Reykjavík, Iceland (August 10, 2026)—When 10cc’s sound team—FOH engineer Damian Low and monitor engineer Connor Firmston—landed in Reykjavík for a gig this past June, it took only minutes to discover that a classic touring nightmare was already unfolding.
“We knew a piece of equipment was missing as soon as we landed in Iceland,” Low recalled. “The AirTag in the case was still showing ‘seen in Manchester 5 minutes ago.’” Inside that case was a Shure VP88 mic required for the penultimate moment of the nearly two-hour show, used on the doo-wop number, “Donna,” the group’s first single from 1972, which hit #2 on the U.K. charts.
The venerable British band was performing for the first time at the 1,800-seat, world-class Harpa Concert Hall the next day. “I’m not sure how long it took to find,” Low admitted. “The local concert promoter (Guðbjartur “Finn” Finnbjörnsson) seems to have an incredible ability to find obscure pieces of equipment with ease. We arrived to the venue and [Finn] immediately handed the mic to us—very impressive.” Pivot averted.
THE ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK
Relaxed on stage and in person, 80-year-old Graham Gouldman is the sole remaining founding member of the band, and co-wrote “I’m Not in Love”—a U.S. #2 hit—with founding member Eric Stewart, as well as “The Things We Do for Love,” which reached #5 in the U.S. In 1976, Rick Fenn, now 73, joined the band and hasn’t left; during the Reykjavík show, Gouldman referred to him as “the septuagenarian.”
The group has faced challenges over the decades; four years after the first 10cc album in 1972, founding members Lol Creme and Kevin Godley left to form a recording duo and later become in-demand music-video directors during the heyday of MTV.
“We lost 50 percent of the band,” Gouldman sighed. “We all sang, we all wrote, we all performed.” He carried on with Stewart through the early 1980s and briefly reformed in the early 1990s, later taking total control of the 10cc brand and avoiding the litigated, latter-day ire that has plagued acts like Pink Floyd.
The current touring band comprises versatile musicians who switch instruments throughout the show, with Gouldman on vocals and bass, electric and acoustic guitar; Rick Fenn playing the same as well as lead electric guitar; Ben Stone tackling drums; Keith Hayman taking on keyboards, electric and bass guitar, and vocals; and Iain Hornal, looking after electric and acoustic guitar, percussion, mandolin, keyboards and vocals. Commented Low, “They aren’t the kind of band to spend days rehearsing the show. They just get up there and get the job done.”
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Navigating the music of 10cc’s past played by the musicians of its present is something of a tightrope walk, however. “I think with the records recorded so long ago, the band has grown musically since then,” Low reflected. “As the engineer, you have the challenge of trying to work with the band’s new sound and translate that to the audience the best way that you can whilst also trying to recreate some of the quirks that fans love about the original recordings. It’s a balancing act…definitely an active mix. There are a lot of cues to hit.”
His approaches to mixing particular songs have likewise evolved over time, the engineer noted, citing “The Dean and I” as somewhat challenging because “there’s a lot of contrasting sounds going.”
Gouldman, however, expects 10cc’s live sound to be as close as possible to the original recordings. “I don’t like to change the body of the song,” he noted, adding he’s fine with “extending an intro or outro.”
Nor does he go for using backing tracks. The audience is hearing the band play live, “aiming for 92-95 dBA in the loudest bits,” explained Low, who’s worked with 10cc in multiple roles over the years, including monitors, before making the move to FOH. Some of his other live sound credits include Megadeth, Jerry Cantrell, Less Than Jake, Go West, T’Pau and The Manfreds.