Page 28 - the NOISE March 2016

10cc: PART ONE
10cc is a band from Manchester, England. During their 1970s heyday, they were responsible for over a dozen British chart hits, including the ethereal “I’m Not in Love,” also an American smash. The original line up of Eric Stewart, Graham Gouldman, Lol Creme and Kevin Godley was a fiercely creative mix. All four contributed to songwriting, production, instrumentation and vocals. At the height of their popularity, the quartet split in two. Stewart and Gouldman continued to have hits as 10cc, while Godley
and Creme recorded several idiosyncratic LPs and one legendary disaster as a duo, eventually branching out into guitar effects design and music video production.
10cc’s vision was a strange and unique one.
In 1963, 18-year-old guitarist Eric Stewart joined Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders. The group had a monster hit in 1965
with “Game of Love,” which reached the top in both the US and UK. After Fontana left for a solo career, Stewart assumed the lead vocal duties. They had another transatlantic #1 with “A Groovy Kind Of Love” in 1966. Then the hits dried up. The band was unable to adapt to the new psychedelic sounds gaining popularity, and The Mindbenders split in acrimony.
Since his compositions had appeared on the B-sides of two million-selling singles, Stewart left The Mindbenders with a tidy savings. His adoration of The Beatles gave Stewart a desire to learn record engineering. In 1968, he bought a half interest in a small facility in the Manchester suburb Stockport. Stewart renamed it Strawberry Studios, a nod to “Strawberry Fields Forever.” He soon found another investor in Graham Gouldman.
Through his adolescence and late teens, Gouldman had played in nearly a dozen bands. Several of these made records, but none sold. However, Gouldman’s talent caught the ear of a music publisher who signed the young man to a songwriting contract. From 1965-1967, Graham Gouldman penned hits for The Yardbirds (“For Your Love” and “Heart Full of Soul”), The Hollies (“Bus Stop” and
“Look through Any Window”), Herman’s Hermits, Jeff Beck, and many others.
Despite his lucrative songwriting gig, Gouldman yearned to make it as a performer and kept slogging through nightclub
dates. He played bass for The Mindbenders during their dismal last days, and cut an unsuccessful solo album in 1968. He was at loose ends when his old band mate Eric Stewart rang and asked if Gouldman wanted to buy out Stewart’s partner and become co-owner of Strawberry Studios. Gouldman sensed an opportunity and grabbed it.
Industry connections said they were fools for opening a studio so far from London, but the idea of unlimited time to experiment intrigued the two musicians. Neither had any schooling in the field so they learned by trial and error. Shortly thereafter, they started working with the odd duo of Lawrence “Lol” Creme and Kevin Godley.
The lives of these four were already intertwined. The adolescent Godley and Creme were momentarily band mates, lost track of each other, then reconnected at Manchester Art College. Kevin Godley briefly drummed for Gouldman’s band The Whirlwinds. Their one single from 1964 featured a Lol Creme song on the flip. Creme would eventually marry the sister of Eric Stewart’s wife, thus making the two in-laws.
In early 1969, Gouldman was offered a position to write songs for New York bubblegum pop moguls Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz. Bubblegum was a prepackaged reaction to psychedelia aimed at the preteen market. Bands like the 1910 Fruitgum Company and the Ohio Express were faceless studio creations that had chart success with lightweight fluff such as “Simon Says” and “Yummy Yummy Yummy.”
Gouldman made Kasenetz and Katz a counteroffer. The nucleus of him, Stewart, Godley and Creme could not only write songs but perform, sing and record them as well, at a fraction of the cost of a New York studio. Kasenetz and Katz sent an advance and said go for it. Within a couple weeks, the quartet had two dozen songs composed. Once the recording process began, the musicians realized what an incredible instrument was at their disposal.
Stewart and Gouldman were firmly rooted in pop and rock & roll tradition, music that caught the ear immediately. They could easily picture themselves with #1 hits (Gouldman had already written two). Godley and Creme, art school freaks, had a more skewed approach. Their songwriting was self-aware and pointedly humorous with bizarre subject matter. Lol Creme’s voice was pinched and nasal and squeaky, almost a novelty. He sure could nail those high notes, though.
When Stewart and Gouldman first heard drummer Kevin Godley sing, they nearly fell out of their chairs. Godley’s regular range was quite lovely, with an emotional catch in his throat. As he moved into falsetto it became a gorgeous wail of pain and sadness. The closest comparison was Richard Manuel of The Band, a vocalist who perpetually sounded on the verge of tears. Kevin Godley’s voice was their secret weapon.
They dutifully sent the completed tracks off to Kasenetz and Katz. Under the terms of the contract, the musicians had no say in how the songs were packaged and marketed. If any became major hits, the producers would come calling for more. One
28 • MARCH 2016 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us