Review: 10cc Bridgewater Hall, Manchester (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Review: 10cc Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

3:21pm Thursday 3rd May 2012 in Sir Bill Taylor blog By Sir Bill Taylor, Lancashire Telegraph blogger

As the final part of my quartet of 60th celebrations we went off to Manchester, courtesy of the “kids”.

Strapped into our Austin Maxi for caravan holidays in France had made them 10cc “fans”.

No Godley or Creme who’d gone off in 1976 to develop their Gizmotron & concentrate on a career on the newly emerging genre of pop video.

No former Mindbender Eric Stewart either. Led by 65 year old Graham Gouldman, the drummer, Paul Burgess, joined in 1976 as did guitarist Rick Fenn. Mick Wilson & Keith Hayman make up the 5 piece band.

I’d always loved 10cc, great lyrics, good tunes & we’d seen them before, 1978 we thought, at Bellevue & the Apollo. They’d been annual album producers from 10cc (’73) to Bloody Tourists (’78) & beyond.

The concert picked from this juke box of 70s hits.

“What time will it finish”, we asked the steward.

“Depends how many encores you squeeze out of them”! The answer was an hour & 45 minutes to an almost packed hall.

Beginning with The Second Sitting For The Last Supper, was it helter skelter hits or roller coaster reminiscences?

Wall Street Shuffle,The things we do for love (oh-ho), Good Mornin, Judge, I’m Mandy, Life is a minestrone, Art for Art’s Sake, Silly Love, Feel the benefit, Sand in my face, Dean & I, From Rochdale to Ocho Rios, the still captivating, I’m not in Love (It’s because!) & concluding with Bloody Tourists’ Dreadlock Holiday.

The bespoke card that pocketed our tickets had lyricised “We don’t like Billy, we love him”.

A perfect end for that ride through the 70s. But it wasn’t…We “squeezed” a brilliant a capella version of their first hit, Donna.

Guitars re donned we got Rubber Bullets & left happy.

That was the 10cc concert. But before that enthralled us, Graham Gouldman, the former Manchester Jewish Lads Brigade bandsman, (no longer with busby haircut) loped unassumingly on to the stage.

BBC Radio Lancashire’s Gerald Jackson Tweeted “I went to Graham Gouldman’s wedding in 1970” Small World.

Solo or with one or two acoustic guitar colleagues Gouldman announced “I wrote this with/for…” The songs were Pamela Pamela (Wayne Fontana), Heartful of Soul (Yardbirds), Bus Stop (Hollies), Day Light (Andrew Gold), No Milk Today (Herman’s Hermits), Look through any window (Hollies), & For your Love (Yardbirds).

Audience happy, sports jackets adjusted the troupers left their stage prior to the “real” concert.

We had a great night. Our “neighbour” asked were we coming to Neil Sedaka in October? Because we hear its already a sell out… The things we do for love!