‘I’m not in love, so don’t forget it, it’s just a silly phase I’m going through’...these are the words that make his audience light up, 10cc’s Graham Gouldman tells Jo Roberts ahead of his Kent concert this week.

He may be the man behind every 10cc hit from Dreadlock Holiday to The Things We Do For Love, but Graham Gouldman knows which track people want more than any other.

“It’s definitely I’m Not In Love, that always brings a special feeling from the audience – absolutely.

“But personally it’s really hard for me to pick a favourite – our tracks are all very special to me. I still love playing all of the older hits,” says Graham, who is in Kent this week on the Heart Full of Songs tour with his own band – which is smaller than the full 10cc line-up.

“I’m doing the older hits on this tour in a more stripped-down way, but because they are good songs they work. It shows the strength of a song that it will work with just three voices and two guitars.”

But it’s his new material which gives Graham, now 67, the chance to sing the praises of the new love in his life.

He says: “I’ve recently got married again, and there are two songs on the new album that are inspired by that.

“One is called Ariella, which is my wife’s name. I had a guitar riff and a melody but I couldn’t figure out what to write about. I started singing this girls’ name but it didn’t seem right so I thought, ‘I’ll use my wife’s name’.

“In a way she was an afterthought, but then I decided what might be nice is to use the lyrics to tell the story of how we met, and that’s what I did.

“And there’s another song called Memory Lane, which was written after I’d taken Ariella on a trip around Manchester to show her where I’d lived and been to school. So there are personal songs which are about the nice state that I’m in now. We’ll have been married two years in December and it’s lovely.”

The other big passion in Graham’s life is a much older love – his music, and that is another focus of the newer songs.

“There’s one track that’s a kind of homage to the Shadows and that early 1960s era, and, because I’m getting a bit older, I’ve got quite a lot to look back on. So there are various styles of music that I’ve always liked – 1960s style, country, rock, melancholy stuff and happy stuff.”

But Graham promises the crowd at the Tunbridge Wells Forum that the new stuff will be just as catchy and pleasing to them as their older favourites.

“I make sure that the new songs are ones they will get immediately – I want you to get it the way I got it when I wrote it. I know that people will obviously want to hear the old songs that they know, but it’s also important to do new songs to show that you’re still doing it.”

The two passions made the title of his new album – Love and Work – an easy choice.

“The phrase love and work struck a chord with me because I think those are the two most important things in life – well, for me anyway.”

Graham Gouldman’s Heart Full of Songs tour stops at The Forum, Tunbridge Wells on Wednesday, May 7, at 8pm. Tickets cost £25. Call 08712 777101 or visit www.twforum.co.uk