10cc: like the Beach Boys doing Frank Zappa by way of Reeves and Mortimer

Stockport art rock band 10cc may be best known for silky ballad I’m Not In Love and jolly singalong The Things We Do for Love, but this absorbing Royal Albert Hall show demonstrated the veteran band’s underlying – and very English – eccentricity. 

Formed in 1972, the original iteration of the group splintered after four years at the height of their success when Kevin Godley and Lol Creme left to form a duo. Bass player and singer Graham Gouldman is the only founding member who has remained throughout the years. But fans in London were treated to a reunion of sorts when Godley emerged from the wings towards the end for a handful of tracks. It was his first guest appearance with the band for a decade, and it provided purists with a 5cc shot of nostalgia.

Not that 10cc’s music fits easily into the “nostalgia” bracket. With his neat grey hair and smart blue sports jacket, 77-year-old Gouldman may have looked like a retired headmaster from a vaguely progressive school but 10cc’s songs were too intricate and shape-shifting – too requiring of attention by band and audience alike – to sound old.

The tracks – played, until Godley’s appearance, by Gouldman’s five-piece band – were characterised by tight grooves and mutating structures. Art for Art’s Sake from 1975 started with a proggy Pink Floyd guitar intro courtesy of long-term member Rick Fenn before its Steely Dan-like rhythm was interrupted by a rapid-fire scat vocal interlude by Gouldman. This was music that was intelligent without being intellectual – a tricky act to pull off.

The Dean and I and Clockwork Creep showed just how structurally complicated and lyrically surreal some of 10cc’s oeuvre is. The latter song is about a conversation between an airplane and a bomb hidden in its hold. It sounded like the Beach Boys doing Frank Zappa by way of Reeves and Mortimer. Indeed, you could well imagine the comedy duo also singing that “life is a minestrone” while death “is a cold lasagne”. 10cc embodied the kind of musical whimsy that Paul McCartney’s Wings could only ever flirt with, even at their most playful. Occasionally, though, whimsy slipped into parody. The cod reggae of Dreadlock Holiday and the Jailhouse Rock vibe of Rubber Bullets were a little too end-of-pier for me. 

Godley teased us. His face appeared on a screen and he “sang” pre-recorded vocals to Somewhere in Hollywood. It was artfully done, as befits a man who left 10cc to direct music videos such as Duran Duran’s Girls on Film. The film suggested that Godley wasn’t present. But then the 78-year-old walked on and sang 1974’s Old Wild Men. Cracks of frailty could be heard as he sang, “Old men of rock and roll came bearing music/ Where are they now?”. He then performed Godley & Creme’s song Cry live for the first time ever. It was moving, and Godley seemed genuinely taken aback by the positive reaction.

Next year marks the 50^th anniversary of 10cc’s best album The Original Soundtrack. Could Godley join the fold for more shows? Who knows. But even in their dotage 10cc are a band full of surprises.

Until tonight. Tickets: 10cc.world