Brighton and Southampton dates as Squeeze get back to normal

“After the lockdown we went to America and supported Hall & Oates and then we supported Madness and we had a summer of festivals. It was a couple of years off the stage but it's wonderful to get back and wonderful too for the theatres. A lot of theatres were behind closed doors for all that time, but I think really it's just the general feeling that we can get back out there and enjoy things live again.

“I do think it is still tough with the cost of living crisis and I know a lot of people who are worried when they have a visitor are they going to switch the heating on, those kinds of things but yes it is definitely exciting to be back. But I do think it feels different. I think the lockdown was extraordinary in many ways, but actually I quite enjoyed it. It was about being at home and rediscovering what life is like in my own house. Usually as a travelling musician you seldom go through your own front door. So that was great and I got very attached to home living but when you get back on the road, you get to remember what it is like to be sharing music.

“During the lockdown I think that I always had faith that things would come back and that the medicine was coming but (following Squeeze getting back together again in 2007) we had definitely started to build up a new following. We toured every other year in the UK and we managed to find a foothold again and bring Squeeze to a lot more people.”

Meeting their expectations in terms of the set list is of course crucial: “There is an A list of songs and a B list and then there is a C list and we amalgamate the three of those. We couldn't not do Up The Junction or Pulling Mussels or Cool For Cats. Those songs are part of the DNA of Squeeze but sometimes you might do a different take on them.”

And certainly over the years Chris's view of them changes: “I think I'm still learning Up The Junction. I think with all those songs every time you play them you learn a little bit more about them, and I am certainly still learning what a great song it is. It's very easy just to keep strumming and to just play along but once you get inside the character and inside the story then it really comes alive. And the thing about music is it takes you right back, doesn't it.”

During the lockdowns Chris ran writing workshops online: “I was talking about it yesterday and I really miss those Zoom writing workshops. They were very encouraging. And I got to meet hundreds of people that I would never have met before and we got to write some great songs. The camaraderie was amazing and I can visualise pretty much everybody I met through doing it. It was a great way of leaning on each other.”

Chris also enjoyed success with his podcast I Never Thought It Would Happen on which he is joined by musical guests to talk about the highs and lows of their career – a podcast from Help Musicians which Chris supports. Series two is back now with guests including Mike Rutherford, Dan Smith from Bastille and Kathryn Williams.