As they pre­pare for their 50th Anniver­sary Tour, Squeeze’s co-founders Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Dif­ford look for­ward to open­ing Glas­ton­bury Fes­ti­val when they per­form on the Pyra­mid Stage at mid­day on Fri­day June 28.

Says Glen Till­brook: “I was at the 1971 Glas­ton­bury Fayre and it was a life chang­ing expe­ri­ence for me. I didn’t return until 1994, and, of course, the fes­ti­val had grown but it car­ried the same spir­it that I remem­bered. I have been a reg­u­lar at the fes­ti­val ever since which may explain why I am so pleased and proud that Squeeze will be open­ing the Pyra­mid Stage this year!” 

Adds Chris Dif­ford: “It is a mas­sive hon­our to open the fes­ti­val. I feel com­plete­ly grate­ful that after 50 years we can play our songs in front of such a lov­ing audi­ence, and have a nice lunch afterwards.” 

With Dif­ford and Tilbrook joined by bassist Owen Bid­dle, ped­al steel and gui­tarist Melvin Duffy, per­cus­sion­ist Steve Smith, key­boardist Stephen Large and drum­mer Simon Han­son – the sound and spir­it of Squeeze remains vital and vibrant for its fifti­eth year.

Squeeze’s nation­wide tour, cul­mi­nat­ing at London’s Roy­al Albert Hall, is only part of their 50th anniver­sary cel­e­bra­tions. Dif­ford and Tilbrook are cur­rent­ly work­ing on their first new mate­r­i­al since The Knowl­edge and are deep div­ing into the archives for pre­vi­ous­ly unre­leased material.

Squeeze have con­firmed that, on their head­line tour, they will once again be sup­port­ing char­i­ty The Trussell Trust, which pro­vides emer­gency food and sup­port to peo­ple who can­not afford the essen­tials, while cam­paign­ing for change to end the need for food banks in the UK. Fans are invit­ed on the tour to bring along food dona­tions to the shows, where there will be col­lec­tion points across the venue each night. There will also be col­lec­tion buck­ets for any cash donations.