NEWS

March 2008

John Knight writes...

I thought I'd make contact  to inform you that I am selling my Godley and Creme GIMOTRON Serial No. 54. on Ebay which I purchased in 1975.

As you'll already know, these are incredibly rare so you may wish to inform your members and 10cc. fans about the auction as this could be of interest.

The Ebay  item number is: 12023758901 or the direct link is: click here

THERE IS NO RESERVE PRICE!

Check out the Gizmo page for his wonderful images of his Gizmotron.

January 2007

Lots of news to catch up on...

Many thanks to John Convey for sending me a great interview with Godley and Creme - and a review of Consequences - from the Record Mirror in 1977 - follow the link on the navbar above.

Just read Wendy Cook's autobiography - she was Peter Cook's first wife. No mention of Consequences, but interesting to note that they lived at Number 17 Church Row in London. Quite a sad read - neither Wendy nor Judy Huxtable (Cook's second wife, who plays Lulu in Consequences) were allowed to go to Cook's funeral.

And reader Chris Merchant writes...

I've penned a tune that has a Peter Cook sample from the Big C.
It's not music that is sympathetic with the album but was inspired by the mystical nature of the number 17. No, really! :-)

listen here

Frenzied Bricks webpage

November 2006

Huge thanks to Ric Morris for sending me two contemporary reviews of Consequences, one from the NME and one from Sounds.

Read them or view them as images on the new Reviews page

February 2006

Simon Rhodes-Johnson writes:
I am writing to you to let you know that 'Pete and Dud - Come Again', the play we produced at the Edinburgh Festival last year, is now transferring to the West End. We are opening a twelve week run at The Venue with previews starting 2nd March and press night 7th March.
Tickets are available now on 0870 899 3335 or via www.seetickets.com.
We have teamed up with 'Get Into London Theatre' to offer best available tickets for just £20 during the initial booking period @ http://www.keithprowse.com.

'Come Again' is a fantastic play, which sold-out in Edinburgh and enjoyed excellent reviews across the board. We've extended the show for London as a two act version.

You can also find links to all our Edinburgh reviews at www.petedud.com.

November 2005

Sorry the site's been neglected for so long... since I last wrote things have changed on the availability front - at least according to Amazon.co.uk, looks like you can only currently get the full Consequences CD on Japanese import - not sure what happened to the US One Way release, it says 4-6 weeks delivery and I can't find One Way's web site any more.
Demon Records (I had trouble finding their web site too) in the UK have re-issued L and Music from Consequences as a cheap double CD, along with Birds of Prey/History Mix and Freeze Frame/Ismism. I have to say I take issue with Demon when they say you can only appreciate Consequences in its butchered 'music from' format! But hats off to them for getting these old Godley & Creme albums back on sale. A full set of Consequences would be nice.

August 2003

A remarkable e-mail from Zander Nyrond in Bath, England:
"Has it ever occurred to you or any of your correspondents that there is a certain familiarity about the male cast of the play (beyond the obvious links to the mediaeval elements, of course)? Four men, one argumentative, temperamental and Jewish, one upper-class drunk, one homely little Northerner and one who sounds as if he comes from the East End and plays the piano...Beyond the Fringe, anybody?
Sorry if I'm being obvious, but it first struck me about three years ago and I haven't had anybody to tell...:-)"

January 2003

I was lucky enough to get William Cook's compendium of Cookery Tragically I Was an Only Twin for Christmas - I've just finished mining it for references to or parallels with Consequences and I found a fair few outlined below. The book includes many well-known sketches but also some long-lost gems, especially Peter Cook's column for the Daily Mail, which he wrote around the time Consequences was recorded - it's a real shame he didn't stick to this kind of journalism, as it's some of the best writing he did.

In the intro to his anthology, William Cook (no relation as far as I know) says that Peter Cook never wrote a play - well he did, and you can find a transcript of it right here in Mr Blint's Attic.

Apart from enjoying Peter Cook's humour, there's fun to be had looking for parallels with Consequences, and sure enough a sketch from 1960 called 'Second Flood' will seem rather familiar to anyone who knows the triple album well:

'Oh look there's a bowler hat floating by... Must have blown off in the wind - there's quite a wind... I'll give the police a ring... Hello? Hello? What do you mean, glug, glug, glug?... Mary, just for your sake and to be on the safe side, I think I'll go up into the attic...'

An E L Wisty monologue from the TV Times in 1980 includes the phrase 'Rome wasn't burnt in a day', which Walter uses in Consequences.

A 1966 Pete & Dud sketch from BBC2 ('What time do you call this?', 'It's four o'clock in the morning, father') has the father lamenting his wife with the words 'Oh Rosie, Rosie, why did you leave me, my darling...', which is very strongly echoed by the dialogue and song 'Rosie' in Consequences.

Mr Blint perhaps makes an early appearance in a very bleak, nay Pinteresque, stage piece called 'Mini Drama' from 1973. Peter Cook plays a cab driver who puts on a cassette of music. The composer 'was never recognised by the critics.' Another sketch from the same period, 'Frog and Peach' refers to World War 2 as 'an absolutely ghastly business' much as Haig describes the war when talking to Pepperman about gambling.

Also on the theme of gambling, a Daily Mail colum from 1977 - the year Consequences was recorded - has a some dialogue between Cook and Ladbrokes on placing strange bets; rather like Pepperman calling Ladbrokes in Consequences, and I think we might assume Cook's own bookmaker of choice at the time was the same firm!

Divorce - one of the main themes of Consequences - is also the theme of one of Cook's Daily Mail colums from April 1977. Consequences itself gets its sole mention in the book in a Mail column from 26th Septembber 1977:

Only last weekend I was in Amsterdam to attend the launching of the triple LP, Consequences, by Lol Creme and Kevin Godley. Lady Judy Sexburga Cook, Sarah Vaughan and myself are guests on this work.

The final reference of note comes in Peter Cook's forward for Paula Yates' 1980 tome Rock Stars in their Underpants where he asks:

Why aren't the Troggs bigger in Japan? Was it 'artistic differences' or incompatible underwear that led to Godley and Creme splitting with 10cc? Why isn't it Creme and Godley? And who are they anyway? The answers lie hidden in the tell-tale creases of their knickers...
[Paula Yates] did... assure me that all the profits from this venture would go towards wiping out endangered species. I took this to be a reference to herself and agreed to put pen to paper.

As it happened, both Ms Yates and Peter Cook were endangered species...

Please note that the Attic has yet another new address - www.othermachines.org/blint as somehow or other I managed to lose control of the othermachines.net domain.

Best wishes,
Giles Booth
London, UK

© 2008 Giles Booth / OtherMachines