Latest news with #GrahamGouldman
Times
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
10cc review — a royal success from the court jesters of prog
A grand courtyard of red-brick Tudor splendour (the extremely civilised Hampton Court Palace Festival, with a cushion-bellied Henry VIII roaming the gardens) seemed a fitting locale for 10cc, the court jesters of Seventies art rock. Where their peers traded in po-faced prog, cult glam and cocaine experimentation, their speciality was in boogie-based collage rock, amalgamating strains of blue-eyed surf pop, vaudevillian operetta, new wave, calypso, and colourful semi-comic storytelling and metaphor. Life is a minestrone and death a cold lasagne, they famously posited in 1975, like a profoundly existential edition of Nadiya Hussain's Cook Once, Eat Twice. And you know what, if you thought about it for long enough on the frankly smashing drugs knocking around back then, it kind of was. Here, they were clearly a reduced outfit, with only the bassist Graham Gouldman remaining from the original line-up, his decaying vocals bolstered by his co-frontman Iain Hornal and the long-standing guitarist Rick Fenn. But like the jesters of old, their opening few songs spoke truth to power even at 50 years' remove. The hyper-capitalist parody The Wall Street Shuffle is still powerfully prescient and the wiry, industry-skewering Art for Art's Sake, with its rock-as-commodity chorus of 'Art for art's sake, money for God's sake', could be Spotify's theme song. The satire may have been ageless — witness a bloodthirsty boogie-woogie National Guard loading up on Rubber Bullets, then turn on Newsnight — but the music was firmly nostalgia-zone. Bar one 2024 Gouldman solo song — the languid cruise ship ballad Floating in Heaven featuring Brian May, who was (dramatic pause) 'not here tonight' — nothing was dated post-1978. Dreadlock Holiday in particular, their infamous cod reggae tune about being mugged by Jamaican locals, sat in the realm of 'things they got away with in the Seventies' — although the crowd, themselves largely in their seventies, lapped it up. The overriding sense was one of envious amazement that such imaginative, shapeshifting stuff was ever mainstream-adjacent. The Things We Do for Love drenched a classic Beatles-style doe-eyed doo-wop in unutterable anguish, while Clockwork Creep unravelled the dialogue between a bomb and the passenger jet it's about to blow up to the sound of operatic music-hall art pop with Disney whistles on. And though there were undoubtedly sags in the set and a covers-act sheen to the affair, there were also sublime passages, where the airline jingle turned dreampop drama I'm Mandy Fly Me gave way to the gorgeous phantom harmonies of I'm Not in Love, or when the full band gathered centre stage for a stunning barbershop take on their debut single, Donna. In philosophical dining terms: mostly minestrone.★★★★☆ 10cc play the Sign of the Times Festival, Herts, on Jun 20 and the Brit Festival, Cheshire, on Jul 6,
Telegraph
04-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
‘I don't like cricket' singer enjoys first match 47 years later
The rock singer whose band sang 'I don't like cricket, I love it' has enjoyed watching his first match 47 years later. Nearly five decades after 10cc's hit song Dreadlock Holiday, Graham Gouldman watched England romp to a 3-0 series clean sweep over the West Indies at The Oval. The reggae song was co-written by Gouldman and has become a regular feature at cricket matches since its 1978 release. Speaking to BBC Three Counties Radio, Gouldman, 79, said: 'After today's experience I can say 'I don't like cricket, I absolutely love it. 'I've had a really lovely day really, enjoyed it... great atmosphere, great people. 'I just had a wonderful time.' A founding member of the band from Stockport, Gouldman previously told how the lyrics for the song came after speaking to a Jamaican man on holiday. When he asked him if he liked cricket, he replied: 'Oh no… I love it.' The song is a firm fan favourite among both cricket players and fans. Phil Tufnell, the former England bowler, said it was the 'soundtrack to my cricket career'. He told Gouldman: 'Wherever we was touring, it was always on. 'Also I'm pretty sure when I came out of the second jungle [on I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here] that was the tune I came out to.' The singer even teased a sequel song could be in the offing, when he was asked if he could write another hit about attending his first match. He said: 'When you have had a nice experience like this I'm sure somewhere, at some point, something will crop up in a song.' The band 10cc had five consecutive UK top-10 albums between 1972 and 1978. Twelve of their singles reached the UK Top 40, including three that were chart-toppers. Their other hits include Rubber Bullets and I'm Not in Love.
BBC News
04-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
10cc star Graham Gouldman sees first match and does love cricket
A rock musician who co-wrote a song with the lyrics "I don't like cricket - I love it" has just gone to his first match - nearly 47 years after the hit was released. Graham Gouldman, a founding member of the band 10cc, had never seen live cricket, despite the 1978 hit "Dreadlock Holiday" being adopted as an anthem by many fans of the with the help of BBC Three Counties Radio, Gouldman saw England beat the West Indies in Tuesday's one-day international at The Oval."After today's experience I can say 'I don't like cricket, I absolutely love it'," said Gouldman, 79. He added: "I've had a really lovely day really, enjoyed it... great atmosphere, great people. "I just had a wonderful time." Asked if he would attempt to write another hit about his first match, he said: "When you have had a nice experience like this I'm sure somewhere, at some point. something will crop up in a song." He is the only original member in the current line-up of 10cc, which formed in Stockport in band had five consecutive UK top-ten albums and twelve singles in the UK Top 40, including three has said "Dreadlock Holiday" was inspired by a man he met on holiday in Jamaica. Since it hit number one in several countries, including the UK, the song has been played at countless was described by former England cricketer Phil Tufnell as the "soundtrack to my cricket career"."Wherever we was touring, it was always on," he told Gouldman."Also I'm pretty sure when I came out of the second jungle [on I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here] that was the tune I came out to." Fans told BBC Three Counties presenter Justin Dealey - who helped organise Gouldman's day at The Oval - they could hardly believe it was the musician's first match. Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
