10cc: ‘One guy told me that I'm Not in Love destroyed his marriage'

Telegraph

14-02-2025

Graham Gouldman is remembering a review of 10cc's 1975 number one hit I'm Not in Love. 'Like a turd floating down a river of s---. Or something along those lines,' he chuckles.
Whoever wrote that critique, however, is a voice in the wilderness. The art rockers broke new ground with this six-minute piece of shimmeringly ethereal pop that has become one of the best-loved songs of all time, and is now being re-released as a single for Valentine's Day. It is 10cc's Bohemian Rhapsody, or their Life On Mars? It's the one song they will always be known for, whether they like it or not.
'It is a real shame, because we did so many great things that were so different,' says the 78-year-old who is joined, via Zoom, by ex-bandmate Kevin Godley, 79, from his home near Dublin.
'I can't get away from it,' shrugs Godley. 'People come up to you and you know what they're going to say, that it reminds them of their first relationship or the love of their life. Although I met this guy who said it broke up his marriage. Someone told me that Bryan Ferry was driving when he heard it on the radio and pulled over to listen to it. He thought it was the most extraordinary thing he'd heard for ages.'
'I met Steve Davis, the snooker player,' adds Gouldman, rather less glamorously, 'and he said he nearly crashed his car because he was so enamoured with it.'
10cc were formed by Gouldman and Godley, along with Lol Creme and Eric Stewart, out of the ashes of a band called Hotlegs who scored a hit with the experimental Neanderthal Man in 1970. All four were musicians and songwriters, with no obvious frontman – something which helped define them.
A string of hits followed, including the number-one Rubber Bullets, before I'm Not in Love, which was written by Stewart and Gouldman and took several days to complete. 'It was exhausting and boring as s---,' says Godley. Though the record company thought it too long, and the band didn't know what to make of it, everyone seemed to think they had a hit on their hands.
They were right. Critics (generally) raved, using words like 'soaring', 'lush' and 'beautiful', and record buyers agreed. Within weeks of its release in May it was number one and stayed at the top of the hit parade for two weeks. It also became a worldwide smash, enabling them to discover that holy grail of pop, breaking America. Suddenly, their previously hallowed art-school credentials were misunderstood.
'We supported Slade, God!' eyerolls Godley. 'I mean, they're great, but what the f--- were we doing? We were from another universe,' he says.
Despite the success of both the song and the album from which it was taken (The Original Soundtrack), Godley and Creme departed the following year to undertake a project around the Gizmo (a machine that enabled an electric guitar to mimic orchestral instruments), which the pair invented. While they originally intended to return to 10cc, it never happened.
'Maybe it's a very northern thing,' says Godley, reflecting on the attitude of 10cc's remaining members. ''[It was like] You're either in the group, or you're out of the group, lads.'
'But things were getting a little bit tedious anyway, and we weren't on the same musical path as much as we had been. There were differences of opinion.'
'Things changed dramatically afterwards,' explains Gouldman. 'We'd lost half our creative team, but we had commercial success. Kevin and I have talked about this quite a lot, and we could have handled things better. A shame, a real shame. I think we could have gone on to do much more.'
Godley and Creme became a successful pop duo and video producers, while Gouldman and Stewart had more hits and reached number one again with Dreadlock Holiday in 1978, a song which is considered a little problematic today. Based partly on Gouldman's experience while on holiday in Barbados, it deals with a white man running into trouble with a group of locals. The song is now often considered stereotypical in its depiction of African-Caribbeans.
'People misunderstand it,' says Gouldman patiently. 'Basically it's about a white person trying to emulate West Indian cool. But yes, listening to the lyrics now, I'm surprised it is still played on the radio. But no West Indian person that I've met has ever said anything negative about it.'
Along with Creme, the pair were born into Jewish families, Gouldman in Salford and Godley in Prestwich, and though Stewart is not Jewish, they are often described as the most successful Jewish band in UK history. 'We used to refer to ourselves as three yids and a yok,' laughs Gouldman. But they deny ever experiencing any antisemitism.
'I think because we're in the music business – and I'm not saying it wouldn't happen today – but I've never come across antisemitism throughout all my time in the industry,' he says. 'Musicians tend to be very accepting – we're artists, darling! Although, of course, our Jewishness affects who we are and what we created.'
Godley agrees: 'I don't think of myself as Jewish. I think of myself as Jew-ish. There's a distinction. It never really occurred to me.
'My parents kept a kosher home,' recalls Gouldman. 'I used to go to synagogue with my dad. I got barmitzvahed, and then that gradually faded out, as it does with all Jewish boys. You get other interests, if you know what I mean…
'I didn't really care for any of it,' says Godley. 'My religion was art and music. I didn't give a damn about what I was.'
10cc fizzled out as an entity in 1983, but both Gouldman and Godley still make music, and the band has reunited briefly in the past. But could 10cc ever properly reform?
'No, no,' says Godley. 'Graham and I have worked together. We did briefly feel the love for about eight hours, and then it was gone.'
'But,' Gouldman quickly qualifies, 'I'm really pleased that out of the split we retained a really nice artistic and personal relationship.'
Neither, however, remain in touch with Creme or Stewart. Godley and Creme's partnership ended at the end of the 1980s, while Gouldman and Stewart's relationship broke down soon afterwards – though Godley did bump into Creme a few years ago and it was all very cordial.
Despite three number one singles and five top 10 albums, 10cc are rarely mentioned with the same hushed reverence as other big 1970s bands. Gouldman thinks he knows why: 'We didn't have a front man. Whoever sang the song the best got the job. There was less of an identity in that way.'
Godley agrees: 'Making music videos brought home how important that visual component is, and we didn't have it. Queen, Roxy, Bowie were all incredibly visual. We never looked completely at home. We were just four guys.'
The influence of 10cc, however, can still be felt. 'I meet lots of bands who say we were a massive influence on what they do, The Feeling for one,' says Gouldman. 'We've inspired people to be a bit more adventurous.' And then there's that song which we are still talking about five decades later.
'I think we can be proud of it,' beams Gouldman.
'Very much so,' sighs Godley. 'I just wish I'd written it.'