Up The Junction by Squeeze

Up The Junction was the first UK chart hit for Squeeze, an English band that hit the charts during the New Wave period of the late 1970s, and continued recording successfully in the 1980s and 1990s.

Squeeze formed in London in 1974, and are known for their hit songs Cool for Cats, Up the Junction, Tempted, Black Coffee In Bed, Pulling Mussels (From the Shell), and Hourglass among others.

The band broke up in 1999, but reunited for a tour of the USA and UK in 2007, the reunion being so successful that Squeeze have continued to tour as well as record, with dates booked into 2013.

The band's founding members in 1974 were Chris Difford (guitar, vocals, lyrics), Glenn Tilbrook (vocals, guitar, music), Jools Holland (keyboards), and Paul Gunn (drums), with Gilson Lavis replacing Gunn on drums and Harry Kakoulli on bass in 1976.

Squeeze's early career was spent perfoming live gigs in the Deptford area of Southeast London, where they were part of a lively local music scene which included other new bands at the time including Alternative TV and Dire Straits.

Cool For Cats, their second LP which was released in 1979, spawned four hit singles, the first Up The Junction which was losley based on the 1960s cult film of the same name, then Cool For Cats, Goodbye Girl and finally Slap And Tickle. The first two of these both reached #2 in the UK charts, and between them brought about success worldwide for the band.

Jools Holland left the band in 1980 and was replaced by highly-rated singer-keyboardist Paul Carrack, a former member of the British soul-pop band Ace. In 1981 Squeeze released perhaps their best-known album, East Side Story. This was produced by Elvis Costello and Roger Bechirian, and featured Carrack's lead vocals on the radio hit Tempted. Carrack himself left after the release of East Side Story, and was replaced by Don Snow. This line-up recorded the Sweets From A Stranger LP in 1982. Negative reviews, the stresses of touring, and conflicts between band members led the band to break up later that year, after releasing a final single, Annie Get Your Gun.

I remember listening to Up The Junction and Cool For Cats and the radio stations were likening the sound to The Beatles. I used to love this band, still do, and it's a pleasure to create this tribute lens to one of their great hits, the song that first endered me to them.

Written by: Squeeze from the Album: "Cool For Cats" - 1975

I never thought it would happen

With me and the girl from Clapham

Out on the windy common

That night I ain't forgotten

Where she dealt out the rations

With some or other passions

I said you are a lady

Perhaps she said I may be

We moved into a basement

With talks of our engagement

We stayed in by the telly

Although the room was smelly

We spent our time just kissin'

The Railway Arms we're missin'

But love had got us hooked up

And all our time it took up

I got a job with Stanley

He said I'd come in handy

And he started me on Monday

So I had a bath on Sunday

I worked eleven hours

And bought the girl some flowers

She said she'd seen a doctor

And nothing now could stop her

I worked all through the winter

The weather brass and bitter

I put away a tenner

Each week to make her better

And when the time was ready

We had to sell the telly

Late evenings by the fire

And little kicks inside her

This morning at four fifty

I took her rather nifty

Down to an incubator

Where thirty minutes later

She gave birth to a daughter

Within a year a walker

She looked just like her mother

If there could be another

And now she's two years older

Her mother's with a soldier

She left me with my drinkin'

Became a proper stingin'

The devil came and took me

From bar to street to bookie

No more nights by the telly

No more nights nappies smelling

Alone here in the kitchen

I feel there's somethin' missin'

I beg for some forgiveness

But beggin's not my business

And she won't write a letter

Although I always tell her

And so it's my assumption

I'm really up the junction

Squeeze were a breath of fresh air and produced so many great hits. Grab yourself one or more of their CD's today. You won't regret it.

Treat yourself to music videos and live performances from this great band. Live the memories of the 80's all over again as you listen and watch in your own living room.

CD's and DVD's at great prices, or maybe some other rarity to add to your Squeeze collection. Take a peek at what eBay has to offer.

Tony is a freelance writer who lives on the South Coast of England with his wife Debbie.

He has worked in the IT Industry all his life, and has been writing on various sites for the last 10 years.

Tony has traveled extensively, both for business and leisure, and has lived in New Zealand and the USA as well as his native England.

He enjoys writing about many different topics, often writing about something that grabs him impulsively at the time.

Ancient History and Humor are just two diverse topics that he has a passion for, and he also likes to write about his travel experiences and to share his love of photography.

Tony would love to write a book one day, but so far the closest that he has come to finding a topic is an autobiography. He is not confident that there is a large enough audience for a 12 volume book entitled "I Only Wanted A Simple Life".

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