The origins of 10cc were covered in my Neanderthal Man entry in February 2016, but by 1972 10cc had opened their UK chart account with Donna which went to number two. It’s probably fair to say that 10cc were more popular and more respected than any member of the group thought. One such admirer is General Blee who emailed to say, “A group of us went to see 10cc in concert at the Stevenage Arts Centre at the end of November, and they were brilliant and really entertaining. In light of that, can I add Rubber Bullets by 10cc (their encore song) as a potential single of the week please?” Well General, you certainly can, so let’s get on with it.
In 1972 Jonathan King signed 10cc to his newly formed UK record label and promptly christened them 10cc. He claimed he saw the name in a dream, although it has been strongly alleged that it represents the average count of the male ejaculation which is nine cc and they added the extra one cc to signify they were above average. Donna had been penned by Godley and Creme but the follow up hit, Rubber Bullets, was written by the same two plus guitarist and occasional lead singer Graham Gouldman. Gouldman was an accomplished songwriter as he already written hits for The Hollies (Look Through Any Window and Bus Stop), The Yardbirds (For Your Love, Heart Full Of Soul and Evil Hearted You) and Herman’s Hermits (No Milk Today).
Like Elvis Presley’s debut UK number one in 1958, Jailhouse Rock, the song is about a party that breaks out in a prison, at Elvis’ party, everyone has happy, singing and dancing, but the 10cc wasn’t so lucky. Things got out of hand and it was heard on the police radio when ‘Sergeant Baker got a call from the governor of the county jail’. The police did not want the prisoners to have a good time and were particularly nasty about it as we learn from part of the chorus which says, ‘Load up the rubber bullets, I love to hear those convicts squeal, It’s a shame these slugs ain’t real, but we can’t have dancin’ at the local county jail.’
“Kevin and Lol had the chorus and part of the verse, but then got stuck”, remembered Graham to Spencer Leigh, “We all loved the chorus and realised that it was a hit in itself, so we wanted to persist with it. I chipped in the line ‘we’ve all got balls and brains, but some’s got balls and chains’. One of my finer couplets.” Kevin Godley added, “Lol may have been working with a strange tuning, I’m not sure, but undoubtedly, he was playing this smelly old Spanish guitar, and I’d sat down with a notebook opposite him. I think we started writing it in my parents’ house, and it just came out. It was one of those lucky songs that didn’t take a fortnight to write. The original album version ran to five and quarter minutes, the single edit was cut down to just over four minutes by losing the slowed section in the middle and the verse that starts ‘Sergeant Baker started talkin’ with a bullhorn in his hand. Some people reading this may not even recognise the ‘we’ve all got balls and brains…’ lyric as the was removed on the three and a half minute U.S radio edit and cut straight to ‘Is it really such a crime For a guy to spend his time’
The opening guitar riff is very distinctive, Graham explained to Tom Pinnock, in Uncut magazine, why, “On the opening riff, I’m playing bass through a wah-wah pedal. It was the sort of the thing we would do, just to not be the same as everybody else, and it worked great.” Mick who requested this song talked about Rubber Bullets being the encore song, it’s quite usual and Kevin Godley, in the same interview, explained why, “Live, we extended it. That came from the idea that that’s kind of what you did when you played an encore. You just kept it going and made it as wild as possible. And that song seemed to lend itself to that approach. It was fun to do. A bit knackering, though, because it was quite a long song anyway, and it was very fast – thank goodness we had two drummers onstage.” Paul Burgess joined the band live from 1974.
At the time of its release, there was trouble in Northern Ireland and also controversy over the British Army’s use of rubber bullets. Eric Stewart recalled, “I was amazed, but pleased that the BBC never banned the track, although they limited its airplay, because they thought it was about the ongoing Northern Ireland conflicts. In fact, it was about an Attica State Prison riot like the ones in the old James Cagney films.” The police sirens in the song are such an integral part, that to keep its authenticity, the band often use a backing track of the original sirens when they perform it live.
Lol sang the lead vocals, the band had two other number one hits in the 70s, I’m Not In Love in 1975 with Eric Stewart on lead vocals and Dreadlock Holiday in 1978 with Graham Gouldman up front giving them the unique distinction of having three number one is the same decade with three different lead vocalists.
By 1976, the band were splintering, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme left to continue as a duo. They created the ‘Gizmo’, a guitar attachment that sustains notes as well as creating orchestral sounds. A good example of its haunting sound can be heard on It’ll End In Tears’, the B-side of This Mortal Coils 1984 single Kangaroo. In the early 80s, as well as top 10 hits with Under Your Thumb and Wedding Bells, they began working on video production and best showcased on their own 1985, top 20 hit, Cry. They have also produced videos for Toyah (Thunder In The Mountains), Visage (Fade To Grey), Culture Club (Victims) and Duran Duran (Girls On Film).
The band continued to tour with Gouldman still fronting them and Burgess is still in the band too, the other three members are Rick Fenn, Iain Hornal and Keith Hayman. Clearly they still love life on the road because in July 2024 they embarked on a tour of North America some 46 years after they last played over there.
Rubber Bullets won an Ivor Novello Award for Best Beat Song and, in 2007, was used as the theme to an American animated television series called Superjail, but only for the pilot episode, so you may have missed that.