BROTHERS IN ARMS

IN THE late 1970s and early 1980s, the two bands who best chronicled British life were Squeeze and Madness.

- John Earls

While the ska legends are generally considered a one-hit-wonder in America for Our House, their London peers Squeeze, best known for the toe-tapping song Cool For Cats, won over the hearts and sound systems of US fans.

Their Stateside success peaked in 1982 when they headlined New York's most celebrated venue, Madison Square Garden, to a 20,000-strong audience.

Critics compared them with The Beatles and fans went crazy for the group's lyrical references to The Sweeney and Clapham in classic hits such as Up The Junction and Labelled With Love. Yet when the band returned to the same arena almost 40 years later in 2019, their second performance was even more profound in part because joint frontman Chris Difford couldn't remember Squeeze's first landmark US show due to his since well-publicised alcoholism.

Speaking today, Difford, 69, admits: "I don't remember the early 1980s at all. I was a different, more troubled person then.

Playing such an iconic venue again all those years later was very emotional." Difford, who has been sober since 1990, doesn't regret his lack of memory at Squeeze's success - "Not in the slightest" but he laughs recalling trying to find proof of that first Madison Square Garden concert.

He explains: "A few years ago, I asked a photographer friend who'd been at that show if he'd got any pictures of us at Madison Square Garden. He produced photographs of our shoes onstage instead. My reaction was: 'Er... okay. Thanks!"" Success had taken its toll on drummer Gilson Lavis as well as Difford, and Squeeze split soon after that first New York concert.

The band's other leader, Glenn Tilbrook, recalls: "I do remember that gig and our elation at the reaction we got. Squeeze was on the cusp of something massive, but we were also on the cusp of our own destruction. The band was not in a good place.