Грэм Гульдман: От ранних групп к 10cc и авторским хитам

English musician (born 1946)

Graham Keith Gouldman (born 10 May 1946) is an English singer, musician and songwriter, best known as the co lead singer and bassist of the art rock band 10cc. He has been the band's only constant member since its formation in 1972. Before 10cc, Gouldman worked as a freelance songwriter and penned many hits for major rock and pop groups, including the Yardbirds, the Hollies, Herman's Hermits and Ohio Express.

Gouldman was born in Broughton, Salford, Lancashire, into a Jewish family. He played in a number of Manchester bands from 1963, including the High Spots, the Crevattes, the Planets and the Whirlwinds, which became a house band at his local Jewish Lads' Brigade. The Whirlwinds – comprising Gouldman (vocals, guitar), Maurice Sperling (vocals/drums), Bernard Basso (bass), Stephen Jacobson (guitar, bongos), Malcolm Wagner and Phil Cohen – secured a recording contract with HMV, releasing a recording of the Buddy Holly song "Look at Me", backed with "Baby Not Like You", written by future 10cc bandmate Lol Creme, in June 1964. Gouldman dissolved the Whirlwinds in late 1964, and the following February formed the Mockingbirds with Jacobson, Basso, and a former member of fellow Manchester band the Sabres, Kevin Godley (drums). The Mockingbirds signed with the Columbia label, which rejected Gouldman's first offering as a single – "For Your Love" (later a major hit for the Yardbirds) – and issued two singles, "That's How (It's Gonna Stay)" (February 1965, also issued in the US on ABC Paramount) and "I Can Feel We're Parting" (May 1965). The band switched to the Immediate label for "You Stole My Love" (October 1965) and Decca for "One By One" (July 1966) and "How to Find a Lover" (October 1966). The Mockingbirds also began a regular warm up spot for BBC Television's Top of the Pops, transmitted from Manchester. He recalled: "There was one strange moment when the Yardbirds appeared on the show doing 'For Your Love', which was a song that I'd written. Everyone clamoured around them – and there I was just part of an anonymous group. I felt strange that night, hearing them play my song." At the same time Gouldman signed a management agreement with Harvey Lisberg, and while working by day in a men's outfitters shop and playing by night with his semi professional band, he wrote a string of hit songs, many of them million sellers. Between 1965 and 1967 alone, he wrote "For Your Love", "Heart Full of Soul" and "Evil Hearted You" for the Yardbirds, "Look Through Any Window" (with Charles Silverman) and "Bus Stop" for the Hollies, "Listen People", "No Milk Today" and "East West" for Herman's Hermits, "Pamela, Pamela" and "The Impossible Years" for Wayne Fontana, "Behind the Door" for St. Louis Union (later covered by Cher), "Tallyman" for Jeff Beck and "Going Home", which was a 1967 Australian hit for Normie Rowe. In 1966–67, Gouldman recorded singles with two other bands, High Society and the Manchester Mob, both of which featured singer Peter Cowap. In March 1968, he stepped in as a temporary replacement for bassist Bob Lang in the Mindbenders, writing two of the band's final singles, "Schoolgirl" and "Uncle Joe, the Ice Cream Man". The band dissolved eight months later. Gouldman said his time with the band was depressing: "They were sliding down, they were pretty well finished by the time I joined them." Gouldman accepted. He recalled: "They wanted me to write and produce for them, so I figured, why not? Nothing else was happening for me at the time. All told I worked for them for three or four periods over the course of a year, just writing and recording, and had no time for anything else. I was totally involved in the whole Kasenetz Katz thing while I was with them." He said he was left exhausted and depressed by his dealings with Kasenetz and Katz. "In the mornings I would go into the office and start writing and after I had finished one song in a day, which was very high output for me, they'd come up to me and say: 'Give us another song!' And I'd say 'OK' – because I'm like that. They'd keep up the pressure so that I kept on writing. I was there in their offices working like that for six or eight weeks and when I flew home to Manchester I went straight round to see my doctor. I was feeling sick and could not eat. The doctor told me: 'You are totally over worked.' I don't think I've ever felt so depressed as I did when I came back from New York." When the three months production deal with Kasenetz Katz ended, Gouldman returned to New York to work as a staff songwriter for Super K Productions while the remaining three continued to dabble in the studio. In late 1970, Gouldman returned to the UK to join Stewart, Godley and Creme – who had in the interim scored an international hit single with "Neanderthal Man" under the name of Hotlegs – on an abbreviated British tour supporting the Moody Blues.

The four musicians continued work at Strawberry Studios, producing and backing artists including Cowap, Dave Berry, Wayne Fontana, Herman's Hermits and Neil Sedaka, as well as recording quite a number of one off singles on many different labels (RCA, Pye, etc.) using many different performer names (including Festival, Tristar Airbus, The New Wave Band, and Grumble). In July 1972, they were signed by entrepreneur, producer and recording artist Jonathan King and given the name 10cc. Over the course of the next 23 years, 10cc scored three UK No.1 singles and five Top 10 albums, with Gouldman co writing some of their biggest hits, including "Rubber Bullets", "The Wall Street Shuffle" (1974), "I'm Not in Love" (1975), "I'm Mandy, Fly Me" (1976), "Art For Art's Sake" (1976), "The Things We Do for Love" (1977) and "Dreadlock Holiday" (1978). When Kevin Godley and Lol Creme departed in 1976 to explore new musical territories, Gouldman remained with Stewart, continuing the band essentially as a two piece, although with regular collaborators including Rick Fenn, Paul Burgess and Stuart Tosh. 1980's Look Hear? album marked the end of the band's run of chart success, and 1983's Windows in the Jungle became the last 10cc album for almost a decade. In 1979, Gouldman scored a minor hit with his single "Sunburn", written for the Farrah Fawcett–Charles Grodin film of the same name. Two years later he produced the Pleasant Dreams album for the Ramones. Gouldman produced the score for the film Animalympics in 1980, writing most of the soundtrack himself.

Between 1984 and 1990, Gouldman teamed with American singer Andrew Gold, with whom he had co written material in 1981, to form Wax. They produced four albums. Gold described how the partnership began:

Year Title Chart positions Album UK AUS NLD 1966 "Stop Stop Stop (or Honey, I'll Be Gone)" b/w "Better to Have Loved and Lost" – – – Non album single 1968 "The Impossible Years" b/w "No Milk Today" – – – The Graham Gouldman Thing "Upstairs, Downstairs" b/w "Chestnut" – – – "Pamela, Pamela" b/w "For Your Love" – – – 1969 "Windmills of Your Mind" b/w "Harvey's Tune"(as The Graham Gouldman Orchestra) – – – Non album singles 1972 "Nowhere to Go" b/w "Growing Older" – – – 1979 "Sunburn" 52 26 34 The Original Soundtrack Album From Sunburn 1980 "Love's Not for Me (Rene's Song)" – – – Animalympics 2000 "Dancing Days" – – – And Another Thing 2022"Floating in Heaven" (with Brian May) – – –Non album single