10cc founding member Graham Gouldman has announced a 16-date UK tour in 2025 for his highly acclaimed semi-acoustic show Heart Full of Songs.
Performing songs from his celebrated back catalogue, including chart hits for 10cc, The Hollies, Herman’s Hermits, The Yardbirds, Wax and selected tracks from his solo albums, including his widely acclaimed new solo albumI Have Notes, Gouldman will be backed by his 10cc live bandmates Keith Hayman and Iain Hornal, and Dave Cobby on percussion.
Gouldman formed what became Heart Full of Songs eleven years ago, purely for the pleasure of playing his songs acoustically, and the format has since proved so popular that he now tours the show across the UK every two years, in between his sold-out 10cc tours.
The 2025 Heart Full of Songs tour will begin on 5th March in Lytham St Annes and end on the 23rd March in Shrewsbury, including a date at London’s Cadogan Hall on 20th March.
Tickets go on sale at 10.00am on 31st October, available from all venues and via www.grahamgouldman.info
Needless to say, for lovers of perfectly-crafted music performed by the composer, a Heart Full of Songs concert is truly an exquisite experience. As Gouldman always maintains, “A good song can always be performed acoustically”.
Looking ahead to the tour, Gouldman said, “It’s always great to perform these songs acoustically and explain how they originated, playing with some great musician friends in relatively intimate settings, especially as this time I can include some tracks from my new solo album. It’s quite a contrast from 10cc concerts but just as pleasurable.”
The full list of Graham Gouldman’s Heart Full of Songs tour dates is as follows:
5th Lytham St Annes Lowther Pavilion
6th Southport The Atkinson
7th Bury St Edmunds The Apex
8th Newcastle-under-Lyme New Vic Theatre
10th Cardiff The Gate Arts Centre
11th Newtown The Hafren
13th Glasgow St Luke’s
14th Alnwick Playhouse
15th Manchester RNCM
16th Leeds City Limits Music Hall
17th Wavendon The Stables Theatre
19th Worthing The Factory Live
20th London Cadogan Hall
21st Frome Cheese & Grain
22nd Stamford Corn Exchange Theatre
23rd Shrewsbury Theatre Seven
Gouldman’s prestigious career took off in 1965, following what turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Columbia Records rejected his first single composition for his band The Mockingbirds, which featured fellow 10cc founder Kevin Godley on drums. That song was For Your Love, which became a huge hit for The Yardbirds.
Working by day in a men’s outfitters shop and playing by night with his semi-professional band, Gouldman went on to write a string of hits, such as Pamela, Pamela for Wayne Fontana, For Your Love, Evil Hearted You and Heart Full of Soul (The Yardbirds), Bus Stop and Look Through Any Window (The Hollies), No Milk Today and Listen People (Herman’s Hermits), and Tallyman for Jeff Beck.
In 1972, along with Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, Gouldman formed 10cc. The band enjoyed a string of Top 10 hits, including three No 1s – Rubber Bullets, I’m Not In Love and Dreadlock Holiday – along with Donna (No 2), Art For Art’s Sake and Good Morning Judge (both reaching No 5), The Things We Do For Love and I’m Mandy Fly Me (6), and The Wall Street Shuffle (10), selling more than 30 million albums worldwide.
Gouldman’s status as one of the world’s leading songwriters was acknowledged in 2014 with his induction into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame – an arm of America’s National Academy of Music – whose previous inductees include Noel Coward, Irving Berlin, Burt Bacharach, Neil Sedaka, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Leonard Cohen and Sting.
Gouldman’s more recent career highlights include being invited by Ringo Starr to join his All Starr Band for arena tours of Europe and the USA in 2018, during which the band played three 10cc songs at each performance. Gouldman described the experience as, “One of the most enjoyable things I’ve done”.
In 2022, Gouldman’s song Floating In Heaven caught the attention of Queen’s Brian May, who worked with Gouldman to release the song as a single to mark the unveiling of the first astonishing images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. ‘Floating In Heaven’ is also the soundtrack for a YouTube video featuring the images, released by the Space Telescope Science Institute in the US.
The pair performed the song with a full orchestra at the sixth Starmus convention in Yerevan, Armenia, which gained global media coverage.
