January 2011
10cc
Biography
(full version)
10cc Biography (full version) – page 2
10cc Biography (full version) – page 3
10cc Biography (full version) – page 4
Question:
what do Axl Rose of Guns N’Roses,
The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne,
TV/radio presenter Chris Evans,
The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde
, Huey Morgan of Fun Lovin’ Criminals, The Feeling’s Dan Gillespie, Sophie Ellis Bextor and at least 30 million other people around the world have in common?
Answer:
they are all 10cc fans.
The missing link between The Beatles and the Gorillaz, 10cc ruled the pop world at a time – the 1970s – when the charts were dominated by some of the most creative and colourful artist
e
s in pop history.
Unlike David Bowie, Queen, Elton John or Rod Stewart – all of whom they stood shoulder–to–shoulder with for a decade – 10cc worked not on image or celebrity–status, but on the art of making highly sophisticated rock masterworks into simple–sounding pop hits.
As found
ing member Graham Gouldman says,
“Our main influences were The Beatles and the Beach Boys. Then there was all the other stuff
…
“
For me it was people like Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Jimmy Webb, Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly and the Everly Brothers. Eric [Stewart] was more rock ’n’ roll, the blues and R&B; while Kevin [Godley] and Lol [Creme] were sort of Jacques Brel, more artistic and avant–garde.
“
It’
s what happened when we put all those things together that made 10cc.”
The result was
some of the
greatest pop records of the 20
th
century.
From their breakthrough No 2 hit
Donna
in 1972, to their final No 1 –
Dreadlock Holiday
– in 1978, via such landmark releases as
I’m Not In Love
, their worldwide smash in 1975, 10cc stood for the kind of heightened pop sensibility achieved only by the very greatest music practitioners.
In truth, they could have come from any era. 10cc would have been as at home in the dynamic early days of pop in
the
1950s
,
as they would have been in the instant–gratification download culture of today. As Gouldman points out, “It was all about the songs. Not the image or who the singer was or who played which instrument.”
/2
Like
The Simpsons
, 10cc could be appreciated on several levels: pure entertainment delivered by pop–sophisticates. As
Rolling Stone
put it in 1975, ‘There is more going on in o
ne 10cc song than on the last ten
Yes albums.’
It wasn’t anything the group built towards either, it was all there on the
ir very first record
Donna
. You didn’t have to be conversant with
the doo–wop–channelled–through–
Fran
k
Zappa influence
to appreciate its inventiveness
.
“We were
just trying to amuse ourselves
,” says Gouldman now. “That was why it wor
ked.
The fact was we had our own
recording facility
, Strawberry Studios in Stockport. We actually started writing together just for a laugh, really.
We weren’t consciously trying to make hit records.
”
The early–‘70s
was an
intense
period of
creative activity for the guys, on
multiple
fronts, with Gouldman h
a
ving already notched up hit song–writing credits with groups such as the Yardbirds, Hollies and Herman’s Hermits
When the studio was
n’t being used, Gouldman
and song–writing partner and studio co–owner Eric
Stewart –
a talented multi–instrumentalist and recording whiz, formerly of Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders –
a
long
wit
h
Creme and
Godley
, who Gouldman had known since school days,
would use the downtime, “to mess around and make our own sounds”.
They also became the
studio house band.
Gouldman even
spent time
in New York, writing
for
bubblegum kings Jerry Kazenetz and Jeff Katz (“don’t ask
…
,”
he says
). But, fed up with being away from home, he returned to the UK to record the songs he had written Stateside, with his chums at Strawberry.
Meanwhile back in Stockport, Stewart, Godley and Creme had
also been busy, with Stewart particularly keen on testing a new four–track recorder. Experimenting with the device lead to the recording of
Neanderthal
Man
, a track that went on to enjoy 14 weeks in the UK charts
in
1970
, peaking at No 2.
The band was called Hotlegs and comprised Godley, Creme, Stewart,
and briefly Gouldman
.
As if that wasn’t enough
,
in 1972
Gouldman’s manager Harvey Lisberg (later to become the band’s manager too), met Neil Sedaka
who
was playing a residency at Batley Variety Club in Yorkshire. Sedaka’s career was in decline and Lisberg suggested he worked with the guys at the studio.
The result was Sedaka’s hit comeback album
Solitaire
, with Top 30 singles in
the UK and US, recorded at Strawberry and produced by Gouldman, Stewart,
Godley and
Creme, with Stewart acting as engineer.
“We all learnt so much from those sessions,” says Gouldman. “Neil’s sheer professionalism, musicianship and song–writing were inspiring.”
/3
As the four worked together more, says Gouldman, “We’d done a few tracks and we needed a B side for
Waterfall
[a Gouldman/Stewart composition]. There was a possibility that it would come out on the Apple label, which we were very excited about, because any connection with the Beatles was great.”
A Godley and
Cre
me song,
Donna
,
was chosen, “but
as w
e were recording it, we
sensed that we were doing something special. Really, all these things came together by chance. We didn’t even have a name for the b
and and
weren’t bent on world domination or anything. But
Donna
made us sit up and notice ourselves, that we actually had something special here.”
And so 10cc was born,
Donna
became the A side and reached No 2 in the UK charts. Right from the start it was obvious they weren’t like other groups. All four could sing and were adept in the recording studio, and all were seasoned musicians more interested in pleasing themselve
s than writing to a formula.
Not long after
Donna
was released, Sedaka returned to Strawberry to record a second album,
The Tra–La Days Are Over
, with the same team, and his career took off again.
10cc comprised
essentially two song
–
writing camps, Gouldman
and Stewart, and Godley and Cre
me, though that would sometimes change too. “Our principle was always the music,” says Gouldman, “whatever’s best for the song. That means if I can sing better than you on it, that’s what happens. Or if Lol can play lead guitar better than you, he’ll do it. Consequently we had four singers in the band, four instrumentalists and four producers, plus Eric also engineered the sessions.
“
The other thing
was
whoever wrote the song, it kind of became the property of the four of us. You couldn’t say, ‘That song is crap, I don’t want anything to do with it’. What you ha
d to say was, ‘I don’t like that
part of the song
,
but I think we could make it better by doing this’. You always had to come up with something pos
itive.
”
“It was the combination of all four of us that made the difference, not only in the song–writing, but in the production values as well,” says Gouldman.
N
o two 10cc records ever sounded
the same. Gouldman chuckles,
“There were so many influences flying around and they all found their way onto the records
and w
e loved pastiche.
”
The result might
be the eight–minute pop opera
Une Nuit
a
Paris
, which opened their third album,
The Original Soundtrack
(
1975
)
. Or it might
be a landmark pop masterpiece, from the same album, like
I’m
Not In Love
.
“A very important element,” explains
Gouldman, “was w
e were completely self–contained. There wasn’t even a producer. If Eric was singing one of us would work the board. We used to just give the tracks straight to the record company.”
The only comparable situation previously had been with The Beatles – and they had producer George Martin to help them.
“We didn’t even have an
A&R man,” says Gouldman. “
No one was going to
tell us anything.”
/4
Indeed, they didn’t even have a recognisable
frontman
. “Eric
was a very good–looking guy