Squeeze just released ‘Trixies,’ an album more than 50 years in the making, out now. Here’s the twist: it’s the band’s first album in eight years, yet also the very first one they ever wrote. Chris Difford (then 19) and Glenn Tilbrook (then 16) penned these songs at the dawn of their partnership, building a collection of stories set in a fictional nightclub. Five decades later, the pair have finally completed the circle and brought that teenage vision to life.
Long before classics like “Up The Junction,” “Tempted,” “Cool For Cats,” and “Labelled With Love,” before the 2008 Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music, the world tours and festival sets, there was ‘Trixies.’ The collection runs through crime-scene vignettes like “The Place We Call Mars” and “Don’t Go Out In The Dark,” the riotous come-hither charge of “Why Don’t You,” and the evocative acoustic scene-setter “You Get The Feeling.”
Difford explained why the songs sat on the shelf so long. “We fully committed ourselves to songwriting but this was three or four years before we even got to make our first record. Long story short, these were songs that we just didn’t have enough musical experience to record properly,” he says. After rediscovering the original 1974 cassette, the band, who’ve played more than 600 shows since reuniting in 2007, finally had the chops to do them justice.
Tilbrook lit up talking about the return. “The songs that we wrote then astound me. I’m proud of them now, and I’m particularly proud that it was young us that did that. These are very much the same songs that we wrote then. The only difference is that now I can teach the songs to the rest of the band. Back then, I didn’t even know what the names of the chords were,” he says.
Produced by Squeeze bassist Owen Biddle (The Roots, John Legend, Al Green), ‘Trixies’ has sparked a fresh creative surge. An album of brand-new Squeeze songs, recorded right alongside ‘Trixies,’ is already finished and waiting in the wings. “The act of revisiting the Trixies songs had me in tears, partly because they’re so good, but also because I’m aware of all the stuff that I’ve still yet to hear and write,” Tilbrook says. Difford echoes the joy: “It really fills me with joy that at my age we can discover that we wrote such great songs when we were teenagers. I’m very proud of that,” he says. The whole project glows with the rare thrill of a band rediscovering its own beginnings.
Squeeze hit the road this fall behind the record, including a stop at the legendary Hollywood Bowl and their most ambitious UK tour to date, the 16-date Tried, Tested and Trixies Tour, with Billy Bragg joining as Very Special Guest.
2026 Tour Dates:
September 19 – Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Bowl (with Adam Ant and The English Beat)
September 26 – Louisville, KY – Bourbon & Beyond Festival