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It''s rare, but every so often a group of artists will move from project to project and make each one a success. 10cc are one such collection of talent.
Graham Gouldman and Eric Stewart had hits in the 60s with the group The Mindbenders. Gouldman also had a sizeable amount of songwriting credits to his name including For Your Love and Heart Full of Soul for the Yardbirds, plus No Milk Today for Herman''s Hermits.
Eric left the Mindbenders and teamed up with Lol Creme and Kevin Godley in 1970 under the name Hotlegs and delivered a UK number two hit in July of the same year, Neanderthal Man. Graham would later join them for a tour.
Determined to stay in the Manchester area, Eric set up Strawberry Studios. As well as recording established artists, Kevin and Lol wrote Donna, a tongue in cheek parody of late 50s bubblegum music. Bubblegum Guru Jonathan King was impressed and released it on his own record label in 1972 and took it to number two in the UK charts.
A year later, 10cc enjoyed their first number one with Rubber Bullets, a song from the same parodic mould as Donna.
1974 brought further hits and proof of the versatilty as musicians with their rock based Silly Love and Wall Street Shuffle hits. But perhaps their best known hit came in 1975 with the timeless ballad I''m Not In Love.
Godley and Creme left to persue solo careers in 1976 and Stuart Tosh (ex Pilot), Rick Fenn and Tony O''Malley were recruited as replacments as the hits continued.
The bluesy Good Morning Judge in 1977 was followed a year later by a reggae track, Dreadlock Holiday which seemed to capture the sound of the summer of ''78.
Solo production projects followed in 1979 for Graham and Eric, the latter producing an album for Manchester band Sad Cafe.
Godley and Creme had hits with Under Your Thumb and Wedding Bells in 1981, with a further hit in 1985 with Cry. Despite chart success, their efforts were mainly concentrated towards innovative video production for other artists and they still remain much sought after as directors.
10cc continued with some of their best work in 1983 including Feel The Love, which surprisingly failed to make the charts.
Graham Gouldman returned to chart fame in 1987, teaming up with Andrew Gold to form Wax and hit single Bridge to Your Heart.