The Consequences Podcast

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. 

Consequences 10cc podcast 68 - Welcome to the World pt 1 - with Rick Fenn

Sean and Paul are thrilled to have spent three hours in the company of a 10cc legend in the past few weeks. Rick Fenn has, for no fewer than 45 years, been a core part of 10cc’s live set-up, as well as taking part in most of their post-Deceptive studio projects. A consummate musician. he sees himself as a guitarist, but his mastery of most other instruments is stunning: among them piano and synths, bass, even saxophone! Starting his musical career in Cambridge, he moved to Manchester in 1976, and our story starts with a remarkable TV appearance that sees Rick lock (Dorking) horns with someone who’s quite simply his musical opposite... The rest is history of course, but we won’t spoil the surprise!

 

Rick gives us so many remarkably candid insights into his time with 10cc.  His uncanny audition, the joys of the first tour and recording Bloody Tourists, the stark contrast with Look Hear, and the fall-out from Eric’s tragic accident in 1979, including the deteriorating relationship between Eric and Graham. We continue the story up until the Ten Out of Ten sessions, and we’ll pick up from here next time.

 

We hope (and expect!) that you really enjoy this episode.  We’re excited about the next pod too, where we explore Rick’s incredibly prolific career with other artists as session and live player, and his less well-known core business of commercial soundtracks and musical theatre composer. This chap’s truly been round the block!

Consequences 10cc podcast 67 - You Didn’t Like It Because You Didn’t Bake It - tape deep dives #2

Sean and Paul feel incredibly lucky and privileged to be able to share these incredible finds, courtesy of the Strawberry Archive. We feel like archaeologists coming back with the spoils! Here’s a deep-ish dive into those two other 10cc tapes we baked for The Great Stockport Bake-off.

 

This is really a live ‘listening party for two’ where we drool and speculate over three multi-track recordings: Hotlegs’ You Didn’t Like It Because You Didn’t Think of It and 10cc’s Survivor and Tomorrow’s World Today. The first two songs in particular have us raving! The first… well, you’ll have to listen to us change our minds, contradict ourselves and talk nonsense in real time before we wonder out loud about what we might have found. Elementary, my dear McNulty. Not.

 

Could we have accidentally stumbled across the very first recording that the four members of 10cc ever made together?  

Consequences 10cc podcast 66 - Your Disco King: Andy Peebles on 10cc

'How ya doing? Your Disco King here to do his thing!

I hope you have had a be-YOOTI-ful day.

We are here to keep it that way!'

 

Paul and Sean are delighted today to have a very special guest: British radio legend Andy Peebles - a life-long champion and friend (in every sense) of 10cc.

 

Andy began his DJ-ing career in Bournemouth, before moving to Manchester to take up a residency at Hardrock, Rank’s huge and prestigious live venue and discotheque in Stretford, Manchester. After a stint with BBC Radio Manchester in the early 70s, he became one of the founding DJs on Piccadilly Radio a few years later. But most of us know him as a Radio One presenter, where he garnered a reputation for thoughtful interviews and sheer passion for music. Perhaps his greatest legacy is his famous and candid interview with John Lennon, taped just days before his death in 1980. He continues to broadcast to this day.

 

We hope you enjoy this entertaining whistle-stop tour through Andy’s career, and his frequent crossing of paths with Eric, Lol, Kevin and particularly Graham.

 

And did we mention that Andy was further immortalised by his cameo appearance on *that* triple album?  

Consequences 10cc podcast 65 - Natural Plunder - a Revlon tape deep dive with Eric Baumgartner

Sean and Paul hope you enjoy this episode.  It's extremely long, but we think you'll find it extraordinary.

As you all already know, 17th December 2020 was an amazing day for us: when we unearthed the lost magic of 10cc's beautiful recording of that 30-second advert...  This is our own sort of tribute to the contents of that incredible tape. We dive really deeply on this one, so hold onto your hats for our geekiest trip yet!  We examine every part committed to that tape and unearth some truly lovely discoveries. 

But that's not all.  Atlanta, Georgia musician Eric Baumgartner is on hand to give a truly breath-taking musical analysis of every single 10cc musical trope audible in Natural Wonder. His musicality really is dazzling, and you're in for a real treat. The man's a genuine 10cc jukebox!

 

Consequences 10cc podcast 64 - Gizmo Fantasia and Mr Blint's Attic - with Giles Booth

Paul and Sean return to their ‘roots’ for our first pod about *that* triple album for over a year. Today, we talk to former BBC producer Giles Booth, who created Consequences history in the late 1990s with his excellent website, ‘Mr Blint’s Attic’. Mojo magazine even picked up on the story, as this was startlingly early for any website dedicated to one album, let alone a Marmite cult classic like this!  

 

Giles has a lot to get off his chest as he admits that this is the first time he’s actually talked to anyone about said record since he was (yes) 17.  The result is the geekiest conversation any of us has ever had. And we loved every minute! Hold on to your hats as we race down dozens of joyous rabbit holes: dummy heads, the number 17, the musical play and its five characters, Peter Cook and Beyond the Fringe, mysterious tapes, the reissues, Kevin and Lol and their attitude to the album’s abject commercial failure. We also can’t resist throwing in some wild theories and fantasies, and we hope you enjoy our nerdy enthusiasm for this under-appreciated wonder!

 

Giles’s website can be found here: http://www.suppertime.co.uk/blint/. Check it out; it’s brilliant.

 

Paul and Sean will be performing some more ‘deep dives’ in the coming weeks, and we can’t wait. Thanks so much for listening!

Consequences 10cc podcast 63 - The Worst Zoom Call in the World - with Kevin Godley and Graham Gouldman

Well, what can we say?

This glitchy, very '2020' Zoom call marks the exact moment two members of the original 10cc got to hear three wonderful, historic tapes, one from 1970, the other from six and ten years later.  Their reactions and recollections (or lack of them!) are emotional and/or hilarious!

'The Great Stockport Bake-off' project was a joy from start to finish for the team - Paul and Sean, Peter Wadsworth, Liam Newton, Rob Salmon and David Jarvis - and we were gobsmacked and honoured to have Graham and Kevin join us for this chat. They've kindly let us put out the entire call.

Please make sure you watch the film before you listen to this, if you haven't already, as the surprise element will be ruined! The link's at the bottom of the page.

And if your geek diodes aren't too overloaded by this, you can read a bit more detail about the project on Sean's website here: https://www.seanmacreavy.com/tape-restoration-baking-mastering

Thanks everyone,

 

Sean and Paul

https://youtu.be/Rhjl6kibE_s

 

 

Consequences 10cc podcast 61 - Kevin Godley: Muscle Memory

Sean and Paul were commissioned by Record Collector magazine to produce a 4-page interview feature with Kevin Godley in its December edition - and we jumped at the chance! So we're releasing this podcast on December 17th (aaaa!), in synch with the much-awaited physical release of Muscle Memory.

We won't give away any details or titbits here, but suffice to say that Kevin's on startling, brutally honest and hilarious form here. Much like his new record, if we're honest! While there's no I'm Not in Love among them, the eleven songs released in fortnightly intervals since the summer have proven once again that Godley is a brilliant lyric writer. His observations on the state of our society are savage and often very, very funny. We really hope you enjoy Kevin's account of them here.

That's us done for this year folks. Thank you so much for sticking with us - there's more to come in the New Year of course, and today also marks the very day that we'll be attempting to unearth the contents of a 'lost' 10cc multi-track tape...  Our film 'The Great Stockport Bake-Off' will be coming very soon! Hope you all manage a lovely family time, take care, and see you very soon.

Consequences 10cc podcast 60 - This Strawberry Life - with engineer Mark Cockburn

Paul and Sean are delighted to welcome one of Strawberry's highly talented studio engineers to the podcast this week. Mark Cockburn, initially recruited by Consequences engineering legend Martin Lawrence, took part in numerous sessions between the late 70s and early 80s.

Mark gives us near-total recall on his experiences as an assistant engineer at Stockport's state-of-the-art facility. We know you'll find the level of detail about sessions incredible and fascinating. His first foray into studio life was with Scott & Batiche (featuring Alistair Gordon - later of Banks Statement - and Richard Darbyshire of Living in a Box), but soon he was working directly with (Graham's half of) 10cc on what would morph into the Ten Out of Ten album.  His stories about some of the tracks on that record are so illuminating and entertaining! There are numerous other sessions to savour here, including Sad Café, The Ramones and projects with the sonic luminary Martin Hannett.  This is a studio buff's dream - and Sean's really enjoying himself!

You'll also hear a wide selection of clips from extremely rare and never-heard 10cc outtakes, experiments, sessions and demos. We won't spoil your surprise by listing them here... Thanks as always to our fine friend David Jarvis for these.

Look out for a surprise pod coming on December 17th...

Consequences 10cc podcast 59 - From Leatherhead to Seattle: Lalo Creme

Sean and Paul are delighted this week to welcome Lol’s son Lalo Creme to the pod. He’s a hugely entertaining fellow, and he gives us some fantastic insights into not just his interesting career, but what it’s like growing up with one quarter of 10cc as your dad!

Lalo quickly became a highly accomplished guitarist in his own right, within a very short time of picking up one of his dad’s impressive axes. His father’s best chum Trevor Horn was quick to exploit his considerable guitar chops in the studio. Most notably, the three of them were the backbone of the Glam Metal Detectives project in the mid-1990s. He’s still in awe of duelling with an all-time guitar hero on those sessions! He also tells a lovely tale about the origins of Lol’s hilarious promo video for Tom Jones’s If I Only Knew, which he stars in.

But our main focus here is on Lalo’s not inconsiderable success with UK-based electronic/dance/rock outfit Arkarna. He teamed up with fellow Brits programmer, producer and singer Ollie Jacobs and guitarist James Barnett on a commercial and high-energy trajectory. The band quickly rose to prominence in South-East Asia and Australia, and Lalo has some funny stories about their encounters with foreign fans! Their second offering, ‘Family Album’ is a hugely engaging pop album.

Lalo’s career has taken many, many interesting turns over the years, and we have a lot of fun chewing the fat about art and design, realty and his wacky promotional videos!

We of course discuss Lalo’s dad, and what he has to say about Mr Creme Senior is fascinating. Did Lol teach him any of the old 10cc riffs? Was he on set for any of Godley and Creme’s iconic video shoots? What are his favourite 10cc tunes? And where is Lol these days? We’re sure you’ll really enjoy finding out.