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Kevin Godley

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Kevin Godley
Godley performing live with 10cc in 1976
Background information
Birth nameKevin Michael Godley
Born (1945-10-07) 7 October 1945 (age 79)
Prestwich, Lancashire, England[1]
Genres
Occupations
  • Singer
  • songwriter
  • musician
  • music video director
Instruments
  • Vocals
  • drums
  • percussion
Years active1962–present
Formerly of
Websitekevin-godley.com

Kevin Michael Godley (born 7 October 1945) is a British singer-songwriter, drummer and music video director. He was a singer and drummer of the art rock band 10cc and later was part of collaboration duo Godley & Creme with Lol Creme.

Early life

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Kevin Michael Godley was born on 7 October 1945 in Prestwich, Lancashire, England, to a Jewish family, and went to North Cestrian Grammar School in Altrincham.[3]

While attending art college in Manchester Godley met future creative partner Lol Creme. Godley and Creme joined the R&B combo the Sabres.[4]

10cc and Godley & Creme

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They became involved in a number of bands such as the Mockingbirds, Hotlegs and later 10cc. As part of the bands Godley was a songwriter, lead vocalist, played drums, percussion and keyboards. Godley and Creme recorded four studio albums with 10cc.[5] In 1977, early in the recording of the band's fifth studio album Deceptive Bends, unimpressed with the songs by bandmates Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman and eager to work on other projects outside of the band, Godley and Creme left. [6]

In 1977 they released their first album project - Consequences (Godley & Creme album) - a concept album demonstration piece for the "Gizmo" a device that enabled an electric guitar to mimic orchestral instruments the pair had begun developing early on in 10CC years. Consequences is basically a story about meek Walter Stapleton divorcing his French playgirl wife, with English comedian and satirist Peter Cook voicing the parts of 2 solicitors, the irascible Pepperman and the alcoholic Haig, and Haigs' downstairs resident & reclusive musician Mr Blint, who constantly interrupts them and confuses the proceedings, and singer Sarah Vaughan. The album was released as a 3 LP box set.

Consequences attained a niche following and had 1 single released from it, "Five O'clock in the Morning". However, despite the creativity, innovation and imagination involved, it was a commercial flop.

Godley (centre stood up) with 10cc in 1974

Both Godley and Creme briefly 'reunited' with their former 10cc bandmates Stewart and Gouldman on the band's tenth studio album ...Meanwhile (1992). Following ...Meanwhile, Godley and Creme went their separate ways again, having experienced difficulties together as early as 1988.[7]

Later work

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Godley later again reunited with Gouldman to form the band GG/06. Together they recorded a self-titled extended play (EP), which was made available for free via their website.[8] Since then Godley has several times joined Gouldman's iteration of 10cc in concert, and was featured on the live and video album Clever Clogs (2008).[9]

More recently Godley moved into developing a music platform for the iPad, one that combines audio and video to create a global recording studio in the cloud called "WholeWorldBand".[10] The company was nominated for the SXSW Music Accelerator Award in 2013, and was one of eight finalists selected from a pool of over 500.[11]

In 2017, Godley publicly invited musicians to send him music to work on his debut solo studio album, titled Muscle Memory with the idea being that he would take the rough ideas and turn them into a finished song.[12] The album was originally supposed to be released in 2018 through campaign on pledgemusic.com, but due to its closure the release was postponed. In 2021, Kevin Godley's album Muscle Memory was completed and released by The state51 Conspiracy after the project stalled as a PledgeMusic campaign.[13]

In 2018, Godley was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Arts by Staffordshire University.[14] In 2021, Godley joined "Group of Humans"[15] a globally distributed community of creative leaders and change architects as Creative Director.[16] He currently lives and works in Wicklow, Ireland with his wife Sue,[17] and hopes to direct a film based on Orson Welles' time in Ireland.[18]

Discography

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References

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  1. ^ "Kevin Godley | Songs". AllMusic. 7 October 1945. Retrieved 9 August 2014.
  2. ^ "Godley & Creme reviews, music, news - sputnikmusic". www.sputnikmusic.com.
  3. ^ Episode 95-Kevin Godley. Sodajerker Podcast
  4. ^ Kevin Godley.com, History Retrieved 30 December 2020
  5. ^ George Tremlett (1976). The 10cc Story. Futura. ISBN 0-86007-378-5.
  6. ^ Buskin, Richard (June 2005). "Classic Tracks: 10cc – 'I'm Not in Love'". Sound on Sound. Cambridge, England: SOS Publications: 62–69. Retrieved 21 September 2015
  7. ^ Lol Creme interview, Uncut, 14 December 1997. Archived 20 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine.
  8. ^ "GG/06". kevin-godley.com. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  9. ^ "The Official 10cc Fan Club/Latest News". The10ccfanclub.com. Retrieved 10 August 2010.
  10. ^ "WholeWorldBand". WholeWorldBand. Retrieved 9 August 2014.
  11. ^ "WholeWorldBand: SXSW Accelerator award finalist | Music | News". Hot Press. Retrieved 9 August 2014.
  12. ^ "Muscle Memory". kevin-godley.com. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  13. ^ "Out This Week / On 29 January 2021 – SuperDeluxeEdition". 25 January 2021.
  14. ^ Guttridge, Richard (6 June 2018). "10cc star to be honoured by Staffordshire University". Express & Star. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  15. ^ "Meet the Humans".
  16. ^ "Kevin Godley - LinkedIn". (subscription required)
  17. ^ O'Rourke, Frances. "First encounters: Kevin Godley and Sulinna Ong". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
  18. ^ "Muscle Memory:Kevin Godley Talks". wearecult.rocks. 10 August 2020. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
  19. ^ a b "Hog Fever". kevin-godley.com. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
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