Images - Tony Woolway
He’s a national treasure that most concert-goers today would not have heard of, and whilst people of a certain age would be aware of the great band he co-founded, 10cc, they would hardly have known the number of hits written for others throughout his staggering musical career.
For Graham Gouldman’s songwriting pedigree puts him fairly and squarely at the top of the list when discussing the very best songwriters this country’s produced, and he continues to do so with a quality for melody, highlighting a craft that is sadly absent today.
With a new album, ‘I Have Notes’ due to be released in July, he’s certainly not resting on his laurels with his recordings hardly short of talent with Brian May, Hank Marvin, Albert Lee and Ringo Starr, among others, all featured. One song, his current single ‘We’re Alive’ co-written with Nashville-based singer/songwriter Beth Nielsen Chapman and songwriter/guitarist Gordon Kennedy, was included in this evening’s quite stunning set.
In between classic songs like ‘For Your Love’, ‘Bus Stop’ and ‘Heart Full of Soul’, hits for legendary Sixties bands The Hollies and The Yardbirds, Gouldman informed the very attentive audience on the birth of these iconic songs, lovingly revisited by his mostly acoustic band mates.
Gouldman reminisced about about his career, the input of his father, especially in the writing of ‘No Milk Today’ a worldwide hit for Herman’s Hermits, the inspiration coming after his father had noticed the build up of milk bottles on a neighbouring doorstep and suggested it would make an interesting theme for a song.
Gouldman also talked of his great friendship and collaboration with American singer/songwriter Andrew Gold, now sadly passed, with Gouldman and is talented band performing a stunning version of ‘Bridge to Your Heart’, a 1987 hit for the pop duo Wax.
No performance would be complete without playing one of the greatest hits of the Seventies, 10cc’s ‘I’m Not In Love’, a song that along with the likes of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, is considered one of British Rock and Pop’s great masterpieces.
In an evening of great nostalgia, exceptional songwriting and quality musicianship, it was quite simply the best damp, cold Monday evening ever spent witnessing the best of British and a true musical legend.
Tony Woolway