10cc’s Graham Gouldman at the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. February 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

For some the Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool is a natural home, a place where outstanding music and appreciation go hand in hand; the circle of harmony forever ongoing and in time. Some artists though don’t just make the sound they deliver welcoming to the acoustically acute ears of those that walk through the entrance to the venue on perhaps arguably the most appropriately named street in the city, they give it room to breathe and nestle in the very fabric of the building’s infrastructure; they make it live.

For Graham Gouldman and 10cc, living is very much the aim of the game as they tour the country with a fresh look at the band’s 1974 album Sheet Music. Whilst perhaps not considered to be the definitive album that Lol Crème, Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley and Graham Gouldman released during the period when the band was a foursome and rightly still to be one of the best groups to ever come out of Greater Manchester, nor perhaps the most easily accessible, Sheet Music is, nonetheless, worthy of modern appraisal.

As the only original member of 10cc, Graham Gouldman has overseen the resurgence of the group, the return to the live arena, and if applause be due then to this man should it rest upon. The music that he and the other three members produced has never been anything other than enjoyable, dramatic, pieces of art wrapped up in small bundle of the Progressive but very firmly entrenched in Rock but jealous whisperings, the snide remarks of critics past and those with a different agenda perhaps allowed the march of time to fade what is otherwise great and powerfully observed music.

Accompanied by Paul Burgess, Rick Fenn and the gentle but stirring voice of Mick Wilson, Graham Gouldman took the packed out audience inside the Philharmonic Hall down the rabbit hole of 41 years and returned Sheet Music back into the grateful arms of restored popularity. By playing the whole album in its entirety, there was something akin to Karma being stroked like a cat that had been found wandering through the damp, rain sodden streets of Stockport and given a warm loving home with a fire place and a scratching post to vent its spleen upon.

Tracks such as The Wall Street Shuffle, the fantastic Clockwork Creep, The Worst Band in the World and the inclusion of the much admired Kevin Godley turning up on the giant video screen for the beauty of Somewhere in Hollywood more than appraised the 1974 album, it positively melted away any disillusion felt with the starkness of time.

With the evening split into two, the old favourites and adored classics were not going to be given the evening off. It’s doubtful whether a Liverpool crowd, no matter how much they place Graham Gouldman in the people from outside of Liverpool but for whom they rate highly list, would ever allow 10cc to leave the city if they tried to do so.

Track such as Good Morning Judge, I’m Mandy Fly Me, the tremendous Art for Art’s Sake, The Dean and I, the overwhelming headiness of Dreadlock Holiday and the undisguised abandon of male pride in I’m Not In Love continued the vein of the evening and the standing ovation, lengthy, loud and full of sincerity, at the end of the night was testament to the resilience and positive nature of Graham Gouldman and the lyrical artistry enjoyed all over the world of 10cc.

Some nights speak volumes, some with overheated, unabashed complexity, some though, as with 10cc at the Philharmonic Hall, do it with poetic whispering that resonates fully and with power of a hurricane tearing at a gnarled and dense forest. Once more 10cc have come to Liverpool and bought the house down.

Ian D. Hall