10cc Biography

The lineup featured two strong songwriting teams who injected their songs with sharp wit and lyrical dexterity. The more "commercial" team of Stewart (vocals, guitars, keyboards) and Gouldman (bass, guitars, mandolin, zither, vocals) were generally fairly straightforward 'pop' songwriters, who created some of the group's most accessible material. In the sleeve notes to the 1996 CD reissue of their 1975 LP The Original Soundtrack, Gouldman described himself and Stewart as "guitar freaks".

The experimental half of 10cc was Godley (vocals, drums, percussion) and Creme (vocals, guitar, keyboards), who brought a distinctive "art school" sensibility and a more "cinematic" writing style to the group.

All four members were skilled multi-instrumentalists and vocalists, and each could perform convincingly as lead singers. The original lineup recorded a string of Top Ten singles and released four LPs, achieving increasingly wide popularity and chart success.

The band suffered a split in 1976, when Godley and Creme left to form Godley & Creme, leaving Gouldman and Stewart to continue touring and recording as 10cc with a variety of musicians including Rick Fenn, Stuart Tosh, Andrew Gold and Paul McCartney enlisted for each album.

The band took a nine-year hiatus from 1983, before releasing two more albums. There have been no albums since 1995, although in 2004 Gouldman began touring with several peripheral band members, billing themselves as "10cc featuring Graham Gouldman and Friends"