South Side Story

Difford & Tilbrook dust off their precocious teenage concept album

- By Terry Staunton

The seedy clubs of South London in the mid-1970s were off-limits to teenagers Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook, but that didn't stop them from imagining what went on behind closed doors. Squirreled away in the bedroom he rented at his girlfriend's family home, the latter fashioned chords and melodies to fit the former's reams of lyrics about the goings-on in such salacious night spots, in a mythical place they called Trixie's.

Before long, the duo had written a 12-song suite, a concept album in all but name – not that there was any label to fund the recording or release of an album at this early stage in their lives as musicians. It's only now, more than 50 years later, that Squeeze fans have a chance to hear the formative, fanciful work.

Tilbrook has suggested, more than once in the past, that he and Difford “dumbed down” when making their debut independent EP Packet Of Three in 1977, to fit in with the prevalent, punk-ish new wave of the times. Consequently, the elaborate Trixie's and its cast-considerably-wider net of pop influences was set to one side.