In the current calendar year, Glenn Tilbrook has been quite the road dog. Since the beginning of 2025, Tilbrook and his Squeeze bandmates spent some time opening on a leg of the Heart tour. From there, he decamped to Houston, where the Squeeze founding member connected with Daryl Hall and his band, opening for the former on his tour while also stealing time away to do solo dates. It’s a role Tilbrook will be playing when he pulls into Huntington’s Paramount on Wednesday, July 23.
Between Hall and Heart, Tilbrook, with and without Squeeze, has opened/co-headlined with several disparate acts, including Boy George, The Psychedelic Furs and an arena tour in the UK alongside ska legends Madness last December. Playing such a self-described “tumble dryer of different shows” is a role the sexagenarian singer-songwriter says he’s happy to embrace as part of Squeeze or as a solo act.
“We’ve taken the view that it’s good to open for as many different people as possible to let their audiences see what we can do,” Chris Difford, a founding member and songwriter of the rock group Squeeze, said. “Our audience has been building. At this late stage, our audience is still growing. In the UK, Squeeze has only just done their first arena shows ever and it’s quite something for us. We’re just trying to pick up other audiences who think they know what Squeeze is. We show some of it, but they don’t know what we are.”
Tilbrook’s current touring situation finds him playing solo dates as well as opening for Hall, who the power pop veteran first met when Squeeze opened for the latter and his former creative partner, John Oates, when they were on what became their final tour a few years back. Tilbrook’s admiration for Hall dates back to when “She’s Gone” landed on the UK charts in 1976.
“When ‘She’s Gone’ suddenly got radio play, I was absolutely nuts about that song,” Tilbrook recalled. “What I’ve found in being with Daryl and opening up for him is that while we’re very different, there are still quite a lot of similarities musically in terms of what we’ve listened to and what’s inspired us. I can hear that in his music and my music.”
The Daryl Hall tour has an unusual wrinkle for Tilbrook as he’ll be borrowing the headliner’s band to back him up when he opens the show on dates that include a July 23 stop at Huntington’s Paramount.
“I’ve put all my time into Squeeze over the past 10 years—it’s been pretty unfailing,” Tilbrook said. “With Daryl’s band, I’m playing quite a bit of my solo stuff; it’s great to hear that fleshed out by their musicality. Their band is very different from Squeeze. I’m loving the difference. When you enter any situation, you wonder what the best outcome can be, given the tools you have. That band is an immaculate bunch of musicians and it’s a pleasure and privilege to play with them.”
While Tilbrook’s musical journey has found him as a vocalist and a songwriting tandem alongside Difford, the duo has been hailed as New Wave’s answer to Lennon/McCartney. Tilbrook is a criminally underrated guitarist. Having cut his teeth enthralled by the likes of Joe Pass, Barney Kessel and Tony Peluso of The Carpenters, the inspiration of the following trio is what took Tilbrook to the next level.
George Harrison (Feb. 25, 1943 – Nov. 29, 2001)
“I’ve always loved his melodic solos. And talk about learning on the job—he went through such a great curve—from being great when they started out to quite a different place.”
Jimi Hendrix (Nov. 27, 1942 – Sept. 18, 1970)
“He was in a class of one. And a great, evolving songwriter. I’ll say this—I was in Seattle and went to the Museum of Pop Culture. It was the Hendrix Museum. And they have a lovely room for his stuff and writings, which is great to visit and is inspiring.”
Wes Montgomery (March 26, 1923 – June 15, 1968)
“He was brought to me by Hendrix. I loved Wes for the octave thing. It’s an important part of my playing via Jimi Hendrix. It’s become my own thing and I love that and I love Wes Montgomery.”
Glenn Tilbrook will be appearing opening for Daryl Hall on July 23 at The Paramount, 370 New York Ave., Huntington. For more information, visit www.theparamountny.com or call 631-673-7300.
