The Official 10cc Pages

Review of the new 10cc biography

We hope many of you will have already had the chance to read Liam Newton’s biography on 10cc: “The Worst Band In The World”.

The Stockport Express reviewed the book on 5th April: "Anyone with an interest in pop music should be pleased with this hitherto missing chapter on its history".

The Manchester Evening News ran a full page article on 10cc on 21st April based around the book: "Overlooked by pop history until now...finally the book gets written on 10cc".

On 29th April, Liam was also interviewed live on BBC Greater Manchester Radio for about 15 minutes on Phil Trow's programme. He had to answer questions such as: "Is it credible to be a 10cc fan in 2000?" (bloody cheek!), "What inspired you to write the book? Why do you think that 10cc don't get the credit that they deserve? What was the origin of the 10cc name? Have you found lots of other 10cc fans have crawled out of the woodwork while you have been writing the book?" (Yes!!)

10cc fan John Bruinsma reviewed the book for “De Gelderlander”, a local Dutch newspaper. His criticism was that the book lacks an analytical approach and that it is mostly a chronological account of what happened in the history of 10cc. According to John, some interesting questions remain unanswered. What was it like for Kevin, Lol and Graham to grow up as Jewish lads in Manchester? How sensitive was Eric’s ego when the others started to get a bit concerned by his production control and technical power in the studio?

Our food for thought
Perhaps it is not surprising that the book does not contain many details of their private lives and personal views on things other than 10cc. Most members of the band have always tried to keep that side really private, unlike most other people in the business. (“Our music speaks for itself.”) If you are interested in how often your heroes clean the cat’s box or whether they clip or cut their toenails, you have really picked The Worst Band In The World!

An analytical approach might have helped on occasion, such as when trying to discover why Mirror Mirror came to be recorded despite the obvious professional rift between Graham and Eric at this time. But even though we don’t get answers to all questions, this book is a must for 10cc fans. Liam has certainly managed to incorporate all the available archive material plus the information from 10cc themselves into one highly readable account. He even managed to find some new facts about the period before 1976, which were never mentioned in George Tremlett’s “The 10cc Story”.

It is a shame that the book lacks a comprehensive index and this makes it difficult to look up something that may have escaped your memory. However, “The Anorak’s Guide To 10cc” at the back of the book is a very useful and interesting part of the book with set lists, a discography, a bibliography and related projects. It is quite clear that Liam Newton must have spent an incredible amount of time on writing this new standard work.

For a debut this is certainly a very impressive book. You can argue that a fan is not the right person to write a biography but in 10cc’s case no one else did!!! After the Tremlett book no established author took the trouble of writing down what happened since then. If you think about it, it’s truly amazing they all paid so little attention to the band that had so much influence on so many artists in so many ways. Liam certainly does make his own opinions known in places and perhaps not all fans will agree with his assessment of the various 10cc albums and singles. He also occasionally allows himself to be critical of the actions of members of the band. Considering that this book is an authorized biography, it presents a very rounded view on events. The fact that Eric and Graham have allowed these comments and criticisms to remain show that they wanted an accurate rather than a sanitized version of the 10cc story.

Well done Liam! You have produced another chapter in “ the greatest story ever told”!!!

Minerva Press, London. Soft back, 389 pages, ISBN 0 75410 311 0.
Price £ 16.99.

You can order your copy of "The Worst Band In The World" from Liam Newton directly.

We hope many of you will have already had the chance to read Liam Newton’s biography on 10cc: “The Worst Band In The World”.

Further reading