by K.M.
Whitehouse
 Lawrence Neil Creme was born on the 19th
September 1947 in Manchester. As a child he was interesting in drawing
and playing the guitar. In 1968 he graduated from the Royal College of
Art in Birmingham with a BA degree after studying art and design.
A year
later he became a professional musician and co-founded the group
Hotlegs with Eric Stewart & Kevin Godley in 1970. The group
released their debut single Neanderthal Man
in June 1970 which peaked at number two in the UK singles chart. The
following year they released their first album Thinks:
School Stinks and the single Lady
Sadie, both releases failed to chart. The trio then
added Graham Gouldman and became 10cc. During his time with the
group, Lol appeared on two number one singles Rubber
Bullets and I’m Not In Love
(a song famous for it's multi-tracked vocals), before departing
the group with Godley in 1976 to form Godley & Creme where
they would pioneer the use of their Gizmo
guitar device.
Although
the duo only had three hit singles Under Your Thumb,Wedding Bells and Cry,
they released seven albums starting with the tripple album Consequences,L, Freeze Frame, Ismism,Birds Of Pray, The
History Mix Volume 1 and Goodby Blue
Sky. The two men became better known as music video
directors. They directed the controversial Duran Duran video Girls
On Film as well as videos for Culture Club,
Tina Turner, The Police, Eric Clapton, Huey Lewis and The News, Peter
Gabriel, Sting, Herbie Hancock, Frankie Goes To Hollywood and the late
George Harrison to name but a few. Their most remembered video was for
their own 1985 single Cry which
morphed faces from various people miming to the words of the song with
a cameo appearance from Trevor Horn. The single was taken from their
album The History Mix Volume 1 that
also included material from 10cc. and production work from Horn &
J.J. Jeczalik, in that same year he was inducted into the MTV
Hall of Fame.
After
Godley & Creme ended in 1989, Lol moved to Los Angeles where he
produced/directed television commercials for the likes of PacBell
and Chrysler before winning the Silver Lion Award
as well as the Clio Award at the
Cannes Film Festival. In 1990 the director directed the film The
Lunatic as well as contributing towards the music for
the film Toys that was scored by
Horn & Hans Zimmer in 1992. During the mid 1990s he directed the
videos for The Beatles Free As A Bird
and Real Love along with
being involved with music for the TV series The
Glam Metal Detectives, again with Horn.
Around
this time Lol had started to use computers to produce some of
his art before using the then new digital printing hardware to
print his work. In addition to that form of art, he also began painting
in oils, a medium him still uses to this day.
In
late the 1990s he became a member of the Art of Noise when Anne Dudley,
Paul Morley & Horn reformed the group to begin work on the concept
album The Seduction Of Claude Debussy
that was released in 1999. Although he wasn't an original member of the
group, joining them fifthteen years after their conception, he was the
most well known member of the group due to his high profile work with
both 10cc and Godley & Creme. However he wasn't the first member of
his family to be involved with an Art of Noise record, as his
son Lalo, remixed the track Yebo (The Arkarna Dub)
in 1995 with his band Arkarna. During the Art of Noise’s
1999/2000 tour, Lol and Horn produced the material that would end up
being released as the DVD video Into Vision – The
Compleat Compedium. After four years he played live
once more with the Art of Noise at the Produced
By Trevor Horn – A Concert For The Prince’s Trust at
Wembley Arena where he was also part of the house band along with
Horn, Dudley Geoff Downes, Luis Jardim, Steve Lipson, Phil Palmer, Paul
Robinson and Bruce Woolley.
In 2006 he teamed up once more with Horn
to form a new group called The Producers and released the single Barking
Up The Right Tree in 2007 as well as performing gigs
and working on their debut album.
In
addition to his musical and directing talents Lol has his own website Lol
Creme Art, that showcases his oil paintings.
© Copyright K.M. Whitehouse 2008
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