10CC, one of the most successful bands ever to come out of the UK, is visiting Canberra soon on its 50th anniversary tour.

Described by one admiring writer as “the missing link between The Beatles and the Gorillaz,” 10cc has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide.

I catch up by phone to his home in London with original co-lead singer and bassist Graham Gouldman, the only one still remaining of the original 10cc line up.

Goldman wasn’t originally from London, but from Manchester where, as a child, he had known future band members Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, with Eric Stewart joining later. 

But Gouldman’s career didn’t begin with 10cc. He was already one of the world’s most famous songwriters, and wrote “For Your Love”, “Heart Full of Soul” and “Evil Hearted You” for the Yardbirds, “Look Through Any Window” (with Charles Silverman) and “Bus Stop” for the Hollies, “Listen People” and “No Milk Today” for Herman’s Hermits, “Pamela, Pamela” and for Wayne Fontana, “Behind the Door” for St. Louis Union (later covered by Cher), “Tallyman” for Jeff Beck and “Going Home”, a hit for Normie Rowe. 

He was later invited by Jerry Kasenetz and Jeffery Katz to New York to write formula bubble-gum songs, a period he later called a “creative low point.”

Back in the UK he, Stewart, Godley and Creme all got together to record at Strawberry Studios, but real success didn’t strike until “Donna”, a Frank Zappa-ish parody of doo-wop songs.

“We were all such clever clogs,” he says of their cheeky, idiosyncratic lyrics.

“We wrote about things we found funny and intelligent and original, songs to please ourselves. We were never conscious of how the public would react,” he says, “and we certainly never let record companies have any say in what we did.”

In the mid-to-late ’70s, 10cc experimented with many genres, not least ska and reggae, with Bob Marley famously covering “Dreadlock Holiday”.

It rather pleases him that until “I’m Not in Love,” 10cc hadn’t written a straight love song. Not that he’s complaining, it’s been covered by the Pretenders, Peggy Lee, Richie Havens, Fun Lovin’ Criminals and the Flaming Lips. 

The five-person line-up we’ll see here is Gouldman, Rick Fenn, Paul Burgess, Mick Wilson and Mike Stevens, but it would be a mistake to think that they were all completely new. The drummer Burgess joined the band in 1973 and Fenn in 1976, veteran musicians who give it an authentic feel. 

At 77, Gouldman is not about to stop touring any time soon and says that if you associate the show purely with the ’70s, you’d be wrong.

“We get three generations of people coming to see us,” he says of their packed-out performances, “the original age, their children, who are now probably in their middle to late 40s and their children… I guess they’ve all grown up listening to 10cc’s music.”

10cc, Llewellyn Hall, June 21.