The Consequences Podcast

Well folks, in the words of Graham Gouldman here:

 

'Wow.'

 

We'll just leave this one here. Unreleased joys and a reaction from this great musician to die for.  Enjoy!

As Paul says, 'there's no introduction necessary': Graham's umpteenth pod gig is a joy!

We won't give anything away, but we had a lot of surprises here. Graham's 2020-2021 Lockdown project - 'No Words Today' - has been a massive technological leap for the so-called 10cc 'bassist'. Total solo artist, guitar virtuoso and self producer/engineer?  You bet. For those of you fortunate enough to have downloaded this sumptuous beauty already, you'll know exactly what we're talking about.  This is Gouldman firing on cylinders we (and he) didn't even know he had!

And there's an awful lot more to come from this conversation... Coming to a pod near you anon.

 

 

 

 

Paul and Sean were delighted to spend an hour and a half in the company of Mike 'McGear' McCartney. And what an entertaining and captivating chap he is!

Any fans, like us, of 10cc's Strawberry Studios will of course know about Mike's memorable visits to Stockport. We give due airtime to the excellent 'McGear' album from 1974, as well as looking at its predecessor 'Woman' from two years earlier.

And there's so, so much more. Mike is a consummate raconteur, and he has us in stitches with his anecdotes about the The Scaffold, Cavern, Abbey Road, celebrity interviews, Strawberry, football with the Pythons, and of course 'our kid', his older brother Paul (including our extraordinary recorded find a few weeks ago).

There were a hundred questions we ran out of time - or simply forgot! - to ask. But we really hope you enjoy our attempt to do justice to the career of this underrated and hugely engaging artist.

Here’s a real departure for us today folks. In the third of our ‘Great Alcester Bake-off’ series, we’ve left the most unusual and surprising until last.

 

Strawberry Archive’s Peter Wadsworth and author of ‘10cc: The Worst Band in the World’ Liam Newton joined Sean in his Man Cave in Alcester to bake and play a dozen tapes. The rare, unearthed 10cc tapes were joy enough, but our anticipation for this one was intense! Labelled on the box as simply ‘Paul McCartney effects’ tape, we already knew this must have been his creative preparation for some of the more unusual moments on his brother Mike’s (and a proto-Wings') excellent album ‘McGear’ in 1974, recorded simultaneously with 10cc’s masterpiece, ‘Sheet Music’.

 

What we got though was more than that. But we won’t spoil the surprise!

 

You’ll hear most of our random musings and mutterings here, as we go on our little ‘voyage of discovery’ to try to understand the weird and sometimes wonderful fragments on this extraordinary tape.  I’m sure you’ll reach your own (correct) conclusions way before we did!

 

You can hear most of the audio from this (and our other 10cc discoveries) in superb 24-bit, 48k quality by becoming a subscriber to our podcast via the link below.  Thanks everyone.

 

https://consequences.podbean.com/e/consequences-10cc-podcast-subscribers-premium-exclusive-the-great-alcester-bake-off-tapes/

 

 

Here’s part two of our three-part series, reliving the fun Peter, Liam and Sean had in the Man Cave with a pile of priceless Strawberry studio tapes!

 

There are some really rare treats here, including four 1979 10cc demos for their ‘7th album’. There are also some lovely nuggets of tiny (or missing!) taped fragments that cast more light on this wonderful band’s mysterious ways… The master copies of a few hit singles are marvellous, too.

 

You can access these wonderful audio files in 24-bit, 48k quality by subscribing here, via the shared ‘Goodies in the Pipeline' folder:

 

https://www.podbean.com/premium-signup/qiegf-220cbb/The+Consequences+10cc+podcast

 

Please note: we’ve deliberately interrupted some of the audio from the tapes here to discourage cheeky ‘bootlegging’, but full audio will be available from this week, and we’ll ‘release’ all of the audio files after we premiere them on the podcast.  Hope that makes sense!

 

Videos of the tapes being captured (with pristine audio) will be made available via Sean’s YouTube channel the day after the tapes are featured on the pod:

 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPtPyoGmdllLyIeQOIewN1w

 

On 20th July 2021, Sean had the pleasure of welcoming Strawberry archivist Peter Wadsworth and ‘10cc: Worst Band in the World’ author Liam Newton to his newly-refurbed Man Cave in Alcester, Warwickshire. He so wished Paul could have been there to experience the sound that came from a dozen tapes recently obtained by Peter. These tapes were duly baked in the food dehumidifier that served us so well with the ’Natural Wonder’ tape at the tail end of last year.  Honestly folks, we really believe some of these will blow your minds!

 

We don’t want to give away too much in the blurb here, but in this first episode of ’The Great 10cc Alcester Bake-off’, we unearth two master tapes from the mid-70s that have never been heard before.  The quality is incredible, and the musical content breath-taking.

 

Sean has digitised all of the new tapes in 24-bit 48k sound quality, equivalent to BluRay, so about 50% better than CD. You can access these wonderful audio files by subscribing here, where you’ll be given access to the shared ‘Goodies in the Pipeline' folder. Our subscription/donation fee is $25 per year:

 

https://www.podbean.com/premium-signup/qiegf-220cbb/The+Consequences+10cc+podcast

 

Please note: we’ve deliberately interrupted some of the audio from the tapes in this podcast to try to discourage cheeky ‘bootlegging’ of less than perfect audio, but full versions of all the featured tapes will be available via the folder above from this week. We’ll ‘release’ all of the audio files after we premiere them on the podcast.  Hope that makes sense!

 

Videos of the tapes being captured (with pristine audio) will be made available via Sean’s YouTube channel the day after the tapes are featured on the pod:

 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPtPyoGmdllLyIeQOIewN1w

What do you think of 10cc’s most epic track?  

 

Paul, Eric and Sean pore over this monumental work in their usual forensic fashion to make up their own minds once and for all. Unconditional love, or not so? Stunning musicianship and arrangement? A unique, orchestral triumph?  A tour de force, made for the stage? Eric Stewart’s finest moments at the mic and on guitar?  But is the song itself a slight case of mutton dressed up as lamb, with too many incoherent parts? Just the formulaic third in a series of three-part 10cc songs with a Latin break in the middle? A muscle-flexing statement of independence after Kevin and Lol's departure?  Whatever 10cc fans' differing views, the three of us all have a tremendous admiration for it. And for the incredible talents of one Del Newman.

 

We hope you enjoy the harmonic piano insights of Mr Baumgartner, the numerous audio Easter eggs, the cheeky influences we’ve spotted, and the debate over the song’s title and wordplay, which don’t seem to have translated well across the pond!

 

Oh, and you’re all in for a bit of a surprise too, just as Eric and Paul were!

Bienvenue tout le monde!  And a big welcome back to our New Best Friend and maestro Eric Baumgartner for what can only be described as a musical tour-de-force deep dive into 10cc’s quirky 1975 masterpiece ‘Une Nuit à Paris’.

Perhaps surprisingly, two out of three of us here are less than 100% in love with this track. Is there something unsatisfying about the song itself, and is it just too harsh on the ears?  All of us agree though that as a structured piece of theatre, it’s a masterwork.

Needless to say, Monsieur Baumgartner’s musical analysis and dancing fingers are dazzling again, and Sean’s hit a bit of a purple patch with some audio geekery - all just for a bit of fun!  (He should get out more). Paul treats us to some fascinating and funny anecdotes direct from the band members. We guarantee that you’ll be hearing a dozen things that you’ve never known or noticed before.

In a word - which we use many times during this podcast - MAGNIFIQUE!

Once again, Paul and Sean are completely indebted to friend of the show Dave Jarvis for a succession of early Godley and Creme recordings that are rarer than a really rare thing!

 

This pod acts as a kind of companion piece to episode #22 (‘I’m Beside Myself’). We won’t give away too much, but among the dozen or so tracks we listen to here, we have perhaps the earliest ‘proper’ recording the boys committed to tape: a limited edition promotional record for a hot Manchester night spot.  It’s a cracker.  Also featured are two of the very early songs Kevin mentions in his excellent autobiography ‘Spececake’, but which he can’t lay his hands on. Other delights are literally one-off acetates made from collaborations with Graham in the late 1960s, and an unidentified Kev/Lol/Graham track that turns up mysteriously tagged on the end of another band’s album in 1977.  And finally, a round-up of some of the tasty morsels on the excellent ‘Strawberry Bubblegum’ compilation that we didn’t get around to discussing on podcast #22. The last track we look at here is 10cc's final blueprint for their trademark sound, under the bizarre name ‘Grumble’.  It’s a wonderful prototype for the debut album, and just one of the many listening treasures in this episode.

 

Whether you agree with us on the relative merits of these musical curios, we’ll all speak with one voice in praise for Kevin Godley’s incredible vocals on the lion’s share of the tracks. Really brilliant.

Sean and Paul are once again under the spell of Atlanta's affable and twinkled-fingered musicologist, Eric Baumgartner! Not only that, but more than a year on from the start of the pandemic, we've finally found a way to record everyone in hi-fi sound... one of the many reasons why this is one of Sean's favourite episodes!

Eric's musical understanding is second to none, as we journey around 10cc's unusual and ground-breaking adventures with harmony. Now, we're not talking about the bursts of 'oos' and 'aahs' here. This is about their all-important use of chords, and Eric plays us dozens of examples, first through other pioneering pop writers who influenced the Stockport foursome, and other great composers who used similar techniques. Now don't get worried here: we're not going to dazzle you with science. We're just going to let you hear what made 10cc's compositional chops so amazing!

There are signature songwriting techniques being analysed here, such as 'slash chords', chromaticism and pedal points, and you'll giggle in recognition as Eric plays snippets from a huge array of 10cc classics. These guys were up to some clever and surprising tricks!  But for us the *real* treat is his discovery of 'Lol's Magic Chord'...  We won't give anything away, but suffice to say it's a real scoop!  Hilarious and beautiful with it.

Thank you so much Eric, this was an absolute hoot!