Graham Gouldman talks about life as the only remaining original member of one of the 1970s’ most interesting and enduring acts - 10cc.

EMERGING on to a pop scene stuffed full of flamboyant, overblown celebrities, 10cc quietly captured hearts and minds with some of the best-loved songs of the 1970s.

Selling more than 15 million albums in the UK and 30 million worldwide, they remain one of the most successful British bands of the past four decades – with songs like the dreamy I’m Not in Love and Things We Do for Love entering the national consciousness.

It seems incredible that 39 years after they got together, the band forged over a love of music at the Stockport Jewish Lads Brigade in the 1960s, is still here, touring the same venues and playing the same songs – to some of the same fans.

Well... kind of. The band has haemorraged members and broken up entirely at least twice with the seminal line-up of Graham Gouldman, Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme whittled down to, errr... just Graham.

Not that you’d know, the lone founding member being joined by long-time bandmates drummer Paul Burgess and Oxford’s own Rick Finn on guitar (who, like Paul, joined in 1976, and is also notable for his work with Mike Oldfield, Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason, Peter Green, Cliff Richard and Justin Hayward).

And, says Graham, the fans love it.

“The audiences these days are very gratifying,” he says. “You get the people you would expect, who grew up with 10cc, but you also get young kids. Whether they’ve discovered 10cc for themselves, via the internet or radio, or just grown up with their parents playing it in the house, I don’t know.”

The band are completed by newer members Mick Wilson (vocals, percussion, guitar) and Mike Stevens (vocals, keys, guitar).

“The band, as it stands now is absolutely fantastic,” says Graham. “Of course, our main strength, and what we’re selling, is the songs, nothing else.

“This is as near as you’re ever going to get to hearing the perfect 10cc. Hit after hit after hit. It’s relentless. We show no mercy.”

They include No 1 hit Dreadlock Holiday, Donna, Art For Art’s Sake, I’m Mandy Fly Me, The Dean And I, The Wall Street Shuffle and the Ivor Novello Award-winning Rubber Bullets.

Gouldman is nothing short of a songwriting genius. As well as 10cc’s hits, he penned the Hollies classic Bus Stop and the Yardbird’s favourite For Your Love.

Even now, his songwriting comes across as exciting and interesting.

“Our main influences were The Beatles and the Beach Boys,” says Graham. “Then there was all the other stuff. Each member brought his own tastes and influences. It’s what happened when we put all those things together that made 10cc. It was all about the songs. That meant that if I could sing better on a song, that’s what happened. Or if Lol could play lead guitar better, he’d do it.

“Consequently we had four singers in the band, four instrumentalists and four producers.”

No two 10cc records ever sounded the same, he recalls. “There were so many influences flying around and they all found their way on to the records. We loved pastiche.”

The band’s first split, with the departure of Godley and Creme, still touches a raw nerve, however. “It was horrible,” Graham admits. “It was an absolute disaster. Like getting a divorce.

“This wasn’t like a couple of guys leaving the band who just played their instruments. This was two of the producers going, two of the singers going, two of the songwriters going.”

When Stewart quit after being injured in a car crash in 1979, the band hit the buffers but was resurrected by Graham to the evident delight of fans. And they still manage to lay on a tantalising set.

Graham explains: “I’ll come out and sing a hit I wrote for another artiste, then I bring on Rick and we’ll sing another hit I wrote before 10cc, with acoustic guitars.

“Then Mick comes on and the three of us sing one, and then Mike joins us and we do four-part harmony on another. Then they go off and I finish the opening set alone.

“It’s a great evening,” he says. “I’ve been to every single show... and loved them all!”

* 10cc play the New Theatre, Oxford, on Tuesday. Doors open at 7.30pm. Tickets start at £24.75 from ticketmaster.co.uk