Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Dan Rivkin on the many 'eras' of Glenn Tilbrook's hair
350 Plays1 year ago
And now for something completely different… friend of the podcast Dan Rivkin waxes philosophically (and with great humor) on the myriad touchpoints that are reflected by Glenn and his hair. While not altogether serious, it’s a fascinating visual: whether as a teenager, in his 20s with Squeeze, as a solo artist roaming the world and into the 21st century, his altogether unique style and deportment when it concerns personal presentation - and this includes his fellow bandmates! - is one subject that Dan and myself felt needed at least, a podcast-length deep-dive discussion.
Squeeze "Cool For Cats", Live at The Depot, Salt Lake City, 10/7/2016
[At the 1:55 mark]
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction & Guest Welcome
00:00:08
Speaker
Hello, and welcome to Cool 4 Cats with me, Amy Hughes. We're inviting you in for black coffee and a chat about our favorite band Squeeze. In this episode, I'm welcoming back to the podcast your friend and mine, Dan Rivkin. Hello, Dan. How are you? Hello, Amy. I'm very good. I'm even better now.
00:00:31
Speaker
Oh, wonderful. Well, this is going to be what you and I both would consider to be a very interesting topic.
Theme: Glenn's Hairstyles
00:00:45
Speaker
It's a very special episode.
00:00:46
Speaker
It is. It's quite, it's quite unusual. Um, it could be considered a taboo. I don't know, but we're going to throw our cards down. We're going to, um, open up the vaults as it were and do a nice clean sweep. The theme today in this podcast will be Glenn Tilbrook's hair. Waiting for the applause today down.
00:01:16
Speaker
Okay, okay. I can hear it off in the distance.
00:01:23
Speaker
So how do we approach this? You are probably going to be the instigator of a lot of what's going to be happening here. And I mean that in the most sincere way. So former father of squeeze on the web. What's your what do you first think of when people kind of start talking about Glenn Tobruk's hair? Well, that's and that's the funny thing because
00:01:49
Speaker
You know, it's sort of like what we were just talking about before we started. It's like talking about the weather, right? I mean, there's snow, there's rain, there's heat, there's cold. I mean, there is so much to be said because there are so many different styles on his head, on his face. And what's interesting is that in going with a broader space,
00:02:18
Speaker
it still, it still never did it much to define Squeeze's image. And it almost like didn't define Glen's image. He just, he just had different kinds of hairstyles. There wasn't like the, you know, there may have been the flowing hair period or the bearded period, but there wasn't necessarily the, you know, the surgeon pepper mustache period or the the mop top, you know what I mean?
00:02:43
Speaker
There was nothing that seemed to define him except for the fact that that's who he was. I know that we all can say, well, we know the bearded period for the Beatles was 69, 70, and getting the hair longer. But the Beatles are a universe unto themselves. There is definitely a lot of bands out there that, well, for instance, we always talk about the hair bands.
00:03:10
Speaker
I mean, that just says so much. So when we talk about Glenn, I mean, wow, are we getting too deep in here?
Band Dynamics & Vocal Quality
00:03:24
Speaker
The shortness of it, the facial hair. Why do people have such a vested interest in it? When we always complain that everything is not visual about Squeeze, that's for sure.
00:03:38
Speaker
Well, you know, it's something, it's something we can sort of almost, I wanna say, hang our hats on. It's something we could sort of point to because, you know, one thing I wrote down here was for their whole career, you have different Tilburg hung with the whole, next, going back to the next land McCartney, you had this very definitive definition of their sound and there never was a definition ever of their look.
00:04:05
Speaker
And it is it is a touchstone to kind of go with you have you have a wrote now now that we're in 2023, you know, going back to the mid 70s you really have a real rotating cast of band members.
00:04:25
Speaker
you know, it changed a little bit, but it didn't change quite so radically as Glenn. So you have, you can say, hey, Jules Holland is different than Paul Carrick, and so on, but you can't, Glenn is a constant with Chris, but Glenn had such radical changes within himself, visually, even if, even if his voice really never changed.
00:04:49
Speaker
Now, that's an interesting point to bring up because we've always been cognizant of the fact of singers that are so beloved, a la Paul McCartney, who we can definitely see where his voice has aged.
00:05:04
Speaker
But we look at people like Tom Jones, who's the same age. He sounds amazing. And we also look at Glenn, who has spanned, you know, coming up almost 50 years. And he's still got that sort of, I guess for want of a better description, that choir boy.
00:05:24
Speaker
uh tremolo to his voice but yet again that's still not quite the definition of what we as Squeeze fans defined um you know them uh you know and he's not really he is a lead singer too but you have to couch him with Chris you know you have the yin and the yang so he's not he's not he's not purely a front man
00:05:49
Speaker
Right. He's contributing and has always said that he was glad to give up tempted to Paul Tarrick because that was kind of like an acquiesce with Elvis Costello and Elvis saying, I think Paul's a better singer for this song. And now Glenn's been singing it for now 40 years and he changes it up a little bit.
00:06:14
Speaker
But with regards to the styles that have been going on through the years, do you think that Glenn sort of reflects pretty much just the time period and we're kind of picking because picking on that a little bit because he's in Squeeze?
1980s Music Scene & Fashion
00:06:33
Speaker
Probably. And it's funny because I
00:06:36
Speaker
I looked back because the spark of our conversation is certainly the mid, like the dead mid 80s, 1985 cozy era, the biggest Harry he had of all, right? And I was curious, all right, so 84, 85, who were the peers on MTV and who were the peers on the charts? And it was like Robert Smith.
00:07:01
Speaker
and George Michael, and Lou Graham from Foreigner, and Darrell Hall, and Paul Young, and Roland from Tears to Fears. It's like, they all had the hair. It wasn't just like metal guys who had the big hair, it was his peers, right? I even looked, I even looked and it's, you know, he had the headband, but Deptford's own Mark Knopfler, you know, if you look at the right angle in the whole Money for Nothing era, his hair is kind of big.
00:07:31
Speaker
You know, so it's, I think we are, we're jumping on it because we're Squeeze fans, but it does seem even, even his peers, you know, outside of a few, you know, Chris Difford, you know, outside of a few, they didn't have it. I'll say as someone who can no longer have big hair, that I'm, you know,
00:07:55
Speaker
impressed and jealous. And maybe that's why I care so much, you know, so you're, we tend to overanalyze, you know, the the preciousness of something when we view Glenn in up the junction, and see that he's in very angelic looking and I
00:08:14
Speaker
this also in previous podcasts, where he gives off that air of being very sweet and very innocent. And then the hair is just kind of very short and kind of, I don't know, almost like 1962 hair.
00:08:32
Speaker
And then, you know, you look at him from 1985, and now all of a sudden he's got past the Difford and Tilbrook era, and now we're moving into the cozy, you know, your favorite subject in mind, the cozy family, and the hair was just blooming about. And even the clothing now, here's something with the two of those put together. I was thinking, Miami Vice, what are your thoughts?
00:09:01
Speaker
Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm trying to think here if there were enough pastels to hit that. I know he had those sort of colors in the past. He was wearing pink suits and pink ties and things like that. It, it definitely, that definitely works. I mean, it's all the time, right? I mean, that was, that was as big as it got.
00:09:27
Speaker
Although, you know, it's funny because I know you had recently spoken about the Daytona Beach concert, and I deliberately watched a few minutes of it earlier today, and they absolutely didn't go for that look at all, despite being on the beach in Florida in 1980 in March 1988.
00:09:50
Speaker
So yeah, I think that works. And one thing I want to say before you follow up, speaking about the angelic, Glenn in 1985, so he's, I did the math, he's 28, 27, 28 years old, I guess, depends on kind of when things were filmed. So he's obviously very young. Still, you look at the photos of them, you know, in the pre, before they had records out, right?
00:10:19
Speaker
the Lawrence MP book and just other photos from that 75, 76 era. It has hair even longer, but with the clothes being t-shirts and, you know, bell bottoms, it really, it really, even with the longer hair, it doesn't, it's not, it's different, you know?
00:10:38
Speaker
Yeah, because they didn't, they, and there's pictures too of Chris with long and jewels, even all of the early shots of them when they were together, just they're all like the basic stereotypical thin malnourine.
00:11:01
Speaker
Yeah, dirty jeans wearing kind of kids, which they were and I'm sure because there was no thought to putting anything together cohesive for a look.
00:11:14
Speaker
And even then moving on into the sort of, they weren't punk necessarily, except they like to wear t-shirts a lot, but the antithesis of that was getting into the sort of new wave, being smartly dressed. They had the peers, I guess, in that respect would be like Paul Weller.
00:11:37
Speaker
Or Elvis Costello. I mean, talk about a troupe here. And again, I adore Elvis Costello. I love every aspect of his career. I looked through, I mean, I knew this also, but I looked through it just to make sure I wasn't missing something. You know, every single album.
00:11:54
Speaker
through that period, Elvis Costello looks exactly alike. He's presented in every single video, whether it's Accidents Will Happen or Radio Radio or whatever it is, he's exactly alike. Same jacket, not the same jacket, but the same look as far as how he presented himself. And that, you know, that
00:12:17
Speaker
I don't know where I was going with that, because I interrupted you. So you should pick up where you were going. There was, and I agree with you about Elvis, there was like a sort of brand that Elvis was able to adhere to. And it really didn't matter so much about the attractions. I mean, they all sort of had that same aesthetic, which is very minimal. But again, if you look back, like I said, I was thinking of Paul Weller, who in fact was actually
00:12:47
Speaker
Quite emanating that sort of mid 70s thing through quadrophenia Skinny ties and all of that even Bowie was doing that back in that time period of like 83 84 85 And also, you know, you had a lot of bands like madness and
00:13:07
Speaker
and the style, like I say in the style council, but the English beat. So they all went for this sort of slightly sinister, but trying to make a unified statement. And I just wonder, again, if that was just part of the culture that they all just presented, which then again, unfortunately got them labeled as all the same, you know? Yes. Go ahead.
00:13:35
Speaker
It's an interesting thing you bring up because there's a newspaper article I read from your Boston Globe 1979. It was a review of their concert and one of the lines said the band has no particular image, philosophy, or messages to throw at anyone. Its songs are mostly about sex, bars, and the difficulties of growing up in this modern age.
00:13:54
Speaker
Which, obviously, there is more to it than just that. Although they did cover those subjects very well. And, you know, maybe because Elvis Costello sang from a different standpoint or the jam, you know, maybe there's not to say something to that, but maybe that sort of... I don't want to say faceless, they weren't faceless. This sort of, like, come-as-you-are presentation, just...
00:14:24
Speaker
that was what they were. It would have been strange to, you know, if Brian Epstein took them and put them in suits and put them on stage the same way, it wouldn't have, I feel like it wouldn't have worked. Absolutely. I mean, could you see Jules Holland as anything other than, you know, smoking a cigar and wearing the bow tie and a leather, you know, it's just not what they were.
00:14:50
Speaker
It's interesting that we keep going back to Daytona because you look at that particular slice of time and they're being presented as an MTV band, which, come on, they really weren't, but they were having a huge, huge resurgence at that point with Hourglass.
00:15:12
Speaker
And so MTV probably thought, this is a great place. They'll get more exposure. Maybe or maybe not, they're relating to these drunk college kids on the beach in Daytona. But certainly, they did not dress the part. I mean, Jules went out there with spats and that sort of fedora thing that he was wearing. And everybody was kind of almost in suits. I mean, Chris was wearing a bowler. You know what I mean?
00:15:41
Speaker
The only one who looked sort of respectively correct in that setting was Gilson. Right, and he was still wearing long sleeves. To the point where I'm sitting there thinking, okay, I'm seeing people in bikinis. What was the weather like? And I went and looked and it was 70 degrees, which seems like, all right, I can get that he would be wearing on like March 18th, 1988, or whatever day that was. But yeah, you're right. And even him still was wearing like a striped shirt. It wasn't like it was some sort of anything casual.
00:16:12
Speaker
Right. I mean, they did, in that respect, kind of present the band, again, as grown up versions of themselves. Not that they couldn't relate to what was going on. And, you know, actually, Glenn's hair at that time was pretty okay. He was mostly swept for the whole hour or so. It's always okay.
00:16:34
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, okay is the baseline. Right. And, but I also thought about, you know, if we were talking about, you know, his hair, then everybody did kind of go post 76. Everybody kind of did go punky. You know, if everybody had their hair like shoulder length,
00:16:57
Speaker
And I just again had this conversation recently with a guest that Glenn's girlfriend was a heavy influence on him. And they were obviously very young, but they almost looked the same back at that time, 14, 15 years old. So, you know, you could possibly be getting a little bit of influence, you know, from that, you know, as a couple, you know, who doesn't want to impress who.
00:17:26
Speaker
you know, in that situation. But then you start to graduate to where the Sex Pistols were starting to come up and make a big scene. And Gen X, I think that was Billy Idol's group. And all those people, then the hair almost got shorn off.
Image & Manager Influence
00:17:43
Speaker
Jules, like he got like practically a buzz cut thing, you know, everybody got their hair cut.
00:17:48
Speaker
And then they started wearing the t-shirts and jeans. So maybe that was just, again, a thing. You know, Glenn just really, it was like almost overnight, just chopped all his hair off. Yeah, you know, it's interesting, I was curious to see what, you know, what was the the initial presentation of Squeeze to, you know, to the world. And you know, you have you have on their debut album, well, for one thing, they're almost naked. So they're like being born
00:18:16
Speaker
They're like being born to all of us, right? On the back cover. And, you know, Glenn's hair is just kind of a mess and without any sort of like, any order. It wasn't even like it was like a mess that was like a style. It just was like rolling out of bed mess. And then you go back to back albums where he's wearing a hat. Covering covering it all up.
00:18:37
Speaker
I know. And also, you know, correct me if I run, but I guess most Americans got their real big first look through the tempted video that they were mining to on the stage. And, you know, the focus is mostly on Paul, who looks very, very new romantic. Oh, yeah.
00:18:59
Speaker
And then a little spiky haircut he had like them. Glen strides to the front, you know, that big nice long stride. And he's got like these Goldilocks like this just sparkling hair that stands out like 6 million miles.
00:19:17
Speaker
And I don't know if, again, this was just a phase. You know, can you think of any other contemporaries that were kind of maybe going through that style where we're just on the edge of everybody kind of looking, you know, respectable now? Or do you think that was just cause for the whole video revolution? That feels more like it, right? I mean, doesn't because they were certainly conscious of it.
00:19:44
Speaker
all the way through, even to the point of where, you know, I mean, I know we're skipping ahead of record. So we have, we have black coffee in bed, and the whole idea that they didn't think that was going to be the take, right? The one where they're all sort of
00:19:58
Speaker
I wanna say drowsy, but, you know, they're cooked, right? So, I mean, same thing with The Junction, too, right? So, after a long day, it's, I would put my, this is based on nothing, I would put my money on that being maybe we're at the point finally where there is someone being paid by someone to kind of, hey, we need these guys to look good, we're not just gonna have another, we're not just gonna have a video of them miming to throw it up there. Maybe we could do something that's a little bit designed.
00:20:28
Speaker
Well, I'll tell you, before we jump way, way ahead, you know, with all of the high priced video shoots that were happening, you know, I did remember reading in Miles Copeland's recent autobiography saying that he admired Chris and Glenn as songwriters. I mean, that's just universal. But he was concerned when he took on the managerial duties early on about their look.
00:20:51
Speaker
And so he gave them, Chris and Glenn, he gave them like 50 pounds or something like that back in the day. And he says, go out and get some nice clothes, just please. He wasn't pressuring them or something, but just something nice. And apparently they came back with the most outlandish stuff.
00:21:13
Speaker
that would not look anything like what was supposed to happen. I don't know if it was like leopard prints and everything that would throw a colorblind person into a fit. I mean, it didn't work. Yeah. I get that it's not their natural state, right? I'm sorry, that's their natural state to go ahead and buy whatever it is. To be thrown in
00:21:43
Speaker
They weren't going to go out and buy suits and ties and fancy shoes and things like that. But that was always who they were. Right. But I mean, it's interesting to see that Glenn was able to stand out with the hair situation. Can we call it that? I don't know which one to call it. Hair situation. The hair issue. Right.
00:22:07
Speaker
And yet, people like Jules had already established a sort of personality for the stage. Although it was interesting, I saw, you know, when you watch the 88 Daytona,
00:22:27
Speaker
for some reason, and I know we know some a lot of the backstories of the history of what was going on at the time, but you can definitely tell Jules was like, you know, whatever, you know, that time. But back in the day, you know, yeah, there was the cigar chomping, sunglasses wearing teenager. Yeah, that stood out because really because of those two things. So
00:22:53
Speaker
I always find it hard to think, well, again, everybody's just who they are. Or did they just like not give a damn, you know, and that was part of the charm. Yeah, I'm, I'm feeling like that may have been the case. I have a quote here somewhere from maybe I can't find it now.
00:23:16
Speaker
In Jules's memoirs, Bare-faced Lies and Boogie Woogie Boasts, there's one point here where it was around 1976-ish. It's in a passage that comes after where he talks about Christmas 75.
00:23:33
Speaker
Here's a quote, Miles viewed us as dirty and unkempt and foul-mouthed already. And once Punk took hold, he was keen for us to move more officially into that category by getting our hair spiky or other such stamps of authenticity. But we said that getting your hair done, in quotes, done, was what Ponce's did. And that apparently is some sort of slang for pimps. So, I mean, they were real and they just weren't gonna go down that road.
00:24:01
Speaker
Yeah, and I understand like where they were headed and obviously people seem to forget that with them and the police and Miles being kind of in the middle of there and the association of course with Stewart and Miles and that sort of thing, people forget that Miles also wanted to give the police a look.
00:24:27
Speaker
Um, like the whole thing that's how sting got his nickname, uh, because he dressed in yellow and black and he got the hair spiked and bleached it and he looked like a bee and that's why he called him sting. Um, correct me if i'm wrong, right? That's that's that's a story I always knew
00:24:43
Speaker
Yeah. And it didn't look like that was going to happen with Squeeze. You know, they were going to go and do what they wanted to do as far as the visuals were concerned. And there's nothing quite really memorable. It was going to have to be the singing and the songwriting if, you know, I'm not mistaken, because here we are discussing this and we're calling up
00:25:07
Speaker
all of those visuals, all of their peer visuals. And here we are sitting here like, hmm, I guess not. Well, yeah. Yeah. And I mean, we know, we know it carried them. We know they had critical acclaim all along. It's, it's, I mean, the problem's us, right? I mean, the global us, we, we weren't able to see past, sort of, that ordinary or that non
00:25:34
Speaker
spectacular visual of them. You know, if we were able to yell that, hey, look, the Beatles were amazing musicians, the Beatles were also really dynamic visually, right? I mean, you already talked about we know what era, we could look at a picture of any Beatle, pretty much from any time and
00:25:52
Speaker
people like you and I, we could pinpoint what month it was, what week it was, right? With Squeeze, it just wasn't ever that. And that's okay, but unfortunately, it didn't sort of get them with MTV happening in what, 1981? It just, it was the wrong, it was the worst possible time for that, right? They were reaching critical mass, they were reaching that sort of,
00:26:16
Speaker
They were becoming so... Their music has always been good. But, you know, you have East Side Story, and they're getting that critical reception. You have that flap on, you know, the Sweets of a Stranger LP with all the critical, whatever it is. But it was the worst time because they didn't have that look to kind of go with that critical acclaim. If there was no MTV, does Squeeze become... If MTV comes out in 1985, does Squeeze rise even further in 82, in 81? You know what I mean?
00:26:42
Speaker
Exactly. I mean, having had this discussion with numerous people who are devoted to Squeeze, like you and I, we always tend to agree with the band saying, well, we had to do what we had to do.
00:26:59
Speaker
because of the times. If the record label said, okay, well, we need you to do this and that to get the song played hand in hand with radio stations, then they just, okay, yeah, that's what we have to do, like the Beatles did. They just say, okay, yeah, we got to go for this photo shoot and that photo shoot and make this and do that just to get the word out.
00:27:25
Speaker
a slightly different realm. But here's an interesting kind of side note. I was thinking about it. Squeeze came along at a time when there were, especially, and I want to focus on A&M records, had a lot of clout because of the people that were there and the people running the record label.
00:27:50
Speaker
And yet, I distinctly remember reading about an article that just about the time that Squeeze were coming onto the label or had just signed, Karen Carpenter was extremely concerned about what was going to happen to her. And she felt that the label was kind of abandoning her and her brother
00:28:20
Speaker
and any other soft rock act. And she was extremely pointed about not going directly after Squeeze, but indicating that she felt the label was really out of touch and like leaving them by the wayside. And I don't want to kind of
00:28:48
Speaker
put words in anybody's mouths or how anybody was ever treated back at that time. But you can kind of see my point, right? That's really, that's really interesting. That's and I mean, was, I mean, the sex pistols before before Squeeze, you have to wonder what she thought of what she thought of that. I mean, Squeeze is still, you know, if she had an issue with Squeeze, you have to wonder what kind of issue she had with with the sex pistols on A&M.
00:29:18
Speaker
Yeah, I don't, you know, it feels like sometimes when you look back at that timeframe, and Miles didn't, you know, Miles was very, very happy to have the band, you know, signed to A&M, you know, because it's, you know, the record label of Herb Albert and those sort of thought patterns were still highly desired, even though a band like Squeeze could come off as being, you know,
00:29:43
Speaker
Like you say, a bunch of, you know, dirt eating stinking yabbos for, but somebody saw something. That's not, that's not a quote. Yes, no, that's making words right. Don't get me, don't get me in trouble with those guys.
00:30:00
Speaker
We talked about the dirty bell bottoms, but anyway. There was also this other, if you want to tie it into an establishment of Squeeze, how are they going to present themselves to a record label? Because that's how it was back then when you've got these legacy iconic acts on the label already, including Herb Albert himself.
00:30:27
Speaker
How was that going to be perceived? And then you had MTV dumped on that as well, playing bands that nobody heard of, really. They just needed time to fill the airspace with what they could get. And they certainly weren't going to play anything of the Carpenters at that point. That's a good point.
00:30:52
Speaker
So I wanted to find out, you know, there were other bands that kind of presented a United Front like you couldn't miss like the Go-Go's, you know, because they had a certain appeal and they kept that unity altogether in their presentation on
Stage Presence & Music Videos
00:31:07
Speaker
stage. But here with Squeeze, you've got like this blonde haired,
00:31:13
Speaker
singer who plays absolutely amazing guitar. And then you've got this powerhouse drummer, you've got this really kind of charismatic piano player. And then you've got, you know, Chris who kind of just performs and also John Bentley, who's, you know, definitely not in the spotlight either. So some of that is going to shift off to to Glenn, don't you think?
00:31:38
Speaker
Yeah, and then on top of that, you lose the charismatic piano player. You know, he I mean, he leaves the band kind of right at right, right as they're sizzling at their at their most. And you know, East Side Story comes after Jules, but you still have, I mean, arguably the most charismatic member of the band leave.
00:31:58
Speaker
And they were kind of concerned about it, but not, you know, because they realized that whatever style they were gonna be moving forward with, it just, Jules was, I guess, gonna be bored, maybe? Sure, sure. And I get that. But, you know, you have someone who leaves so he can have a career in entertainment, not just making music. And you wonder if Squeeze could have used
00:32:25
Speaker
Jules Holland at his most, as a marketer, at his peak marketing, I'm searching for the right word here, as peak most brand manager, right? So he's a guy who's so telegenic and charismatic just at the time that music television was existing. Yeah, and I'm sure that nobody really had the
00:32:52
Speaker
the wherewithal to understand the impact. And I just having read a few things and growing up with MTV, honestly, it was such a strange odd thing to have, especially when it started off that nobody really knew what was going to happen.
00:33:16
Speaker
with it and Eventually, it did become a big deal for Branding to look good to sound different and to have an amazing video to boot so I mean if you kind of look at the one of the very first videos that Squeeze did that was I would kind of say produced nicely and directed and it looked like a music video was another nail another nail art and in that
00:33:45
Speaker
you definitely had a chance to showcase jewels, you know, correct me if I'm wrong. But that's that's right. No, yeah. And you end up having a song. You end up having a song without piano until the very end. But it was but it's such a but they use that to their advantage to make a really just like you said, a really well produced, funny, charming video of a you know, I mean, it's one of my favorite
00:34:10
Speaker
Top three favorite squeeze songs, but even if it wasn't it's it's such a it's such a charming song such a catchy song It's a great video and you know you have to sit there and say well why how did this not become a you know a hit in the United States at least And I guess and I guess that's something actually that's a caveat I felt I wanted to mention at some point you and I have a completely different point of view perhaps
00:34:32
Speaker
than people in England listening to this. Because we know what their image sort of was presented here. You know, I was thinking there was no Rolling Stone cover of Squeeze. There was no iconic
00:34:44
Speaker
Visual like that of squeeze here, you know, maybe maybe the hourglass video maybe you know Tempted sort of but it really seems more like an audio thing for us in America like hearing squeeze We don't have that top of the pops appear, you know appearance or anything like that or or record mirror covers or things like that. So That's another whole kind of layer to all of this and
00:35:10
Speaker
And you know, it's interesting that you mentioned about television because I did watch an appearance by Squeeze on American Bandstand. You know, I did too. I did too today. It's painful because you got dick coming up and like nearly apologizing, but kind of being slightly patronizing. Right.
00:35:35
Speaker
because I'm sure that there were a lot of bands that came on and did what Squeeze did, and you didn't know who was going to make it, you know, who was going to stand out from the crowd. And, you know, they weren't really singing, I don't know what the word is, radio-friendly, they're radio-friendly versions of themselves.
00:35:57
Speaker
So I was always questioning how they were going to do because it felt like they were just being trekked out for something like that. And the music press was still not quite up to thunder, would you say? Like, you know, everybody talks about Rolling Stone and how that has to be the cover. You have to have that kind of coverage. But you know, you had trouser press and cream and crawdaddy.
00:36:27
Speaker
and a couple of local powerhouse in major Metro areas at the time. But the thing of it is too, is that I understand our viewpoint is severely skewed, but with MTV, they became an entity that was repeated so much due to the lack of content. Yes.
00:36:52
Speaker
absolutely absolutely I you know it's it's I was looking back at some of the notes I was taking for our chat about cozy and I came upon the August 1985 it was I guess in billboard the
00:37:08
Speaker
Like the videos added and the power rotation and heavy, you know, heavy rotation and things like that. And it's, you know, last time forever, there it is, there it is, you know, added. And it was in, I seem to remember, I didn't have it handy here. I seem to remember it was like in medium rotation or something like that. And that's, you know, that's not a, it's a great song. It's an interesting video. We have the hair at its peak moment. It's not a song you could dance to.
00:37:36
Speaker
You know, yeah, we we talked about how it's a very dark and oh, yeah, you know You know you've got squeeze back with jewels However, and as we've noted, you know, we could just go on and on about how that's what was accepted. Yes around the look even when they were doing hits of the year they've all acknowledged going into a studio with green screens and
00:38:00
Speaker
and just letting everybody do their thing because that's what they were all doing with Madonna and Michael Jackson. I don't know if it was a one-upmanship for the labels and the marketing people at that time. What do you do with Squeeze? That was such a wacky juxtaposition of images and moving footage.
00:38:26
Speaker
I mean, they're in a white studio in Last Time Forever, but then they're outside and it's like really rainy and that sort of stuff. And you're just like wondering, I mean, that was the weird thing too, wouldn't you say about Love's Crashing Waves? Like replicate the album cover, which probably was shot the same day. But I mean, really, what was going on with Glenn's hair, you know?
00:38:53
Speaker
It's like there's this is like storm time, dude. Get in this cover. I want to get back to that. But you know, I was just thinking here when you're talking about about where they're going with the green screens and things like that, they end up having, thanks to Jules, this incredibly creative, madly successful hourglass video, you know, that brought them a whole new audience, gave them a hit song,
00:39:24
Speaker
got them into Daytona, right? So it got them kind of with an MTV scene. And, okay, the follow-up videos may not have been quite, from Babylon, may not have been quite as good songs, but what they did was what they were, and they go and follow it up with Frank, which is an exception. I mean, that's probably my favorite Squeeze album.
00:39:49
Speaker
but it's not, there was no Hourglass, right? So they couldn't get out of their own way, but they shouldn't have gotten in their own way. You know what I mean? It's like, it would have been a mistake musically, which is what they are, and we were saying it all along here, for them to have kind of continued down that path, and that they didn't is unfortunate, because it didn't grow them an audience or retain the audience that they earned from Hourglass,
00:40:17
Speaker
But at the same time, it produced a better record than they would have gotten. And the assumption being, well, you know, they, let's go back to Difford and Tobruk, is that, okay, well, now they've, you know, it's just the two of them. So they can do whatever they want, and they can look however they want.
00:40:36
Speaker
And I think for a lot of us in the know about the personal background of what was going on, the dynamics between Chris and Glenn was that Glenn had gotten married to a woman who was, well, I mean, to put it bluntly, Kristen Liker. Yeah. And she felt that she could mold Glenn into
00:41:00
Speaker
something. Yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah. Can't you see that dramatic? Can't you see that dramatic change then? Is that's where we're, we're starting to see like the hair growing out, and the flowing robes and flowing everything. And and and Chris was just absolutely against it. Yeah. And that wasn't again, it, like anything, they were who they were, it may not have been
00:41:28
Speaker
It may not have been the same. It's just what Glenn was then, you know, and it may not have been what Glenn had been or would come to be. But it wasn't it wasn't the record company or the manager saying, Okay, we're sticking you guys in this hairstyle and these flowing clothes on this.
00:41:47
Speaker
Rocky Shore, it was it was his girlfriend, which, you know, like I say, it is what it is. But it was it was where Glenn was. And it may not have worked for Chris. And certainly it caused, you know, all kinds of everything. You know, if if the girlfriend wasn't a costume designer, but instead was an accountant, perhaps it would have gone differently. But that's just that's just what happened, right?
00:42:10
Speaker
Yeah, you take it as it comes and, you know, we can basically use the beetles as our barometer. Yes. Situations like this, which is just incredibly weird. And who knew that, you know, like 15 years later, you'd be reliving that situation again.
00:42:26
Speaker
Yeah. You know, what was also going on at that time too, was that they were, in essence, by the time Cozy came along, would you say that that was probably their most unified look?
00:42:44
Speaker
Because I you know, I'm looking at pictures of Glen on stage and he he went like all like I said, these satin Miami Vice feeling to it. I mean, even think of Phil Collins, how that time and the shoulder pads, you know, think of the entire lineup at Live Aid, you know, where everybody I mean, you remember seeing mid year
00:43:11
Speaker
Singing and it's probably like 85 degrees out there at Wembley Stadium and this guy comes out with like these flowing things and and Jacket and everything and and he's like just pouring sweat, you know, so
00:43:27
Speaker
A lot of these baits were into like sort of shimmering, satiny kind of look. And then Glenn kind of pushed that over into the stage presence for the Cozy Fan tour. He was even playing a white guitar.
00:43:43
Speaker
Yeah, I didn't even notice that. That's a great, that's a great, that's really interesting. And yeah, I mean, it's the times and, you know, you can roll with the times, and they did. And, you know, as we talked about before, the sound fit in with the time for better or for worse, and we think it's for better. But it just, they were who they were until they changed who they were again, you know, and two years later, or I guess two years later, they became,
00:44:12
Speaker
what they became with Babylon on. They became what they became with Frank and so on and so on until this day. It was 1985. If they were coming out with that hair and with the pastels and things like that in 89, it would have seemed a little stale. If they did an 82, it would have been a little weird. So I think that's just what they did. And maybe Glenn had more
00:44:43
Speaker
whether it's because of his girlfriend or not, or whether it was just his own thought process, you know, he had just more awareness of trying to fit that. You know, you look at going back a few more years to another nail again, you know, you look at that video, and you see, they're all dressed sort of, you know, in the kind of definitive new wavy kind of jackets and blazers and slacks and things like that, except for Chris, who looks like he's, you know, like I dress when I'm seeing my kids
00:45:12
Speaker
you know, youth basketball game, you know, just like a zip up kind of thing and kind of khakis and very like, super plain and like the least rock star kind of outfit that could be assembled, right? There was budgetary concerns, but anyway. So yeah, I mean, it just, they all sort of, it just goes along, they all just sort of did what they wanted to do. And if I'm sure, I'm sure if there was a plan, Chris will have also worn
00:45:41
Speaker
you know, he would have been tubs to, you know, Glenn's Crockett. Yeah. Oh, my God. Am I remembering that right? Yeah, you're remembering that. I don't know whether to give you points on that or continue laughing. I was gonna say, cut the tape.
00:46:00
Speaker
Oh my gosh, I was gonna try and work fill into there with the Miami Vice. Yeah, he was there too. So that's Yeah, that's the whole crazy thing is Phil Collins was a Glenn fry. Would you say that it was would you say that was in the air tonight? Sure, or that night? I could be
00:46:22
Speaker
It could be. But, you know, Phil was a continent of his own back then. And everybody was trying to strive to be Phil when it came to that. But I mean, yeah, I was just saying, Glenfry.
00:46:37
Speaker
Yeah, oh, yeah. Went Miami Vice, wouldn't you say? I mean, he kind of looked the part, you know, because, you know, the way he dressed back then. And everybody, like I say, they all went Dynasty, you know, they all went Dallas on us. And so maybe we're being too picky by pulling stuff out.
00:46:58
Speaker
And, and, and kind of being hypercritical about what was going on at the time, because that's kind of what was going on in the time, we just want to forget the shoulder pads, and the big hair, and maybe they maybe maybe they were just being cool and and we didn't catch it, you know, because
00:47:16
Speaker
We were so enamored of Bon Jovi and his hair, which is another podcast completely in the time period. So we kind of push on and we kind of see a completely different squeeze two years later.
00:47:34
Speaker
We're not looking at the same Glenn that we looked at in Cozy. We're looking at this kind of cool ultra sort of Brit Poppy before Brit Poppy was cool. And they're all kind of like enjoying themselves. And they do have a little bit of a cohesiveness to hourglass because frankly, that's about a wacky video as they'd ever done.
00:48:03
Speaker
absolutely and it was it was clear they were all into it it was clear that they that they did want to it seemed like they want to get that one right versus the other videos they had done to that point where they were I shouldn't say that where that they didn't get you know I thought last time forever was gotten right for what they were trying to do and another nail from my heart was gotten was gotten right and go I mean the junction was gotten right but did it
00:48:29
Speaker
It seemed like with Hourglass, there was such a real, you know, plan for it, and they, you know, we're not gonna make this be at the end of the day, and we're not gonna make this be, you know, a take that we didn't realize we were gonna be recording, and all that kind of stuff. And it worked, and it worked perfectly. And they looked, like I said, they were having fun, and they just looked cool.
00:48:56
Speaker
Yeah, my understanding is that it was really between the director, whose name escapes me, I want to say Edmondson, who had been very prolific with a lot of comedy and music going on at the time, and Jules.
00:49:10
Speaker
and Jules, yep. Big, big surprise there. And to their credit to, you know, Glenn's credit, and I guess Chris's credit, they let Jules do it. I mean, there could have been, for all the egos that are in every band and for all the issues that have been between Glenn and Jules for a variety of reasons, that, you know, the credit has to be given for saying, all right, Jules, you're, you know, you're the director or you're the assistant director or whatever it is to this video.
00:49:38
Speaker
And it worked, like you said. And they did some kind of, also more like that sort of, I don't know for better term, like very Willy Wonka type videos for the teller. Trust me, open my mouth. Yeah. Oh, that's, that's disturbing. Please find it out there, dear listeners, because it cannot be unseen. Jules wrote in his book that he,
00:50:05
Speaker
took as a souvenir one of the teeth because he thought it would make like a cool couch. But then when he got it home and it was independent of the rest of the teeth, it just looked like this giant piece of foam. So he threw it out.
00:50:20
Speaker
That's a good one. That's so Jules sounding. And they did 8-5-3-5-9-3-7, which had, if I remember, big props in that too. It was like a big telephone in it. Now, the one that was weird out of that set was footprints. That just looked like it was all done handheld. Jules walking around with his spats and his hat in this facility.
00:50:45
Speaker
Yeah, and they were wasn't there. I mean, they were also they were also out in the snow. Right? Yeah. And that was reminiscent to me of which was the wasn't there a police video?
00:51:00
Speaker
that was really similar to that. Was it every little thing she does with magic? There was a police video from a few years earlier that was also done in Switzerland or something like that. And now it's escaping me. But, yes, that was also very much an outlier, right?
00:51:19
Speaker
So it almost looked like, you know, you were like happy that they were heading in that direction and everybody was great and looking and all that other sort of stuff. And, you know, then Frank happened and it was kind of like for most of us, it felt just like, you know, they were on the hamster wheel, even though we totally love it. And we understand that what was going on with them and everything. And then things got very professional.
Glenn's Solo Career & Return
00:51:41
Speaker
I would say you know where there were few and far between for them it seemed MTV and the whole look of Didn't really seem to matter. It was just gonna be casual and if they had to do a video that get dressed up and they do it But as we know, you know Chris was really in a bad way back then I think he just went along for the ride for a lot of stuff that was happening until everything just kind of
00:52:09
Speaker
you know, fell apart after Domino, you know, just really wasn't a band anymore. And then Glenn goes off and does like, solo shows. And then he's kind of back to being his old Mr. Scruffy Tilbrook kind of guy to deal the t shirt and I know they weren't pajama pants, but it sort of looked like it right when he was playing those when he was playing those solo shows by himself in the in the late 90s, early 2000s.
00:52:33
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, you know, when I interviewed Amy Pickard, who was the director for his documentary, I mean, that's exactly where it was, you know, he was just, you know, throwing on a t shirt, and pants and whatever, and, you know, grabbing the guitar and heading off into the into the sunset. And, but he's always said that that time was really good for him to be to be away from a band.
00:52:58
Speaker
and to be away from a structure. And he, you know, for want of a better word, he certainly didn't have any sort of set style with anything just kind of going and making his music until he decided to put together the fluffers. And that's when he seemed to kind of get back into, okay,
00:53:16
Speaker
I'm going to be the front guy on this one and I'm going to kind of grow up and present myself, you know, kind of like as a front person. I saw the fluffers once in Chicago.
00:53:32
Speaker
I saw them a few times. I think I was out of Chicago by then. I want to go back briefly to the play era, only because it was the first time I saw Squeeze. And I saw him at the Beacon Theater in 1992, I want to say. Late 91, early 92. And I was in the last row because there were eight of us that went.
00:53:53
Speaker
friends from high school. So the only place there were eight seats even remotely near each other was the last row of the Beacon Theater in New York City. And even from up there, my vision was good enough back then, I saw Glenn was wearing these beautiful blue shoes that matched his blue shirt.
00:54:12
Speaker
And I thought that was the coolest thing, not that he had matching shoes and a shirt, but it was just cool. I'm like, man, they sound so good. They look so cool. This is fantastic. This just must be what Squeeze is, right? And I'll never forget that. I'll never forget that. That was my defining seminal live Squeeze moment was them looking good and seeming professional, but
00:54:41
Speaker
To get back to the fluffers, I remember them being casual, but yeah, but professional. It wasn't quite as casual as Glenn on his own doing his busking shows.
00:54:55
Speaker
Right. I mean, he had, you know, most of the people, you know, that he's performing with now, it seems like there's this big shift as, as he starts to move back into a sort of band unit. And then, you know, doing the book, a lot of people say doing the book with Jim Drury,
00:55:15
Speaker
and talking with Glenn about, you know, he, you know, did a lot of stuff on his own and was doing solo gigs still, but helping to see the history with Chris and discussing everything kind of moved them all back into a point of, you know, reconciliation, you know, and Chris had, you know, noted that, you know, he was trying to get his life back together. So the interesting part now is to see post
00:55:45
Speaker
I don't know, what do you want to say? 2004, somewhere in there. The look actually to me has felt the most unified since that time, since say like the reunification of like say 2010 with Spot the Difference. And then, you know, getting John Bentley back in the band and utilizing him, getting Don Snow, John Savanna.
00:56:12
Speaker
back into the band to do pieces. You know, it's like you're flipping back and forth, but now Glenn is like taking it into another sphere where he now is getting much older than he was and wanting to present a more professional stance and Chris wearing his glasses on stage now. However, we will touch base really, really well, maybe not briefly.
00:56:39
Speaker
But we will note that, yeah, the hair at this stage in the last, I don't know, 15 years, maybe, has pretty much remained the same. However, there was a period there in the 2000s where Mr. Tillbrook wisely or unwisely decided to... Don't do this to me, Dan. Grow a goatee.
00:57:09
Speaker
Now, if you want to describe to people who haven't seen it, I actually did a kind of a perusal of contemporary descriptions of it from newspapers or, you know, web posts or Twitter comments. And I saw I stopped after three one of one person described as a ZZ top training beard. Which is quite good. Again, none of these are for me.
00:57:35
Speaker
One person, and I don't know this, I mean, I knew the actor when I saw his face. I didn't know the name, but people probably would know him. British actor Brian Blessed, a Brian Blessed beard, and then also a General Custer beard. Oh, yeah. Anything Civil War era, right? A little unfamiliar to our- Would be appropriate at this point. International listeners, but certainly to the American listeners, it's evocative. But yeah, so it was unique.
00:58:03
Speaker
So, you know, I'm not quite exactly sure what the thing was going on with that. It seemed to be there was a beard and then there was this goatee and, you know, he's not dyeing his hair. So it's great. So then all of a sudden, you know, that kind of went away. And then we're kind of left with, you know, a little bit. Are we really are we really blowing through the beard that quickly?
00:58:31
Speaker
Can I offer a few, not even my own comments, just again contemporaneous discussion.
00:58:37
Speaker
Okay, outside of our own personal. This is not my own personal thing. So I poked around a little bit on the internet and just again, I remember it in person. I remember it happening. But just for those who did not experience it in real time. This is from an interview he gave in April 2012, someone asking, you know, saying he you know, you're recently clean shaven. I know you have a fantastic beard. He said, you know,
00:59:02
Speaker
Let's see. I very much enjoyed having it. I'm not obsessed with the way I look or what people think of it, but I think it's true that 99 out of 100 people absolutely hated me with a beard. And for some reason, they didn't feel any kind of compunction in telling me that's how they felt. If people felt they don't like your suit or your shoes, they'll kind of hold back telling you. With a beard, people tend to spur all their hatred onto it and tell you straight away what an idiot you look like with it.
00:59:31
Speaker
So that was one quote, Danny Baker, the British actor, comedian, author, I suppose, and childhood friend of Diff'rent and Tilbrook, or at least Diff'rent, right? Is that correct? He tweeted out at some point in 2012, met up with Chris Diff'rent and Glenn Tilbrook, let the beacons be lit with the news, Glenn has fully shaved off the beard.
00:59:56
Speaker
That had six likes, but 39 retweets. So people were highly engaged with that. This is totally newsworthy, right? Yeah. And then sort of in line with that.
01:00:13
Speaker
Just again, a little bit of, this is more hair trivia than anything else. 2015, this is a Glenn Tilbrough quote, and it's in kind of relation to filming. When him and Chris film that scene in Cradle to a Grave, Dan Baker's show, they're like the wedding band, right?
01:00:36
Speaker
That's not right. A day's shoot half a second in screen time, but it was great fun to see how they're playing that all together. And it was great fun to wear sideburns, which I've never really properly grown. I've had a full beard, but never sideburns. So there we go. Wow. Yeah, interesting, right?
01:00:56
Speaker
That's really, that's revolutionary thought process. I've never not thought about that. I think that I never see sideburns on Paul McCartney circa 1964. Shows you the level obsession we have with it. But wow, that's gonna go make me look at some stuff that I've never thought of before. So thank you for dropping that little piece of information. I appreciate it. That could go in the show notes.
01:01:24
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, that's the really funny part is he was absolutely right. And then, you know, we're gonna skip ahead just a little bit. And that just kind of shows you now with the social media situation, you know, vis-a-vis hair situation, where there was a lot of talk, a lot of talk about the man bun.
01:01:50
Speaker
Can we talk about the man bun, Dan? Sure. I think we both saw Squeeze on Tour in that era. Yeah. Was that the era of 2021? Was that the era of 2020? Is that an error already? You're measuring the errors by Glenn's hair. So the funny thing is, I saw an Instagram post from that time period, because Simon is very their drummer.
01:02:16
Speaker
is very into social media and everything like that. And he was the one who was taking all of the videos and all the posts and stuff like that during that tour. And there's a picture, if you've seen Simon, he definitely has hair loss. So he's trying to be real cute with this little tuft of baby hair at the top. And it is kind of cute. And it's just Simon. It feels like Simon. But then there's another picture of the two of them facing each other backstage. And it looks like
01:02:46
Speaker
one of the crew or somebody that they know that they work with on stage is working Glenn's man bun. Like, you know, like, does everybody see this happening? Does everybody see this happening? And of course, the people that spoke out the most were the women.
01:03:03
Speaker
You know, like, I have to think about, you know, all the women that were swooning over over Glenn and in up the junction because up the junction just recently, along with those other early videos, yeah, each D, for whatever that can be, you know, from 78.
01:03:21
Speaker
but they're all going, you know, completely nuclear. Like, oh my gosh, I can't remember a time when Glended Lake was so cute and all this other sort of stuff. You know, and then I'm looking at Glenn in the pandemic.
01:03:37
Speaker
Well, you did a lot of stuff in his home studio with his fam with his family, his grown children, who have who have long hair, who have long haired and go to use
01:03:52
Speaker
Yes. Thank you, Mr. Leon Tillbrook and Mr. Lewis Tillbrook. And it's kind of interesting to see that juxtaposition now because the last time I got a really good look, because he had been playing his solo shows in tandem with a lot of those squeeze shows that went in the last year. He's got it cut now kind of like a la, I don't know, remember that George Clooney look?
01:04:21
Speaker
back it's that what do they call that the Roman haircut kind of okay sure yeah I know what you're talking about
01:04:27
Speaker
But there was one that I've seen pretty recently, I think it was November, December, where he's got it all slicked back. Yes. But it's all slicked back. Yes. I saw him over the summer, summer of 2022, for people listening at some strange time. In summer of 2022, I saw him and the hair was slicked back, which is fascinating look.
01:04:52
Speaker
Isn't it? It's so... I'm not sure. I think it's kind of nice. I mean, you know, Chris has totally embraced his look, I think, personally by wearing his glasses now on stage.
01:05:09
Speaker
So that's the Chris that we know, and that doesn't seem too far a stone's throw from when you think of Chris in the last even 40 years. This is kind of to me with Glenn's licking the hair back. They're all getting really snazzy dressed up now on stage, especially when Glenn wears that sort of yellow, green, striped outfit.
01:05:34
Speaker
and everybody's wearing nice shoes and they're really presenting a very professional front as far as I'm concerned. What are your thoughts? Well, you know, I want to comment on that because I'm actually looking at a photo of when I saw him over the summer and he looks great. He's wearing a really nice blazer and
01:05:57
Speaker
slacks and i'm trying to see if there's a tie but i kind of was at an angle i think there was one um but i do want to say when i saw him with the man bun in 2021 he was also performing in shorts this was an outdoor show in august and he was again incredibly fascinating look uh he was the only one wearing shorts in the band um it was it was
01:06:25
Speaker
really interesting. I'm staring at the photo right now. I should say it to you right now. It's very interesting. I mean, Glenn, Chris is wearing, you know, a red suit. And I guess Simon's wearing kind of like a plaid button down shirt with the sleeves cut off. And yeah, but Glenn stands out a little bit. He was not very tan, but neither am I. And that's not like a criticism.
01:06:48
Speaker
Yeah, no, that's totally fine. You don't need to be especially, you know, Brown, even in August, you know, we just got to be careful that, you know, he doesn't get sunburned. Right, right. Being the British guy that he is. But like I say, everybody within the band today,
01:07:07
Speaker
I would say is very spiffy. And yes, you've got Melvin, they all kind of, it's not like blending together, but you've got Melvin, and then you kind of work it over to Simon, and Steve Smith, then you've got Chris and Glenn up front, even Owen, and then Lord Large at the side, he's he's almost getting to be very jewels like. Yes. He's looking spectacular. Yes.
01:07:33
Speaker
But I'm very curious about Owen. Now, Owen's probably about, I think he's almost 20 years younger than Chris and Glenn. And so it's very interesting to see him up there kind of moving along and giving a really different kind of look.
01:07:55
Speaker
to the band. I mean, you know, he could be up there, you know, going great guns with, you know, gymnastics or whatever. But his demeanor totally fits. And, you know, he took lead on a lot of stuff for the Food for Thought EP. I think he was the one who was mixing and did the final mix down on it.
01:08:16
Speaker
But anyway, like you said, we've got this sort of barometer of where the band is and where they are with Glenn's hair. I mean, do you see anything going on or do you think like this is, if we got like somewhat serious for a minute, do you think we have reached that point now in the early aughts that this is the next 10, 15, 20 years for him?
01:08:46
Speaker
of this look, specifically, or of, you know, again, if we're gonna talk seriously, I mean, his father passed away recently, right, last year, sometime? And you wonder, you know, my father passed away 16 years ago, something like that. And there certainly was a change in, not necessarily the way I looked, because I was much younger than Glenn was when his father passed away. But there is sort of a feeling of, all right, well, now I'm in this new phase of my life.
01:09:16
Speaker
Again, no matter what age, because Glenn was much older than when I lost my father. So you wonder whether there is some sort of like, okay, not that he can't wear a man bun, because I'm sure he could or would, but maybe there's just this thought of, all right, well, this is sort of how I want to present myself now.
01:09:33
Speaker
period. But I mean, he's changed so much. And it's that change is also part of him, right? You know, the, the, the willingness to sort of every couple of to us, it's every, you know, couple of years, right? Because we only see the concerts and the record covers and the
01:09:52
Speaker
I guess nowadays the tweets and the stuff on social media, Facebook posts and whatnot. But who knows when he changed his look in 1983? Because there wasn't any sort of social media covering that. When did he grow that beard in 1983? And what prompted that?
01:10:10
Speaker
Oh yeah, like for the, I mean, and it wasn't totally public knowledge. You know, unless you go back nowadays, of course you can, and see that poster that they both posed for, Chris and Glenn, for the Labeled With Love musical. That was very homegrown. I mean, that was in Deptford, and very supported by their community. So yeah, I mean, as far as that beer was concerned, that was probably just like, you know what, I'm done with Squeeze. Yeah.
01:10:39
Speaker
Don't be in the pretty boy and I'm gonna make myself all scruffy and Everybody else, you know is gonna just go on and do their thing and Chris and I are just gonna be who we are Mm-hmm. Oh for sure. I mean, but but it also could have been I Mean it could have been anything right? I mean, you know Paul McCartney stopped shaving because he was so depressed with the break of appeals I don't know whether Glenn was depressed with the break of the squeeze. Maybe he wasn't trying to impress a woman I mean, yeah, you know, it really could have been anything because no one's ever said why did you grow that beard in 83?
01:11:09
Speaker
for two weeks, for three months, we don't even know how long you had it. He may have shaved it the next day. Isn't it weird? And I know we want to wrap this up soon, but- Do we do? We do? I still have one more thing to bring it back to the beginning, but- No, no, no. I do want you to do that too as well.
01:11:31
Speaker
Um, I do find this whole subject fascinating because we can get so granular about You know, we're we're gonna say it about the Beatles looks like how you said we can pick out This era that we can pick out the freaking day, you know free social media because they were covered so heavily everywhere they went and nowadays it's
01:11:58
Speaker
It's either taken back by the artist, you know, they're the ones who are in control most of the time now. And that's pretty true actually of Squeeze as well because they want to do it on their own. You know, there's no label really to answer to anymore. They're not really caring about sales anymore.
01:12:22
Speaker
They just want to perform like McCartney, you know, they just want to play. This is what they've done since they were 14. And there's, you know, you just take it as it is, take it how I look and, you know, whatever, you know, and like you said, if people want to criticize, go ahead, super easy to do nowadays and hide behind the keyboard and and hide behind the smartphone, you know, with whatever you're going to say about them.
Authenticity & Style Evolution
01:12:49
Speaker
But thankfully, you know, we can
01:12:52
Speaker
Well, in many ways, rise above that. That is terrific way to play it. And I think, again, they're at the stage in their, I'm even going to say age, they're at the stage in their career, and they're at the stage with their fan base. And we're at the stage of where we all are with our favorite bands, right?
01:13:12
Speaker
It's like, you know, I would love to know what comes next. I want him to have some sort of other look to come, you know? Just because it's fun, we could talk about it more. But I also, like, just as long as they're happy in their skin, like you would want any loved one, right, to be happy in their skin, I love it. That's great. That's what I'm thinking.
01:13:35
Speaker
And also the fact that the rumor mill has been pretty strong about what's going to be happening in this year besides just doing their festival dates in the UK. It seems to be
01:13:46
Speaker
being broadcast that because we're coming up on a like a 50th anniversary. Yes. That Glenn has been saying well, in fact, he actually mentioned this in an interview when he did a solo show last year that they want to go back and get all the stuff that they basically didn't feel was right at the time and put that out, but also have a new new album come out because they haven't done one in the knowledge. Yeah, I mean, they did the
01:14:15
Speaker
Yeah. 17 or 18, yeah. Yeah. So I'm really excited to hear about that because it's just going to say, and they sound great. I mean, they just sounded great. And that was only just a couple of months ago. It's a funny thing. Again, always go back to the Beatles, right? So the Beatles, if
01:14:33
Speaker
when they when they started, if they started changing personnel, again, Billy Preston aside, because that was a terrific, incredible decision to include him. But um, you know, they were they were the four of them period, they was they were the four squeeze so early, had a fluid lineup, that it
01:14:56
Speaker
in my eyes, it create like an acceptance of, okay, well, we're going to bring in this person, then we're going to bring in this person, then and like, squeeze is really big. Now, you know, there's a lot of people in squeeze, but like, that's okay. I'm okay with that, because they've always sort of had that ability, you know, sure, they were five, five members for quite a long time. But but they've always, if different till worker in the middle there,
01:15:21
Speaker
That fluidity is okay because they are finding the right matches. They're finding the right ways to supplement and to compliment them, you know, and add to them.
01:15:31
Speaker
It doesn't hurt, like I said, with all of these people getting to know them better. Not only accepting the past and questioning, like we say, what the heck was going on back then with clothing and style and videos and hair. We do that because we love these guys. This is definitely not a knock on
01:15:55
Speaker
Anything that has to do with them because you and I don't have the time for that. We want to be here to talk and to praise the entity known as Squeeze and for giving us the great music that they've given us. I mean, that's how it is. If there's anything that's been bad said or hysterical or poignant or anything, we're just going to take that and be happy. That we can do that definitely.
01:16:25
Speaker
No, we're very lucky to have them. We're lucky to have those visuals, too. I mean, it's even putting beyond, you know, the ability to see them live, which is obviously sound and vision together in one to have those videos to have to have all those looks. It's it's what we're lucky that we're lucky to have that, you know, it's I think about what people
01:16:45
Speaker
As interesting as it must have been to have bought sheet music, you know, in the 20s and 30s, and kind of, you know, just, all right, I'm just gonna play this song at home, right? Myself, if I'm skilled enough to do that. We are lucky in that sense of all the, now I'm getting very grandiose, right? In a podcast about Glen Topprec's hair. You know, we're very lucky to kind of live in this era where we have music videos, and albums, and album covers, big album covers, and you know, nowadays, social media.
01:17:12
Speaker
I'm not seeing them in England right now or this summer, but I'll be able to watch them. And that's really exciting to be able to do. I mean, we're from the era where I remember going to the library and looking up LexisNexis to just read stories about them.
01:17:28
Speaker
Yeah. Or buying back issues of Rolling Stone and just wanting to see what was written back then. And back then to me was only four or five years previous. And I just wanted like any smattering of anything that was written about them. Because it was important. It was important enough. And the fact that they're willing to
01:17:52
Speaker
keep creating and keep moving forward, but yet embrace the past and not become a nostalgia because that's like- Yes. Apparently, that is forbidden within Glen Tillbrook's lexicon as far as I know. Yeah, so I'm really happy. Yeah, he can keep his grace look back here. That's totally awesome. I don't know how many dapper well-dressed 65-year-olds can get away with that except Glen Tillbrook.
01:18:21
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, so I will wrap it up by bringing it back to something you just said and bringing it back to not quite the beginning, but close to the beginning. Talking about looking back at Squeeze and you know, hoping to find some nugget of them in an old magazine or an old newspaper. So do you know, I don't know whether this is the first time Glemsewerk was in a newspaper, but it has to be one of the first times if not the first time that he was in a newspaper.
01:18:46
Speaker
Circa, it's 1968-1969. Do you know of this, what I'm about to recount the story of? No. Glenn Tobruk was probably around 11, right? Actually, I take it back. Glenn Tobruk was around 11, so it was around 68-69. Glenn Tobruk was thrown out of Eltham Green School. Do you know why he was expelled? I hesitate to say. It wasn't grades. Must have been the hair. For having shoulder length hair.
01:19:16
Speaker
The hair was not allowed to be below collar length. He was expelled in his second or third year. He was interviewed. There are two ways you can read about this or see about this. He was interviewed by the BBC in 2012. I think it had to do with something to do with the school and the headmaster involved.
01:19:32
Speaker
He was in the newspaper at age 11 for being thrown out of the school. There's a picture of him outside the school gates. Do you know where you, you, me, and everyone else out there could see a fleeting part of that newspaper? Or perhaps you could find it on your own camera reels. During the Crale to the Grave tour, during Cool for Cats, they flashed up video of that newspaper. Oh my god.
01:20:00
Speaker
I will send you a video clip that I have handy of just that. And it is about an 11-year-old that was thrown out of school for having long hair. So going back to 11, I mean, that was Glenn. It was his essence, right? I mean, that's just who he was. Wow. So good for you, Glenn.
01:20:26
Speaker
He's he's he is real. He is sincere. There is nothing, you know when he had that hair in 85 There was nothing about that. That was not you know from the heart Right that that he wore it proudly. Yes. Yes things from the goatee to To to the man bun to the shorts that you sent me the picture of that's right
01:20:51
Speaker
somehow or another, I'll work that into the podcast around it. The quote he said, and again, the packet of three has a has a link to this to this radio broadcast. Glenn said why he didn't cut and say in school, I felt particularly attached to it.
01:21:09
Speaker
Okay, which, you know, that says it all right there. I mean, what else could you elaborate? And that's how we feel about him and them. Yeah, we're so attached. We can't separate ourselves. And that's why we love them so much. It's true.
01:21:25
Speaker
Yeah. Dan, thank you so much. Well, for that bone shell, which just goes to show that, you know, even if we think we're over a certain aspect of squeeze, we're really not done yet. No, no, I hope we're never done. I don't think we'll ever be done. I refuse to be done.
01:21:43
Speaker
I refuse to have this and I know we'll be passing this on to an alternate universe where we'll be talking about something, something to do with Squeeze that nobody else will be talking about. It's there.