Squeeze urge fans to bring food bank donations to Cardiff and Swansea gigs

Nation.Cymru staff

Squeeze are asking fans to bring food donations to their Cardiff and Swansea gigs this month as food banks prepare for increased demand over the winter.

The band will play Cardiff’s Utilita Arena on Friday 27 November and Swansea Building Society Arena on Monday 30 November, with Billy Bragg supporting at both shows. Collection points at the venues will accept non-perishable food and cash donations for local food banks in the Trussell network.

Suggested donations include tinned meat, fish and vegetables, pasta, rice and long-life milk. Food banks may also need toiletries and other hygiene products. Fans can check which items are most needed locally through Trussell’s food donation guidance.

The collections began in 2018, when Squeeze singer and guitarist Glenn Tilbrook started taking donations at his solo shows. The band later introduced them on their UK tours. Audiences at Squeeze and Tilbrook gigs have since donated more than five tons of food and raised £72,552 for the network.

“It’s deeply troubling that, eight years later, so many people are still struggling to put food on the table,” Tilbrook said.

“The need hasn’t gone away, and neither has our determination to help. If you’re coming to see us, please bring something along if you can, whether it’s a few tins of food or a couple of pounds.”

Trussell said its food banks distributed more than 2.6 million emergency food parcels across the UK last year, 45% more than in the equivalent period before the pandemic. More than 900,000 of those parcels were for children. The number provided to people aged 65 and over more than tripled between 2019 and 2025.

Emergency food parcels

Emma Revie, the charity’s co-chief executive, said the network expected to distribute around 600,000 emergency food parcels this winter, with some families facing a choice between buying food and putting the heating on.

The band have also pledged £1 from every ticket sold on the UK tour to support grassroots music venues, artists and promoters.

The 16-date run opens in Glasgow on 12 November and takes its name from Trixies, the band’s first studio album in eight years. Tilbrook and Chris Difford began writing it in 1974, when they were 16 and 19 respectively, before Squeeze had made their first record. The songs are set in a fictional nightclub and were put aside for more than 50 years before the band returned to them.

The Welsh dates will feature songs from the album alongside hits including ‘Up the Junction’, ‘Cool for Cats’ and ‘Tempted’.