Even now, a generation of two on, fans will tell the band the part the song played in their own personal lives, says 10cc founder Graham Gouldman.

"People will say 'Oh, we had a cuddle while listening to I'm Not In Love - and that's how we got little Johnny!'"
No, the band didn't do a lot for contraception, laughs Graham: "Thank goodness!"

But it just underlines the point - 10cc, who play this year's Real Ale and Jazz Festival in Chichester - are a band which made their mark.

And they did so, Graham believes, by carrying on the great Beatles' legacy in those heady days of the early 1970s.

The Beatles liberated music through the experimentation they encouraged, and 10cc were among the bands to take up the challenge.

10cc Mark One, as Graham calls them, were at the forefront - four glorious years from 1972-76 when he, Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme were at the forefront.

"There were lots of bands that were doing something different. I think we were carrying on the Beatles' legacy by having no boundaries in what we could write or record."

Graham cites the single I'm Mandy, Fly Me: "It was complicated stuff. It was maybe four or five songs in one. But we wrote and recorded for our own pleasure."

In various ways the various band members went back a long way together. Kevin was at primary school with Graham in north Manchester.

"We had been in a band together before 10cc and Lol used to come and play with us sometimes."

And so 10cc emerged through a network of connections and friendships, hitting the charts with their debut single Donna.

"Things changed dramatically. 10cc was brilliant for all of us. We were completely self-contained, we all wrote and sung and played and we had our own studio. The creativity in that early period was just like nothing else."

A few years later, along came the iconic I'm Not In Love: "It was a fantastic period, particularly those first four years. When Kevin and Lol left in 1976, Eric and I had to make a decision whether to carry on as 10cc, whether we had the moral right to carry on with only half the band."

The problem was that Kevin and Lol had grown tired of the cycle or writing and recording and touring and then writing and recording and touring.

"They didn't like the predictability of it all and they had also developed an attachment that goes onto guitars called a gizmo."

As a result, the two found themselves working towards effectively a three-album set: "It got to the point where Eric and I said 'We really have got to carry on with our 10cc work now'. They said 'But we haven't finished this' and it came to a showdown in the end."

In hindsight, Graham reckons he should have said "Take as long as you like": "But we did have commitments. We were a business after all is said and done, and we couldn't just stop. But maybe we could have worked it out somehow.'"

In the end, though, Kevin and Lol left, and Eric and Graham carried on in 10cc Mark Two.

Now he's riding the wave of 10cc nostalgia: "As time has gone on, particularly in the last two or three years, there has been much more interest in the music of that time and in the music of 10cc.

"There are bands like The Feeling that have credited us as being influences, and so maybe people have revisited us. There was a time in the 90s when 10cc didn't exist at all. I restarted the whole thing. I was always doing gigs but I was really going out under my own name, and then it gradually changed into what it is today."

Graham is the only one of the original 10cc foursome still in the band, but he is joined by Rick Fenn and Paul Burgess, both with long 10cc credentials. Paul was in the band right from when they first went on the road; Rick was part of 10cc Mark Two.


This year's Chichester Real Ale And Jazz Festival line-up is: Wednesday July 9 - From The Jam; Thursday July 10 - 10cc; Friday July 11 - The Spirit FM Party Night featuring Bad Manners, The Beat and Django; and Saturday July 12 - Squeeze. On the Saturday afternoon, the Festival offers Jazz in the Park featuring The Jazz Smugglers.
Tickets on 0870 950 9669 and also available directly from The Anglesey Arms (Halnaker), The Bull (Market Avenue), The George & Dragon (North St), The Park Tavern (Priory Park) and through the Chichester Festivities Box Office.