Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from News Talks by.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Love that has promised there's an exciting gig coming to
Wellington this week, especially if your heyday was in the seventies.
Ten CC is returning to the Capitol on Friday night
to play a gig at the Opera House, playing classic
(00:40):
hits like The Things We Do for Love Dreadlock Holiday,
which you've just heard. The band was formed in nineteen
seventy two after frontman and songwriter Graham Gorman had written
hits for bands like The Hollies Hermit's Hermits, but he
decided to form his own band. We're lucky enough to
have Graham join us on the show this morning.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Morning Graham, good morning, see you sir.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
Right.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
I want I've got to start by asking why what
keep Why do you keep going? What keeps you motivated?
I mean, you have done everything possible in the world
of music?
Speaker 4 (01:17):
Why why keep going?
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Well? I love what I do. I do three things
in my work life I don't really actually it's not
really work. I write songs, I record songs, and I
get to play play live. And those are the three
things that I love doing. I don't really do anything
(01:40):
else other than I mean, I like my hobby is cooking,
but I don't play golf or anything. So music, besides
my family, is my life.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Can I just quickly ask you because we've got a
fascination on the side of the world at the moment
with the heat wave that's on in England currently. I mean,
I mean it's now at nine o'clock at night your time.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
How hot is it?
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Well, it's hot, hot, hot, very hot. Of course it
always comes as a bit of a shock to us.
We're not really used to it. But I think we're
going to have to start getting getting used to it.
People are wilting, That's all I can say.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
All right, So how often do you spend in a studio? What? What?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
How do you sit down and do you I mean,
you're originally a bass player, but I know that you
play all instruments, So.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
How does it come about?
Speaker 3 (02:29):
What?
Speaker 4 (02:30):
What makes you tick?
Speaker 3 (02:33):
What makes me tick is I was you know, I
have a gift and like any songwriter or musician, you've
got to express yourself. And it's it's as simple as that.
Really it might be. You know, it's like any job,
but you know that there are certain things that other
people do that that I envy and think, my god,
(02:55):
I wish I could do that, And then it happens
vice versa that people want to know, how do you
write a song? I can't really, you know, this is
very complicated and very simple all at the same time,
in that it's really a gift. And if you've got it,
you've got it, and if you haven't, you haven't. And
I really don't believe that you can learn it. It's
(03:17):
one of those things that's just inherent.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
How did you feel when you started writing songs and
watching people have huge hits of them? I mean I
grew up with songs like bus Stop and the Hollies
and No Milk Today. I mean, those are songs, are
the biggest songs of my life. I mean, and you
you set back and watch people perform them, and they
were your songs.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
I loved it, of course, Why wouldn't I fantastic, Particularly
bands like the Yardbirds and the Hollies, bands that I really,
you know, loved, and Herman's Hermits, all of them. You know,
there were there were great bands and they were doing
my songs. What what what could be better than that?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Well?
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Actually there is something better than that, in that is
if you record the song yourself with your own band,
as we did with ten CC, and have hits with
the songs that you've written, co written.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Right. What made Manchester such a hub of music. It's
a question that I've always asked myself. I mean, what
was it with Manchester and you know, big songs?
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Okay, Well, it's that's a difficult one to answer. I mean,
one reason why Manchester has always thrived musically is because
it's a university, university town, there's lots of clubs. There
was always lots of clubs and venues for people to
play in, so that that was one thing why Manchester
(04:46):
and Liverpool, you know, punched above its weight. I can't
really say. I mean I know that Liverpool in particular,
and I think it fed into Manchester as well. A
lot of the sailors that came back from America bought
sort of rhythm and blues records that all the bands
of the early sixes were playing, and I think that
(05:08):
sort of started the ball rolling. And then bands started playing,
you know, writing their own songs like the Beatles, and
everybody's sort of fuked into that.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
What do you prefer the most.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Sitting at home in front of a keyboard writing stuff
or performing to a live audience.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
What do you? What do you what's your big go to?
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Actually, I'm I'm not a keyboard player. I always consider
myself as a guitarist, but I play bass and guitar.
Whatever I'm doing at the time, I think it's the
best thing I'm doing. So if I'm writing songs on
my own or with somebody else, that's the greatest thing.
If I'm in the studio recording, that's the greatest thing.
(05:51):
If I'm on the road with the band, that's the greatest.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Thingror when you look at a mirror, right and you
say to yourself, and we all do it, you know
as a you know, it's thinking to yourself when I
was an eighteen or nineteen year old.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
Now you know you're at the other end.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
I mean, does it freak you out that you can
still do everything that you want to do even at
your age?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
It doesn't freak me out. I'm I'm grateful for it.
And I look at I mean, there are there are
people that are older than me, like McCartney of the Stones,
that are still doing it and doing it really really well.
So you could look at it like that and say, well,
you're a bit of a youngster. But I know exactly
(06:40):
exactly what you mean. The thing is, I think that
my my body might be older, but my brain is
it's still in its teens and still has the same
intuss and that had as a as a teenager about music.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
How do you feel about the travel? I mean, I mean,
nobody likes the traveling from one side of the world
to the other.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
They yeah, that nobody does. No, You're absolutely right, there's
but what come on? Do you know you have to
do it?
Speaker 4 (07:10):
Have you been to New Zealand before?
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Unless it was time travel or maybe if we if
we stuck around for another one hundred years or so, well,
actually probably will be less than that, you know. I
mean there's talk of you know, leaving London and going
straight up rather than going across the world and then
coming down as the earth has turned and going to
Australia or New Zealand in like three hours or something.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Have you been to New Zealand before?
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Yeah? A few times?
Speaker 4 (07:38):
Okay, you like it?
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Beautiful, absolutely beautiful place.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Let's talk about TINCC. I mean, the question that I've
always wanted to ask you, and I've got the opportunity
to ask you, where the hell did the reggae thing
come from?
Speaker 3 (07:55):
I was always liked reggae and scar I guess I
just sort of listen to it, listen to it growing up.
I mean, my musical influences are very very eclectic. Scars
in there. But it was really that sort of came
(08:18):
into play when we were writing A Dredler Holiday, because
Eric Stewert and I were at my house talking about
our various experiences that we've had on a holiday where
Eric was went to Barbados and I was in Jamaica,
And so because we were talking about that, I just
started playing these chords in a sort of reggae rhythm
(08:39):
style and the song just came. And when we got
to the chorus, I remembered that I've met somebody at
the hotel we were saying at and we were talking
about sports, and I said, what about cricket? Do you
like it? And he said no, he said I love it?
And there it was. That line just came back into
(09:00):
my head and we put it in the song.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
What's your favorite song? What's a song that you really
get excited every time? You know, if there's always one
song that they hear on the Becky and Nick raises
every time you hear it, what's your what's that song
for you?
Speaker 3 (09:16):
You mean the tendenc song?
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Yeah, any song, any song that you wrote.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
God, don't ask that question, please, it's there's too many.
There's too many. I can I can name it, and
it wouldn't be fair on the others. There are so
many great songs. I mean, as far as TENNC is concerned,
Like there, I guess there are two songs that are
like major songs that you can see people like really
reacting to. And obviously one is I'm Not in Love
(09:40):
and the other one is Dredler Holiday where people joining
the chorus and it's so happy and great and everybody
loves it.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
Is there a story behind I'm Not in Love?
Speaker 3 (09:52):
We didn't want to write a love song per se.
We'd had sort of avoided it up to that point.
Eric Stewart came up with a great title of I'm
Not in Love. It was like a real contradiction. I
have these opening chords and the song has flowed from there.
Originally it was going to be a We did record
it once as a kind of in a bost and
(10:13):
overstyle that didn't work, and then we came up with
a different rhythm and the idea of using like we
created this choir and that's what made the song really
what it was today that we knew it was a
good song, and a good song won't sort of die
in a way. But with the right production, it became
(10:34):
the you know, one of our most important songs.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
So there's no song that you sit back and go, gosh,
that really is something that I'm really proud of. I mean,
I know there's so many hits and we could go
help me. I could take the whole hour on speaking
of your hits. I mean to me, you see no
Milk Today is one of those songs that I don't
know what, but it just won't go away.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
In my head.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Good, don't let it go, keep it in there. I
guess Tory answer the question. I was inducted into the
songwriter It's All of Fame in two thousand and fourteen,
and if you're a writer performer, they asked you to
sing a one of your songs. I can only pick
one song I did choose to do bus Stop.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
Wow, what a great song, What a great song? Do
you pinch yourself?
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Is just make him pinch yourself and go, wow, what
a life and how lucky have I been and how
successful I've.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Been generally, No, don't you. I'm just because I'm doing stuff.
You know, I'm doing stuff now. So I mean, I've
been asked to write a book and things, and I think, well,
I don't to write the book because I don't really
think my story is finished yet.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
Good one.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
I mean, it might have done, but I don't think
it happened.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
No, of course it hasn't finished. You're a spring chicken.
What about playing with Ringo Star? You're playing You played
a whole lot of different bands and stuff us. Tell
us about playing with Ringo Star.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Well, it was brilliant. In fact, it was so great.
I absolutely loved it. I wrote a song about it, course,
standing that to Me, which was one on my last
solo world album. But one that album is called Modesty
for Bed Bids Modesty for Bids, and the opening track
is all about my time working with Ringo and the
(12:19):
Great All Star Band. It was a fantastic band as well.
I absolutely loved it. I mean it was hard to
I couldn't really get over the fact that I was
on stage with the people tell her the truth.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
But you do you like that sort of stuff You've
done stuff with the Ramones, You've done.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
You like that co ed stuff, don't you.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
I do. Yeah. I like collaborating, either you know, working
with bands as a producer or you know, songwriting as well.
That's really important to me. I write songs on my owner,
but I love the co writing as well, and I've
got some really lovely, fabulous partners, songwriting partners.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Graham, thank you for taking time to talk to us
and Wellington, New Zealand. We're really looking forward to you
coming here ten CC coming here to the capital city
in Wellington, and we hope that you're you're stay here
is fabulous and your trip's not too arduous.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
It is. It's a tough it's a tough it's a
tough trip. One side of the world doesn't matter if
you I'm sure.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
I'm sure we'll have a wonderful time and we're all
really looking forward to to coming over and playing.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
If you've got a great bed. I love the English bands. Oh,
I love the English bands.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
It is superb.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
Oh, good job, good job. Are you playing bass?
Speaker 3 (13:32):
I'll play bass, a little bit of guitar.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
Okay, looking forward to it. Thank you for taking to us,
talking to it all right. Grant Goldman, Grand Gorman, tend
c C. Your legiend, absolute legend, coming to Wellington. If
you get an opportunity to get to get a ticket,
please do so.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen live
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