'WE'D JUST WALLOW IN HOW FUCKING BRILLIANT WE WERE'

Graham Gouldman on I'm Not In Love, The Original Soundtrack and 10cc's next-level pop.

- Interview: Chris Wheatley

Fifty years ago, Graham Gouldman, Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, aka art rock band 10cc, were two albums into an astonishingly innovative career and flying high. Three singles from their 1973 self-titled debut had reached the UK Top 10, with infectious bopper Rubber Bullets hitting No 1, complete with a double-speed, tape-manipulated guitar solo. Already the group were pushing the boundaries of both technology and the popular music idiom. A 1974 followup LP, Sheet Music, continued the extraordinary tightrope act, balancing beguiling hooks and smooth melodies with sophisticated arrangements and restless experimentation.

In 1975, the band commenced work on a third studio album, The Original Soundtrack. Recording took place at Strawberry Studios in Stockport. Co-owned by Eric Stewart, with Gouldman holding a stake, Strawberry and its later sister establishment, Strawberry South, would go on to host Joy Division, The Smiths and The Stone Roses, among others. Back in ’75, it was about to witness the birth of 10cc’s most distinctive song to date.

Co-written by Gouldman and Stewart, I’m Not In Love took 10cc to new commercial and technological peaks. To achieve the arresting, multilayered vocals required for the track, Stewart spent weeks painstakingly recording his bandmates’ voices, constructing a virtual choir of 48 ‘singers’ for each note of the chromatic scale. Before the advent of digital technology, it was a physical and creative effort of heroic proportions, with Stewart cutting up 12-foot sections of tape which were subsequently strung between a stereo recorder and a roller to create endlessly looping flows of sound.

Released as the second single from the new album, I’m Not In Love reached No 1 in the UK for the week 22-28 June 1975. The following month it peaked at No 2 on the US