Interview: 10cc's Graham Gouldman on forthcoming gig in Leeds packed with classic songs
One of the greatest songwriters of all-time may still be famous for all those great 10cc hits but he’s happy to admit the band had only one thing in common – a love of The Beatles.
Speaking to the Harrogate Advertiser as his current Heart Full of Songs tour prepares to swing Leeds’ way, Graham Gouldman said his fellow legendary 10cc members; Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, were often coming from different directions, except when it came to the Fab Four.
"I’ve always been influenced by so many different types of music, like the rest of 10cc,” he says.
"The chemistry between the four of us was unique.
"We worked so well together.
"But our only common influence was The Beatles.
"The Beatles’ songwriting and production values were a big part of what 10cc were about.”
Now a youthful 78, Gouldman’s Heart Full of Songs tour features an expert semi-acoustic band performing songs from a career that has reached as far and long as Jagger, Dylan and McCartney.
As a teenager in the Swinging Sixties, Gouldman wrote hits for the likes of Yardbirds, the Hollies and Herman's Hermits.
His impressive CV eventually won him a place in the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
“When I was boy, I was the right age at the right time to be listening to the Everly Brothers and Little Richard and Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry and Cliff and The Shadows.
“That stuff becomes part of your DNA.
"A lot of us in that generation have written songs that have stood the test of time.”
Harrogate music fans contemplating getting tickets for Heart Full of Songs at Leeds City Varieties on Sunday, March 16 or Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music on Saturday, March 15 can expect to hear virtually the entire history of rock music in one show.
For Your Love, Heart Full of Soul, Look Through Any Window, I'm Not in Love, Dreadlock Holiday...the hits from Graham Gouldman’s golden pen go on and on.
"I’m not the star of the show, the songs are,” Graham tells me.
For tickets, visit: https://www.thegigcartel.com/Artists-profiles/10ccs-Graham-Gouldman.htm