The Wedding Present + more across Manchester Academy.
Godley & Creme: Frabjous Days The Secret World Of Godley & Creme
CD | DL
Released 10 June 2022
The pre-10CC, 1967-69 recordings from the pairing of Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, carried out when they were working under the auspices of the Marmalade label, the imprint of ex-Yardbirds’ manager Giorgio Gomelsky, get a full release. This set includes the coveted and previously unreleased seven-track Frabjoy And Runcible Spoon album from 1969. Future bandmates Graham Gouldman and Eric Stewart also pop up in supporting roles. Ian Canty reports on the Frab two…
Considering the part Godley & Creme played in the massive creative and commercial success that 10CC enjoyed in the 1970s and also their experimental 1980s efforts as a duo, it is a mouth-watering prospect to look at what the pair were involved in musically during the height of psychedelia. Kevin Godley and Laurence “Lol” Creme lived near each other in Prestwich as kids and their first collaboration was on a film based on the Dracula story in 1959, made when they were both aged 12. Their first musical connection occurred later when aspiring drummer Kevin joined guitarist Lol’s band The Sabres. One of The Sabres’ local rivals were The Whirlwinds, who included a certain Graham Gouldman.
Godley and Gouldman then teamed up in The Mockingbirds, a more professional outfit that released five singles in the mid-sixties on the Columbia, Decca and Immediate labels. For the latter they cut You Stole My Love, which was produced by music business mover Giorgio Gomelsky. He had previously been the manager of successful r&b merchants The Yardbirds and most pertinently to this set, he would soon set up the Marmalade record label. Despite Kevin’s membership of The Mockingbirds, he still kept in close contact with Lol, who had moved to Birmingham to study at the art college there. They wrote songs, played music and talked over potential art projects whenever they had a spot of free time.
With their studies nearing completion, Kevin and Lol were back in partnership in earnest, working on film and musical ideas. They had also remained in touch with Graham Gouldman, who was developing quite a career as a songwriter. When one of their movie treatments inspired Graham to write Pamela, Pamela, which was a big hit for Wayne Fontana, they decided to direct their energies into making it via music.
Their first efforts were the two songs they recorded at Olympic Studios in London, It’s The Best Seaside In The World and Bull In A China Shop. These demos failed to generate any record company interest and, as a result, those recordings are now lost. However, It’s The Best Seaside In the World is included here in its flowing Frabjoy And Runcible Spoon version. Their next studio venture proved more successful. With their manager Jim O’Farrell in the producer’s chair, the Seeing Things Green/Easy Life single was released in the opening overs of 1968. Both sides feature here, with Seeing Things Green having a lovely gentle psych feel as the duo’s classy vocal harmonies shine through and flipside Easy Life a trippy acoustic strum.
This 45 was issued under the name The Yellow Bellow Room Boom. The group didn’t exist, so a bogus lineup was assembled by O’Farrell to promote the record without Godley & Creme, who were still finishing off their art college work. The record did nothing, but some of the people brought in formed their own group, The Royal Variety Show. One happy off-shoot of G&C’s first release was that they netted a publishing deal with Beacon Music and this resulted in another recording session. One And One Make Love and Over And Above My Head seemed to be a projected follow up to Seeing Things Green, but, in the end, the single never materialised.
Happily, these recordings survive and make their debut here. Graham Gouldman was now installed as part of the pair’s management and also played on both tracks, the pop sophistication of One And One Make Love matched by the very fine and soul-influenced Over And Above My Head. At this point Gomelsky reappears in the Godley & Creme story, offering to put out an album on his Marmalade imprint by the twosome under the odd Lewis Carroll/Edward Lear inspired moniker of Frabjoy And The Runcible Spoon. They played on Graham Gouldman’s flute-embellished psych-pop groover The Late Mr Late and their own flawlessly performed To Fly Away, which both were featured on the 1969 compilation album Marmalade – 100% Proof.
Gomelsky sought to promote the pair as a British answer to Simon And Garfunkel for his Marmalade imprint and To Fly Away showed definite potential in that area. To be honest though, Godley and Creme always had more about them to be satisfied with the role as mere folk-pop copycats. Even so, a single which could have launched them on that path, the good time, country/folk sound of I’ll Beside Myself and a beguiling Animal Song, was released on Marmalade in the late summer of 1969. The two songs made an attractive package and the 45 deserved a better fate than only achieving a few radio plays.
Soon after, Godley And Creme demoed two Graham Gouldman songs in Hot Sun and Virgin Soldiers. Hot Sun was noticeably harder-edged than their previous efforts, a brooding and energetic psych-rocker with smart changes of tempo. Virgin Soldiers was a touch more sensitive and this pair of tunes showed the depth and flexibility Frabjoy And Runcible Spoon could offer. Work went ahead on a possible album to follow up the single, but storm clouds were gathering over the Marmalade label. Gomelsky had spent all the money he had got to back the imprint from Polydor and he wasn’t about to get anymore, disappearing into the ether and leaving Godley & Creme to flounder.
The sessions for the album turned farcical, but fortunately seven tracks were finished with Gouldman and Eric Stewart on hand in the studio, with the latter on lead guitar. These recordings get their first airing here and begin with a good different take of single A side I’ll Beside Myself. Chaplin House, written about a building in Stoke-On-Trent, possesses a subtle acoustic drive and Cowboys And Indians has a real cool swagger to it. Fly Away is also redone very well, emerging so beautifully, and then Take Me Back shapes up as an enchanting folk-rock gem with a heavy guitar coda. Together with the sparkling Today, the latter would be re-recorded by another pre-10CC project Hotlegs a few years on. There is more than enough promise shown on these seven tracks to conjecture that a full Frabjoy LP would have been quite something.
Finally, we have a couple of real oddities that were recorded to promote Blinkers nightclub in Manchester, titled in typical K&C punning style Hello Blinkers and Goodnight Blinkers. Hello Blinkers is a lively, carefree dance tune, with Goodnight Blinkers more of a haunting, closing time ballad.
With eleven previously unissued tracks of prime psych-era Kev & Lol, Frabjous Days is pretty much an essential purchase for any 10CC fan, before you get to the fact that Gouldman and Stewart also play on the Frabjoy And Runcible Spoon LP. More than that, this is an excellent collection of rarely heard psychedelia in its own right that deserves to be valued separately from its 10CC associations. This is a dynamite and highly enjoyable archive delve, one that reveals Godley & Creme’s pop instincts and unique invention were already primed for innovation even at this early stage in their development. One to treasure.
~
All words by Ian Canty – see his author profile here
A Plea From Louder Than War
Louder Than War is run by a small but dedicated independent team, and we rely on the small amount of money we generate to keep the site running smoothly. Any money we do get is not lining the pockets of oligarchs or mad-cap billionaires dictating what our journalists are allowed to think and write, or hungry shareholders. We know times are tough, and we want to continue bringing you news on the most interesting releases, the latest gigs and anything else that tickles our fancy. We are not driven by profit, just pure enthusiasm for a scene that each and every one of us is passionate about.
To us, music and culture are eveything, without them, our very souls shrivel and die. We do not charge artists for the exposure we give them and to many, what we do is absolutely vital. Subscribing to one of our paid tiers takes just a minute, and each sign-up makes a huge impact, helping to keep the flame of independent music burning! Please click the button below to help.
John Robb – Editor in Chief
