Show Notes
Paul and Sean really enjoyed our second conversation with Rick Fenn. Once again, he’s incredibly honest and unassuming about his fascinating and hugely surprising career outside 10cc. He’s collaborated with many of Rock’s biggest names, as we shall hear.
Rick has been nothing short of prolific in his musical projects, since the temporary demise of 10cc in 1980. We look in detail at his stint in Mike Oldfield’s first integral band: as guitarist, later as keyboardist/vocalist, and as it turned out, co-writer. He tells some entertaining (and terrifying!) stories of his time on tour with the band. We briefly touch on 10cc’s Windows in the Jungle before hearing about his role in the joint project with Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason. The ‘Profiles’ album is proof positive of Fenn’s mastery of Prog-influenced keyboards as well as guitars. 10cc fans will love a clip of an Eric Stewart lead vocal that no-one has heard since the mid-80s!
A substantial portion of this podcast is taken up with Rick’s long-time collaboration with soulmate Peter Howarth, best known perhaps as the current lead singer of the Hollies. He’s a gifted singer and an underrated guitarist. Together they co-wrote a major West End musical, ‘Robin: Prince of Sherwood’, and the clips we play demonstrate both enormous vocal and instrumental versatility and a real talent for composition and lyric writing. They also ran the gamut of genres in their Pop writing too, with their listenable collection of self-penned songs ‘And Still I Fly’, available on Spotify. https://open.spotify.com/album/0ks9w6MvgfvuVwPNAuacXt?si=KtMoq0xUQjegSRhZdvegig
Like us, you’ll no doubt be thinking that this Rick Fenn fellow is a proper dark horse! You’ll also hear some rarely-heard snippets from their sadly abandoned musical project ‘Androcles and the Lion’, and we’re so grateful to Rick for his generosity in sharing with us so many rare film and audio clips.
More from The Consequences Podcast
Hi everyone. It's been a while! Paul and Sean have been busy, of late... We may have been embroiled in an uber-ambitious tribute gig, but secretly, Sean's just enjoyed not having to edit endless podcasts in the wee small hours these past few months! In the meantime, our good chum Panayiotis Bogdanos chimed in from San Leandro, California with a proposition: let's talk about 50cc... We've missed the old chap, so we had to give in! We really hope you enjoy our random snapshot of our lovingly-concocted live rendition of what this podcast has been all about. Pany quizzes us on the genesis of the 50cc project, the concept and the crazy ideas, the songs we were dying to play, the challenges, the crushing disappointments and the surprising successes, and of course the extraordinary team that we suddenly found ourselves with on those two nights in Stockport on June 24th and 25th 2022. You'll hear lots of music clips here, including some outtakes that don't appear in the released video, but also a sample of how we attempted to capture Consequences, Godley and Creme solo and 10cc's eclectic career in three hours. The full video download and YouTube stream can be found here: https://www.seanmacreavy.com/50ccshop We truly hope you enjoy our efforts. We've loved doing this, and the gigs were just the icing on the cake! This episode was (mostly) edited by Pany. Cheers old boy!
Paul and Sean make no apologies for enjoying this conversation as much as we did!
Paul and Sean had such a great time talking to established 10cc lead singer Iain Hornal. We fought and lost an uncontrollable urge to geek out about our shared love of The Beach Boys, but eventually got down to business!
Sean and Paul are thrilled to welcome to the pod one Stuart Tosh, the ‘man at the back’ who would join drummer Paul Burgess to share honours on 10cc percussion duties live and in the studio from 1977 to 1983.
Wow. Simply put, this is nothing short of a coup. A decade ago, Charlie Thomas succeeded in landing an interview that Sean and Paul have been chasing unsuccessfully for two years!