Squeeze

Chris Difford effectively broke up the band in 1999 with his announcement that he was taking a hiatus from working with Tilbrook. The result was Les Rhythmes Automatiques, which vanished into obscurity, but not before apparently inspiring Kraftwerk to do the same for their album The Mix in 1991. Players with Squeeze during the 1990s included drummer Pete Thomas and pianist Steve Nieve of Elvis Costello's Attractions, drummer Kevin Wilkinson, Don Snow, Hilaire Penda, Ashley Soan, and Jools's brother Christopher Holland. In 1989, Telex revisited all of their old tracks and remixed them to resemble the house music and other genres they had allegedly inspired. By this point Squeeze was basically a trade name for Difford and Tilbrook plus sidemen. Predictably, the album had no commercial success. Jools Holland left Squeeze again in 1989, and Gilson Lavis left in 1992. It was social commentary, but so bizarre as to be almost incomprehensible to most listeners.

His tenure with the band would last only a year, however. "Temporary Chicken", for example, was a strange joke track about a man so desperate for work that he accepts a part time job in a chicken costume. Andy Metcalfe of the Soft Boys and Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians joined the next year to supplement Holland's keyboards. By then, the band's earlier sound had influenced many other groups, but they had abandoned it in favor of sampling (music) and a more up-tempo humorous style. However, 1985 saw the return of Squeeze, now featuring Difford, Tilbrook, Holland, Lavis, and Keith Wilkinson on bass. In 1986, Warner Brothers inexplicably signed Telex and released Looney Tunes. After Sweets from a Stranger was released the next year, Difford and Tilbrook broke up the band. The fourth Telex album, Wonderful World, was barely distributed.

However, Carrack would leave after the release of East Side Story, and was replaced on keyboards by Don Snow. However, the band still refused to play live and preferred to remain anonymous — common practice in the techno music artists they later inspired, but unusual in 1981. Jools Holland was next to exit, being replaced with Paul Carrack in 1980. East Side Story, perhaps Squeeze's most successful album, was released in 1981, produced by Elvis Costello and Roger Bechirian, and featured Carrack's lead vocals on "Tempted". For their third album, Sex, Telex enlisted the suddenly hip US group Sparks to help write the lyrics. John Bentley replaced Harry Kakoulli on bass after the latter's firing in 1978. The self-mockery of tracks like "We Are All Getting Old" didn't help either. Their debut album was produced by John Cale for A&M Records. All of this was clearly bad news for the band's English record label, Virgin Records, who were trying to pass them off as part of the New Romantic movement.

Gilson Lavis replaced Gunn on drums and Harry Kakoulli joined on bass in 1976. Sadly, Turkey managed to scrape last place, robbing Telex of their victory. The founding members were Chris Difford (guitar, vocals), Glenn Tilbrook (vocals, guitar), Jools Holland (piano), and Paul Gunn (drums). When the vote-counting began, the verdict was so clear that when Greece actually awarded Belgium three points, the announcer thought she had misheard and tried to award the points to The Netherlands. Founded in 1974 in London, the band broke up in 1982, re-formed in 1985, and broke up again in 1999, this time apparently for good. Finally, some polite but uncertain applause broke out, amidst sounds of muttering. Squeeze was a British pop/rock band. One of the members of Telex stepped forward and took a photograph of the bewildered audience.

Big Squeeze: The Very Best Of Squeeze (compilation), Jun 2002. The audience clearly wasn't sure how to react to this self-referential joke, and after the band stopped playing there was a stunned silence. Up The Junction (compilation), Aug 2000. Their song "Eurovision" was a cheerful bleepy song with deliberately banal lyrics about the contest itself. Live at the Royal Albert Hall (live), 1999. In 1980 Telex's manager asked them to enter for the Eurovision Song Contest. They did so, and somehow managed to get sent to the finals. Master Series (compilation), Nov 1998. Like Kraftwerk, Telex built their music entirely from electronic instruments, and the sounds of the two groups have a certain similarity. However, unlike Kraftwerk's studied Teutonic irony, Telex favour a more joyously irreverent humour.

Six Of One... (box set), Oct 1997. They followed up with an ultra-slow cover of "Rock Around the Clock", a hilariously relaxed and dispassionate version of one-hit-wonder Plastic Bertrand's punk song "Ça Plane Pour Moi", and a perversely mechanical cover of "Dance to the Music", originally by Sly Stone. Excess Moderation (compilation), Nov 1996. Tropez" by Les Chats Sauvages. Piccadilly Collection (compilation), Aug 1996. Mixing the aesthetics of disco, punk and experimental electronic music, they released a stripped-down synthesized cover version of "Twist à St. Greatest Hits (compilation), Apr 1992. The Belgian pop group Telex was formed in 1978 by Marc Moulin, Dan Lacksman and Michel Moers, as a kind of elaborate joke.

A Round and a Bout (live), Mar 1990. I Don't Like Remixes 1998 (remixed by Carl Craig and others). Classics, Vol. 25 (compilation), 1987. I Don't Like Music 1998 (a 'best-of' compilation). Singles - 45's and Under (compilation), Nov 1982. Belgium...One Point 1993 (a box set of the first five albums plus bonus tracks). Domino, Nov 1998. Les Rhythmes Automatiques 1989.

Ridiculous, Nov 1995. Looney Tunes 1986. Some Fantastic Place, Sep 1993. Wonderful World 1984. Play, Aug 1991. Sex 1981 (released in some countries as "The Birds and the Bees"). Frank, Sep 1989. Neurovision 1980.

Babylon and On, Sep 1987. Tropez 1978. Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti, Aug 1985. Looking For St. Sweets From A Stranger, May 1982. East Side Story, May 1981.

Argybargy, Feb 1980. Cool for Cats, Mar 1979. Squeeze, Mar 1978. U.K.