Main Squeeze

CHRIS DIFFORD AND Glenn Tilbrook began writing songs together in 1973, after Tilbrook answered Difford’s ad seeking a guitarist for his band. In fact, Difford had no group, but the two men soon formed one together. Squeeze subsequently went on to become the darlings of the U.K.’s late-1970s post-punk scene, thanks to the group’s impressive musical chops and Difford and Tilbrook’s effervescent songwriting. Featuring Difford’s incisive and frequently witty lyrics and Tilbrook’s stylistically varied music, early Squeeze hits like “Cool for Cats,” “Up the Junction” and “Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)” showed off their fluency with rock, pop and R&B while they revealed the group’s impressive chops.

“Because we were playing as a band before punk reared its head, there’d already been some pivotal moments for us,” Tilbrook relates. “We supported Dr. Feelgood in 1975, and it was so rare for us to see a band playing short songs with so