It could be argued that Graham Gouldman has hit that rare, sweet spot of fame. Over the last six decades he has written a string of huge global hits for major rock and pop groups. Songs that everybody knows. He is the founding member of 10cc, a band which has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide and he is still performing sell out tours in his mid-seventies. And yet, he can probably still go to the supermarket without being recognised.
“I don’t think people are expecting to see someone they’ve just seen play a sell-out concert at the Albert Hall to be in Waitrose or Tesco’s or whatever have you,” he agrees. “Sometimes you walk into a restaurant or a club or something and your song comes on and no one knows you actually wrote it or had anything to do with it at all, but it’s still a very nice experience when that happens.”
Gouldman has been inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame and has been honoured with various other prestigious industry awards and fellowships. He recently collaborated and performed with mega stars such as Brian May (releasing the single Floating in Heaven to mark the unveiling of the first images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope) and joined Ringo Starr’s All Starr Band for arena tours in 2018, which Graham says is “one of the most enjoyable things I’ve ever done.”
His Instagram feed is peppered with throwback images of him with the likes of Joey Ramone during a session producing and recording, and Hank Marvin, who inspired many boys to take up guitar in the 1950’s and 60’s. A recent post sees him shooting the breeze with ABBA’s Bjorn Ulvaeus in Stockholm.
You might or might not know Gouldman’s face, but there can’t be many people on earth who haven’t heard his music. The singer, songwriter and musician is behind songs such as Pamela, Pamela (Wayne Fontana), For Your Love, Evil Hearted You and Heart Full of Soul (The Yardbirds), Bus Stop and Look Through Any Window (The Hollies), No Milk Today and Listen People (Herman’s Hermits), and Tallyman for Jeff Beck.
Graham was born in Broughton in May 1946 and was given his first guitar by a cousin at the age of 11. He took to it immediately. His parents Betty and Hymie fully encouraged his musical talent – occasionally even suggesting lyrics and song titles.
Graham played with various bands from the age of 15 before forming The Mockingbirds in 1965 with Kevin Godley on drums. Columbia records rejected Graham’s first composition, ‘For Your Love’ which subsequently became a huge hit for The Yardbirds. Years later, backstage at a festival, Robert Plant thanked him as that was the song that got him through the audition to join Led Zeppelin.
In 1972, along with Godley, Eric Stewart, and Lol Creme, he formed 10cc whose Top 10 hits include three No 1s – RubberBullets, I’m Not In Love and Dreadlock Holiday – along with Donna, Art For Art’s Sake, Good Morning Judge, The Things We Do For Love, I’m Mandy Fly Me, and The Wall Street Shuffle.
In the 1980’s he created Wax with the late Andrew Gold, and sold more than two
million albums worldwide, helped by hit singles Bridge to Your Heart, and Right Between the Eyes.
His songs appeal to successive generations who discover them through soundtracks on blockbuster movies and TV series. ‘I’m Not In Love’ is lead track on Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, while videos of that song have been viewed more that 30 million times on YouTube and it has been played on US radio more than five million times.
‘Dreadlock Holiday’ appears in the soundtracks of both The Social Network, and the Guy Ritchie film Snatch. (And now you’ll be singing “I don’t like cricket, oh no…I love it” all day.)
‘The Things We Do for Love’ was the lead track for Ricky Gervais’s After Life series 3 (2022), is in the movie soundtrack for Halloween II (2009) and has been played on the radio more than 3.5 million times.
“The audiences that come to the 10cc concerts are now made up of three generations,” says Graham. “You get the…let’s call it more mature audience, you get their children, and now their children are coming too. It’s lovely to see. Maybe social media has had a lot to do with it, but we’re definitely reaching more people than we ever did.”
Regarding song writing, Paul McCartney one said that songs sometimes just came to him almost fully formed. Has that ever happened to Graham?
“Every song writer will tell you pretty much the same thing,” he tells us. “The best songs come really quickly and even if it’s not the whole song, it’ll be great chunks of it. Sometimes I’ve been lucky enough to have the lyrics as well as the music coming in but it’s a mystery how that happens. I don’t want to delve too much into it, but sometimes it’s almost as if the song already exists in your subconscious and the right circumstances bring it out.”
It’s the enduring popularity of Graham’s music that led to the formation of his Heart Full of Songs project – which he takes on tour between 10cc’s sell-out, bi-annual UK tours.
Graham formed Heart Full of Songs nine years ago, purely for the pleasure of playing his back catalogue in their simplest form – acoustically. The format became so popular that Heart Full of Songs now tours the UK every two years, along with concerts and festival appearances in the UK and Europe. They last toured the UK in September 2021 and are returning with a 15-date tour in March 2023.
The semi-acoustic four-piece band comprises Graham, 10cc live band members Iain Hornal and Keith Hayman, and Dave Cobby. Audiences get to enjoy a broad spread of Graham’s song-writing catalogue performed by the composer himself along with tracks from his acclaimed solo albums; And Another Thing, Love And Work, Play Nicely And Share and 2020’s Modesty Forbids.
Graham must still be getting a decent return on songs he wrote decade ago, so does he think he will ever stop touring? “Well, I say obviously I won’t stop, I’ll be stopped,” he laughs. “I’ve no intention of stopping while I still enjoy it. If I ever stop enjoying it, then I will stop because I think audiences can tell if you’re up there just going through the motions and I never want to do that, so I’ll just carry on for as long as I can.”
Fans could be in luck there as both Graham’s mother Betty and Grandma Anne both lived past the age of 100, so long may it continue. But what is it that he loves most about touring? It can’t be all glamour.
“It’s certainly not!” agrees Graham. “The travelling aspect of it can be quite tiring. The easiest part is actually playing the music that I love and a lot of which I created, and playing with fellow musicians and very good friends. There’s a lovely atmosphere in the band and that sort of vibe transmits to the audience They can tell that we enjoy playing together and the camaraderie between us.
“But seeing the joy on people’s faces listening to these songs is what makes it all worthwhile. The fact that they know the music and it resonates with them. Sometimes I look out into the audience and see people crying and I always think ‘well that’s a job done’. You know that you’ve touched a nerve. You’ve bought back some sweet, or maybe not so sweet memories. Who knows?”
Heart Full of Songs Tour Dates
- Monday 6 March BURY ST EDMUNDS – Apex Arts Centre
- Thursday 9 March BUXTON – Pavilion Arts Centre
- Friday 10th March HOLMFIRTH – Civic
- Sunday 12th March STAMFORD – Corn Exchange
- Monday 13th March LYTHAM ST ANNE’s – Lowther Pavilion
- Tuesday 14th March SOUTHPORT – The Atkinson
- Saturday 18th March BASINGSTOKE – Haymarket
- Monday 20th March LINCOLN – Drill Hall
- Tuesday 21st March SHREWSBURY – Theatre Severn
- Thursday 23rd March MANCHESTER / SALFORD – The Lowry
Tickets are available HERE
For further information on GRAHAM GOULDMAN, check out his Website and follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
