Last night we took a long drive to Southend to see 10CC at The West Cliff Palace Theatre. It's a really nice venue if you fancy a show and a day/night out. It was my sisters birthday and my missus loves 10CC, they were the first band she saw as a 12 year old, taken by her big sister to the Empire Pool. I always had a little soft spot for the band, they make high quality pop music and were always entertaining. Like many such bands, they were blown away in the punk/new wave explosion of '77 but always have retained a loyal following. The band is pretty much the core post Creme/Godley set up. I enjoyed the band, but TBH I found the experience a bit unsettling. Here are the ten reasons why.
1. The gig took me back to the mid 1970's which was not a great time for me. Music is the soundtrack to our lives and through no fault of the their own 10CC were the soundtrack to a rather unhappy period.
2. The gig gave me nightmares. I had a vivid dream that I was back in the classroom of form 5B at Finchley Catholic in 1976. I often have dreams of being back at school, they usually have a degree of anxiety, this was no exception. I dreamed that I had to cook for the class and JA Ryan ate all the Aubegene Parmagiana I'd made for the class and everyone was cross that I'd not made enough. Life is a minestroni, or in my case a Parmagiana.
3. 10CC are excellent musicians and they write technically brilliant songs. As someone who has played in a punk band for 44 years, it occurred to me that if it hadn't been for punk, I'd have had no chance competing with these boys. I'd never have even considered becoming a musician.
4. 10CC write excellent, rather cheesy feel good songs. The pre punk mid 70's period had a few too many such song and bands most of which were not of the quality of 10CC. In the pre punk mid 70's world I was transported back to, I realised this was not a great period for UK music.
5. When I was listening to Dreadlock holiday I was reminded of many conversations about Reggae. For many of my mates around that time Reggae was Dreadlock Holiday, UB40 and the Police. It drove me mad, it wasn't 10CC's fault, but I used to get rather irritated that people didn't bother to dig deeper having enjoyed pale imitations.
6. When I went to the loo, I realised I was surrounded by old geezers, then I realised they were all my age!
7. When I came out, the T Shirts were £23. They were decent quality, but when did gig T Shirts become £23 a pop! 8u
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