Ah, yes, a long but interconnected tale to go with the pics of 10cc at the Brooklyn Bowl in Nashville (August 6, part of their first U.S. tour since the seventies).
Flash backwards; back in the day, as a wee lad, I stumbled across 10cc’s records and really dug into them, smart pop, kind of a post-Beatles thing, with some art rock elements that bridged the gap between the fabs and glam and new wave. Studio-based stuff, but I liked that because It was when I was experimenting with my dad’s reel to reel and a Fostex cassette “portastudio”. It was the suburbs of Chicago, though, and despite the fact they had a couple of hits and all, I didn’t know anyone else who really got them.
Flash forward some years, I toured the UK a bit, slinging my guitar, and met folks who did get them; of course, the band had a bigger footprint in the U.K. Flash forward still more (2017) – on a trip across the pond with my son Jude, he, myself, and two of those mates – Matt (Hill) and Steve (Roberts) spent a lovely afternoon touring an exhibit on Strawberry Studios in Stockport, the house that 10cc built, where the Smiths, Joy Division, Sir Paul, and others recorded.
Stockport is a quaint town, about 20 minutes outside of Manchester and the exhibit was located in the equivalent of the chamber of commerce, but it was well curated across the aforementioned artists, plus stuff like the Gizmotron and a picture of the secretary who famously recited “big boys don’t cry.”
Flash forward STILL more and I’m back where I started this missive, at the show in the Music City, a teenager once more. Graham Gouldman, a veritable rock and roll Cary Grant, was the only band member dating back to the founding four but there were two fellows from the second iteration (Rick Fenn, Paul Burgess) and two stellar additions; Keith Hayman, Iain Hornal). Gouldman wrote hits for the Yardbirds and Hollies, as well, but the band were all fine songwriters and the set list included stuff he wrote w/Eric Stewart, as well as tunes by Godley & Crème. They did the hits (ala ‘I’m Not in Love’ and ‘Things We Do For Love’), the deep cuts (ala ‘Old Wild Men’ or ‘Second Sitting for the Last Supper’) and the unexpected (an acapella ‘Donna’). This iteration of the band was tight, with everyone in good voice.
Brooklyn Bowl is a standing venue, and I bopped along with the super fans among me, middle aged plus folks who clearly knew all the tunes. But, I also noticed two well-dressed women in their mid-twenties in the front row, to the right of me, dancing, smiling, and singing every word. I wondered about that. Maybe they heard about the band from an older parent or uncle, or through YouTube or Guardians of the Galaxy or just digging through dusty record shops for old vinyl and potentially happening upon the records because they had cool covers. Who knows? I love seeing that, though, and it’s cool when veteran bands carry their “radio hits” with them, there is a shared happiness, that crosses generations and appears when those tunes are played. I’m not sure how that translates to today, but maybe it doesn’t matter. It was a great night, and somehow tied all these threads of life together – like a song, really. The best songs do that, you know.
Doug Hoekstra 