Solid gold hits make for a perfect gig

10CC are one of the biggest bands to play the Assembly and they arrived in town to perform a show full of professionalism, musical talent and memorable songs.

As an appetiser for the main set founder member Graham Gouldman performed an acoustic set of hits he has composed for other artists, with various members of 10CC joining him on stage.

Highlights in this high quality collection included Heart Full of Soul a track he penned for The Yardbirds and Bus Stop made famous by The Hollies, as would be the case with the 10CC set to follow - the vocal harmonies were stunning.

After such a strong opening selection the anticipation in the room was immense as the lights dimmed and on walked one of the top bands in the business, 10CC, to open the main set with one of their many huge hits, The Wall Street Shuffle. The classics hardly stopped flowing all night and was followed by the perfect pop of The Things We Do For Love and a rocking Good Morning Judge.

The rest of the set included yet more huge selling singles including Art For Art’s Sake, the multi-layered I’m Mandy Fly Me the band’s first hit single, the 1950’s style Donna and of course the beautiful I’m Not In Love.

Apart from the hits they also performed some of their greatest album numbers including From Rochdale to Ocho Rios and one of my favourite 10CC tracks Old Wild Men, but it was back to the hits to finish the main set with the reggae beat of Dreadlock Holiday, along with plenty of audience participation.

Encore time and first a touching tribute to John Lennon with a superb version of the Beatles classic, Across the Universe, and to finish the evening in rocking style and with everyone on their feet, a bouncing Rubber Bullets.

Make no mistake about it, musical nights do not come any better than this - a superbly talented group of musicians playing at the top of their game and with a collection of solid gold hits to match.

Verdict - Stunning performance

Andrew Lock

Caption: 10CC performing at the Assembly. Picture by Andrew Lock.