Official 10cc Pages/page 111

By Liam Newton

The introduction of Silver, Gold and Platinum awards was introduced in the UK in late April 1973 by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) “to measure the performance of individual records based on sales to the trade each week”. Initially singles were measured on the basis of units sold and albums by the amount of revenue received by record companies (this changed to unit sales in January 1978). Since then a number of changes have been made to how Silver, Gold and Platinum awards are calculated. For example, in the 1970’s a single had to sell a million copies to win a Platinum award where as today it only has to sell 600,000 copies (“Dreadlock Holiday” would have won a Platinum disc on this basis).

10cc have won 27 awards: 14 Silver discs, 11 Gold discs and 2 Platinum discs.

The first 10cc record to win an award was “Sheet Music”, which was awarded a Silver disc on 1st October 1974. Five months later, it was also the first 10cc record to win a Gold disc, on 1st March 1975.
The first 10cc single to win an award was “I’m Not In Love” which turned Silver on 1st July 1975. “The Things We Do For Love” was the first 10cc single to win a Gold record, on 1st November 1976.
The first 10cc record to go Platinum was their “Greatest Hits 1972-1978” album on 1st January 1980.
The fastest selling 10cc albums have been “The Original Soundtrack”, “How Dare You” and “Bloody Tourists”, which all won Gold discs within a month of their release.
By contrast, it took 3 years and 7 months for their debut album “10cc” to finally be awarded a Silver disc, on 4th February 1977.
The last 10cc record to win an award was “Changing Faces”, which picked up a platinum award on 31st August 1989. The celebration lunch arranged by Polydor to present the platinum discs to the band was the catalyst to the reformation of 10cc and their ‘comeback’ album “Meanwhile” in 1992.

The full run down of awards is as follows:

01/10/1974
01/03/1975
01/04/1975
01/04/1975
01/07/1975
01/01/1976
01/02/1976
01/11/1976
01/02/1977
04/02/1977
04/02/1977
04/02/1977
01/07/1977
21/0719/77
10/08/1977
10/01/1978
10/01/1978
01/08/1978
01/09/1978
14/0919/78
26/09/1978
15/11/1979
15/11/1979
01/01/1980
02/09/1987
11/09/1987
31/08/1989

Sheet Music (Silver - £100,000 sales)
Sheet Music (Gold - £250,000 sales)
The Original Soundtrack (Silver - £100,000 sales)
The Original Soundtrack (Gold - £250,000 sales)
“I’m Not In Love” (Silver - 250,000 sales)
How Dare You (Silver - £100,000 sales)
How Dare You (Gold - £250,000 sales)
“The Things We Do For Love” (Silver - 250,000 sales)
"The Things We Do For Love” (Gold - 500,000 sales)
100cc - Greatest Hits of 10cc (Silver - £100,000 sales)
100cc - Greatest Hits of 10cc (Gold - £250,000 sales)
10cc (Silver - £100,000 sales)
“Good Morning Judge” (Silver - 250,000 sales)
Deceptive Bends (Silver - £100,000 sales)
Deceptive Bends (Gold - £250,000 sales)
Live and Let Live (Silver - £100,000 sales)
Live and Let Live (Gold - £250,000 sales)
“Dreadlock Holiday” (Silver - 250,000 sales)
“Dreadlock Holiday” (Gold - 500,000 sales)
Bloody Tourists (Silver - 60,000 sales)
Bloody Tourists (Gold - 100,000 sales)
Greatest Hits 1972-1978 (Silver - 60,000 sales)
Greatest Hits 1972-1978 (Gold - 100,000 sales)
Greatest Hits 1972-1978 (Platinum - 300,000 sales)
Changing Faces (Silver - 60,000 sales)
Changing Faces (Gold - 100,000 sales
Changing Faces (Platinum - 300,000 sales)

Note: “Donna” and “Rubber Bullets” were both released before the system was introduced but would both have won awards.

Picture caption: 10cc, and their management, accepting Silver discs for “How Dare You” backstage at the Manchester Apollo, February 1976. For some reason Syd Lawrence, the famous band leader who had often recorded at Strawberry and was managed by 10cc’s management, is standing in for Lol Creme in the photograph!

For more information, check out www.bpi.co.uk