Editing 10cc (section)

==1970–1971: Hotlegs; Doctor Father; The New Wave Band; Festival==
When the three-month production deal with Kasenetz-Katz ended, Gouldman returned to New York to work as a staff songwriter for [[Super K Productions]] and the remaining three continued to dabble in the studio.

With Gouldman absent, Godley, Creme and Stewart continued recording singles. The first, "[[Neanderthal Man (song)|Neanderthal Man]]", released under the name [[Hotlegs]], began life as a test of drum layering at the new Strawberry Studios mixing desk,<ref name="Tremlett" /> but when released as a single by [[Fontana Records]] in July 1970, climbed to No.&nbsp;2 on the [[UK Singles Chart]] and became a worldwide hit, selling more than two million copies. Around the same time, the trio released "Umbopo" under the name of [[Doctor Father]]. The song, a slower, longer and more melancholic version of the track earlier released under the name of Crazy Elephant, failed to chart.

Reverting to the successful band name Hotlegs, in early 1971 Godley, Creme and Stewart recorded the album ''[[Thinks: School Stinks]]'', which included "Neanderthal Man". They then recalled Gouldman for a short tour supporting [[the Moody Blues]], before releasing a follow-up single "Lady Sadie" b/w (Backed With) "The Loser". [[Philips Records]] reworked their sole album, removing "Neanderthal Man" and adding "Today", and issued it as ''Song''. Stewart, Creme and Godley released another single in February 1971 under yet another name, The New Wave Band, this time with former [[Herman's Hermits]] member [[Derek Leckenby|Derek "Lek" Leckenby]] on guitar. The song, a cover version of [[Paul Simon]]'s "[[Cecilia (Simon & Garfunkel song)|Cecilia]]", was one of the few tracks the band released that they had not written. It also failed to chart.<ref>[http://www.manchesterbeat.com/bands/newwaveband/newwaveband.php "Manchester Beat" website] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090115060858/http://www.manchesterbeat.com/bands/newwaveband/newwaveband.php |date=15 January 2009}}</ref>

The band also continued outside production work at Strawberry, working with [[Dave Berry (musician)|Dave Berry]], [[Wayne Fontana]], Peter Cowap and Herman's Hermits, and doing original compositions for various UK football (soccer) teams. In 1971 they produced and played on ''Space Hymns'', an album by New Age musician [[Ramases]]; in 1972–73 they co-produced and played on two [[Neil Sedaka]] albums, ''[[Solitaire (Neil Sedaka album)|Solitaire]]'' and ''[[The Tra-La Days Are Over]]''. The experience of working on ''Solitaire'', which became a success for Sedaka, was enough to prompt the band to seek recognition on their own merits. Gouldman—who by 1972 was back at Strawberry Studios—said:

{{quote|text=It was Neil Sedaka's success that did it, I think. We'd just been accepting any job we were offered and were getting really frustrated. We knew that we were worth more than that, but it needed something to prod us into facing that. We were a bit choked to think that we'd done the whole of Neil's first album with him just for flat session fees when we could have been recording our own material.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.minestrone.org/rc_04_84.htm |title=Graham Gouldman interview |work=Record Collector |year=1984 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080625193653/http://www.minestrone.org/rc_04_84.htm |archive-date=25 June 2008 |url-status=dead |access-date=2019-12-27}}</ref>}}

Stewart said the decision was made over a meal in a Chinese restaurant: "We asked ourselves whether we shouldn't pool our creative talents and try to do something with the songs that each of us was working on at the time."<ref name="Tremlett" /> Once again a four-piece, the group re-recorded the Hotlegs track "Today" (b/w a new Stewart/Gouldman song "Warm Me"), which was released under the name Festival.<ref>{{cite web |title=Festival |url=https://www.discogs.com/artist/673871-Festival-3 |url-status=live |publisher=discogs.com |access-date=7 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200819163038/https://www.discogs.com/artist/673871-Festival-3 |archive-date=19 August 2020}}</ref> The single failed to chart, and the band moved on to record a Stewart/Gouldman song, "Waterfall", in early 1972. Stewart offered the [[Acetate disc|acetate]] to [[Apple Records]]. He waited months before receiving a note from the label saying the song was not commercial enough to release as a single.