PURVEYORS of some of the finest music the British charts has ever seen, 10CC are undertaking a UK tour during February, and one with a difference.

Not only will the band be performing their greatest hits, they will be playing their ground-breaking album Sheet Music in its entirety.

It coincides - almost - with the 40th anniversary of the album. 

But this fact didn’t enter the mind of Graham Gouldman, founder-member, bassist and songwriter with the band, and still fronting it today.

“I never even thought of the anniversary,” he says from his London home, having just got back from a Japanese tour the day before.

“I felt that we should do something different from the hits package" he states.

So why Sheet Music and not The Original Soundtrack, a more successful album and the one that is 40 years old this year?

“A simple reason,” the Manchester-born musician answers.

“It’s my favourite album.”

This particular album was the band’s first top ten album and spawned two hit singles with Wall Street Shuffle and Silly Love.

“I didn’t have to think very hard about which album to play,” Graham explains.

“It’s a light, bright, happy, funny album while Original Soundtrack is a bit darker.

“The whole album has a cohesiveness about it and we were on a high having just had hits with Donna and Rubber Bullets (their first of three chart-topping singles). The tracks for the first album simply called 10CC were a bit piecemeal, but this batch of songs were written especially for the album.”

Other tracks include, Old Wild Men, The Sacro-iliac, the epic Somewhere in Hollywood and the group’s tongue-in-cheek The Worst Band in the World.

“That song is a kind of anthem really,” Graham says. “It was released as a single, but we had to record a special version for the BBC with an extra word. If you listen to the lyrics, you’ll understand why,” he laughs.

Such was the caliber of songs, Graham cannot pick a stand-out.

“No, they all stand out to tell the truth, but I noticed how much the writing credits are mixed.

“I wrote Wall Street Shuffle and Baron Samedi with Eric (Stewart), Worst Band with Lol (Crème) and Sacro-iliac with Kevin (Godley).

“Eric wrote with Lol on ‘Silly Love and with Kevin on Oh Effendi and the rest were Kevin and Lol.”

Even though he band did mix the writing credits, the usual partnerships were Gouldman / Stewart and Godley / Creme.

“We had to up our game a bit really, ‘cos as we were recording in the evenings, during the day Paul McCartney was in the studio with his brother Mike.”

Arranging songs for a live performance can be difficult, but 10CC’s songs were finely crafted, with complex instrumentation, witty lyrics and perfect harmonies and presumably caused problems.

“Yes, quite a lot actually,” Graham admits. “They always do because we never wrote them with live performances in mind.”

“It was challenging, but we seem to manage and we want to try and get them as near to the originals as we possibly can.”

And audiences who have seem the band live can testify that they do get them near-perfect.

“Some of the songs we’re doing this time have never been played live before and I’m having to relearn them. 10CC fans listen out for the littlest thing that makes a song special to them and it’s our job to get it right.”

“Also, as well as ‘Sheet Music’ we’ll be doing the hits (‘I’m Not In Love’, ‘Dreadlock Holiday’, and ‘Life is a Minestrone’ to name but three), certain album tracks and some surprises.”

Such as?

“If I told you, it wouldn’t be a surprise.” He grins.

And the men who help Graham recreate the magical sounds have now been together for over a decade.

Mick Wilson is a singer / multi-instrumentalist whose voice is so close to Eric Stewart’s as makes no difference.

Guitarist Rick Fenn has been with the band in the studio and on-stage since 1973, as has drummer Paul Burgess.

Keyboard player and musical arranger Mike Stevens cannot appear with the band this time around.

“He’s got a good excuse,” says Graham.

“He’s recently done an album with Annie Lennox and it’s up for a Grammy award, so he’ll be in Los Angeles for most of the month.”

“Keith Haymen will be standing in for Mike as he has done in the past. It’s really great to have such a great pool of talented friends to help out.”

Another old friend helping out is 10CC’s original drummer Kevin Godley in a video.

“I was surprises at how much singing Kevin does on this album and I did ask him to do the whole tour, but he said he’s do one song and do a video for it.”

So for what Graham terms an “epic” song (My guess is ‘Somewhere in Hollywood’), the band will be accompanying Kevin as he sings on a screen.

“I’m slightly nervous about the whole thing,” admits Graham. “But in a healthy way.”

10CC will be performing the whole of the album ‘Sheet Music’ and the cream of their songs at The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, on Tuesday.

Tickets are available from the Box Office.

Martin Hutchinson.