Chris Difford
Chris Difford is a man of many parts, and all of them are working. In 2008, one of England’s great pop lyricists of the past 30 years is ready for the solo spotlight again.
‘The Last Temptation Of Chris’ is an early contender for album title of the year, but much more than that, it’s an outstanding showcase for a songwriting talent reaching new levels of maturity. Furthermore, it marks a new marriage, as the co-creator of the beloved Squeeze songbook joins forces with another great emblem of British music-making, the re-energised Stiff Records.
‘The Last Temptation Of Chris’ is Difford’s follow-up to his widely admired solo debut of late 2002, ‘I Didn’t Get Where I Am.’ It expands on that record’s delightfully intimate writing style, this time in the company of another master craftsman, Boo Hewerdine, who co-wrote and produced the new album.
Much has happened to Difford since the release of that first solo endeavour, including last year’s live release ‘South East Side Story’; not one but two other as-yet unreleased collaborative projects; and his reconvening with Glenn Tilbrook in a Squeeze line-up also featuring early bassist John Bentley et al, for their first UK tour in nine years (“it’s hard to remember when Squeeze were ever quite as good as this first time around,” enthused US trade bible Billboard).
Now, Chris rises to the fresh challenge of a new solo record, to be backed by extensive tour dates with Hewerdine, the man behind such enduring songs as the Bible’s ‘Graceland’ and ‘Honey Be Good’ and his own ‘Patience Of Angels,’ covered by Eddi Reader. And Difford is justifiably proud of the way it turned out.
“It’s an extension of the first album, which I did with Francis Dunnery,” he says. “The idea was to carry on where I left off. Thankfully I met Boo and he guided me, he writes such beautiful melodies. He used to come to my house every day with a different batch of melodies, and before we knew where we were, we had an album. It’s lovely to create something as intimate and warm as this with someone like Boo.”
The album’s first single is ‘Fat As A Fiddle,’ described by Difford as “just a fun song about putting on weight as you get older, and gravity taking over your body.” It’s typical of his ability to click the shutter and capture snapshots of his life that have a believable, everyman appeal just like that of Tony Hancock, on whom the album artwork is modelled.
“I think the songs are pretty honest. I don’t think you really want to hide anything, because there are a lot of people out there who can see some kind of relevance in the lyrics and a reflection of their own lives. The best thing about making a record is that you can wear your heart on your sleeve and talk about your life.
“It’s like writing a biography, you’re telling people what’s going on in your life at any point in time. if you go back through the Squeeze albums you’ll see the same kind of thing, it was a reflection of where we were. If I go back to the ‘Cool For Cats’ album, some of the juvenile lyrics on there very much sum up the kind of life I was living. If you head forward to the ‘East Side Story’ stuff, you’ve got reflections on an early marriage. Now if you look at my solo albums, they’re reflecting where I am now.”
That said, Difford can still conjure an image like ‘My Mother’s Handbag’ and place himself, and us, right back in his childhood in Greenwich at the turn of the 1960s. “There’s a lot of that on the first album, less of it on this one,” he says. “But that’s a very black-and-white world that I still venture into and it’s a very comfortable place to be. It makes me feel warm when I think about those times.”
There’s room enough for more work with Squeeze in the months and years ahead, but Chris Difford didn’t get where he is today without exploring and expanding his individuality. Now the road beckons, and more welcomingly than was once the case.
“I enjoy playing live when I’m in control of it. When you’re young, you get chucked in the back of a transit van and you wake up somewhere else. Those times have changed and I’m really thankful they have.
We’ll see him on the road. Meanwhile, ‘The Last Temptation Of Chris’ is one we can all succumb to.
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