Which Las Vegas frontman recently covered 10cc’s ‘I’m Not in Love’ alongside Chrissie Hynde?
“I can’t even begin to tell you. I know that The Pretenders covered ‘I’m Not in Love’ in the ‘90s. I’m not going to do very well at this!”
WRONG. The Killers’ Brandon Flowers sang it with Hynde on her ‘Duets’ album.
“Really?! Our publishers never tell us anything! That’s brilliant. I liked The Pretenders’ version; I just love Chrissie Hynde’s voice.”
“It’s hard to say what the secret of ‘I’m Not in Love’’s enduring success is. There are certain songs that I’ve written, or co-written, that are imbued with extra magic that on the surface doesn’t appear to be there. Somehow they have this special quality that makes them different from other songs that you might think are equally good or even better. ‘I’m Not in Love’ has this hypnotic quality about it, particularly the opening chords, which are just beautiful. When it appeared in Guardians of the Galaxy, that gave it a boost, particularly with a younger audience.”
Which of these rappers hasn’t sampled 10cc: Doja Cat, Little Simz, or J Dilla?
“Oh, Little Simz!”
CORRECT. Doja Cat sampled ‘I’m Not in Love’ for her 2023 track ‘Shutcho’, while the late J Dilla used 10cc’s 1974 cut ‘The Worst Band in the World’ as the basis for ‘Workinonit’.
“Ah, you see, I’m down with the kids, man! [Laughs] I don’t mind these things. It’s great if it works artistically, and it also helps to bring the music of 10cc to a different audience that wouldn’t have normally bothered with it.”
Any modern acts you’re enjoying?
“I listen to the Spotify Top 20, and there’s always good stuff in it. The person I think of immediately is Billie Eilish. I like her voice, songs, and the production is really good.”
You produced the Ramones’ 1981 album ‘Pleasant Dreams’. For what reason did Johnny Ramone fall out with Joey Ramone during its recoding?
“Johnny nicked Joey’s girlfriend!”
CORRECT.
“HOORAY! [Laughs] When the Ramones approached me to produce the album, I asked: ‘Why me?’. But they had a connection with me because they loved the Beatles invasion, in particular the songs I’d written for fellow ‘60s rockers The Yardbirds. I said: ‘Look, I’m flattered but I think we should just do two tracks to see how it goes and not commit to a whole album’. We went to New York and I just carried on doing it. I know Johnny hated that album, but he never said anything while we were recording it. It looks good on my CV, doesn’t it? After recording in New York, I brought Joey over to Stockport to do his vocals at my Strawberry Studios. I spent a lot of time with him going out to dinner. People were attracted by him. He was very charming. I’ve got fond memories of him.”
Which LCD Soundsystem banger namechecks 10cc?
“Blimey! I’ve no idea!”
WRONG. Their 2002 debut single ‘Losing My Edge’.
“I would have never known that! I warned you I wasn’t going to be very good at this. I’ll have to listen to ‘Losing My Edge’.”
James Murphy also used ‘I’m Not in Love’ as LCD Soundsystem’s live walk-out, and outro, music.
“I never knew that. Nobody tells me anything! [Laughs] I’m only the songwriter, why would anybody bother?! The most unexpected fan of 10cc was probably Axl Rose. He said ‘I’m Not in Love’ ‘messes with my life, man!’”.
You saw your first ever cricket match this year, nearly 47 years after 10cc’s ‘Dreadlock Holiday’ (which boasts the lyric: ‘I don’t like cricket – I love it’) topped the charts. You watched England vs West Indies at The Oval, but what was the final score?
“[Laughs] I have not the foggiest idea! Actually, rain stopped play and I had to leave early and – to my shame! – I didn’t look the score up. But I did enjoy it.”
WRONG. England won by seven wickets, to win the series 3-0.
“There’s a room at The Oval with a red button on the wall. When you hit it, it plays the chorus of ‘Dreadlock Holiday’. What other band in the world has that honour? It’s the song that keeps on giving.”
“‘I don’t like cricket – I love it’ came about because I was talking to a guy on holiday in Jamacia about sports and I asked: ‘Do you like cricket?’ He replied: ‘No’, and as I looked at him perplexed, he added: ‘Oh no… I love it’, and it gave me the line. Every time someone asks me if I like cricket, I always reply: ‘Oh no… I love it’.”
You co-wrote ‘I’ve Got You’ for McFly’s 2005 ‘Wonderland’ album. Name all four members of McFly.
“Ugh, god! [Long pause] I’m not looking it up…er, I’ve just gone quiet! [Laughs] Tom Fletcher, Danny and…I can’t remember the others.”
CORRECT-ISH. HALF A POINT. You penned the track with Tom Fletcher and Danny Jones; yet you missed Harry Judd and Dougie Poynter.
“Do I get a prize for all this?! Working with McFly was an act of pure nepotism, because my son Louis Bloom, who is now the president of Island Records UK, was their A&R at Universal Records, and it was his idea to put me together with them. It was a risk, putting yer dad up to work with the band, but we were on the same wavelength and I enjoyed working with them. It was in a Lindsay Lohan film [2006’s Just My Luck] and I remember going with Louis to see the film.”
What colour is the car on the cover of 10cc’s 1976 album ‘How Dare You!’?
“It’s a MG car, isn’t it? Do I get any points for that? Is it red?”
CORRECT.
“I’m smashing it now, aren’t I? I’m on fire! [Laughs]”
Yup: scorchio! It’s the final album to feature 10cc’s original line-up, as Kevin Godley and Lol Crème departed to form Godley & Crème shortly afterwards.
“‘How Dare You!’ was where I felt the dark clouds were gathering regarding Kevin and Lol. It was a real shame and something I’ve always felt bad about, because I thought we could have gone on to great things. Kevin and I have worked together a lot since and always remained friends. We’ve talked about what we should have done and how we could have handled it better, but it’s obviously too late now. So ‘How Dare You!’ has some very good stuff on it, but there’s a cloud over it for me.”
Pre-10cc, you wrote the 1965 single ‘Evil Hearted You’ for the Yardbirds as a teenager. Which language did cult indie band the Pixies release a cover of the song in?
“I didn’t even know the Pixies had covered it, let alone in what language. I’ll take a wild guess and say… French?”
EQUIVOCADO. Spanish.
“Wow! I’ve gotta look that one up as well. I was a massive Yardbirds fan. ‘For Your Love’ was the first song of mine they recorded; which I’d written before our publisher placed it with them. Then I wrote ‘Heart Full of Soul’ and ‘Evil Hearted You’ with them in mind. The Yardbirds and Herman’s Hermits were major bands when I was growing up, so to have songs recorded by both felt amazing. I wrote ‘East West’ for Herman’s Hermits, and Morrissey later covered it and wrote an extra verse to it. I met him once at the Haçienda, but we’re both shy, so I don’t know if we exchanged more than two words! But I loved his version. It’s a very Mancunian song, and he hooked into that.”
You composed the terrace anthem ‘Forever Everton’. Can you identify their former home ground that is mentioned in its lyrics?
“Pfft! You’re asking the wrong person. Remember: I’d never even been to a cricket match! My dad was a massive Manchester United fan and used to take me to Old Trafford when I was a kid, but I couldn’t have been less interested! My sons are both mad fans, so the football gene obviously skipped a generation.”
WRONG. Goodison Park – where it also used to be played before every match.
“We also recorded a Man City anthem [‘City’, AKA ‘The Boys in Blue’], but it was strictly business that I betrayed my roots! [Laughs] When we started Strawberry Studios [in 1968], we were the house band. Kevin Godley and I wrote a 2006 song called ‘Son Of Man’, where we described those days as ‘working on any old piece of shit’. Not that those records were shit, he quickly added! But we would do anything because it brought business into the studio and it was enjoyable. 10cc doing football records sounds ridiculous, but at least they’ll end up as good football records. It’s unsurprising to hear that Noel Gallagher is a fan of ‘The Boys in Blue’, because he likes anything associated with Man City!”
Who were your teammates when you appeared on Never Mind The Buzzcocks in 2000?
“Are you prone to giving me the answers at all? Would a fiver help change your mind?” [Laughs]
WRONG. Comedian/regular team captain Phill Jupitus and bratty pop duo Daphne & Celeste.
“That’s it! The host, Mark Lamarr, was absolutely hilarious – they had to cut out most of what he said.”
Daphne & Celeste achieved notoriety when they were viciously bottled off stage at Reading Festival in 2000 after merely two songs. Any memorably bad 10cc gigs stick in your mind?
“The worst gig for the band was Knebworth festival in 1976 when we appeared with the Rolling Stones. Mysteriously, the PA went down, which delayed everything, but worked out in their favour because they went on when it was dark – and they’d wanted to use their lights. Now I’m not implying that the Stones would do such a dastardly thing, am I? It was an enormous crowd. You looked out from the stage and could see people to the horizon. Then some guy jumped onstage and started masturbating. No idea how he got up there – but he came and went!”
Which, er, leads us coincidentally to…
Bonus question! For an extra half-point: 10cc fabricated a story that they acquired their band name from the average amount of semen a man ejaculates. But what is the average time it takes a man to come during intercourse?
“Sorry, but how can there be an average time?! It might take someone a minute and another person 10 seconds, and out of a survey of 500 people, I have to work out what it boils down to? I don’t know…five minutes?”
CORRECT. 5-7 minutes.
“[Raucous laughter] OH FUCKING HELL! I’m a mathematician, already!”
The less-exciting truth was that now-disgraced impersario Jonathan King chose the name after dreaming he saw “10cc The Best Band in the World” emblazoned on the Hammersmith Odean.
“It’s the most irritating question because every fucker asks: ‘Where did you get the band name from?’. When someone told us the average amount of semen ejaculated was nine cubic centimetres, we went, ‘Whoo-hoo! We can say that’s where we got the name from! We’re one cc above average!’”
The verdict: 4/10
“What’s the average male…score?!”
10cc tour the UK from March 4 to July 1. Tickets are available here. Graham’s career-spanning semi-acoustic show ‘Heart Full of Song’ tours from October 8, with tickets available here