Consequences 10cc podcast 69 - Rick Fenn pt 2 - Life Could Be a Dream

Paul and Sean really enjoyed our second conversation with Rick Fenn. Once again, he’s incredibly honest and unassuming about his fascinating and hugely surprising career outside 10cc. He’s collaborated with many of Rock’s biggest names, as we shall hear.

 

Rick has been nothing short of prolific in his musical projects, since the temporary demise of 10cc in 1980. We look in detail at his stint in Mike Oldfield’s first integral band: as guitarist, later as keyboardist/vocalist, and as it turned out, co-writer. He tells some entertaining (and terrifying!) stories of his time on tour with the band. We briefly touch on 10cc’s Windows in the Jungle before hearing about his role in the joint project with Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason. The ‘Profiles’ album is proof positive of Fenn’s mastery of Prog-influenced keyboards as well as guitars. 10cc fans will love a clip of an Eric Stewart lead vocal that no-one has heard since the mid-80s!

 

A substantial portion of this podcast is taken up with Rick’s long-time collaboration with soulmate Peter Howarth, best known perhaps as the current lead singer of the Hollies. He’s a gifted singer and an underrated guitarist. Together they co-wrote a major West End musical, ‘Robin: Prince of Sherwood’, and the clips we play demonstrate both enormous vocal and instrumental versatility and a real talent for composition and lyric writing. They also ran the gamut of genres in their Pop writing too, with their listenable collection of self-penned songs ‘And Still I Fly’, available on Spotify. https://open.spotify.com/album/0ks9w6MvgfvuVwPNAuacXt?si=KtMoq0xUQjegSRhZdvegig

 

Like us, you’ll no doubt be thinking that this Rick Fenn fellow is a proper dark horse! You’ll also hear some rarely-heard snippets from their sadly abandoned musical project ‘Androcles and the Lion’, and we’re so grateful to Rick for his generosity in sharing with us so many rare film and audio clips.