Kevin Godley

Kevin Michael Godley (born 7 October 1945) is an English singer, songwriter, musician and music video director. He is known as the singer and drummer of the art rock band 10cc and later as part of collaboration duo Godley & Creme with Lol Creme.

Kevin Godley
Godley performing live with 10cc in 1976
Background information
Birth nameKevin Michael Godley
Born (1945-10-07) 7 October 1945
Prestwich, Lancashire, England[1]
Genres
Occupation(s)
  • Singer
  • songwriter
  • musician
  • music video director
Instruments
  • Vocals
  • drums
  • percussion
Years active1970–present
Associated acts
Websitekevin-godley.com

Biography

Kevin Michael Godley was born on 7 October 1945 in Prestwich, Lancashire, England, to a Jewish family, and went to North Cestrian Grammar School in Altrincham.[3] The first band he was part of was Group 17 which had its origins in the Jewish Lads Brigade. The members were Henri Shalam, Bernard Sufrin, Sydney Kaye and Jeffrey Baker.

While attending art college in Manchester Godley met future creative partner Lol Creme. They became involved in a number of bands, eventually forming Hotlegs and later 10cc. As part of the bands Godley was a songwriter, lead singer, played drums, percussion and keyboards. Godley and Creme recorded four albums with 10cc. In 1977, early into the recording of the album Deceptive Bends, unimpressed with the songs by bandmates Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman and eager to work on other projects outside of the band Godley and Creme left.[4]

After leaving 10cc the two became known as Godley & Creme, both as musicians and film directors. They were jointly nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Music Video, Long Form for: The Police: Synchronicity Concert in 1986.[5] The duo split in 1988 after their album Goodbye Blue Sky.

In 1990, Godley's charity production One World One Voice was released on CD in the UK. It was a CD that focused on environmental and ecological crises.

Both Godley and Lol Creme briefly "reunited" with their former 10cc bandmates Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman on the 1992 album, ...Meanwhile. However, Godley claims that their involvement with the project was very limited, as the album was dominated by studio musicians. He performed the lead vocal on "The Stars Didn't Show", the band's tribute to the late Roy Orbison. It was the only song on the album not sung by Stewart. Following ...Meanwhile, Godley and Creme went their separate ways, having experienced difficulties together as early as 1988.[6]

Kevin Godley reunited with another former 10cc member, Graham Gouldman, to form the band GG/06. Together they have recorded a self-titled EP which was made available for free via their website.[7] Since then Godley have joined Gouldman's 10cc in concert several times and was featured on the live album Clever Clogs.[8]

Recently, Godley has moved into developing a music platform for the iPad, that combines audio and video to create a global recording studio in the cloud called "WholeWorldBand".[9] The company was nominated for the "SXSW Music Accelerator Award" in 2013 and was one of eight finalists selected from a pool of over 500.[10]

In 2017, Godley publicly invited musicians to send him music to work on his first solo album titled Muscle Memory.[11] The album was originally supposed to be released in 2018 through campaign on pledgemusic.com, but due to its closure the release was postponed.

In 2018 Godley was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Arts by Staffordshire University.[12]

Godley currently lives in Dublin, Ireland.[13]

Discography

Studio albums
  • Muscle Memory (TBA)
  • "The Bad & the Beautiful" - Hog Fever (2016)[14]
  • "Confessions" - Hog Fever (2016)[14]
  • "Expecting a Message" - Before During After: The Story of 10cc (2017)

Music videos director

Since he split from his long-time working partner Creme, Godley forged a career directing music videos and films on his own.

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2008

2010

2011

2016

  • Elbow – "Gentle Storm"

2018

2019

  • Keane - “The Way I Feel”

References
  1. "Kevin Godley | Songs". AllMusic. 7 October 1945. Retrieved 9 August 2014.
  2. "Godley & Creme reviews, music, news - sputnikmusic". www.sputnikmusic.com.
  3. Episode 95-Kevin Godley. Sodajerker Podcast
  4. Buskin, Richard (June 2005). "Classic Tracks: 10cc – 'I'm Not in Love'". Sound on Sound. Cambridge, England: SOS Publications: 62–69. Retrieved 21 September 2015
  5. Awards for Kevin Godley on IMDb
  6. Lol Creme interview, Uncut, December 14, 1997 Archived 20 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine.
  7. "GG/06". kevin-godley.com. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  8. "The Official 10cc Fan Club/Latest News". The10ccfanclub.com. Retrieved 10 August 2010.
  9. "WholeWorldBand". WholeWorldBand. Retrieved 9 August 2014.
  10. "WholeWorldBand: SXSW Accelerator award finalist | Music | News". Hot Press. Retrieved 9 August 2014.
  11. "Muscle Memory". kevin-godley.com. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  12. Guttridge, Richard (6 June 2018). "10cc star to be honoured by Staffordshire University". Express & Star. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  13. O'Rourke, Frances. "First encounters: Kevin Godley and Sulinna Ong". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
  14. "Hog Fever". kevin-godley.com. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
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