Graham Gouldman of 10cc: ‘We get a special reaction to playing I’m Not in Love’

You know the band, you know the hits, now come and hear them play live once again when 10cc, led by founding member Graham Gouldman, come to the Corn Exchange this month.

The band, who have sold more than 15 million records in the UK – with 11 top 10 hits to boot – are on their Ultimate Greatest Hits Tour, so expect to hear the likes of I’m Not in Love, Rubber Bullets, Dreadlock Holiday and more.

The tour follows the release of a 46-track compilation album, The Things We Do for Live – 10cc, The Ultimate Hits and Beyond, which also includes songs Gouldman wrote for other artists such as the Hollies, the Yardbirds and Herman’s Hermits, performed by his semi-acoustic band Heart Full of Songs.

When we spoke, Graham was preparing for some upcoming gigs with 80s hitmakers Toto in Denmark and Sweden, as well as some festivals and, before our conversation took place, I listened to a new song he had recently recorded with Queen guitarist Brian May, titled Floating in Heaven.

“I’ve got into this James Webb Space Telescope... I’ve started following it on the NASA website,” reveals Graham, 76. “I’ve started checking it every morning and every night, just to see how it was progressing, and I got so into it I decided to write a song about it.

“So I wrote the song and I played it to a guy called Andrew Campbell, who runs my record company Lojinx, and he said, ‘You know what would be a good idea? You need to get someone like Brian May to play on it because not only is he a brilliant guitarist, but he’s also an astronomer and an astrophysicist’.

“So I sent it to Brian and he said he absolutely loved it and wanted to play on it and sing on it, which he did, and got very involved in the whole production of it as well.” Did Graham know Brian from back in the 70s? “We had met, briefly... Our paths have crossed but I didn’t really know him that well – but I’ve certainly got to know him during the making of this record.”

Graham has a studio in his house and describes it as being a “Godsend” during the pandemic. “Obviously I wasn’t able to work with other musicians,” he says, “but I’d always wanted to do an album of songs that were favourites of mine, that would suit an instrumental version of them, and I did this instrumental album on my own and I really enjoyed doing it.”

That album, No Words Today, was a charity record for the Help Musicians campaign during Covid, released via Bandcamp in September last year. “I did quite a bit of writing as well, so I found the whole period quite creative,” continues Graham. “Some people either completely shut down, and other people, like me, needed to keep busy, so created things to do and it was very good for them.”

That wasn’t the only musical project Graham occupied his time with during lockdown. “A friend of mine does library music,” he notes, “that’s music that could be incidental music for a TV programme or film or something like that, and I did a lot of stuff with him.

“It was a lot of fun, because he does specific things like children’s songs or Laurel Canyon-type, early 70s Crosby, Stills and Nash stuff, or bebop stuff... The main motivation for doing it was just to keep busy really, but making music – any type of music – I love.”

Graham, who has previously performed with Ringo Starr’s All-Starr Band (the Beatles’ drummer appears on Graham’s 2020 album Modesty Forbids), says lockdown was “pretty much” the longest he’s ever been without touring. “But now we’re coming back with a vengeance because a lot of stuff has been shunted,” he says, “I mean some of the stuff has been moved two or three times...

“We were supposed to be in Australia as well this year but we’re actually going next year, so it’s created a really busy period for us, which is fine.”

In news which will no doubt please many fans, Graham confirms that 10cc’s UK tour, which kicked off in Belfast on September 1, relies heavily on the hits. “It’s the greatest hits and more,” he explains, “because it’s not just hits. We play some album tracks and there’s a couple of surprises as well.”

The accomplished singer-songwriter admits that it’s difficult to pick a favourite among the singles that reached the upper echelons of the charts. As well as those already highlighted, songs such as Donna, Good Morning Judge, Art for Art’s Sake, and The Things We Do For Love also did rather well. “They’re all our babies,” says Graham.

“You get a special reaction when you play I’m Not in Love – we know that’s going to happen – and Dreadlock Holiday always goes down really well because people love singing the chorus. I can’t say there’s one specific song, I just love doing the whole set.”

The band’s current line-up consists of Graham on vocals, bass and guitar, Rick Fenn on lead guitar, bass and vocals, drummer Paul Burgess – the latter two have been with 10cc since the early years – plus Keith Hayman on keyboards, guitars, bass and vocals and Iain Hornal on vocals, percussion, guitar and keyboards.

[Read more: Newton Faulkner to appear in Cambridge with just himself and his guitar, Ian Broudie of the Lightning Seeds: ‘I never really envisioned myself as the singer’]

Graham’s fellow founding members, Eric Stewart, Lol Creme and Kevin Godley, no longer perform with the band. “Kevin is the only one I’m in touch with,” says Graham, “and he is actually on our tour. He produced and directed three videos that we show, and also one of them features Kevin singing a song called Somewhere in Hollywood. So he’s on the video screen and we’re doing the backing for him, and that’s great, so he’s on stage with us every night.”

10cc will be appearing at the Cambridge Corn Exchange on Friday, October 21. For more information, go to cornex.co.uk. For more on 10cc, visit 10cc.world.