Squeeze announce Plymouth date

Squeeze: From The Cradle To The Grave Tour with very special guest Dr John Cooper Clarke

Squeeze, the enduring British pop act whose songs have tenderly and wittily chronicled life and love stretching across four decades, are to play an extensive UK tour in the autumn – their first, as a band, for three years. As well as a vast catalogue including hits such as Cools For Cats, Up The Junction and Tempted, it will include songs from forthcoming album From The Cradle To The Grave, which marks their first collection of new tracks since 1998. The tour reaches Plymouth Pavilions on Friday 25 September.

Squeeze have long been a captivating live act with an array of chart hits - which also includes the likes of Take Me I’m Yours, Slap And Tickle and Pulling Mussels (From The Shell) - but for this tour there is a further treat with new tracks which will appear on From The Cradle To The Grave. Some of the songs, including the title track, were taking shape as the band performed their Pop-Up Shop tour in 2012 and later this year they will be the basis for their first album of all-new material since Domino in 1998. Squeeze’s last studio release, Spot The Difference in 2010, saw them reworking many of their best known hits dating back to the early days of their career, in order to give them more creative control over their catalogue.

Chris says of their fresh songs: “We’ve grown up a lot in the last few years, musically. For the first five years back together, we were saying ‘this is where we came from’. Now, this is where we are. We still love and own our past, but as musicians we needed to grow.”

Many of the new songs will feature in a forthcoming TV comedy series Cradle To Grave, providing the backdrop for the episodes which are based on the life of their old friend Danny Baker, the writer and broadcaster. The eight-part run, set in the 1970s, is an adaptation of Danny’s autobiography Going To Sea In a Sieve and he has co-written the programmes with award-winning scriptwriter and producer/director Jeff Pope.

It will star comedian Peter Kay as Danny’s father Fred and Lucy Speed as the presenter’s mother Bet. NME writer turned TV presenter and DJ Danny was brought up in Deptford, the old stomping ground of the band, and Squeeze were asked to become involved at an early stage. When the team behind the show heard From The Cradle To The Grave, they were so impressed that it was used as the inspiration for the name of the show. Chris, who also manages young rock act The Strypes, says: “The scripts were inspiring; hugely funny. It tapped into a period that lyrically I was very familiar with as I grew up in the same neighbourhood as Danny.

Support on the tour will come from poet and punk godfather Dr John Cooper Clarke, the bard of Salford. John shot to fame in the 1970s for his quickfire delivery of dry, biting and hilarious satirical verse, touring with the likes of The Clash and Sex Pistols. The tousled, raven-haired creator of (I Married A) Monster From Outer Space, Evidently Chickentown and Beasley Street has gone on to collaborate with Arctic Monkeys and been a panellist on BBC1’s Have I Got News For You. He recently recorded a new version of 1960s hit MacArthur Park with Hugh Cornwell and Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson.

Tickets on sale Friday 27th March, 10am

Tickets cost: ££52.25, £35.75 (ticket prices inc 10% per ticket booking fee)

To book tickets please visit www.plymouthpavilions.com or call the Box Office on 0845 146 1460.