Thursday, October 19, 2017

graham gouldman at st george’s…

Last night, I went along to St George’s, with great friends Lal and Chris, to see/hear former 10cc member Graham Gouldman perform (alongside Iain Hornal and Ciaran Jeremiah).
He was superb – playing for 90 minutes and the entire ‘set’ consisting of songs he’d written (or part-written) over the past five decades. The list of his ‘hit’ songs is incredibly impressive and will be very familiar to people of my generation(!)… they includes such titles as “For Your Love”, “Evil Hearted You” and “Heart Full of Soul” (The Yardbirds); “Bus Stop”, “Look Through Any Window” (The Hollies); “No Milk Today”, “Listen People” (Herman’s Hermits) and “Pamela, Pamela” (Wayne Fontana). In 1972, along with Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley and Lol Crème, Gouldman formed 10cc and they enjoyed a string of highly successful records, including “Rubber Bullets”, “I’m Not In Love”, “Dreadlock Holiday”, “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".
An AMAZING array of some of the most popular songs of the 1960s and 70s, in particular.

Gouldman’s status as one of the world’s leading songwriters has rightly been acknowledged with his induction into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame at a special ceremony in New York.
What was particularly good about last night’s concert was that all the songs were played acoustically (and by highly-talented, accomplished musicians) – none of your digitally-enhanced stuff for them!
As you might imagine, the evening was also interspersed with stories and anecdotes… Gouldman came across as a very ‘nice’ and ‘genuine’ bloke who continues to enjoy making music. Last night’s large and enthusiastic audience would no doubt urge him to do so for many years to come!
A brilliant evening.
Photo: Graham Gouldman (with Ciaran Jeremiah and Iain Hornal) at last night’s concert.
PS: There’s been a brilliant documentary on BBC4 (“I’m not in Love: The Story of 10cc”) that’s well worth watching – although, for some reason, it doesn’t currently seem to be available on BBC iPlayer.

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