13 > 0:34:17You know, it's just a lyric about an emotion that people go through.

0:34:17 > 0:34:21# Tempted by the fruit of another... #

0:34:23 > 0:34:27Paul had real difficulty getting around the lyrics

0:34:27 > 0:34:30of the second verse in his voice, in his vocal style,

0:34:30 > 0:34:35which was why the vocal arrangement idea came in of this sort of crazy,

0:34:35 > 0:34:38pseudo-Temptations arrangement.

0:34:38 > 0:34:40# The people keep on grabbing

0:34:40 > 0:34:42# Ain't wishing I was well

0:34:42 > 0:34:45# I said, "It's no occasion

0:34:45 > 0:34:47# "It's no story I can tell..." #

0:34:49 > 0:34:53It makes me laugh every time I hear it and I can't believe we got away with it, really.

0:34:53 > 0:34:56It has a charm, cos it's obviously done with the affection

0:34:56 > 0:34:57for those original records.

0:34:57 > 0:34:58# Your body gets much closer

0:34:58 > 0:35:01# I fumble for the clock

0:35:01 > 0:35:04East Side Story is a fantastic piece of work

0:35:04 > 0:35:10and I'm proud of it all more than any other album in that respect,

0:35:10 > 0:35:15but that's down to the amount of focus that Elvis Costello gave it

0:35:15 > 0:35:20and the amount of work that Glenn and I pushed...put into it.

0:35:20 > 0:35:26It was also nice for me to work with someone who I really respected

0:35:26 > 0:35:31and trusted and, you know, so I could just be part of the band.

0:35:31 > 0:35:34I really kept them to the strength of the material

0:35:34 > 0:35:36because that's all I really knew how to do.

0:35:36 > 0:35:38I didn't really know anything about sound.

0:35:38 > 0:35:41I was kind of a musical advocate.

0:35:41 > 0:35:43I wasn't even a musical director, cos they didn't need one.

0:35:43 > 0:35:46# She rips her skirt and tears her dress

0:35:46 > 0:35:49# Climbing over his garden fence

0:35:49 > 0:35:51# Mud on her mourning as tears still fall

0:35:51 > 0:35:54# She's in no mood for his love at all

0:35:54 > 0:35:59# She feels messed around... #

0:35:59 > 0:36:03Around the East Side Story album, Glenn and I had a...

0:36:03 > 0:36:07a relationship that was beginning to suffer from fatigue, really,

0:36:07 > 0:36:11cos we was constantly touring and there was no respite from it.

0:36:11 > 0:36:13Played Madison Square Garden,

0:36:13 > 0:36:15we done everything that we set out to do,

0:36:15 > 0:36:18Top Of The Pops, television, everything.

0:36:18 > 0:36:21We were getting bigger and bigger as a band

0:36:21 > 0:36:26but it seemed like all the drive had...had gone out of it.

0:36:26 > 0:36:28But there was no-one to tell us to take a holiday

0:36:28 > 0:36:31or something like that, you know, it was just the momentum as always -

0:36:31 > 0:36:34right, we need an album, we need a tour, we need, you know,

0:36:34 > 0:36:37that, that, that, that, that and we did all that and at the end of it

0:36:37 > 0:36:38you're just very tired.

0:36:44 > 0:36:46Paul Carrack couldn't stay in the band

0:36:46 > 0:36:51cos he wanted to do a solo album, so then we were wounded yet again.

0:36:51 > 0:36:54So we limped off to find another keyboard player

0:36:54 > 0:36:57and make another album, which was Sweets From A Stranger.

0:36:57 > 0:36:59# The hurt and the anger

0:36:59 > 0:37:02# And the joy of the pain

0:37:04 > 0:37:05# Joy of the pain... #

0:37:05 > 0:37:10Then Sweets From A Stranger was a period where everything was sort of

0:37:10 > 0:37:12drugs and doing vocals at nine in the morning,

0:37:12 > 0:37:14you know, not a good idea.

0:37:14 > 0:37:16# Now she's gone

0:37:16 > 0:37:17# Now she's gone

0:37:17 > 0:37:21# And I'm out with a friend

0:37:21 > 0:37:24# Out with a friend

0:37:24 > 0:37:27# With lips full of passion

0:37:28 > 0:37:30# And coffee in bed... #

0:37:30 > 0:37:34My drinking started to wound me quite a bit.

0:37:34 > 0:37:38But also I'd discovered other drugs and, um, it became...

0:37:38 > 0:37:41I became, um...

0:37:41 > 0:37:42dependent.

0:37:42 > 0:37:48And I was drinking, I was going downhill and I think other people

0:37:48 > 0:37:52were in...taking to life's pleasures a bit too much in other areas.

0:37:55 > 0:37:58# Oh, now she's gone... #

0:37:58 > 0:38:01And I remember being on a train going across Europe with Glenn

0:38:01 > 0:38:06at the end of that album just saying, "Enough, can we take a break now?"

0:38:06 > 0:38:09And we both said, "Let's...let's call it a day."

0:38:10 > 0:38:13# And coffee in bed. #

0:38:13 > 0:38:17The first stage of Squeeze from '78 to '82

0:38:17 > 0:38:20produced all the hits and we would be talking about Squeeze now

0:38:20 > 0:38:24in these terms, if the band had split up for ever

0:38:24 > 0:38:26in 1982 and had never come back.

0:38:26 > 0:38:29# Crashing waves upon the rocks

0:38:29 > 0:38:33# Is seen by some By you, it's not... #

0:38:33 > 0:38:37We went off to record a solo album called Difford and Tilbrook

0:38:37 > 0:38:39and I don't think we talked once

0:38:39 > 0:38:42during the whole recording of the album.

0:38:42 > 0:38:45It was like a busman's holiday. There we were back together,

0:38:45 > 0:38:47same communication problems.

0:38:47 > 0:38:51Glenn got married and that, too, fractured our relationship.

0:38:51 > 0:38:53It was a very tense time.

0:38:53 > 0:38:57When we went on tour my wife came with me and that made ME happier.

0:38:57 > 0:39:02Chris wasn't someone to go out and socialise anyway with me

0:39:02 > 0:39:04and hadn't been for a long time, so, in a sense,

0:39:04 > 0:39:08not a lot had changed for me. I just had someone to enjoy it with.

0:39:08 > 0:39:12# But you won't drown Love is your town

0:39:12 > 0:39:20# When love is found for all to want... #

0:39:20 > 0:39:24And at the end of that two-year period,

0:39:24 > 0:39:27we then had an opportunity to get Squeeze back together again.

0:39:27 > 0:39:31And it was almost like somebody had drawn the curtains.

0:39:31 > 0:39:34Suddenly, light came back in on our songs and our career.

0:39:34 > 0:39:38Wherever our heads were at, we could still play and...

0:39:38 > 0:39:41and it sounded great, you know, it was really...it was really

0:39:41 > 0:39:44sparky and fiery in a way that it hadn't been towards the end.

0:39:44 > 0:39:46So it was a good move.

0:39:46 > 0:39:50Jools came back into the band, Gilson had sobered up his life

0:39:50 > 0:39:52and came back into the band.

0:39:52 > 0:39:56We did a couple of shows, we got a new bass player

0:39:56 > 0:39:59and before we knew where we were, we were making another album.

0:39:59 > 0:40:01# I'm guilty, yes, guilty

0:40:01 > 0:40:08# But there's no place like home

0:40:09 > 0:40:14# There's no place like home... #

0:40:14 > 0:40:17It was. It was lovely to be back and to be all

0:40:17 > 0:40:19rowing in the same direction, as well.

0:40:19 > 0:40:23I think we all... We all did quite a bit of growing up

0:40:23 > 0:40:25in the sort of lay-off period.

0:40:25 > 0:40:28By the time we got back together, we'd all learnt a lot more

0:40:28 > 0:40:30about what we wanted to do and what wanted out of it.

0:40:30 > 0:40:32I think when you go into something,

0:40:32 > 0:40:34it's better to be clear about what everybody's expecting

0:40:34 > 0:40:36out of it then nobody's, sort of,

0:40:36 > 0:40:38cross or disappointed about it afterwards.

0:40:38 > 0:40:40Jools was back in the band.

0:40:40 > 0:40:43He was flying in and out of the band doing The Tube

0:40:43 > 0:40:49and, um, we got our second lease of life so we were really lucky.

0:40:49 > 0:40:52The whole thing started to, um, lift again.

0:40:55 > 0:40:59# I'm guilty, I'm guilty

0:40:59 > 0:41:02# So let me be stoned... #

0:41:02 > 0:41:06My memory of them at that time was like, "Yeah,

0:41:06 > 0:41:08"they're making it happen."

0:41:08 > 0:41:09As a fan, it just felt like,

0:41:09 > 0:41:12you know, they just picked up where they left off

0:41:12 > 0:41:14and they're...and they're moving forward.

0:41:19 > 0:41:22Of course, the musical landscape had changed enormously by the time

0:41:22 > 0:41:26they came back, and I don't think Squeeze ever recovered their ground

0:41:26 > 0:41:30commercially and you had to be much more aware of visuals.

0:41:30 > 0:41:34It wasn't always... It wasn't any more just about the songs.

0:41:34 > 0:41:37Obviously that, you know, via MTV and the, you know,

0:41:37 > 0:41:42the rise of people like Madonna and, um, and Michael Jackson, you know.

0:41:42 > 0:41:45These people who were just inconceivable without the visuals.

0:41:45 > 0:41:50# The hourglass has no more grains of sand

0:41:50 > 0:41:53# My watch has stopped no more turning hands... #

0:41:53 > 0:41:55We always had fun in our videos.

0:41:55 > 0:41:58The one we did for Hourglass was great and, again,

0:41:58 > 0:42:00that suited us cos it was fun.

0:42:04 > 0:42:07When Squeeze started being pushed into that mould,

0:42:07 > 0:42:12I certainly wasn't very comfortable with it but, you know,

0:42:12 > 0:42:18we made a fist of it and did our best in all those circumstances

0:42:18 > 0:42:22but that was never something... never something that I enjoyed.

0:42:22 > 0:42:27# I spent too much money I looked far too glad

0:42:30 > 0:42:35# Now I have so little of what I once had

0:42:35 > 0:42:41The recording of the video for Footprints was in Salt Lake City,

0:42:41 > 0:42:46up in the mountains, on the snow covered mountains,

0:42:46 > 0:42:51which represented the cocaine of my life at the time, I suppose.

0:42:51 > 0:42:56Glenn and I had had the most awful falling out that day,

0:42:56 > 0:42:58prior to the shoot.

0:42:58 > 0:43:02We were walking from the minibus to take the first shot

0:43:02 > 0:43:08and Glenn pulled me to one side and we had the most awful set-to,

0:43:08 > 0:43:12and the rest of the day was completely ruined.

0:43:12 > 0:43:14It was just, like, driven by drugs.

0:43:14 > 0:43:18It was everything you imagined other bands did, you know.

0:43:18 > 0:43:22# The party's over It's going home time... #

0:43:23 > 0:43:27Wow. Er, I rather like that video.

0:43:28 > 0:43:31Seeing it, it's weird isn't it? In spite of everything I've said,

0:43:31 > 0:43:34I thought the band actually felt quite together at that point.

0:43:34 > 0:43:35It felt good to me.

0:43:35 > 0:43:37# Is it love?

0:43:39 > 0:43:40# Is it love? #

0:43:43 > 0:43:47We'd grown somehow, not with the record sales to match it

0:43:47 > 0:43:51but selling tickets, you know, we were doing amazing business.

0:44:02 > 0:44:04The trouble was, we were touring so much

0:44:04 > 0:44:06and I had other things that I wanted to do,

0:44:06 > 0:44:08I had more music that I wanted to do,

0:44:08 > 0:44:11and also I was doing a film somewhere else,

0:44:11 > 0:44:14playing and making my own records, and one thing had to go.

0:44:14 > 0:44:17His public and private personality were blossoming and they were

0:44:17 > 0:44:21growing and he was starting to outgrow his place in Squeeze.

0:44:21 > 0:44:23I thought, "Well, I'm going to have to...

0:44:23 > 0:44:27"I'm going to have to bow out again", so I did.

0:44:27 > 0:44:32He had his eye on other things and I felt like he'd used us.

0:44:32 > 0:44:36And that anger, plus some other issues I had with him

0:44:36 > 0:44:38stayed with me for quite a while.

0:44:52 > 0:44:54Glenn had this great ambition for us

0:44:54 > 0:44:59to live together in Los Angeles in a house in the Canyon and write songs.

0:44:59 > 0:45:02What I didn't realise was that Chris

0:45:02 > 0:45:04wasn't in a state really... really to do that.

0:45:04 > 0:45:08I was there one night and I said, "No, I want on be on my own."

0:45:08 > 0:45:12So I rented a place about 20 miles away

0:45:12 > 0:45:15because I just wanted to be on my own so I could take drugs and drink.

0:45:15 > 0:45:20I had to reach out for help and the only way of doing that for me

0:45:20 > 0:45:24in those days was to write it down in a lyric.

0:45:24 > 0:45:28That was how I was communicating, not just to the world outside,

0:45:28 > 0:45:30but to people around me, close by.

0:45:30 > 0:45:35This lyric, The Truth, when I got it from Chris it was...

0:45:35 > 0:45:39He was obviously not a happy chappie.

0:45:39 > 0:45:44Musically, we went all round the houses before we got it simple.

0:45:44 > 0:45:46So this is The Truth.

0:45:48 > 0:45:52# I lied to you, I've cheated too

0:45:52 > 0:45:55# So what friend can I be?

0:45:56 > 0:45:59# But still you stick through thick and thin

0:45:59 > 0:46:02# Hoping that you'll change me

0:46:03 > 0:46:07# I towed the line then fell behind

0:46:07 > 0:46:10# Our love began to wane

0:46:11 > 0:46:14# The pressure grew and then I knew

0:46:14 > 0:46:16# That things were not the same

0:46:20 > 0:46:21# The truth

0:46:21 > 0:46:24# It's the toughest thing to explain

0:46:27 > 0:46:29# The truth

0:46:29 > 0:46:33# Playing tricks with me again

0:46:35 > 0:46:38# When the truth has to be told

0:46:38 > 0:46:41# My blood runs hot and cold

0:46:41 > 0:46:46# The truth is not my middle name... #

0:46:46 > 0:46:50The Truth says everything about what was going on in those days for me

0:46:50 > 0:46:53and the way that Glenn put the lyrics to the music

0:46:53 > 0:46:55is just beautiful,

0:46:55 > 0:46:59it's exactly what it should be, it's a fantastically powerful song.

0:46:59 > 0:47:03It's about being deceitful, it's about what...what the truth is

0:47:03 > 0:47:06and it's something I could identify with.

0:47:06 > 0:47:10I figured something that Chris felt

0:47:10 > 0:47:15and how hard it is to tell the truth sometimes.

0:47:15 > 0:47:18# When the truth has to be told

0:47:18 > 0:47:22# My blood runs hot and cold

0:47:22 > 0:47:27# The truth is not my middle name... #

0:47:32 > 0:47:36I think he was getting ready to fess up and, you know,

0:47:36 > 0:47:39throw the towel in with drinking and that.

0:47:39 > 0:47:41I just couldn't take it anymore

0:47:41 > 0:47:44and I just put my hands in the air and got...

0:47:44 > 0:47:49A good friend of mine lifted me up and took me into rehab.

0:47:49 > 0:47:52When he came out, it was a very emotional time

0:47:52 > 0:47:55and it was great because there was something of Chris there

0:47:55 > 0:47:56that I recognised.

0:47:56 > 0:48:00I felt really happy for him and we were communicating

0:48:00 > 0:48:03and in spite of all the stuff we'd been through

0:48:03 > 0:48:07there was enough there for us to latch hold of

0:48:07 > 0:48:09and actually begin to enjoy again.

0:48:09 > 0:48:13At that time, there was just, like, lots of ideas flying around.

0:48:13 > 0:48:16It's literally like I'd cleaned out my head

0:48:16 > 0:48:19and gave it some space for some new words, you know.

0:48:19 > 0:48:22# She gave to me her tenderness

0:48:22 > 0:48:25# Her friendship and her love

0:48:25 > 0:48:29# I see her face from time to time

0:48:29 > 0:48:32# There in the sky above... #

0:48:32 > 0:48:38This song was about Maxine who had died from leukaemia

0:48:38 > 0:48:40a couple of years before,

0:48:40 > 0:48:43who'd been the person that I went out with,

0:48:43 > 0:48:46my first love, and the woman who'd said,

0:48:46 > 0:48:49"Answer the ad, go. Go and meet this guy." You know.

0:48:49 > 0:48:53I started the lyric, I didn't lift the pen off the page,

0:48:53 > 0:48:56and when it got to the end I finished it,

0:48:56 > 0:49:00I faxed it to Glenn and that was it, that is exactly the lyric.

0:49:00 > 0:49:03It was really, really moving.

0:49:03 > 0:49:06Um...

0:49:06 > 0:49:09And I sat down and the tune just tumbled out.

0:49:09 > 0:49:11It was... It was really great.

0:49:11 > 0:49:13It was er... It was er... It was fantastic.

0:49:13 > 0:49:15It was one of those times where you don't even think about

0:49:15 > 0:49:17what you're doing.

0:49:19 > 0:49:23# Her smile could lift me from the pain

0:49:23 > 0:49:27# I often found within

0:49:27 > 0:49:31# She said some things I won't forget

0:49:31 > 0:49:34# She made a few bells ring

0:49:34 > 0:49:39# So simple her humility

0:49:39 > 0:49:42# Her beauty found in grace

0:49:42 > 0:49:46# Today she lives another life

0:49:46 > 0:49:49# In some fantastic place... #

0:49:49 > 0:49:55That just, in Chris's way, expresses something really sweetly.

0:49:55 > 0:50:00Very cunningly, he put a guitar solo in Some Fantastic Place,

0:50:00 > 0:50:03which was actually one of the first guitar solos

0:50:03 > 0:50:07he ever wrote for one of our songs, but we never used.

0:50:07 > 0:50:11So he lifted it from a song that we'd written in 1973.

0:50:18 > 0:50:20It just worked really well.

0:50:20 > 0:50:24It was just one of those happy accident coincidences,

0:50:24 > 0:50:26and it worked.

0:50:26 > 0:50:28And it's my favourite song.

0:50:38 > 0:50:41# I can see you... #

0:50:41 > 0:50:44For me, Some Fantastic Place is the perfect Squeeze album.

0:50:44 > 0:50:48I think it's scandalous how few records it sold

0:50:48 > 0:50:50and how the singles just disappeared,

0:50:50 > 0:50:53and I think it must have really been getting to the band by this stage.

0:50:53 > 0:50:56They must have been realising it's over for us,

0:50:56 > 0:50:59in a way, in terms of being... having commercial success.

0:50:59 > 0:51:01The record company were pushing all the time.

0:51:01 > 0:51:05They had... They wanted us to have hits, they A&R'd,

0:51:05 > 0:51:09they would come down to the studio and say, "No, that's not right."

0:51:09 > 0:51:12"Do you think we could get it mixed by so and so?"

0:51:12 > 0:51:17You know, that whole genre of making music had started to take effect...

0:51:17 > 0:51:20HE COUGHS ..which didn't suit Squeeze at all.

0:51:20 > 0:51:23Rather than being left to our own devices, as we were largely,

0:51:23 > 0:51:26we started working with a succession of people,

0:51:26 > 0:51:29and whether I was involved or not is almost irrelevant

0:51:29 > 0:51:32because the brief is it's got to be big and, you know,

0:51:32 > 0:51:34contemporary-sounding.

0:51:34 > 0:51:37# I love you today

0:51:37 > 0:51:41# I don't care what the world has to say

0:51:41 > 0:51:46# Heaven knows that I'm in love

0:51:46 > 0:51:48# I love you today

0:51:48 > 0:51:52# I don't care what the world has to say

0:51:52 > 0:51:56# Heaven knows I'm... #

0:51:56 > 0:52:00The record company threw a lot of money at Heaven Knows.

0:52:00 > 0:52:02They spent a lot of money on the video.

0:52:02 > 0:52:04It became used in a movie

0:52:04 > 0:52:09and I think Glenn really didn't like the fact that

0:52:09 > 0:52:14the band were being led really by a record company.

0:52:14 > 0:52:16It was like a circus, you know,

0:52:16 > 0:52:20we were jumping through hoops to try and please the people who thought

0:52:20 > 0:52:25they knew how we should sound, and you end up pleasing no-one.

0:52:25 > 0:52:29# I love you, I love you today

0:52:29 > 0:52:34# I don't care what the world has to say

0:52:34 > 0:52:36# Heaven knows that... #

0:52:36 > 0:52:39Glenn and I, our communication had got worse again.

0:52:39 > 0:52:43I think he wanted one thing, I wanted another,

0:52:43 > 0:52:45but I wasn't sure what the other thing was

0:52:45 > 0:52:49and we had yet another American tour, tour number 59,

0:52:49 > 0:52:52or whatever it was, and I just thought, "I've got to stop."

0:52:52 > 0:52:55And I felt really disappointed when Chris told me.

0:52:55 > 0:52:58It was all I'd ever known.

0:52:58 > 0:53:03So it was... It was not nice, but...

0:53:05 > 0:53:07..it really was for the best.

0:53:07 > 0:53:08As Glenn puts it,

0:53:08 > 0:53:14I left the building and left him to turn the lights out.

0:53:14 > 0:53:18# Heaven knows you've got to open up somehow

0:53:18 > 0:53:19# I can take it on the chin... #

0:53:19 > 0:53:23I sort of thought to myself, well, you know, I've got to figure out

0:53:23 > 0:53:26what I'm going to do now and I thought,

0:53:26 > 0:53:28"Well, let's just try and make a record,

0:53:28 > 0:53:31"write with some other people, write by yourself."

0:53:31 > 0:53:34# You showed interest in me

0:53:34 > 0:53:39# When I was outside looking in

0:53:39 > 0:53:43# How is it you got to be? #

0:53:43 > 0:53:49Various things that have made me feel really insecure were gone.

0:53:50 > 0:53:53This huge cloud had lifted.

0:53:53 > 0:53:57Glenn and I didn't speak to each other for nine years.

0:53:57 > 0:53:58We went in different directions

0:53:58 > 0:54:01and I watched his career from over a hedge a bit,

0:54:01 > 0:54:03watched him recording solo albums

0:54:03 > 0:54:07and I went to see him play a couple of times incognito,

0:54:07 > 0:54:10just to see what was going on,

0:54:10 > 0:54:13just to make sure what I was missing, or what I wasn't missing.

0:54:13 > 0:54:18And I went off and went into management,

0:54:18 > 0:54:22but the songwriter side of me was the thing that I needed to nurture.

0:54:22 > 0:54:26# I love my sweet brother

0:54:26 > 0:54:29# His voice makes me cry

0:54:29 > 0:54:31# We sing for forgiveness

0:54:31 > 0:54:34# As time passes us by

0:54:34 > 0:54:37# My brother was gifted

0:54:37 > 0:54:40# He had a great voice

0:54:40 > 0:54:46# Not like the other young Battersea Boys... #

0:54:46 > 0:54:49My brother died about five years ago

0:54:49 > 0:54:51and he was just the biggest Squeeze fan, loved the band,

0:54:51 > 0:54:57and when he died it kind of opened some communication to Glenn.

0:54:57 > 0:55:02He was very genuine and I said it would be great to get together,

0:55:02 > 0:55:05you know, and we sort of talked about it and then

0:55:05 > 0:55:09we talked very loosely about getting back on the road and then

0:55:09 > 0:55:15we had a lunch where we agreed terms...

0:55:15 > 0:55:18and it kind of started there.

0:55:18 > 0:55:23So on a limited edition basis, with all the exit doors open,

0:55:23 > 0:55:25we agreed to do some dates.

0:55:28 > 0:55:31# Tempted by the fruit of another

0:55:31 > 0:55:35# Tempted but the truth is discovered

0:55:35 > 0:55:40# Tempted by the fruit of another

0:55:40 > 0:55:44# Tempted but the truth is discovered

0:55:44 > 0:55:47# What's been going on? #

0:55:54 > 0:55:57I think the most important thing was to honour our songs,

0:55:57 > 0:56:02our songwriting, and to cover our own songs in a way that would

0:56:02 > 0:56:05make us feel proud and make our audience sit up and listen.

0:56:11 > 0:56:14The truth of it is, if the song is alive to you,

0:56:14 > 0:56:17the ideas or emotions in the song are alive to you,

0:56:17 > 0:56:20then even if people's initial reason for wanting to hear it

0:56:20 > 0:56:22is because it's a memory to them,

0:56:22 > 0:56:25it creates a new memory at the moment of performance,

0:56:25 > 0:56:28and that's my theory and I'm sure that's what they feel when they return

0:56:28 > 0:56:32to those songs, cos they would be rewarding cos they're strong.

0:56:32 > 0:56:36# Take me I'm yours

0:56:36 > 0:56:41# Because dreams are made of this

0:56:41 > 0:56:48# For ever there'll be a heaven in your kiss... #

0:56:48 > 0:56:51The 50p that I took out of my mum's purse

0:56:51 > 0:56:55to put that advert in the sweetshop window in Blackheath

0:56:55 > 0:56:58to form a band in 1973,

0:56:58 > 0:57:04I mean, it's the most amazing 50p I've ever spent in my entire life.

0:57:04 > 0:57:07So I'm extraordinarily grateful that Glenn was the only person

0:57:07 > 0:57:09to pick up the phone.

0:57:09 > 0:57:15I would never have come up with those stories, those lyrics.

0:57:15 > 0:57:17I might have written great tunes

0:57:17 > 0:57:21but I don't know if anyone would ever have heard them,

0:57:21 > 0:57:24because I think they would have been accompanied by

0:57:24 > 0:57:26some very dull observations.

0:57:35 > 0:57:37Thank you!

0:57:39 > 0:57:42You've got to keep it fresh, you know,

0:57:42 > 0:57:46and I think that's hard to do, that's hard for any band to do

0:57:46 > 0:57:50and I think we've got to work hard at that all the time.

0:57:50 > 0:57:53And if we can't do that, we've gotta man up

0:57:53 > 0:57:57and say it's time to pull the plug again.

0:57:57 > 0:58:01I don't think any band can just balance on their history,

0:58:01 > 0:58:04you know, you have to put out new stuff and although it's not,

0:58:04 > 0:58:08you know, there are very few bands of our age that manage to do it

0:58:08 > 0:58:11successfully, I think, but that's just what you live with, I think.

0:58:11 > 0:58:16You know, you've gotta keep your own um spirit alive.

0:58:16 > 0:58:19Yeah. I agree with that.

0:58:19 > 0:58:21Goodnight.

0:58:21 > 0:58:23THEY LAUGH

0:58:23 > 0:58:26This has been Noel Coward and Arthur Mullard

0:58:26 > 0:58:28and we're bidding you good night.

0:58:28 > 0:58:30HE LAUGHS

0:58:33 > 0:58:37# Cool for cats

0:58:44 > 0:58:46# Oooooh ooooh

0:58:46 > 0:58:49# Oooooh ooooh

0:58:49 > 0:58:53# Oooooh ooooh... #

0:58:54 > 0:58:57Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd