Squeeze honoured with Greenwich plaque

Squeeze went back to their Greenwich roots on Tuesday when a plaque was unveiled at the Borough Halls, the venue for one of their first concerts.

Founding duo Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook joined the rest of the band in Royal Hill, at what is now the base of the Greenwich Dance Agency.

The fledgling band played there in 1975, ahead of a career which has saw them score worldwide fame with hits such as Up The Junction, Cool For Cats and Take Me I’m Yours.

It is the fourth plaque to be erected by rights body PRS For Music at the sites of major bands’ early gigs. The first – marking a Dire Straits show in Deptford’s Crossfields Estate – was unveiled last year.

Tilbrook, who still lives in Charlton, told greenwich.co.uk how the band cut its teeth in venues around Greenwich and Deptford.

“Our first gig was at the Northover – between Catford and Downham – which is long gone.

“We used to play at Hardys Free House every week. We’d also play the Deptford Arms, the Bell – in Greenwich around the back of the church – all places were we could get residencies when we were coming up.

“After we left the Deptford Arms, that’s when we started touring and stopped doing the local things so much, and then you get propelled into a different world, that it doesn’t seem possible to come back from. Now we’re in a world where we play big places and small places and I like that – lots of mixing and matching.”

Tilbrook recently played a residency at the Anchor and Hope pub in Charlton with his other band, The Fluffers – “more anarchic and free-spirited” than his main band. He said we wanted to help new acts get the same opportunities Squeeze did.

“I’ve always stayed in this area and I love this area – I don’t think I’ll ever leave. But I’ve seen it change, and it’s now harder for bands to get started. I’m trying to get something going at the Anchor and Hope.”

Squeeze will be playing the Isle of Wight Festival in June, with a UK tour at the end of the year which will include a date at the O2’s Indigo venue on 9 December.

“I’m not interested in doing anything other than stuff that’s really fun and good – Squeeze is back to being that, and that’s such a good place for it to be,” he said.