 |
|||||||
          |
1974 10cc Tour Press Kit CONNIE DE NAVE
Manchester: an ugly/beautiful city in the North of England, thirty-six miles east of Liverpool where it all began. In Manchester, there's a recording studio called Strawberry Studios. Co-owned by Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman, there is a great deal of excitement cooking up there in the North. Graham and Eric, you see, are two gentlemen who were responsible for a very important part of a phenomenon best known as "British Pop Music." They are now together in a group called 10c.c. Eric Stewart: Eric spent a good part of his musical career as one of the mainstays in The Mindbenders. Now lead guitarist for 10c.c., he first sang back-up harmonies with Wayne Fontana being partly responsible for successes such as "Game of Love" and "Just A Little Bit Too Late." When Wayne and The Mindbenders split, The Mindbenders went on to enjoy the number one spot with "Groovy Kind Of Love." The Mindbenders are no longer, but the talent of Eric Stewart is still being put to good use. Graham Gouldman: Not only did Graham write "For Your Love" for the Yardbirds, he also wrote "East West", "Listen People" and "No Milk Today" for Herman's Hermits and "Bus Stop" and "Look Through Any Window" for The Hollies. If you're a real collector you might also remember Jeff Beck's first solo single "Tallyman"... Graham also wrote that, and recorded a solo album for RCA called The Graham Gouldman Thing. Now, first and foremost on his mind is the success of 10c.c. Graham plays bass guitar for the band and one listen to "Rubber Bullets", the band's second single for UK Records, will prove that as fine a song-writer as he is, he is an even better bass guitarist. Lol Creme: vocalist for 10c.c. certainly must be doing something right. Though this is actually only the second band that Lol's been in, everything he sings on seems to turn to gold. Lol's first record, "Neanderthal Man," recorded with Eric Stewart in a band called Hot Legs, was a million seller world-wide. When 10c.c. was formed and Lol's outrageous falsetto was heard on "Donna", the record instantly became UK's hottest single ever, selling half a million in England and Europe. Kevin Godley: Kevin, also a member of Hot Legs, is now drumming for 10c.c. He also does a good part of the writing for the band. 10c.c.'s first single, "Donna," was a take-off on 50's rock, "Rubber Bullets" is one more stab at popular rock and roll styles. A Beach Boys-style summer rocker, it's just more proof of the band's incredible sense of humor. With the release of their first album, 10c.c., many in England claim that 10c.c. have the potential and the talent to fill the Beatle's gap. "The songs on the lp are more like 'Rubber Bullets' than like 'Donna'," Graham explains, continuing, "that high voice was right for one type of song, you can apply it to some songs, but you can't apply it to any old song, although the voice is fairly high, it's not effeminate, as it was on 'Donna'. We've written songs about things that appeal to us. There's one song called 'Sand In My Face', which is about Charles Atlas. It's about a guy who sends away for a course because he is a 9 stone weakling. Whenever he goes down to the beach there's always this big guy that kicks sand in his face and takes his girlfriend away. So he sends for the course and prays to Charles Atlas to bring his girlfriend back to him. Eventually, he builds himself up into a big monster and in the end he starts kicking the other guy around. It was sort of funny to us because we always used to get the American magazines that had the adverts for Charles Atlas on the back of them... and, of course, we're all 9 stone weaklings." Gouldman did a term with Kasenetz-Katz in America, the 'Kings of Bubblegum' and the time here made him fascinated by American culture. "Both Eric and I have been to America alot, but, we're all very interested in America and the culture and everything about it. The songs we write show this. In America, the names of places are fantastic for writing songs. Places like Georgia or Pasadena, there's nowhere like it in England." But, back to Strawberry Studios. Located in Stockport, a suburb of Manchester this sixteen track studio is attracting recording artists from all over the world. "All the equipment is incredible," Graham explains proudly, "everything's the best so consequently our studio can and will compete with any studio in the world." Their most recent project was Neil Sedaka's latest lp. There, amongs the factories the studio sits. A converted factory itself the story goes that the place was once an illegal boxing ring. Now, in the most leisurely atmosphere possible fine pop music is being recorded. There's no clock on the wall at Strawberry Studios and sessions run as long as necessary. "We've all been in lots of different groups where we made it," Graham concludes. "But, we still feel we want to go on the road and prove ourselves as 10c.c." That is the next step. 10c.c.: a band with credentials as long as your arm. All part of the firm foundation that is British rock and roll. But, they're not resting on their laurels. They're working towards new heights and new successes. As they say: "We don't like walking backwards, we like walking forwards." 
CONNIE DE NAVE'S
10c.c. PART TWO: THE SECOND ALBUM Stockport, England: A recording session is in the finishing stages. On a backstreet, paved with broken cobblestones within the confines of Strawberry Recording Studios, 10cc are racing around, like the mad geniuses they are, winding up their second album Sheet Music, on UK Records. On the neatly wood-panelled walls of the control room and studio, drawings line the walls. Silly, rude illustrations making it possible for Graham Gouldman, Lol Creme, Eric Stewart and Kevin Godley to communicate wordlessly. "I'm going for a walk and/or leaving the group," one drawing graphically reports. "Next!!!" shouts another illustration where crumbling walls of rock letters explode regurgitating a lava of tiny people. "Riiiiiiiiight!!!" exclaims still another sketch in open approval. Eric Stewart, whose multi-talents include guitar, keyboards, vocals and record production, bows his head over the mixing board in the control room, determined to create a flawless sound, and by absolutely no miracle at all, succeeding. Admittedly, it's quite a challenge to meet and hopefully to top the musical quality of the first album that resulted in accolades of praise. "We've written in opposite combinations on this album," Eric reveals. "I've been writing with Lol and Graham's been writing with Kevin. We've also experimented a bit more with melody and lyric." 10cc, in a relatively short time, have done the impossible. They have garnered almost total acceptance from the rock press. Nick Kent of the New Musical Express wrote after hearing Sheet Music: "The tracks on the new album display a sound on each song that almost defies you to label it mere eclecticism. Pumping away at a pace that is both frantic and meticulously crafted and culminating in a concept which falls between something akin to musical Dada and constant rock pastiches set off by a Busby Berkeley set of dynamics." The songs: 1. "Wall Street Shuffle" -- by Graham Gouldman and Eric Stewart. Lead vocal, Eric Stewart. "We visited Wall Street the last time we were in New York and just had to write about it," Eric explains. 2. "The Worst Band In The World". A song by Lol and Graham about 10cc. There's been a lot of controversy surrounding the lyrics of this song. "We don't think it's a dirty record," the boys smile "but if we did, we would have released it anyway. It would have been interesting." 3. "Hotel". A number from madmen Creme and Godley. Sung by Kevin it's a tongue in cheek brainstorm he and Lol came up with on a visit to the West Indies. The idea? That blacks on the island should open a hotel and serve up Americans on the menu. 4. "Old Wild Men". This is a gentle song about pop stars that have become past history. Beautifully sung by Kevin and Eric, written by Kevin and Lol, it looks back on better days. "There are a lot of old pop stars living up in Manchester and Liverpool who had been in very big groups, but now it's all over... when you see them, it's very sad." 5. "Clockwork Creep". A mini-opera sung by Kevin and Eric. "It's about someone putting a time bomb on a plane," Eric winces. "First I sing the voice of the time bomb, then Kev sings the part of the jumbo jet." 6. "Silly Love". "Lol and I tried to write a love song," Eric laughs, "But everytime we came up with a line like 'hey babe, you've got a smile like a Rembrandt' we thought 'that's silly', so we called it 'Silly Love'." 7. "Somewhere in Hollywood". "Down on the casting couch, a star is gonna be born," Kevin sings. An Englishman's view of Hollywood in the 1920's. 8. "Baron Samedi". Graham and Eric wrote this song after attending a black mass in Graham's home town, Rochdale, a suburb of Manchester. 'There are black masses in Rochdale,' you ask? "There are covens all over the world," Eric explains adding "why every bakery has one. We wanted a very mysterious voodoo sound on this track, but it came out all Latin and Puerto Rican." 9. "The Sacro-Iliac". Written by Graham and Kevin, this song marks Graham's first vocal solo with 10cc. "It's about the fact that Graham never dances. He decided to invent a dance where you stand in the middle of the dance floor and not move a muscle." 10. "Oh Effendi". This country and eastern song made famous on the bands initial tour of the States was written around the time of the Arab oil crisis. It's about the guys who sell army surplus guns to the Arabs so they can go to war.  |
||||||
|
Archives |
Discography |
Pictures |
Sounds |
Band Members News | Join Us | Miscellaneous | Links | Home 
Click to subscribe © 2008 by Minestrone. All rights reserved. |
|||||||