10CC

In Concert 

[Wienerworld]

They’re usually described as “art-rock,” or some variation of that term, but more than anything, 10cc was a smart English pop band. After releasing a handful of well-crafted, durable AM radio hits and deceptively sophisticated albums in the ’70s, they said their goodbyes in the early ’80s. While the original quartet—Graham Gouldman, Kevin Godley, Eric Stewart and Lol Creme—reunited in 1991 for one album, they quickly fell apart again.

Since 1999, the working band has featured only Gouldman from the original lineup, and according to the packaging, the two 2012 U.K. concerts captured at two locations—Cardiff, Wales, and Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London—on this live 40th anniversary DVD mark Godley’s first appearances with 10cc in three decades. Some online sources dispute that detail, but either way, the chemistry that allowed 10cc to flourish in their heyday is intact, even without half of the founding members present. On such hits as “The Things We Do for Love,” “Dreadlock Holiday,” “I’m Not in Love” and “Rubber Bullets,” the sharp musicianship, catchy hooks, infectious melodies and smooth vocal performances are highly estimable, and the addition of deeper album cuts—“Life Is a Minestrone,” anyone?—will come as good news to longtime fans.

One of the highlights of the set, which contains no fewer than 17 hit songs, however, has nothing to do with 10cc. Prior to forming the band, Gouldman had already established a lucrative career as a songwriter, and his versions of tunes made famous by the Hollies (“Bus Stop,” “Look Through Any Window”), Herman’s Hermits (“No Milk Today”) and the Yardbirds (“For Your Love”) are positively charming in this context. –Jeff Tamarkin