One of the most popular UK punk and pop bands are returning to the Isle of Man to play a live concert.

Squeeze, the new wave group led by the song writing partnership of Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook, and who scored countless hits in the late 70s and 80s, are heading to the Villa Marina for a gig on Friday, November 22.

They last performed in the Isle of Man in 2007, playing a stunning gig to a rapturous, sold-out crowd at the Royal Hall.

Both Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford have also appeared separately on the island, performing solo concerts.

The long-running group will be appearing to round off their Autum tour, entitled ’The Difford and Tilbrook Songbook 2019’ tour, which sees them playing the length and breadth of the UK.

The band’s career has experienced something of an Indian summer recently, with their previous two albums, Cradle to the Grave, which came out in 2015 and last year’s ’The Knowledge’, both of which were critically acclaimed.

They recently released their latest single, ’Rough Ride’, written about the state of the British Welfare system, which featured a video starring Fast Show star Simon Day.

’I am over the moon to be announcing the 2019 tour with Squeeze’, said Glenn.

’We’ve had something of a renaissance in the last few years, and look forward to this continuing, as we will play a set of songs that are both new, contemporary and as innovative as people have come to expect from us, along with the old beauties.’

Squeeze, whose original line-up featured a young Jools Holland on keyboards, first burst into the charts in 1978, with their singles, ’Take Me I’m Yours’ and ’Bang Bang’, taken from their debut, self-titled album, which was produced by the Velvet Underground’s John Cale.

They went on to have a string of iconic and instantly-memorable hits, including ’Cool For Cats’, ’Up The Junction’, ’Goodbye Girl’, ’Pulling Mussels From The Shell’ ’Tempted’ and the late-80s hit single ’The Hourglass’, which came out in 1987.

These songs established their reputation as a prolific and consistently impressive song-writing partnership, something which has continued almost 40 years later, despite the band breaking up a handful of times, experiencing line-up changes and a constant shuffling of band personnel.

The current line up features Dirty Vegas frontman Steve Smith, bassist Yolanda Charles, keyboardist Stephen Large and drummer Simon Hanson

’I feel excited about the tour,’ said Chris.

’It’s a great band full of dedicated, hardworking, passionate people and we have a fabulous catalogue of songs to dip in and out of, so I feel completely blessed.

’I can’t wait to strap on the electric guitar again and sing the songs that got me where I am today.’

Tickets are priced at £35, and go on sale on Friday, February 1, from 9.30am, available from the Welcome Centre and the Villa Gaiety box office, on 600555, or online from villagaiety.com

by Mike Wade

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