HE may be a music legend and now among the greats inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame in America, but even Graham Gouldman, co-founder of 10cc has to unload the dishwasher.

“It’s not very Rock ‘n’ Roll,” he confesses as I ask if he is actually making a cup of tea.”I’m unloading the dishwasher at the same time as talking to you.”

It was good to hear that Graham, a global musical icon in his own right, still has to do household chores.

After the exceptional success of their festival shows in the summer of 2014, which included the 65,000-capacity British Summer Time in Hyde Park and a 23-date UK theatre tour through October-November, the legendary 10cc are back in 2015 with 19 major shows kicking off at The Hexagon in Reading on February 5.

Graham, 68, admits starting in Reading is a welcome they are very much looking forward to.

“The audience are very good there and it’s a very nice theatre to play in. The facilities are a lot nicer to play with,” he says.

What is set to be a unique series of performances, the band will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of their highly inventive and creative album Sheet Music, and as a special treat for fans, will perform the whole album in its entirety, including the Top 10 hits The Wall Street Shuffle and Silly Love, with a special video contribution from 10cc co-founder Kevin Godley.

The second half of the evening will feature all the usual 10cc classics, including Dreadlock Holiday, Rubber Bullets, I’m Not In Love, The Dean and I, and I’m Mandy Fly Me.

The band are already rehearsing individually and will join up on January 17 to go to Japan for a week as part of a run-up to the start of the tour.

“This time around we have seven new songs to learn so it will be very complicated. We want to make sure they don’t look complicated,” he says of rehearsing the material they will perform.

Purveyors of some of the greatest pop records of the 20th century, 10cc were one of the most inventive and influential bands in the history of popular music, achieving commercial, critical and creative success in equal measure and selling more than 30 million record worldwide. In the UK, the band had 11 Top 10 singles and three No 1s – Rubber Bullets, I’m Not In Love and Dreadlock Holiday.

The current live band has been together for over a decade.

Graham attributes 10cc’s lasting appeal to the quality and individuality of the band’s songs. “They don’t seem to date; they are original, we never followed any trend we simple wrote for our own pleasure. The fact that the songs are being played as often on the radio today as they ever were shows how true that is,” he says.

And with a busy schedule the singer/song-writer says he is looking forward to a break over Christmas before the tour starts. “We’ll have a big lunch at our house with about 16 people,” he says, before replying that no there won’t necessarily be music pouring out of the rooms throughout the day. “There will be two guitars around if anyone does want to play or something.”

The live band’s line-up is:

Graham Gouldman – bass, guitars, vocals

Rick Fenn – lead guitar, vocals, bass

Paul Burgess – drums, percussion

Mick Wilson – vocals, percussion, guitar, keyboards

Mike Stevens – keyboards,

10cc will be at The Hexagon in Reading on Thursday, February 5. For tickets visit www.readingarts.com