Man on the Moon

SO, LOL, HOW DID THE IDEA FOR ‘THE PRODUCERS’ COME ABOUT?
I can answer that one! The idea of The Producers came about from all of us wanting to play live again. We just wanted to get a band
together that could play a pub gig. That was the aspiration. We wanted to have a bit of fun and we ended up by doing a world tour of Camden! All of the good venues that there is to play in Camden, we played them. The Barfly, Dingwalls and The Jazz Café. We’d have a different special guest sing with us each time. Will Young was one of them.

I GUESS THAT THESE SHOWS WERE THE FIRST TIME THAT YOU’D PERFORMED IN PUBLIC FOR QUITE SOMETIME THEN?
Oh yes! I hadn’t played live for years, except for the odd thing including a Prince’s Trust charity gig which I performed at celebrating Trevor Horn’s 25 years in the industry in 2004.

AND HOW DID IT FEEL TO PERFORM LIVE AGAIN?
Oh it was great! I’ve always loved performing live. We just played at “The Big Feastival” last week, which was a food and music festival hosted by Jamie Oliver and Alex James. It was really fun to do as they both got up on stage and played “Relax” (Frankie Goes To Hollywood) with us. The great thing about working on any project that Trevor is involved with is the fact that he is so meticulous when it comes to rehearsal.

Everything is done properly when Trevor is involved. The gig I mentioned that I did with Trevor in 2004 at Wembley Arena was a real thrill to be a part of it. We had the privilege of playing with an orchestra on that gig. Rather than having one group rehearsal, Trevor would rehearse each section of the band individually. When playing live with The Producers it felt so good and we all had such a great time that the natural thing to do was to go into the studio and record some tracks together.

CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT THE CREATIVE PROCESS WITHIN THE BAND?
As soon as we went into the studio to record, we made the decision to split the writing credit on every song equally, four ways. By doing things that way, it made sure that there was no pressure on any member to come up with ideas. It really made everyone free to be creative. My advice to any young bands out there is that this is the only way to do it. Ash, (Soan) our drummer came up with some wonderful ideas.

How often do you walk into a studio and see your drummer sitting there strumming an acoustic guitar? It was great! The album took a lot longer to finish than we anticipated. We had our fair share of setbacks. We were working with a wonderful guy called Chris Braide. Chris then had the opportunity to go out to L.A. to join the Simon Cowell machine and work as a professional songwriter for him. It was an opportunity that he couldn’t turn down really.

So he moved his family out there and obviously it would have been difficult for him to be a part of the band from then on. It was a real drag when Chris left but the rest of us carried on. From the beginning it was always going to be difficult to get all of us in the studio at the same time. You are talking about four different people with very busy schedules. That’s another reason it took so long to finish the album. Oh, have you heard the album yet?

YES, I HAVE AND I REALLY ENJOYED IT. JUST OUT OF CURIOSITY, DID YOU WRITE THE RIFF IN THE SONG, ‘FREEWAY’?
Yes, I did! Caught red handed eh?

THE RIFF SOUNDED LIKE IT COULD HAVE BEEN FROM A SONG ON ANY OF THE FOUR 10CC ALBUMS THAT YOU WERE PART OF. IT WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN OUT OF PLACE ON ONE OF THOSE AT ALL.
Thanks for that. The riff was actually taken from a Hotlegs song which I wrote in the late 60’s and it ended up on the Hotlegs album. Hotlegs was the band that I had with Eric (Stewart) and Kev (Godley) from the beginning of 1970, before we added Graham (Gouldman) and merged into 10cc. That riff had been going around in my head for years and I thought that it was too good not to use it again! Trevor and I had the idea for that song. It’s about driving on the Freeway in L.A. at night.

IN YOUR INTERVIEWS, YOU SPEAK ABOUT KEVIN GODLEY WITH GREAT FONDNESS. ARE YOU STILL IN TOUCH WITH KEVIN OR ANY OF THE OTHER MEMBERS OF 10CC?
I have nothing but the fondest thoughts about Kevin. I think he’s such a wonderful person. I grew up with Kev and in my eyes, he’s just the greatest songwriter. He’s the best songwriting partner I could have ever hoped for.

I haven’t seen Kev for a few years now as he’s living in Dublin and I’m still in the UK. Also, we haven’t really got that much in common these days. I see Eric (Stewart) the most out of the guys from 10cc. In fact, I saw him this past weekend. My wife and his wife are sisters so I get to see him quite often when he’s in the country. I get on better with him now than I have ever done I think. We’re quite close. Did you know that there’s a new 10cc box set coming out? After the endless, awful ‘Best of’ compilation CD’s that have been released, this box set is the only 10cc related product that I’ve ever been consulted on. I was really thrilled about that too.

WHAT KIND OF THINGS CAN THE FANS LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING IN THIS COLLECTION?
Lots of things! It will have live tracks and some studio rarities. There is also going to be a full DVD of clips and also the film of a BBC concert that we recorded in 1974.

I ACTUALLY SAW KEVIN PERFORM AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL WITH THE CURRENT INCARNATION OF 10CC IN MAY THIS YEAR. A VERY RARE APPEARANCE FROM KEVIN BY ALL ACCOUNTS AS IT WOULD SEEM THAT HE DOESN’T PERFORM LIVE MUCH AT ALL THESE DAYS.
Great! Did kev perform on the whole show? Was he singing or drumming?

KEV SANG ‘OLD WILD MEN’ WITH GRAHAM GOULDMAN AND THEN HE PLAYED DRUMS ON RUBBER BULLETS AT THE END ALONG WITH PAUL BURGESS PLAYING DRUMS ON ANOTHER KIT.
Wow, Paul Burgess still plays with them? He played with 10cc in the early days you know.

YEAH, HE’S STILL WITH THEM! I WAS WONDERING HOW YOU FELT ABOUT GRAHAM GOULDMAN GOING OUT AND PERFORMING UNDER THE NAME 10CC?
That’s a bit of a double edged sword really. I mean, it’s great that the name of the band is being kept alive and that the music is still being played live. I understand Graham’s need and want to go on the road and tour but maybe he could call the show, ‘Graham Gouldman of 10cc’ instead of just 10cc.

I feel that as things are, the name is quite misleading to the fans. I know that Eric still gets emails from fans who were disappointed that he wasn’t at these ‘10cc’ shows. It really gets under his skin. I’ve still got a lot of respect for Graham and he was certainly an integral part of 10cc. I used to use different tunings on my guitar in the studio. It made things much more interesting. When you’re in standard tuning your fingers naturally gravitate to the next chord in that particular progression. When you’re in a different tuning that you’re not familiar with at all, you can’t do that and the outcome can be really exciting.

The problem came when we started rehearsing songs in order to play them live. After recording the songs, I could never remember which tunings I had recorded them in in the studio. My memory was awful. That’s where Graham came in. He would hear the part and transpose it instantly and fairly effortlessly. He had a great ear for things like that.

IT STRIKES ME THAT 10CC WAS CERTAINLY A BAND THAT ENJOYED THEMSELVES AND HAD SOME FUN. YOU CAN HEAR IT IN ALL OF YOUR RECORDS. THERE ARE PARTS OF SONGS THAT ACTUALLY MAKE YOU LAUGH OUT LOUD WHEN YOU HEAR THEM.
SOME fun?! A LOT of fun! We certainly didn’t take ourselves seriously in 10cc at all and I think that it does show in all of our records.

I REMEMBER HEARING, “DON’T HANG UP” FOR THE FIRST TIME AND THAT’S ESSENTIALLY A MINI OPERETTA. THERE ARE SO MANY DIFFERENT CHANGES IN THAT SONG AND IN MANY 10CC SONGS. EACH SECTION COULD BE A SONG IN IT’S OWN RIGHT.
When it comes to songwriting, I like to see myself as a scientist and each song is a lab experiment. I really like to explore the potential of where a song could go. We were lucky in 10cc that we had two pairs of really strong songwriters.

Kev and myself and then Graham and Eric. Graham’s dad used to come out with phrases like, “Art for Art’s sake, Money for God’s sake”. Phrases like that became so firmly rooted in Graham’s mind that he would take them and turn them into songs. We used to call Graham’s dad, “Hyme the Rhyme”.

THERE IS ALSO A LOT OF CINEMATIC IMAGERY IN 10CC SONGS. WHO WERE YOUR MUSICAL AND CINEMATIC HEROES AS YOU WERE GROWING UP?
I think in a way, I was always more influenced by film than I was by music. Gene Kelly has always been a favourite actor of mine.

SO, IN 1976 AFTER EXTRAORDINARY SUCCESS WITH 10CC, YOU AND KEVIN GODLEY DECIDED TO LEAVE THE BAND. WAS IT A TOUGH DECISION TO MAKE? I GUESS PEOPLE MUST HAVE THOUGHT THAT YOU WERE MAD TO WALK AWAY FROM SUCH SUCCESS?

Maybe we were mad! I certainly don’t regret it though, it definitely felt like the right time to go. I don’t regret anything in my life. I’ve had several different careers and I’ve been very lucky. I wouldn’t change a thing.