Page 33 - April 2016

10cc circa 1970 GemS - GeTTy ImAGeS
By Tony ballZ eagerly forged ahead, fascinated by the possibilities. After all, they had both gone to art school.
One of their first outside successes was “Girls on Film” by Duran Duran, which generated mild controversy due to some blatant female nudity. It definitely got them noticed. After MTV’s debut, the demand for slick professional video clips increased. For a while, Godley and Creme were at the head of the pack. From 1981-1987, they created memorable videos for elton John, Lou Reed, Culture Club, Asia, Huey Lewis, Yes, wang Chung, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Herbie Hancock (the groundbreaking “Rockit”), George Harrison, The Police (“every Breath You Take”, the rest of the Synchronicity singles, and a Grammy nominated concert film), eric Clapton, Peter Gabriel, and even 10cc.
In 1985, to celebrate 25 years of playing music together, Godley and Creme released The History Mix Volume One, a different sort of greatest hits. Using sampling technology, the duo plucked highlights from solo LPs, select 10cc favorites, even “neanderthal Man” and their secret bubblegum past. They chopped and stirred them together with new friends Art of noise providing some danceable beats. The two long tracks that ended up on The History Mix are considered precursors to the modern mash-up.
The History Mix also marked Godley and Creme’s decision to write a big ol’ fat hit single, just to prove they could still do it. This time they would use their talents as visual artists to take it to the next level. For those of us who went through adolescence in the 1980s, Godley and Creme’s hit “Cry” is forever linked to its arresting black and white video.
Kevin Godley felt “Cry” was the kind of song anybody could walk around and sing, so they shot a succession of people’s faces (their own included) lip-synching the words. In the editing room, they utilized a technique called analog cross-fading to blend the different faces into each other. They discovered somewhere in the transition between Face One and Face Two, there lived a Face 1.5, a nonexistent amalgam of personalities both fascinating and creepy. The startling video for “Cry” helped push the single into the Us top 20.
“Cry” predates digital morphing technology by about four years. Michael Jackson nicked Godley and Creme’s face-blending concept for his 1991 “Black or white” video, only digitally buffed up and modernized. Once again, the boys were ahead of the curve.
Their anniversary and hit single in the can, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme announced the end of their professional relationship in 1988 with one last LP, Goodbye Blue Sky. when pressed for an explanation of their breakup, both cited the frustration and tediousness involved with running all one’s ideas past another person for approval. Lol Creme directed a film in 1991 and joined Art of noise in 1998. Kevin Godley shot clips for U2, Paul McCartney, Rod stewart, Phil Collins, sting, Bryan Adams and The Black Crowes. In 1996, Godley’s video for The Beatles’“Real Love” was included on their Anthology DVD.
Polygram Records released Changing Faces in 1987, a CD collection of greatest hits from both Godley and Creme and 10cc, together for the first time. It was an unexpected success, rising to #4 in Britain and eventually going platinum. with the popularity of Changing Faces, Polygram conducted some market research and declared the time was right for a 10cc reunion. stewart and Gouldman jumped at the chance to revive their flagging careers, while Godley and Creme were less than enthusiastic until reminded they still owed Polygram one more record under their old contract.
The vibes were off from the start. The label hired Gary Katz, famous for his work with steely Dan, to produce. expensive studios in new York and Los Angeles were booked. everyone conveniently ignored the facts all previous 10cc records had been self-produced and engineered by eric stewart, and their best work had been done at strawberry, hardly a state- of-the-art facility. 10cc were also not used to being told what to do in the studio.
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