Squeeze are an English rock band that came to prominence in the United Kingdom during the new wave period of the late 1970s, and continued recording in the 1980s, 1990s and 2010s.

Though not as commercially successful in the United States, Squeeze had American hits with "Tempted", "Black Coffee in Bed", and "Hourglass",[1] and were considered a part of the Second British Invasion.

[2] In the vast majority of their material, lyrics are written by Chris Difford and music by Glenn Tilbrook, who are guitarists and vocalists in the band.

[8] Difford and Tilbrook began writing songs together, and soon added Jools Holland (keyboards) and Paul Gunn (drums) to form an actual band.

[10][11][12] Squeeze's early career was spent around Deptford in south-east London, where they were part of a lively local music scene which included Alternative TV and Dire Straits.

[3] Squeeze re-formed to play a one night charity gig in 1985, with all five members from the 1980 Argybargy period—Difford, Tilbrook, Holland, Lavis, and Bentley.

Adding a new second keyboard player in the person of Matt Irving, the band issued the live album A Round and a Bout on I.R.S.

[19] Thomas exited the band that year, and Carrack doubled on snare and keyboards for a few gigs before session drummer Andy Newmark was brought in.

Drummer Kevin Wilkinson (no relation to bassist Keith), formerly of The Waterboys and China Crisis, was also added around this time, replacing Newmark.

For the 1998 album Domino, the band was again a quintet consisting of Difford, Tilbrook, bassist Hilaire Penda, ex-Del Amitri drummer Ashley Soan, and yet another returning keyboardist in the person of Christopher Holland.

Nick Harper often performed with this version of Squeeze as a guest touring musician, providing additional guitar and vocals.

[17] However, a 2004 attempt by the VH1 show Bands Reunited to reassemble the mid-1980s line-up of Squeeze (Difford, Tilbrook, Holland, Wilkinson and Lavis) ended in failure.

While Difford and bassist Keith Wilkinson were both favourable to the idea and drummer Gilson Lavis expressed interest, Jools Holland felt he was too busy with current projects to participate.

The rest of the line-up was fleshed out by members of Tilbrook's touring band, the Fluffers: Stephen Large (keyboards) and Simon Hanson (drums).

They toured the US in August 2007, supported on various dates by Fountains of Wayne, Will Hoge, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Aimee Mann, and Cheap Trick.

On the US tour, during a performance of "Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)" live on the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon show, Stephen Large played the keyboard solo on an Apple iPad.

[21] In September 2010, Stephen Large left the band and was replaced by Steve Nieve, who had played as a session musician with Squeeze and Difford in the past, but had not—until this line-up change—ever been an official member of the group.

Alongside other contemporary artists, the performance was part of a 50th anniversary celebration of the original recording of the first Beatles album of the same name in the same period of time.

Beginning in the autumn of 2014, Difford and Tilbrook began touring as a duo, playing Squeeze hits in smaller venues in the UK.

In an interview, Bentley announced his replacement will be Lucy Shaw (also the bassist for Tilbrook's backing band The Fluffers), which was officially confirmed by Squeeze in August.

Around the same time, it was announced that Squeeze would be providing the music for a BBC drama called Cradle to Grave, based on the autobiography Going To Sea in a Sieve by Danny Baker.

[25] In July 2017, the band announced a North American tour, along with two line-up changes: the replacement of Lucy Shaw as bassist with Yolanda Charles and the addition of Dirty Vegas frontman Steve Smith as percussionist and backing vocalist.

A tour was announced on the official Squeeze website for 2020 in Australia and New Zealand, but was indefinitely postponed due to scheduling problems.

In September 2019, Squeeze were joined at the Louisville, Kentucky Bourbon & Beyond Festival by ex-Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters front-man Dave Grohl on drums, for a performance of the 1982 hit "Black Coffee in Bed".

[32] In September 2023 Tilbrook said that Squeeze intended to record their next two albums in Los Angeles, including one collection of new material and another consisting of previously unrecorded songs written in the band's very earliest days.

[33] On 8 June 2024 the band were special guests for Richard Thompson, on the final night of his UK tour, at the Royal Albert Hall.

[36] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic proclaimed the band to provide "one of the links between classic British guitar pop and post-punk".

American new wave singer Marshall Crenshaw cited Squeeze as one of the primary influences for his 1982 self-titled debut album.

"[50][51] Later artists who named Squeeze as an influence include American Hi-Fi,[52] The Caulfields,[53] Kasabian,[54] the Killers,[55] Nightmare of You,[56] Razorlight,[54] and Space.

[57] Many bands and artists who would later achieve phenomenal success would begin their careers opening for Squeeze, including Dire Straits, The Jam, R.E.M., The Specials, U2 and XTC.