10cc

10cc didn't so much form in 1972 as finally put a name on what four Stockport studio rats had been doing since 1968: writing and recording together at their own Strawberry Studios. Graham Gouldman on bass, Eric Stewart and Lol Creme on guitars and keyboards, Kevin Godley on drums, all four of them singing lead, writing and producing, and trading songs in every combination going. Stewart engineered most of it, at Strawberry in Stockport and its southern sibling in Dorking.

The results were some of the smartest pop on the British charts: art-rock wit, little cinematic dramas (Godley and Creme took plenty of their ideas from art and film) and hooks sharp enough to cut yourself on. Five UK top-ten albums in a row, from Sheet Music through The Original Soundtrack, How Dare You! and Deceptive Bends to Bloody Tourists, and three number-one singles in "Rubber Bullets", "I'm Not in Love" and "Dreadlock Holiday". "I'm Not in Love" was the worldwide breakthrough, floating on a backing track that sounded like nothing else around.

In 1976 Godley and Creme walked out to chase the Gizmo, an electronic gadget of their own devising, and to work as a duo in music and video. Gouldman and Stewart kept the name going until Stewart left in 1995, after which the studio albums stopped; since 1999 Gouldman has fronted a touring 10cc.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.