Godley & Creme

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Godley & Creme
Origin Stockport, England
Genre(s) Pop, Rock
Years active 1977–1988
Associated acts 10cc
Hotlegs
Doctor Father
The Magic Lanterns

Godley & Creme was a duo of English pop musicians and music video directors, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme. The pair began releasing albums as a duo after splitting from pop band 10cc.

Contents

[edit] Musical career

Godley and Creme met in the late 1950s and for a brief time were in a band together. Through the 1960s they played in different bands, with Kevin Godley briefly in The Mockingbirds with future 10cc cohort Graham Gouldman.

The pair began their music career together proper in 1969, performing bubblegum music in Strawberry Studios at Stockport near Manchester with Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman. Their first chart success was as members of the short-lived Hotlegs, which evolved into 10cc in 1972. 10cc enjoyed strong chart success, most notably with their 1975 single "I'm Not in Love", a hit on both sides of the Atlantic.

After the recording of 10cc's fourth LP, How Dare You!, Godley & Creme left the band to work on a device they called "The Gizmo", which attached to the bridge of a guitar to create a wide variety of sonic textures. The Gizmo was featured heavily on their poorly received concept album Consequences, released in 1977. The album was savaged by critics, but has since accrued a cult following; it features a guest vocal by Sarah Vaughan and an extended comedy performance by Peter Cook.

In a 1997 interview[1] Godley expressed regret that he and Creme had left 10cc, saying:

“ We'd reached a certain crossroads with 10cc and already spent three weeks on the genesis of what turned out to be Consequences ... The stuff that we were coming up with didn't have any home, we couldn't import it into 10cc. And we were kind of constrained by 10cc live ... We felt like creative people who should give ourselves the opportunity to be as creative as possible and leaving seemed to be the right thing to do at that moment.

Unfortunately, the band wasn't democratic or smart enough at that time to allow us the freedom to go ahead and do this project and we were placed in the unfortunate position of having to leave to do it. Looking back, it was a very northern work ethic being applied to the group, all for one and one for all. If we'd been a little more free in our thinking with regard to our work practices, the band as a corporate and creative entity could have realised that it could have been useful rather than detrimental for two members to spend some time developing and then bring whatever they'd learned back to the corporate party. Unfortunately, that wasn't to be.

 ”

The duo gradually regained critical favour with a trio of innovative albums in the late 1970s and early 1980s – L, Freeze Frame and Ismism (released as Snack Attack in the United States). Freeze Frame included several songs that gained airplay on alternative radio in many countries, notably "I Pity Inanimate Objects" and "An Englishman in New York" (not to be confused with the Sting song of similar name), which was accompanied by an innovative music video. The single "Snack Attack" was also a minor hit. They made the UK Top Ten with the singles "Under Your Thumb" (No. 3) and "Wedding Bells" (No. 7) in 1981, both from Ismism. Their 1970s single "The Boys in Blue" was played at most Manchester City football club matches in the 1990s and is still occasionally played there in the 21st century.

In 1983 they released Birds of Prey which took their music in a more electronic direction, using electronic drum machines for the entire album.

Their 1984 single "Golden Boy" was included on 1985's The History Mix Volume 1 album which celebrated 25 years of recording together. The album, co-produced by J. J. Jeczalik of Art of Noise, remixed samples of their previous recordings to a disco beat. This album also contained the single "Cry" which, helped in part by the video, became their biggest US hit, reaching No.16. The song reached No. 19 in Britain. A video cassette was also released with visual imagery to complement the music.

Godley & Creme released their final album, Goodbye Blue Sky, in 1988. This album abandoned electronic instruments and used harmonicas, organs, and guitars to tell the story of the earth on the brink of nuclear war.

The pair ended their working relationship soon after the release of Goodbye Blue Sky. In a 1997 interview [1]Creme explained:

“ In '89, certainly in '88, maybe before, Kevin changed, I think his priorities in life changed. He'd had enough, he'd simply had enough of me and the way we worked, the things we did, the priorities we had. And the fact that we were a priority, for example. Our working relationship dominated our lives, you know. It was time for a shift in all that and he was obviously right. ”

[edit] Music videos

Godley and Creme achieved their greatest success as the innovative directors of more than fifty music videos in the early 1980s. They created memorable videos for The Police Every Breath You Take, Synchronicity II, Wrapped Around Your Finger, Duran Duran, Girls on Film, A View to a Kill, Herbie Hancock, Rockit, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Two Tribes, The Power of Love, Sting If You Love Somebody Set Them Free, among many others, up to Godley's video for the 1996 single from The Beatles, Real Love, featured in the Beatles Anthology.

Of their "Wrapped Around Your Finger" video, which featured The Police performing amid hundreds of burning candles, film maker Daniel Pearl recalled: "Directors Godley and Creme communicated from their homes in London that we would require 1000 candles for the shoot. Trying to stay on top of things and get information for the art department, producer Fiona Fitzherbert requested a diagram of what they wanted. Several days passed without any fax. She finally insisted she be given some advance information, and received a drawing of a candle.

"... A big part of the mission was to make "Wrapped" for as little as possible... As we neared the end of our 12 hour day, the producers declared us wrapped. Sting protested, saying that he felt we were doing something very innovative, and that he would pay personally for us to continue shooting. The producers, mindful of the stigma of the price of "Every Breath" refused to allow him to throw more money at it, and in the end it was agreed that we would do one more take and then wrap.

"Godley and Creme took Sting off for a brief chat, which I was purposely excluded from, while I was instructed to build the camera hand held. The stage was cleared of everyone except Sting, myself, and my focus puller. Their parting words to me were to follow Sting where ever he went on the stage, and to keep rolling no matter what happened. About halfway through the track Sting started knocking the candles over and molten wax was flying everywhere. I definitely was shocked as I started to get hit, but fortunately we weren't burned too badly, and we did capture some amazing footage."[2]

The pair's innovation extended to their videos for their own songs, notably "Wide Boy" and "Cry". "Cry"'s groundbreaking and very popular 1985 video featured faces blended into each other using analog cross-fading, anticipating the digital effect of morphing, later used in a very similar way in Michael Jackson's 1991 video, "Black or White". The "Cry" video was memorable enough that in 1993, it was shown in an episode of MTV's Beavis and Butt-head.

[edit] Today

Creme joined the band Art of Noise in 1998. Kevin Godley continued to direct music videos. In 2006 he teamed up with Graham Gouldman again, and they released four new tracks under the name GG06[3].

Godley & Creme's song 'Cry' is featured in Rockstar Games' GTA IV, release in April of 2008, in the in-game radio feature.

[edit] Discography

Albums

Singles

  • "5 O'Clock in the Morning" (1977)
  • "Sandwiches of You" (1978)
  • "An Englishman in New York (Strange Apparatus)" (1979)
  • "Submarine" (1980)
  • "Wide Boy" (1980)
  • "Under Your Thumb" (1981) #3 UK
  • "Wedding Bells" (1981) #7 UK
  • "Snack Attack" (1982)
  • "Save A Mountain For Me" (1983)
  • "Samson" (1983)
  • "Golden Boy (Extended)" (1984)
  • "Cry" (1985) #19 UK #16 US
  • "Cry (Remix)" (1986) #66 UK
  • "A Little Piece of Heaven" (1988)
  • "Love Is Dead" (1988) #84 UK
  • "10,000 Angels" (1988)

[edit] Music Videos

Some of the notable clips directed by Godley and Creme

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Lol Creme interview, Uncut, December 14, 1997
  2. ^ Daniel Pearl comment at Cinematography.net website
  3. ^ GG06

[edit] External links