10cc celebrate their 50th anniversary with Eastbourne and Worthing dates

“It is 50 years since Donna,” says Graham Gouldman, “and it is hard to believe that it's been that long. There was a break for about 12 years in the 2000s when I was just writing but I wanted to play. I've always wanted to play in a band and so I started off doing some acoustic gigs and eventually it all morphed into the band that is now playing under the name 10cc.”

One of their summer highlights was playing the Wickham Festival: “It was great. There was a lovely vibe and I think it was the third time that we've played there. It comes down to the organisation and just the general atmosphere and having a good time but really it comes down to the songs. Everything comes from the songs. The song is always king as far as we're concerned and that's what people come to hear.”

And the consensus was that the band were closer than ever to playing them just as they were when they first became hits: “That's definitely the aim. That's what people come to hear. I don't want to start changing them.” And that's a big part of the enjoyment: “As you get older, if you are not enjoying yourself then you are definitely doing something wrong. As you get older you get rid of all the rubbish and you don’t tolerate the things that you don't have to tolerate anymore. You do what you want to do in your own way and that's what we're doing.”

Key to it all, Graham says, is that in his mind as he plays he is also a member of the audience: “That's what informs everything. The audience is everything and you've got to think what they want to hear and when you might be able to put some new stuff in. Those are the decisions. The audience must be the most important thing. Someone said to me last night that we ran the whole gamut of emotions, and I thought ‘Well, we got it right then.’ It has been absolutely brilliant coming back (from the pandemic). We were one of the first bands to go into Europe and we took a lot of chances. If any of us had caught Covid that would have been curtains but we came through OK and it was just a relief to be playing together. Anybody who is a musician will know that. You just want to be playing.” As he says, it became a bit of a joke to ask any musician “So what's your lockdown album then? If you had a studio during the lockdown you were still able to record and also to share files and it was quite easy to record with other with other people remotely but it was just fantastic to be together in the room again singing. You can do it remotely. But nothing will ever beat actually being together.”

Led by Graham, the band comprises Rick Fenn (lead guitar, bass, vocals), Paul Burgess (drums, percussion), Keith Hayman (keyboards, guitars, bass, vocals) and Iain Hornal.