Record Mirror, Sept 77
Steve Gibbs writes:
Had a walk through your site and realised you appear to be missing my very own news story about the album's imminent release from Record Mirror!
I was working as a manager for Virgin Retail at the time, moonlighting as a writer for Record Mirror. Mercury gave me a copy of the single album promo for "Consequences" and I was so taken with it that I persuaded the magazine's news editor to include a story about the album's release, launch party and more.
I still have that single album promo - and the 3-album box set, naturally - all these years later. Just two of the things that accompanied me on my move across the pond to the USA.
I now know there are some factual errors in the piece... Dudley Moore? I think not! Oh, and I'll accept "not very well written" too.
The Giz Biz
September 17, 1977
PUT OUT the flags and sanpaper the pigmies. Kevin Godley and Lol Creme have finally produced an album – sorry a rock musical – called 'Consequences'.
This is, of course, the project that caused the rift which eventually led to the splitting up of 10cc leaving Graham Gouldmand and Eric Stewart to carry on the name.
But with ‘Consequences’, it seems Godley and Creme provided the bite that’s now missing from the present10cc.
Our copy is, admittedly, one that contains only the highlights of the album — a promotional device. But from that the quality is obvious.
The musicianship is superb, the production crystal clear and the whole thing musically excellent. If you're a 10cc lover it might repulse you because the contents are very heavy compared with any past 10cc product. Still Godley and Creme manage to be aggressive and tranquil simultaneously, something the present 10cc are unable to emulate.
The album seems preoccupied with death and in parts gets very weird indeed. Playlets link the various sections of music and some of the dialogue is rather bizarre. Peter Cooke and Dudley Moore [sic] play strange characters that represent the man in the street. Even Sarah Vaughn makes an appearance.
The gizmo is a mechanical device invented by Godley and Creme which clamps to the bridge of a guitar and mechanically bows and vibrates the strings of the instrument. It creates the odd feel of the album which in parts is reminiscent of the ethereal sound effects in ‘I’m Not InLove’.
At other times it’s actually frightening — on one track vocals are dehumanised to represent death sweeping through a door.
In the true Godley / Creme tradition vocal harmonies play a part in ‘Consequences’. But there are only a few occasions when the ‘10cc sound’ breaks through, creating a cross between ‘South Pacific’ and ‘The Original Soundtrack’.
The triple album has a theme based around the number 17 — and to stress that it will be launched in Europe at a reception in a 17th century Amsterdam church at 17 minutes and 17 seconds past 1700 hours on September 17.
A 20-page booklet is included in the set and the whole thing will be promoted in cinemas up and down the country, shown with film compatible with the audience the record company hops to attract — late teens to early 20s.
The complete album will be available some time next month, retailing at £11 — so see about a mortgage now.
STEVE GIBBS AND ERIC LEATHERMAN.