Kevin Godley

Kevin Michael Godley (born 7 October 1945,^[1] Prestwich, Lancashire, England) is an English musician and music video director. He is known as the drummer of the art rock band 10cc and for his collaboration outside the band with Lol Creme.

Biography

He was born in a family of Jewish ancestry, and went to North Cestrian Grammar School in Altrincham. The first band he was part of was Group 17 which had its origins in the Jewish Lads Brigade (JLB). The members were Henri Shalam, Bernard Sufrin, Sydney Kaye and Jeffrey Baker, whose father was probably "Sergeant Baker" in the 10cc song, "Rubber Bullets".

While attending art college in Manchester Godley met Lol Creme. They became part of several bands, most notably Hotlegs and 10cc. He and Creme left 10cc in 1977, early into the recording of the album Deceptive Bends, claiming that their contributions were being ignored in favor of songs by bandmates Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman. 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.^[2]

Godley writes, sings, and plays drums, percussion and keyboards. In 1990, his charity production One World One Voice was released on CD in the UK. It was a CD that focused on environmental and ecological crises. Godley became a vegetarian during this period. He and wife Sue love dogs and cats. Godley was profiled in the Daily Telegraph in 2016 regarding his love for his pet dog.

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.

He reunited with another former 10cc member, Graham Gouldman, to form the band GG/06. Together they have recorded a number of new songs which are available via their website.^[3]

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".^[4] 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.^[5]

Music videos

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

1989

• Fine Young Cannibals – "Don't Look Back"
• Band Aid 2 – "Do They Know It's Christmas"
• Wet Wet Wet – "Sweet Surrender"

1990

• Erasure – "Blue Savannah"
• One World, One Voice – short movie

1991

• Bryan Adams – "Can't Stop This Thing We Started" / "Though I'd Died And Gone to Heaven" / "All I Want Is You"
• U2 – "Even Better Than The Real Thing"

1992

• Garland Jeffreys – "The Answer"
• Moodswings & Chrissie Hynde – "Spiritual High"
• U2 – Zoo TV Concert Video

1993

• Frank Sinatra & Bono – "I've Got You Under My Skin"
• Paul McCartney – "C'Mon People"
• Sting – "Fields of Gold"
• U2 – "Numb"

1994

• Blur – "Girls and Boys"
• Bono & Gavin Friday – "In the Name of The Father"
• Dave Stewart – "Heart of Stone"
• East 17 – "Steam"
• Larry Adler & Kate Bush – "The Man I Love"

1995

• Deep Forest – "Deep Forest"
• U2 – "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me"
• Whale – "I'll do ya"

1996

• Adam Clayton & Larry Mullen – "Theme from Mission: Impossible"
• Bryan Adams – "Star"
• Gavin Friday – "You Me and World War Three"
• Phil Collins – "Dance into the Light"
• The Beatles – "Real Love"
• Tonic – "Soldiers Daughter"

1997

• Forest for the Trees – "Dream"
• Garland Jeffreys – "Sexuality"
• James – "Tomorrow"
• Jean Michel Jarre – "Oxygene part 8"

1998

• Boyzone – "When The Going Gets Tough" / "You Needed Me"
• Eric Clapton – "My Father's Eyes"
• Helicopter Girl – "Subliminal Punk"
• Kele Le Roc – "My Love"
• Phil Collins – "You'll Be in My Heart"
• Sting – "After The Rain Has Fallen"
• Black Crowes – "By Your Side"
• Charlatans – "Forever"
• U2 – "Sweetest Thing"

1999

• Ronan Keating – "When You Say Nothing at All"
• Wyclef Jean featuring Bono – "New Day"

2000

• Alabama 3 – "Woke Up This Morning"
• Gabrielle – "Rise"
• Rod Stewart – "Run Back into Your Arms"

2001

• Gabrielle – "Out of Reach"
• HIM – "Pretending"
• Marti Pellow – "Close To You"
• U2 – "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" (version 2)
• Zucchero – "Baila" / "I'm in Trouble"

2002

• Ronan Keating – "If Tomorrow Never Comes" / "We've Got Tonight"
• Scarface featuring Faith Evans – "Someday"
• Charlatans – "A Man Needs To Be Told"

2003

• The Rapture – "Sister Saviour"
• Will Young – "Leave Right Now"

2004

• Bryan Adams – "Flying"
• Haven – "Wouldn't Change A Thing"
• Kealer – "Cry"
• Lisa Stansfield – "Treat Me Like A Woman"
• Ronan Keating – "Father And Son"
• Corrs – "Summer Sunshine"

2005

• Ben Adams – "Sorry"
• Katie Melua – "Nine Million Bicycles" / "I Cried for You"
• Jamie Cullum – "Mind Trick"
• Shayne Ward – "That's My Goal"

2006

• Brothermandude – "Automatic"
• Keane – "Is It Any Wonder?"
• Mojo Fury – "The Man"

2008

• Boyzone – "Better"
• Snow Patrol – "Crack the Shutters"

2010

• Katie Melua – "The Flood"

2011

• Gavin Friday – "Able"

References

External links

• Audio interview with Kevin Godley on the Sodajerker On Songwriting podcast
• Kevin Godley at the Internet Movie Database