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Paul and Sean make no apologies for enjoying this conversation as much as we did!     Iain continues to give us fascinating insights into his eclectic and accomplished solo work, including last year’s excellent ‘Lockdown’ album Fly Away Home.  But it’s inevitable that we’re frothing at the mouth to hear more about his experience of playing in the touring carnations of 10cc with Graham, ELO with Jeff Lynne and Yes with Anderson, Wakeman and Rabin. His accounts are amazing, as is his musicianship.  Check out the many live clips on YouTube to see what we mean. Stepping into the late Chris Squire’s shoes is no mean feat; nor is recreating the luscious vocal textures of Jeff Lynne’s best production work.   We also discuss 10cc and Graham’s recent publicity work for the new compilation LP, the thrilling unveiling of Natural Wonder and the new piece with Brian May.   Finally, we couldn’t resist the temptation to include some of the joyous rabbit hole we dived down on immediate contact with Iain.  Before we’d even started to talk about 10cc, solo projects, ELO or Yes, we discovered a huge shared love. And indeed rabbited on about it for a while... For completists only, we suspect! ;- )   This will be our last podcast for a little while, as we really need to focus on 'getting on with IT'...

Paul and Sean had such a great time talking to established 10cc lead singer Iain Hornal. We fought and lost an uncontrollable urge to geek out about our shared love of The Beach Boys, but eventually got down to business!   Iain has immense musical talent.  The multi-instrumentalist came close with several bands before starring as Macca in the West End (alongside another friend of the show, Paul Canning). He later joined Jeff Lynne’s epic live ELO touring band, stepped in to fill Chris Squire’s shoes in the Anderson/Wakeman Yes line-up, and of course has spent nearly ten years as lead singer with 10cc.   We explore his 10cc journey,  hear lots of stories of his times with Graham and the band. We get somewhat giddy at his account of his octopus-like musical role!  He’s done some cracking writing with GG as well of course, most notably their collaboration Say the Word (with Kevin Godley as guest vocalist) from his excellent 2017 solo album The Games Begins With the Lights Out. The song’s an absolute corker, and has rightfully nestled in the 10cc live set.   There was just so much to talk about. We’ve cut our chat into two sections: this one mostly centred around 10cc and Graham, the next one all points North, South, East and especially West!  ;- )    

Sean and Paul are thrilled to welcome to the pod one Stuart Tosh, the ‘man at the back’ who would join drummer Paul Burgess to share honours on 10cc percussion duties live and in the studio from 1977 to 1983.   But to describe Stuart as ‘10cc drummer’ is akin to the tip of a musical iceberg, and this chat illustrates that!  There is so, so much more to discuss...  The first section focuses on one of the podcasters’ beloved ‘70s bands: Pilot. Were they the Scottish 10cc, or were 10cc the English Pilot?  Discuss. ;- )  We talk about Stuart’s musical beginnings in Scotland via EMI records, his discovery of the talent and technology being nurtured at Craighall Studios in Edinburgh, recording at Abbey Road and in Canada, and his whirlwind three albums and promo tours with his Pilot bandmates.  It’s a treat to hear these stories (as well as some of their criminally underrated songs)!   His 10cc accounts are just as fascinating. We talk about his thoughts on members of the band, some extraordinary gigging adventures and of course special focus on one of his rare co-writes and lead vocals… The three of us compare muso notes on the unsung gem that is Reds in My Bed!   We had real fun delving further into Stuart’s fascinating career, with some wonderful snapshots of his time working with producer Alan Parsons, Camel, Cliff Richard, Rick Fenn and numerous other luminaries.  The great inter-connectedness of the '60s-'70s music scenes is something that never fails to gob-smack us.

Wow. Simply put, this is nothing short of a coup. A decade ago, Charlie Thomas succeeded in landing an interview that Sean and Paul have been chasing unsuccessfully for two years!   A Lol-tastic 90 minutes then, with exclusive and breathtaking interview outtakes from Charlie’s brilliant documentary, ‘I’m Not in Love: the 10cc Story’. These extracts have remained unheard - by anyone - since they were shot in 2012.   Thank you so much to Charlie, his production company Special Treats and to Lol for allowing us to share these amazing clips. Many thanks too to https://vintagerock.com/ for Junkman's excellent Kevin Godley interview snippets.  

You may not be familiar with this Sky Sports TV presenter, but you’re almost certainly aware of some of Charlie Thomas’s brilliant music documentaries. Paul and Sean focus on two of these today: ‘I’m Not in Love: The Story of 10cc’ and the brilliantly quirky ‘XTC: This is Pop’. Both truly hit the nail on the head with their subject matter: respectful, sensitive and full of wonderful insights.   Charlie’s accounts of his time sitting opposite Lol, Graham, Kevin, Eric, Andy and Colin are captivating.  None more so than Eric: this truly is the most revealing account we’ve ever heard about the complex person that is Eric Stewart. And while we're here, why don't we indulge Charlie with his fascinating ideas for re-sequencing three classic 10cc albums?  Great fun!   We’re massively in debt to the films’ production company Special Treats for access to this wonderful material.  Thank you. And sorry about the slightly weird and variable audio quality today, with some music clips coming in all over the place: schoolboy errors on Sean's part this week!  :- )   Next week is something very special indeed: Charlie’s been very generous in sharing (and allowing us to share) some wonderful outtakes from his long and delightful conversation with Lol Creme.  We can’t wait!

Paul and Sean were so glad to invite Henry back for another whistle-stop, rollicking ride through the rest of his career.   We kick off with The Christians, his best-known venture, with our analysis of their trademark harmonies, Motown influences and ‘gritty’ messages. We have some tasty baked goodies to share with you too, notably a live performance from one of the band’s very first gigs. We coo over two particular hits - both extremely beautiful and poignant. We listen heart in mouth as he describes the moment last December when he and the band completed a moving tribute to Iranian hostage Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. The reworked Christians song ’Naz Don’t Cry’ created a stir on social media just before Christmas 2021.   Despite Henry’s solo career not kicking off in earnest until the start the last decade - at the tender age of 53 - he has no end of fantastic stories about his prolific activity as composer, collaborator and producer in the 90s and 00s, including Take That’s Mark Owen, no less.    Signing once again to Island Records for his acclaimed album “The Chronicles of Modern Life”, followed some years later by  “The Last Mad Surge of Youth” and "Six of One & Half a Dozen of the Other” (with Les Glover), all three records show an emerging wryness, warmth and self-deprecation, and Henry is hilariously honest about his outlook on life, his music and getting older!   As an absolute treat for fans of 10cc and Graham Gouldman, we’re thrilled to be able to share with you some of a pile of demo tapes Henry’s shared with us. All feature him and Graham in the throes of collaboration, and *no one* has heard these!  Many of these terrific songs were largely intended for inclusion in the hit West End show Dreamboats and Petticoats. Other tapes are one-off recordings with such collaborators as John Campbell from It’s Immaterial. They’re terrific, and we’re really looking forward to hearing new versions of some of them featured on Henry’s forthcoming album ‘Beautiful Ruins’.      

Welcome to the first of our two knockabout chats with the irrepressible Henry Priestman. Famous for being The Christians’ songwriter, he’s less well-known for his early work with cult Liverpool post-punk outfits Yachts and fellow Merseysiders It’s Immaterial, his prolific songwriting with luminaries galore, or his roles as producer and, more recently, solo artist. His stories about his musical adventures are astounding and hilarious in equal measure.   One of his frequent collaborators of course is one Graham Gouldman. We have a lovely sneaky peek at demos of some of the lovely songs he and Graham penned, both for album projects and in a small bedroom at Huntsham Court, during their EMI songwriter weeks.  It’s so great being a fly on the wall at the moment these songs are premiered to their illustrious peers!   We were so proud to be able to bake, restore and capture a huge box of tapes that Henry sent us last year.  Some of them feature never-before heard live and studio recordings by the Christians, but we’ll have to wait until next week to hear those!  In this episode, we focus on some impossibly rare demos by Yachts.  Mark Kermode and Henry’s other fanatical followers will be over the moon.   And of course we have to ask Henry about 10cc and *that* triple album!  Fun like this surely can’t be referred to as ‘work’!          

Paul and Sean had the pleasure of meeting the highly affable Paul Canning at his merchandise stall after his delightful support spot at Graham Gouldman’s Heart Full of Songs gig in Manchester last autumn.   He's a talented multi-instrumentalist and singer, prolific songwriter and extremely adaptable singer with 10cc.  We are of course dying to know what it’s like to be given the onerous task of being Eric, Lol and Kevin live on stage, and Paul’s stories are riveting! There’s a lovely story behind him crossing paths with the rest of the boys, too. You can hear our ‘10cc envy’ in every second of this pod!   Much of the pod though looks into Paul’s eclectic, interesting and very enjoyable solo catalogue. And he’s popping out albums at a furious rate! All of them are a proper fruit basket of tasty influences (right up our street) and the songwriting’s top-notch. On top of this, Paul has forged a successful sideline in acoustic covers, which have had no small success.     

The only thing we can say is WOW. Being the go-to 10cc live drummer for just short of 50 years has been a surprisingly small part of Paul Burgess's drumming career. This is a journeyman and a half, taking in the likes of Invisible Girls, Jethro Tull, Camel, Magna Carta, The Hee Bee Gee Bees, The Christians, Icicle Works, Gloria Gaynor, Alvin Stardust, Engelbert Humperdink, Joan Armatrading, Gilbert O'Sullivan, The Blockheads, The Helicasters and dozens more. He's rubbed shoulders with members of many bands: Strawbs, Fairport, Wings, Argent and many other Folk, Rock, Pop and Prog luminaries. He also talks us through the later 10cc albums he *didn't* play on, and his much later reunion with Graham for 10cc mk 4. Been round the block, this lad!  And many thanks to Henry for laying his hands on that fabulous session tape.

Here’s the second part of Carol Jason’s funny and moving account of her summer of ’67.   Will Black, Brown and Beige’s dreams come true? Paul and Sean have loved this parable of the three Pop hopefuls. We hope you have too.   Some of the rare musical treats here are really unexpected and special.

We're pausing our sequence of three chats with Paul Burgess to feature someone with an even earlier, close association with the 10cc fold. Carol Jason was seventeen, and one third of folk-based outfit Black, Brown and Beige when, in 1967, for a white hot period of six months - her band found themselves right at the centre of the action. Managed by Harvey Lisberg and working closely with Graham Gouldman, they recorded at two legendary London studios, whilst jostling for songs penned by one of the biggest hit writers of the age (Graham). Ultimately. no recordings were issued and the band moved on to other things. However, as we shall hear, these formative experiences started Carol on a career as a professional musician that continues to this day. Carol's 1967 diary forms the basis of this episode, brought to life by her honesty and irrepressible personality, in this chat with Sean and Paul. We believe NONE of this story has been told before, or even known of - and it speaks well of Harvey, Graham and the Manchester music scene in general. It is an intimate and somewhat innocent portrait of another age. And speaking of age, how young the protagonists were - Carol turns 18 and Graham 21 during the course of the story.  But... there is more! Thanks to Carol's generosity, Sean and Paul have restored and brought back to life several unique acetate recordings, featuring Carol and her band, as well as a swathe of previously unknown Graham songs and recordings. These recordings - and Carol's reaction to hearing them for the first time in 55(!) years - make this a must listen episode. Enjoy.

Welcome to part two of Paul and Sean’s conversation with 10cc’s faithful stoolsman of 49 years!   We’re sure this will be a riveting listen for any 10cc fan.  We look predominantly at the band’s more turbulent times during the 1980s, after the heady honeymoon of Bloody Tourists. To his incredible credit, Paul B is diplomatic, tactful and fair in all of his accounts.  But it must be said that his thoughts on Eric’s sad near-fatal car accident and the subsequent deterioration in the band’s fortunes, and the relationship between Graham and Eric, are the podcast equivalent of 'page-turners’! There is one story, from Paul’s last tour with 10cc mk III, that is toe-curling.   We’re delighted to also bring you some audio snippets that have never been heard before - including a 1983 TV appearance, among others - for which we owe Dave Jarvis our thanks, as ever.   We’ll be talking to Paul again very soon, and we’re relishing the prospect of digging deep into the less well-known corners of his career.