Dreadlock Holiday – 10cc (1978)

Description

Additional information about this, 10cc vinyl art.

10cc – The Artist

10cc are an English rock band founded in Stockport, England, who achieved their greatest commercial success in the 1970s. The band initially consisted of four musicians – Graham Gouldman, Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley, and Lol Creme – who had written and recorded together for some three years, before assuming the name “10cc” in 1972. 10cc featured two songwriting teams, one “commercial” and one “artistic”. Stewart and Gouldman were predominantly pop songwriters, who created most of the band’s accessible songs. By way of contrast, Godley and Creme were the predominantly experimental half of 10cc, featuring an “art school” sensibility and cinematically-inspired writing. Every member of 10cc was a multi-instrumentalist, singer, writer and producer, and the writing teams frequently switched partners, so that Godley/Gouldman or Creme/Stewart compositions were not uncommon. After Godley and Creme left the band in 1976, Gouldman and Stewart were the main creative forces behind 10cc. Stewart left the band after 1995, and Gouldman continues to lead a touring version of 10cc.

Dreadlock Holiday – The Song

Dreadlock Holiday is a reggae song by 10cc. Written by Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman, it was the lead single from the band’s 1978 album, Bloody Tourists. The song was based on real events Eric Stewart and Moody Blues vocalist Justin Hayward experienced in Barbados; and Graham Gouldman experienced in Jamaica. “Dreadlock Holiday” became the group’s international #1 hit topping the charts in the UK, Belgium, New Zealand and The Netherlands. In America, “Dreadlock Holiday” only became a minor hit but this was thought because at the time some radio stations would not play reggae of any kind. In the native UK the song was the band’s third #1 and at the same time final top 10 hit. The variations of the song is often sung at cricket events by supporters due to the lines “I say. I don’t like cricket (Oh no!) I love it.”

The Cricket Bat, Ball and Pitch – The Shape

This record has been cut into a Cricket bat, ball, pitch and stumps. Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players each on a field at the centre of which is a 22-yard (20-metre) pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The game proceeds when a player on the fielding team, called the bowler, “bowls” (propels) the ball from one end of the pitch towards the wicket at the other end, with an “over” being completed once they have legally done so six times. The batting side has one player at each end of the pitch, with the player at the opposite end of the pitch from the bowler aiming to strike the ball with a bat. The batting side scores runs either when the ball reaches the boundary of the field, or when the two batters swap ends of the pitch, which results in one run. The fielding side’s aim is to prevent run-scoring and dismiss each batter (so they are “out”, and are said to have “lost their wicket”). Means of dismissal include being bowled, when the bowled ball hits the stumps and dislodges the bails, and by the fielding side either catching a hit ball before it touches the ground, or hitting a wicket with the ball before a batter can cross the crease line in front of the wicket to complete a run. When ten batters have been dismissed, the innings ends and the teams swap roles. The game is adjudicated by two umpires, aided by a third umpire and match referee in international matches.

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