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“Without Strawberry there would’ve been no 10cc, there’s no doubt about that,” says Graham Gouldman, who invested in the studios along with Eric Stewart and Strawberry Studios founder Peter Tattersall in 1967/68.
The original line-up of 10cc, Manchester-born musician friends Eric Stewart, Graham Gouldman, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, came together after working as session musicians and engineers on other projects being recorded at Strawberry Studios, most notably Neil Sedaka’s albums ‘Solitaire’ and ‘The Tra-La Days are Over’ and the cult-classic ‘Space Hymns’ by Rameses.
Three members of the band (Eric, Kevin and Lol) had previously had success with the novelty hit record ‘Neanderthal Man’ under the name of Hotlegs which reached No.2 in the charts. Graham Gouldman was himself having major success as a songwriter, having written big hits for many major artists including The Hollies, Herman’s Hermits and The Yardbirds.
Lol Creme told the NME, “Our foremost reason for making the ‘Neanderthal Man’ record was to try and establish Strawberry Recording Studios in Stockport… we all work here as sessioneers and we wanted to draw people’s attention to the facilities that Strawberry has and to our own capabilities as writers, producers, engineers and players.”
The international success of the songs that Neil Sedaka recorded at Strawberry with the four musicians, made them realise that it was high time they concentrated on producing their own songs. Their signature sound combining sophisticated pop melodies, sharp lyrical wit and studio experimentation was honed at Strawberry Studios.
Their debut single as 10cc was ‘Donna’ written by Kevin and Lol, whose contrasting lead vocals both featured on the track. It was released on UK Records in August 1972 peaking at No.2 staying in the charts for thirteen weeks. In March 1973, the single release ‘Rubber Bullets’ gave both 10cc and Strawberry their first ever No.1.
10cc in their original line-up recorded four classic albums at Strawberry Studios –
10cc (1973) – the inventive self-titled debut featuring early hits like ‘Rubber Bullets’ and ‘Donna’, Sheet Music (1974) – a critical and commercial breakthrough featuring ‘The Wall Street Shuffle’ and ‘Silly Love’, The Original Soundtrack (1975) – an ambitious art-pop masterpiece containing the global smash hit ‘I’m Not in Love’ and How Dare You! (1976) – the final album from the original quartet, featuring ‘I’m Mandy Fly Me’ and ‘Art for Art’s Sake’.
Although all four members of 10cc worked closely with each other, there had always been two distinct camps of which there was a constant push and pull between – Eric and Graham were the more traditional pop partnership focussing on more on melody and commerciality while Kevin and Lol were more experimental, with avant-garde and artistic leanings towards new innovations.
In 1976, after the How Dare You album tour, the band split caused by creative differences and a divergence in artistic vision. Kevin Godley and Lol Crème wanted to finish their triple album Consequences centred on their guitar-effect invention, the Gizmotron. Meanwhile, Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman preferred writing structured, melodic pop hits and wanted to continue touring.
The four years of 10cc saw groundbreaking music being produced at Strawberry Studios where every band member sang, wrote, produced, and played multiple instruments. 10cc fused sharp wit, melody and inventive studio mastery into global chart hits and the magic all happened here in Stockport.
