I’m Not In Love: The Story of 10cc

On 4th December 2015, BBC Four showed a new documentary about 10cc which included footage I'd never seen before from the 70s BBC news programme Nationwide. On it, Kev and Lol demonstrate the Gizmo to presenter Richard Stilgoe, and Lol plays a section from the opening of Consequences. I'll brush up my media law on 'fair use' and see if I can post a clip. In the meantime, here are some stills.

It was a pretty good documentary, including lots on the part Consequences and the Gizmo played in the break up of 10cc. I think it was Kevin who said that if they'd been allowed to have a year out to do it as a side-project, the split might not have happened, as the album's failure to sell wouldn't have been such a big deal - although he clearly didn't like the commercial pressures placed on the band after How Dare You, and he hated 'The Things We Do For Love' so much I wonder if that song wasn't as much to blame as the Gizmo. 10cc remains another example of a band greater than the sum of its parts, like The Beatles, Pink Floyd and countless others.


Lol in 2015 with his prototype Gizmo.

Lots of great stuff in there too about the amazing pre-10cc careers of Graham Gouldman and Eric Stewart, although nothing about them writing bubblegum hits for the US market.


Lol explains how the Gizmo motor bowed guitar strings.

One line coming out of the film echoes a thread in Kevin Godley's recent book: that 10cc never got the attention or respect they deserved because, unlike Queen for example, they were not showmen. They 'sounded like American musicals but looked like four scruffy blokes from Manchester'. Which is because that's what they were.

Certainly a programme catching on the iPlayer if you can. Now if anyone wants to make a programme about Consequences, you know where I am...