Squeeze rolls into Clearwater on August 19 with a concert built around a piece of its own history that almost never existed: a full album's worth of songs about a fictional London club, written in 1974 and shelved for half a century before finally seeing release earlier this year. The British new wave veterans will headline a bill with Adam Ant and Haircut 100 at The BayCare Sound, with tickets starting at $46.50 and the show set to begin at 6 p.m.
The story behind that material goes back decades before Squeeze had a record deal at all. Songwriting partners Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook wrote an album's worth of songs in 1974 about a fictional London club called Trixies, according to an interview with Tilbrook published by Creative Loafing Tampa. The duo shelved the Trixies project because of circumstances including their young age and their inability to land real club gigs at the time, per that interview. The songs were buried, Tilbrook has said, because they contrasted with the punk and new wave landscape that was taking over by 1977, the year Squeeze finally landed a record deal.
Those original 1974 sketches weren't studio recordings at all. Difford and Tilbrook recorded the 10 original Trixies demos on a borrowed Revox reel-to-reel tape machine in Deptford, South London, according to The Guardian. Tilbrook has said the Trixies idea's time simply never came when he and Difford first formed as songwriting partners, and that returning to songs written in 1974 has been, in his words, a strange kind of magic.
From Shelved Tapes to a John Cale-Produced Debut
Instead of Trixies, Difford and Tilbrook formed and fronted Squeeze, which received a record deal in 1977. Their self-titled debut was produced by Velvet Underground co-founder John Cale, a pairing that produced Squeeze's breakout single, according to the Creative Loafing interview and background reporting from uDiscoverMusic, which notes the song “Take Me I'm Yours” peaked at No. 19 on the UK Singles Chart in May 1978. That song later turned up in a Dockers pants commercial in the 1990s. Tilbrook has called Cale a genius, even though Cale rejected many of the songs Difford and Tilbrook wrote for that first album.
The band's name itself carries a layer of musical trivia: Difford and Tilbrook named their group Squeeze as a mocking tribute to the Velvet Underground album of the same name, which was released as that band's final studio record. Doug Yule was the primary creator of that Velvet Underground album after the group's original members had left, and Tilbrook has said he heard the record again about six or seven years before his Creative Loafing interview.
Squeeze's debut, released in America as UK Squeeze, included the song “The Call.” The follow-up, Cool for Cats, is closer to the material Squeeze would have offered as its debut had Cale not been involved, and it includes songs like “It's Not Cricket,” “Goodbye Girl” and “Up the Junction.”
A 1974 Concept Album Finally Gets Its Studio Treatment
Trixies didn't stay buried forever. Squeeze released the finished Trixies album earlier this year, officially arriving March 6, 2026, through BMG Rights Management and Love Records as the band's 16th studio album and its first new full-length in more than eight years, since 2017's The Knowledge, according to Wikipedia. The record entered the UK Albums Chart at No. 15 and reached No. 1 on the UK Independent Albums Chart, per Townsend Music.
Turning 50-year-old cassette sketches into a modern studio record took some technical work. Squeeze bassist Owen Biddle produced the album's 13 tracks alongside executive producer Glenn Tilbrook, while veteran engineer Bob Clearmountain mixed the record in spatial Dolby Atmos for its deluxe physical editions and streaming platforms, according to a report from Immersive Audio Album.
Trixies has already found its way into the band's live show. Squeeze performed the whole Trixies record on some mainland Europe tour dates, and per Tilbrook, that concept-album treatment was well received by audiences there. Even so, Tilbrook has said Squeeze will not perform a concert consisting entirely of Trixies songs in Clearwater, and he plans to calibrate how much of the new material the band plays based on audience interest that night. Trixies will form the centerpiece of the Clearwater show, but Squeeze will also showcase many of its classic songs, with a set list that may include “Hourglass,” “Tempted,” “Cool for Cats” and, likely, “Take Me I'm Yours.”
Tour Package Brings New Wave Royalty to Coachman Park
Squeeze isn't traveling alone. The North American leg of the “Tried, Tested and Trixies Tour” comprises 27 dates across August and September, featuring a co-headlining package with Adam Ant, Haircut 100, and Glenn Tilbrook's son, musician Leon Tilbrook, according to tour details posted by Squeeze. In Clearwater, Adam Ant and Haircut 100 — the latter known for its 1982 hit “Love Plus One” — will both open the show at The BayCare Sound.
The venue itself has become one of the region's marquee concert stops in a short amount of time. The BayCare Sound opened in June 2023 at Coachman Park as a 9,000-capacity waterfront amphitheater with 4,000 covered canopy seats and 5,000 lawn seats, according to Ruth Eckerd Hall, the local nonprofit arts organization that operates and manages the venue under a management agreement approved by the Clearwater City Council in May 2022. The amphitheater's naming rights went to West Central Florida health system BayCare in March 2024, after the Clearwater City Council unanimously approved a $5.4 million agreement, as reported by WTSP.
That rapid rise has come with regional and national recognition. In 2025, Visit St. Pete/Clearwater named The BayCare Sound the region's Best Live Music Venue, while trade publication Pollstar ranked it third nationally among amphitheaters with capacities under 10,000 based on ticket gross sales, according to Visit Florida. For a band carrying a half-century-old secret onto the stage, it's a fitting showcase — one where, per Tilbrook's own account to Creative Loafing Tampa, the Trixies songs are finally getting the audience they were denied back in 1974.
