TEN YEARS AFTER 1970












1970 August to December TEN YEARS AFTER - Newspaper Articles - Aug to Dec	back

From NEW MUSICAL EXPRESS - AUGUST 1, 1970

(Love Like A Man)

Chick Churchill has suddenly learned to come to terms with the pressures of his environment. He now appears to be far happier and more contented than I have ever seen him look before.
I wondered if this was perhaps due to the fact that Ten Years After are on the NME charts with "Love Like A Man." To be honest, Chick wasn't aware of his newly acquired status until I broke the glad tidings to him. The reason for this was that he had just flown into London for a brief stop-over half-way through TYA's lengthy, strenuous coast-to-coast tour of the American continent.
Actually, Chick was more concerned with the fact that he had forsaken the perils of the dreaded nicotine habit, though he admitted rather sheepishly that he'd accidentally fallen off the "juice wagon" the previous evening. This was forgivable, as it was his first lapse in all of twelve months.

POP STAR?
Following jokes about him being a "pop-star." Chick was quite frank when he confided with a shrug of his straight frame that he couldn't relate as to what a hit single meant to Ten Years After. "As this was originally an album cut, we haven't got a follow-up prepared," he admitted. I suppose you could say that groups like TYA don't really need singles, as their policy is directed more towards the album market. However, I'm sure that it gives them a great sense of achievement and personal satisfaction when they make in-roads into the realm of ballads and bubblegum.
Prior to its release , "Love Like A Man" presented Ten Years After with many problems as Chick made pains to point out. "Originally it was a track off our "Cricklewood Green" album, but the record company said that with tight editing it could be a good single. "We agreed to let them do it on the understanding that we could use an extended "live" version of the same song, which we had cut at the Fillmore, on the flip side." In fact this record made phonographic history in that the A-side was at the standard speed of 45 r.p.m. while the B-side was cut at 33 r.p.m to accommodate the lengthy concert version. "Naturally, it's the Fillmore cut that I enjoy most of all," Chick admitted, who then quickly points out: "I also like the original version on the album." With a big smile, he drew attention to the fact that there are now three different versions of the song available by the group.
Though perhaps the most lucrative, the summer is not always the best time of year to tour the States, specially with its ever changing patterns of behaviour and values. "The recent Atlanta Music Festival created much press copy, but not for the music. TYA were one of the many attractions on it and Chick told me about it. "The Festival scene in the States is getting very strange. There seems to be a movement that says that people shouldn't pay admission to see a rock concert. They should all be free because all the groups really belong to the people."
It goes without saying that is a most ludicrous philosophy and one that can only cause trouble.
Continuing, Chick explained: "From what I can gather, only 50,000 actually paid at the Atlanta Festival. About a QUARTER OF A MILLION got in for free.

SPIKED!
"On top of that, it seems as though all the drinks backstage had been spiked with acid, with the result that they had to fly quite a number of people to the hospital by helicopters. "The spiking of the drinks was a most irresponsible thing to do because some people were very ill. And with the place being crowded, they completely freaked."
British groups returning from across the Atlantic are nearly always full of alarming stories about the increasing hassles of working in the States. "I just can't put my finger on it, but it's all getting a bit uptight. Perhaps it could be something of an anti-reaction towards Woodstock, but I'm not sure," he went on. Enquiring about the aftermath of TYA's rather splendid presentation in the filmed documentary of Woodstock. Chick informed me: "It has given the group a great deal of respect everywhere we've appeared in the States," Due to return to the States the next day to resume the group's cross-country trek, Chick confessed: "The novelty of the States is wearing off. I'm not knocking the place, because it's a beautiful country. It's just that I feel that the Americans can't fully realize the turmoil and violence that they are living in." Obviously Chick can, and for a second his smile completely vanished.

August 1, 1970 – New Musical Express:

Jethro Tull, Ten Years After and Procol Harum have been added to the line-up of this year’s Isle of Wight Festival. It will be Jethro’s first British appearance since last October. Other new bookings include Melanie, Fairfield Parlour, Cactus, Ralph McTell and a 30-piece Negro spiritual group named the Voices of East Harlem. The Saturday evening performance (August 29) is to be telecast in colour, live via satellite, to selected theatres and cinemas throughout the United States and Canada. And a huge video-magnification screen is being erected on the site, to enable the vast audience to gain a better view of the performers.

After protracted discussions, the festival has finally received the full support of the Isle of Wight council. Already over 15,000 tickets have been sold for the event, but despite this, it could still be the last festival to be staged there by Fiery Creations.

The promoters will not decide until after this year’s festival has taken place, whether a similar event will be held in 1971. A spokesman told the New Musical Express: “It will be the last one if everyone wants it that way. There could well be a swing away from the big festivals, and a move towards well-run village festivals. It depends how the public reacts”.

Complete line-up for the festival is now as follows:

Friday (28) : Chicago – Family – Procol Harum – Taste – Melanie – James Taylor – Arrival – Cactus – Fairfield Parlour, Lighthouse and the Voices of East Harlem.

Saturday (29) : The Doors – Ten Years After – Joni Mitchell – The Who – Sly and the Family Stone – Free – Mungo Jerry – Cat Mother – John Sebastian – Spirit and Emerson, Lake and Palmer.

Sunday (30) : Jimi Hendrix Experience – Jethro Tull – Donovan and Open Road – Joan Baez – Leonard Cohen – The Moody Blues – Pentangle – Richie Havens – Ralph McTell – and Good News.

Rare Bird, Fat Mattress, The Keef Hartley Band, The Wild Angels, The Strawbs, and Denmark’s Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe are among the new bookings for the three-day National Jazz and Blues Festival at Plumpton next weekend (7-9). Other bookings are as printed in the New Musical Express two weeks ago, except that Edgar Broughton has now withdrawn. The application for an injunction to prevent the festival from being held was due to be heard in the High Court on Wednesday, after being adjourned for two days.

Arrival, Country Joe, MC5, Soft Machine and Edgar Broughton have been added to the two-day non-stop festival, just outside of Nice, in the South of France, next Wednesday and Thursday (5-6). Sponsored by Radio Luxembourg, the event is now called “Popanalia”. Other artists booked were reported in last week’s New Musical Express. The festival will also mark the debut of “Balls” a new trio comprising of ex-Move guitarist Trevor Burton, Ex-Moody Blues singer, Denny Laine and former Plastic Ono Band drummer Alan White.

Jethro Tull and Ten Years After are among the new bookings for the massive Alter-Nation Rock Festival, being held in New Brunswick, Canada, next weekend (7-9).

For full details of the remaining line-up, see last week’s New Musical Express.

Pink Floyd completes the star bill for the Yorkshire Jazz Folk and Blues Festival being staged at Krumlin, near Halifax, for three days from August 14^th. A spokesman for the group said that, contrary to reports elsewhere, it will not be taking part in any other British Festivals this year. But, The WHO is definitely not appearing at Krumlin.

The British team for the “Euro-Song Festival “70” in Ostend, Belgium, on August 17^th comprises of Jimmy Campbell, Tammy St. John and The Merseys.

TEN YEARS AFTER: Strawberry Fields Pop Festival 1970

Moncton, Canada

Featuring Music Artists:

Led Zeppelin – Janis Joplin – Ten Years After – Sly and the Family Stone – Grand Funk Railroad – Leslie West and Mountain – Leonard Cohen – Jethro Tull ….

It took place at the Mosport Park Raceway in Bowman, Ontario, Canada – which is located one hundred kilometres east of Toronto. It’s reported that between 450,000 and 500,00 were in attendance, and the festival took place on August 7-10 1970 just one year after the Woodstock Festival. A three day ticket cost $15.00.

It was originally intended to be held by John Brower with John Lennon and Yoko Ono to host the “Toronto Peace Festival” but their permits were denied. The Canadian Security Service began spying on John and Yoko after they announced the plans to host this festival.

The “Strawberry Fields Festival” was promoted heavily in the United States as a three day rock music festival – “Love – Sun and Sound”. The concert was emceed by the one and only Chip Monck who was also the host of Woodstock 1969.

Other Artists on the bill Included:

Jose Feliciano, Delaney / Bonnie and Friends (Eric Clapton)
The Young Bloods
Melanie
Hog Heaven
Freedom Express
Leigh Ashford
Fat Chance
Cactus
Syrinx
Crowbar
King Biscuit Boy Luke and the Apostles
Lighthouse
Alice Cooper
Eric Burdon and War

It should also be noted that - Led Zeppelin and Leonard Cohen – were no shows at this event.

Ten Years After – At The Goose Lake International Music Festival

7, 8, 9 August 1970

Goose Lake Park

The event was an outdoor rock festival that was held from August 7th through the 9^th 1970, located in the Leoni Township of Jackson, Michigan. The festival was strongly opposed by the local residents, who failed to prevent its occurrence, despite attempts at litigation.

Approximately 70,000 advance tickets were sold, but contemporary press estimates report that as many as 200,000 people actually attended. The festival was characterized by the widespread use and exchange of hard drugs. The local authorities chose not to intervene in the open drug use for fear of starting a riot and causing a violent scene. It was bad enough that the festival attendees were forbidden from leaving the grounds once they entered. The entire area was surrounded by a razor sharp wire fence, that was under constant police patrol, including persistent helicopter surveillance.

There is 8mm film footage of this concert, but not with a lot of music in it. There is, Ten Years After performing “Sweet Little Sixteen” along with The Stooges doing their song “1970” and playing together live for the last time. Leslie West and Mountain doing their new hit song from a few months before, called “Mississippi Queen” written by Corky Laing, along with some local Ann Arbor bands performing.

This (basically) home-movie film is a time capsule from 1970 and the hippies from that period. The influential line-up included Jethro Tull - Ten Years After and John Sebastian, the latter two fresh from their Woodstock appearances the previous summer. Local talent included Bob Seger, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, Frost and the MC5 supporting the “White Panthers” and John Sinclair.

Just to keep the record straight, Alice Cooper – Joe Cocker and Savoy Brown were listed on the hand bill to attend this gig, they didn’t come. MC5 and Rod Stewart were added at the last minute as replacements.

According to reports, 13,000 Kilos of marijuana were digested at the three day festival.

The headlines in the local newspaper reported, “125,000 and still coming”. The reporter also stated: “Goose Lake Park’s Rock Festival is no country fair, or worlds fair – It’s a young person’s fair”.

John Sinclair was one time manager of the band “MC5” and also leader of, “The White Panthers Party”, which was a militantly anti-racist counter – cultural group of white socialists who were seeking to assist the “Black Panthers” in the Civil Rights Movement. He was also a distinguished poet as well as the president of the Cinema Guild.

As a final detail: After this concert took place, the local residents passed a law that forbid any concert of this type ever taking place at Goose Lake Park or surrounding areas again.

The Goose Lake International Music Festival – Friday August 7^th through Sunday the 9^th

Friday August 7^th Featured Acts Are:

The Mighty Quick, John Drake’s Shakedown, SRC, The New York Rock and Roll Ensemble, The Flying Burrito Brothers, John Sebastian, The MC5, Chicago, Rod Stewart and The Faces and Ten Years After.

Saturday August 8^th Featured Talent:

Third Power, Brownsville Station, The Litter, Tee-Garden and Van Winkle, The Stooges and Mountain.

Sunday August 9^th Featured Talent:

Suite Charity, Tee-Garden and Van Winkle, Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels, Bob Seger, The Frost, The Flock, Savage Grace, The James Gang and Jethro Tull.

Originally scheduled to appear, being listed on posters, flyers and on tee-shirts, but were no-shows: Joe Cocker, Alice Cooper, Ram and Savoy Brown

August 8, 1970

August 15, 1970 - JACKIE

The Isle Of Wight Festival – August 26th – 30th – 1970

Five Days That Rocked The World – “The Last Of The Great Rock Festivals”

The Festival was held at East Afton Farm in Freshwater, off the coast of Southern England.

On Saturday August 29, 1970 – 600,000 mostly stoned flower children went from a peaceful lot, into an ugly mob of angry rockers. With obnoxious displays of hippie self-indulgence and selfish attitude, they went astray, because of feeling so betrayed.

On the local peoples side, many farmers complained that they could hear the music five miles away from the concert site.

From Melody Maker 1970:

It was a long wait before Ten Years After, who had not played a gig together for some time took the stage. It was good to see them again, and they approached their job of cheering up the audience with cool professionalism. One of the highlights of their set was the energetic class playing of Leo Lyons, who plucks at the strings with powerful fingers, and can keep the song – “I’m Going Home” steaming right along, almost by himself.

Alvin Lee seemed to be enjoying himself and his old magic digits have lost none of their nimble touch. A slow blues number wound up the tension and then Alvin tore into the bands, ace in the hole, “I’m Going Home”. The positively definitive boogie rock guitar solo. There was much dancing around the stage, as the three days of lazing in the countryside drew to a climax. As the group fled the stage, there came the loud demands for an encore, and

Ten Years After obliged with “Chuck Berry’s Sweet Little Sixteen”. Maybe the band encored once to often, but at least they weren’t slighting the fans on this prestigious moment.

The Set List Included:

Love Like A Man – Good Morning Little School Girl – No Title – Hobbit – Classical Thing – Scat Thing Intro – I Can’t keep from Crying Sometimes – Sweet Little Sixteen

(Note: There is a soundboard copy of this event)

The audience was chanting, “Tear down the fences” had a lot to do with the general dissatisfaction with society as a whole. This was the height of the No-War – in Vietnam.

We lost John F. Kennedy in 1963, his brother Robert Kennedy in 1968 and Martin Luther King as well. The audience felt they had nothing to loose, and most of all they were just plain angry, and the festival organisers were unfortunate enough to be in the way. Wrong place, wrong time and wrong issue. It was an experience never to be repeated again…

The Festival itself was considered a complete disaster, on an organisational level, but I still have fond memories of my four days there. Good weather, good music, and a great atmosphere. Hopefully, never to be forgotten or duplicated again.

I always wondered why the audience embraced Kris Kristofferson warmly on Wednesday and Thursday, and then by the time he played the main event, a huge number of people in the crowd were making so much noise, by banging cans together! I also never understood why Ricki Farr had to come out to centre stage and berate a fantastic audience.

Back to the music: The band that stuck in my mind the most, and was worth the entrance fee alone, had to be Ten Years After, doing - “I’m Going Home” . Some people left, and many stayed on. We stayed and eventually got forcibly removed by the police and then threatened us with arrest for allegedly stealing corrugated iron sheets, but hey, that’s life. Great memories of a great time, but you really had to be there didn’t you?

The food was atrocious. The trenches in the area with the bathrooms such as they were. I watched the fence being tore down in an effort to make it a free concert. I sat in a five mile line to get transportation off of the island. I was only seventeen years old at the time, and this was one of the best experiences of my life. I’m so glad that I was a part of it all.

The down was called, “Devastation Hill” We quickly joined forces with a load of French Anarchists and Mick Farren’s White Panthers and some other nutters of the time. Our favourite band back then was the “MC5”.

I remember Kris Kristofferson retreating off the stage under a hail of beer and coke cans, and being booed off after singing “Blame It On The Stones”. Yogi Joe, who interrupted Joni Mitchells set to declare “ Desolation Row” the real festival was one of our people.

Three weeks after this event, word reached us that Jimi Hendrix had died, and things would never be the same again.

And the music – Then a band came on stage that seemed to just grab your attention right from the very first note. It was Ten Years After, they just seemed to have the whole place rockin´.

My eyes and ears were glued to the stage for the entire performance. Their final song was “Sweet Little Sixteen” which also ended up as the last track on the band’s new album called “Watt”, which was released later that year.

Then came The Who – they put on a great show, but I still think Ten Years After had the crowd going better.

The festival did two things to me, first it made me a fan of Alvin Lee and Ten Years After, and although I enjoyed the entire experience, to this day I don’t care much for large crowds.

Isle Of Wight 1970

Note:

The Isle of Wight Festival 1970:
"This is the last festival, enough is enough, it began as a beautiful dream, but it has got out of control and became a monster". Said Ron Foulk - Promoter, on Monday morning, September 1, 1970.

Recording The Isle of Wight Festival:

When it came to recording the festival, the limitations of the mixer technology meant that most set-ups used two microphones on each stand, often lashed together, one for the PA and one for a second mixer connected to the tape machine. “We made a buffer box with an equaliser that came out of the Audio-Master and it had about ten outputs. The recording engineers could get a pretty good mix from that." by WEM

Alvin Lee at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970
Photo courtesy of Herb Staehr

Take the structures of the blues, amplify hugely and elongate the result to about one side of a vinyl album. Paradigmatic is Ten Years After’s ominously titled “Extension On One Chord” which segues from the likeable “I Can’t Keep From Cryin´ Sometimes” and ends in misery.

Bravo Magazin – Oktober 5, 1970

Zum zweiundzwanzigsten Male erfüllte Bravo einen Leserwunsch: Im Privatflugzeug landete Joachim Schultz (17) auf der englischen Popmusik – Insel Wight

„Ich flog zum größten Festival der Welt“

Ten Years After sind die Größten – jedenfalls für Joachim Schultz aus Duisburg. Um sie zu treffen, fuhr er extra nach England. Als ihm das nicht gelang, setzte er seine letzte Hoffnung auf die „Aktion Wunschbriefkasten“. Das Wunder geschah: Unter Tausenden von Einsendungen zog Joachim das große Los. Beim Festival auf Wight, wo seine Lieblingsgruppe auftrat, reservierte ihm BRAVO einen Platz, um den ihn 300,000 Fans beneideten. So erlebte Joachim die Ten Years After:

Ein Ehrenplatz direkt vor der Bühne!

„Donnerwetter“ staunt Joachim Schultz aus Duisburg, als er auf dem Londoner Sportflughafen Biggin Hill vor einer viersitzigen „Cessna“ Maschine steht, „was BRAVO so alles auf die Beine stellt, das ist ja kaum zu glauben!“ Das Sportflugzeug ist von BRAVO gechartert worden, um Joachim zusammen mit einer BRAVO Mannschaft zum Beat – Festival auf die Isle of Wight zu bringen. Joachim Schultz hatte in höchster Not an die „Aktion Wunschbriefkasten“ geschrieben. „Ihr müsst mir helfen,“ hatte auf seiner Postkarte gestanden, „nun bin ich in den Sommerferien extra nach England gefahren, um die Ten Years After zu treffen. Aber es gelingt mir nicht. Meine letzte Hoffnung ist jetzt BRAVO.“ Und Joachim hatte Glück. Er fiel aus allen Wolken, als BRAVO in seinem Ferienort Weymouth auftauchte, um ihn abzuholen.

Bei strahlendem Wetter landet die Maschine nach einer Stunde Flug auf der Insel – kurz vor dem Auftritt der Ten Years After. Das Gelände gleicht einem riesigen Heerlager: Fans und Hippies haben überall ihre Zelte aufgeschlagen und ihre bunten Decken ausgebreitet. Joachim schaut an sich herunter. „Im Grunde bin ich viel zu brav angezogen“, meint er, als er die Fans in ihren Phantasie – Kostümen an sich vorbeilaufen sieht. Dem wird sogleich abgeholfen: An einem Stand kauft BRAVO ihm ein schickes, knallrotes T-Shirt. Dann gibt’s schnell noch eine Tüte „Fish and Chips“ und Joachim rennt zu seinem Platz. 300,000 Beatfans beneiden den Wunschbriefkasten-Gewinner: Joachim sitzt genau vor der Bühne, zum Greifen nahe spielen die Ten Years After vor ihm. Joachim ist begeistert: „Mensch, machen die eine tolle Musik, live sind sie viel besser als auf Platte“. Und beim Auftritt von John Sebastian vergisst Joachim sogar seine „Fish and Chips“.

Überglücklich steigt er schließlich wieder in die „Cessna“, die ihn zurück nach London bringt. Hier wartet noch eine Überraschung auf Joachim: ein Besuch bei Barry und Paul Ryan. „Hallo Joachim“, begrüßt Barry den Besuch aus Germany. Er erzählt ihm von seiner neuen Wohnung im vornehmen Londoner Belgravia – Viertel, die er bald beziehen wird. „Das müsstest du sehen“, schwärmt Barry, „der Eingang ist wie eine Höhle ausgebaut. Wir haben uns die witzigsten Betten der Welt bestellt: Pauls Lager sieht aus wie eine aufgeklapptes Boot mit Beleuchtung, meines ist völlig verrückt geformt und mit Kalbfell überzogen“. Wenn Joachim das nächste Mal in London ist, wird er das neue Heim der Ryans bestimmt besuchen. Denn Barry sagt zum Abschied: „Jetzt hast du einen Freibrief, jederzeit bei uns einzufliegen!“
Müde aber glücklich fährt Joachim nach Weymouth zurück.

THE “SUPER CONCERT” 1970

At Deutschland Halle Berlin, Germany

Held September 4, 1970 – The festival was headlined by Jimi Hendrix and featured, Ten Years After, Cold Blood, Cat Mother, Canned Heat and Procol Harum.

Jimi Hendrix Experience were the headliners of the event and played their signature “Sunshine Of Your Love” and “Purple Haze” which of course whipped the audience into a real frenzy, and then the bootlegged Roman Candles started going off everywhere…bouncing off of the rafters, into the crowd, off the crowd and onto the stage. Amazingly, the Deutschland Halle didn’t catch on fire and burn to the ground. It’s a wonder!

This was also the second to last show that Jimi Hendrix would perform at. After this Jimi did the Open Air Love and Peace Festival in Fehmarn, Germany. He died on September 18, 1970.

Canned Heat

But, the first casualty happened the day before this event, with the sudden death of Alan “Blind Owl” Wilson on September 3, 1970. Alan was co-founding Canned Heat member along with Bob “The Bear” Hite. Alan played harmonica, guitar, vocalist and song writer.

Canned Heat had a huge loyal following in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. They could always be counted on to deliver a “Heated Performance” of extremely cool heavy attitude blues rock. Their two best known songs, “Going Up The Country” and “On The Road Again” had every nook and cranny of the huge Deutschland Halle arena rocking heavy.

Procol Harum – Performed their “Progressive Symphonic” rock style set. Including their biggest hit from 1967 “A Whiter Shade Of Pale”. All I can remember at this concert however was “Oh, my god…it’s Procol Harum”.

Note: Cat Mother and Cold Blood did not apprear, instead Birth Control.

This festival ws supposed to be an outdoor festival at "Waldbühne", but because of bad weather it took place at the Deutschland Halle

The Love and Peace Festival, Fehmarn – September 4th through the 6th 1970

In 1970 three young Germans had a dream. Helmut Ferdinand 33 was an Engineer, Christian Berthold 28 was an Inn-Keeper and Tim Sievers 30 was a student, planned a European equivalent of the all American Woodstock Festival that took place the year before. They were also inspired by the Isle of Wight Festival as they liked the idea of having it on an island. Which quickly led to the realization of the Isle of Fuhrman, a well connected island located between Germany and Denmark. They were hoping to entice the artists playing at the,

Isle of Wight to come over and play their festival as well. The date for this new festival was set for September 4-6^th. The idea was to feature 30 to 40 bands that also included

Top International Talent. But what they got instead was closer to a nightmare than a heavenly situation. They got the heavy torrential rains of Woodstock, only this time lasting all three days, the rain more on than off. It was also colder in September than the August weekend of Woodstock. They got the Altamont version of the Hells Angles Pseudo Security Force, heavily armed, ignorant and brutal as always, causing problem everywhere they went. As if this wasn’t bad enough, they also got the ugly side of the Isle of Wight experience to boot. Although it must be pointed out, that the audience tolerated incredible hardships for those three days and are to be commended. Many bands who were promoted on posters and flyers to perform there either cancelled or showed up, but because of all the chaos had to leave to fulfil other commitments. These were: Ten Years After (showed up but never played) Cactus, who never returned phone calls, or showed up. Colosseum never made it there, car trouble. Taste (Rory Gallagher) never showed or cancelled as the band broke up right after the Isle of Wight concert. Renaissance – cancelled. The best thing to happen here, was that Jimi Hendrix did show, did stay over-night and did play the next afternoon, as the sun finally came out and lightened everyone’s soul, spirit and overall attitude.

To learn more, I found this excellent website, to which I highly recommend it: www.fehmarnfestival1970.com

TEN YEARS AFTER – INTERVIEW WITH LEO LYONS

Beat Instrumental - October 1970

The Media Is Stifling The Scene

Ten Years After had just returned from their seventh American tour when we spoke to Leo Lyons in the groups London office.

Beat Instrumental:

How did it go over there?

Leo Lyons:

It was our hardest tour so far because we were playing in baseball stadiums that were full to 15,000 or 20,000 and that went on for over eight weeks. We’ve played these big stadiums before but not so many at a time. In the past they’ve been broken up by 8,000 or 9,000 seaters in between.

Beat Instrumental:

How do you feel stuck playing in the middle of a baseball field? Can you get any reaction with the audience going under those conditions?

Leo Lyons:

Well, you have problems getting in and out, with people crushing the cars and so on, but once you’re on stage, provided the P.A. is good, it goes very well.

U.S. View

Beat Instrumental:

How do your American audience view the groups music?

Leo Lyons:

They are much more musical psychoanalysts over there. They buy a record and analyse the personality of the people playing it, rightly or wrongly. I believe myself that what I put down on bass is an interpretation of my experiences. The Americans are into that a lot whereas the English listen to music as music and don’t go beyond. Americans probably do it to a fault and read too much into it.

Beat Instrumental:

Ten Years After have had their share of knocking from various quarters….

Leo Lyons:

Yes, once you get to a certain stage you’re bound to get knocked, which is good in a way because it means you are worth knocking. People go for Alvin because he plays too fast and so on. Well, music is shaped by the environment of the artists. The Beach Boys light music came out of the beach scene, dragsters and so on, while the New York scene was more earthy, especially Dylan. Because you can see what goes on there, the affluence and the poverty. The way our lives have been, constantly rushing around, comes out in our music. We can’t play slow and relaxed because we don’t feel it. I get the impression that some people think we play fast for the sake of it, which isn’t true at all. It comes from our environment which is fast and speedy. In December we’re going to take a while off to catch up with what’s happened to us, and maybe the music will change as a result.

Beat Instrumental:

It’s also been said that you have deserted your English fans.

Leo Lyons:

It’s difficult to explain this, but if we didn’t keep changing our environment we would stagnate. If you don’t travel, face different sorts of audiences and so on, you don’t progress.

Just as you can be stuck in a job and become bored with your own life, so a musician can get bored, and then of course people get bored listening. So it’s necessary for us to go to America and Europe, but we do intend to do a little more work in England and play a few clubs.

Beat Instrumental:

Why don’t you work clubs now? Is it just the money factor?

Leo Lyons:

In Los Angeles we worked a 20,000 seater and 2,000 people couldn’t get in. This led to trouble outside with the police using tear-gas, and this sort of thing makes you wary of playing small places. You owe it to the people, regardless of the money, to let them see you, and it’s vital to have their support.

Beat Instrumental:

Now you’ve worked away and achieved great success, what’s your reason for carrying on playing as a band?

Leo Lyons:

We’ve never consciously thought career-wise. As far as live appearances go, we have done everything now. We’re playing the largest audiences it’s possible to play to. Where we can progress, is in recording. We want to better ourselves in this field. It’s important to play live and record. You can write a three minute number, and you take it on the road and it becomes a twenty minute one. So it’s an advantage to throw ideas around and explore them before you go into the studio. We spend less time recording than most people. We’ve tended to go in and record enough material for an album and put it out. The last album, Cricklewood Green was the first one we rehearsed before we went in. Prior to that we’d always rehearsed in the studio.

Beat Instrumental:

How does your material get written and worked out?

Leo Lyons:

Alvin writes most of the songs. He doesn’t tell me what to play, and I don’t tell him what to sing. He writes the words and then all four get together which can of course change his concept of the thing. As for ideas for albums, they are often things you pick up on tour. Perhaps you’ve been playing the basis of a number over the years and it changes within that.

You might get an idea for a new album from just four bars on one night.

Beat Instrumental:

Are you working on a new album?

Leo Lyons:

Alvin has been writing some stuff, and we’re generally formulating ideas. But albums are really a representation of what we feel that particular day. We’re off to Germany after the Isle Of Wight and then we start rehearsing for it.

Beat Instrumental:

Do you plan to record any more singles?

Leo Lyons:

We’ve had a hit single now and it hasn’t affected our policy. Our U.S. company wanted to put out a cut-down LP track as a dust cover for the album, and they wanted to release it in England. It’s not our policy to release singles as a rule, although we have put out the occasional LP track in the past. So over here we put a live recording on the B-Side and made it thirty three and a third stereo release. We thought it would be bought for the B-Side, mainly by people who buy our albums. We were knocked out when it got in the charts, we had no idea it would be a hit, and we’re not looking for a follow up.

Nearly Starved

Beat Instrumental:

Why do you think the group has become so big over the years?

Leo Lyons:

Our successful formula has been doing what we want to do. Once you start wondering what audiences want to hear you lose direction I think. Before the band started up, we were all earning pretty good money playing around Nottinghamshire with various bands. But we started Ten Years After to play what we wanted to play. It didn’t seem a particularly bright move at the time because we were making money by musically conforming. No one wanted to know and we nearly starved. People would pay us to play as backing group because we were fairly competent musicians so we took it. After all, it wasn’t so bad, you could eat and it was playing. Then we decided to do what we wanted or go under, but be truthful to ourselves whatever happened….and we did go under. Out of 500 people at a gig, five would stand up the front digging it and the other 495 wouldn’t like it. Promoters thought our music was horrible.

Beat Instrumental:

But you started to build up a following….

Leo Lyons:

Yes, we found the Marquee audience, or some of them, tended to like it. We found we could work a blues club in Manchester where they dug it, but we couldn’t play in a ballroom 100 yards down the road. Promoters who liked it then stuck with us and put us on again because they liked the music, even though we weren’t a draw. The Marquee did that. We worked away and got to the stage where we would work a Top Rank Ballroom which would have been certain death at one time. It snowballed and we went on to play Europe, America, and eventually the entire world. This I suppose is the death of the underground. Once that music became commercial it lost its underground nature, but we haven’t lost the music. Commercial means something that sells, it isn’t a sort of music.

Beat Instrumental:

Sooner or later, I suppose your popularity was inevitably begin to dwindle. How long do you see yourselves continuing to play?

Leo Lyons:

We don’t have to carry on doing it now. We’ve enough money to live on, but as long as we want to we will carry on. When we started playing it was a love, but now it’s an addiction, and I get very uptight if I don’t play. It’s a question of having to play and I’ll continue to do so whether people like it or not.

Stagnant Scene

Beat Instrumental:

Do you think you’ll carry your present audience with you as you and they get older ?

Leo Lyons:

New bands are bound to come in, I see them coming up now. But if you can still relate to our music in ten years time, you will like it. Older people still relate to Mantovani after all.

Beat Instrumental:

How do you think the music scene is developing now?

Leo Lyons:

I think it is largely stagnating at the moment, and I think the press are partly to blame. They come along thinking “this is the angle I’ll use” and if they can’t get it – it isn’t a good interview. Sometimes journalists don’t reflect what is going on. You can say that if there is nothing new in the music scene now, it is partly a criticism of journalists. They still say the same old things, a lot of them. You know, about buying houses in the country and so on. That’s just not relevant, because if everyone had the money, they would all probably buy big houses and Rolls Royce’s. It’s the motivation for playing the music that’ the important thing.

At the end of an interview once, I was asked about my house and that was the whole story, when the article came out. I was embarrassed by that, as if it was my whole motivation. What’s the interest in that anyway?

Beat Instrumental:

Surely, British radio and television are just as guilty, if not more so, of this sort of thing?

Leo Lyons:

Yes, the media of T.V. and radio are being wasted. Top of the Pops has got nothing to do with the music scene and I don’t know where Radio One come up with the stuff they play. Where I live in Bedford the single is atrocious. Even a good record sounds awful. We need stereo radio run by people with ideas that aren’t middle of the road. Radio and T.V. are so far away from what’s is happening and that’s what causes things to stagnate. The music fan in England must be a good fan because he doesn’t have the opportunity to hear records casually, he has to go to a concert or buy a record. In the U.S. he’ll hear a thing on the radio, which is good for bands and good for the listener. I’ve bought eight or nine albums in America that I heard on the radio, and no one’s ever heard of them over here. I think the English pop fan deserves a pat on the back for making an effort. Everything seems to be against them.

Beat Instrumental:

I quite agree, but the BBC does have these needle time problems.

Leo Lyons:

Yes, it does have the needle time problems, but the attitude on pop radio live sessions seems to be “Get it over with before the pubs open”. Also their equipment is really dire and the signal that comes out is bad. You can do five minute things on the radio now, but they seem really long. It’s a negative attitude to think “Oh well, it’s only going over a transistor radio, it doesn’t matter”. I’ve got a portable stereo radio that gives hi-fi reproduction when I’m in the States, it’s just as good as a good record set up. I bring it to England and it’s a row, a distorted noise, so I switch off.

Beat Instrumental:

How does English radio (abysmal as it is) compare to the rest of Europe’s though?

Leo Lyons:

I don’t know about radio, but in Germany and Sweden for instance, music is covered excellently on television. We did a German T.V. show and the producer had been to see us at a gig. He was really interested in the music and he told us we had half an hour to do just what we wanted to do, just like on stage. We had 30 or 40 people come along and it came over well. You see, the bloke was involved in the whole thing. He had sympathy for it, which allowed it to come over. We haven’t done a T.V. show in England. At one time this was because they wouldn’t have us. Now it’s because we don’t want to.

THE SOUNDS
From October 17, 1970

Ten Years After have an unusual place in rock idolatry; their live performances of supercharged rock and roll have made them a monster group. Woodstock has made them even bigger, and yet because of their success they’re now at a crossroads. They’ve arrived at the crossroads because their strength, their success, is in their live performance when they come together as a driving, stomping outfit with a feel that they’ve never quite come across with in the studio. But their strength has also proved their weakness because having reached so far they face the possibility of drowning in their own success and being swamped by an audience of screamers, an audience that they never wanted.
Alvin talked about these problems and other things to ROYSTON ELDRIDGE.

“Love Like A Man” was a best selling single—the standard requirement for a group’s appearance on Top Of The Pops yet TYA haven’t appeared to date. Why not?
It’s mainly their lack of artistic integrity, really, and television is a very weird medium for our kind of music anyway. It’s very difficult to get into music on a TV because of various reasons—they’re prone to cutting things and making it as short as possible. I’ve never done a session there but I should imagine it’s in and out as soon as you can.

There’s no real point in us doing it anyway. The thing’s a hit which we didn’t really want in the first place, so what’s the point of plugging it further. One day, maybe, if we can get it together we might go on and play something which we are proud of but it would just be a waste of time at the moment.
The single was just put out as a trailer for the album in the States but Jonathan King wanted it released here and we agreed to it as long as we could have the B side in stereo at thirty three and a third and over eight minutes long. The A side I personally think is a very un-valid thing, it’s not representative of us at all with the solo being cut out. When it comes back in after where the solo was cut, it’s about twice as fast. It makes me shudder every time I hear it.

When we turned down Top Of The Pops we were accused of being superstars and everything but the point is it’s not valid for us to do it. We don’t want to reach the people that watch it and you must admit it’s a pretty poor programme. The bands come on, do their thing, and off.
It’s very watery entertainment , superfluous, nothing real.
A television enables you to reach a certain market which we’re not really ready for yet , I don’t think we ever will be actually but definitely not at the moment. The concerts draw full capacity anyway and the albums sell much more than the singles have ever done and as musicians that’s all we want…the appreciation of people who listen.
Hit singles tend to bring in people—like the Woodstock film has to a degree—who come to kind of experience the event rather than listen to the music. We try to encourage the listeners rather then those sort of teenyboppers.

Has the Woodstock festival and film appearance affected the group in any way?
It’s affected the concerts in certain areas like New Jersey where it’s got completely out of hand, you know where it’s like a form of Beatlemania. I hate the word but a lot of people are definitely coming to see us because we’re topical or trendy or what have you. They’re just coming for the event, we played there and there were police barricades outside, it was a joke. We try and discourage it as much as we can—you know all those screamers—without sounding totally ungrateful. It’s flattering in a way but if we can’t hear ourselves then it’s not really worth playing.

The group’s been together a long time now. How does everybody feel at present?
Well we’ve been playing the same number for the last couple of months and you tend to feel a bit machine like and repetitive so we’ll be having a few rehearsals and work on some new numbers which will cheer everybody up a lot. We’re going to make another album, we’ll have some rough rehearsals first and throw a few numbers around, so we know basically what we’ll be doing before we get into the studio. Then we’re going to have a quick shoot around the States—two weeks—and then we’ll have quite a bit of time off for policy talks and everything to work out where we go from here.
I think we’ve gone like so far, we’ve gone beyond where we were actually hoping, so now we’ve got to re-assess what we want to do and what direction we want to go in. We’ve so many ideas at the moment. It’s difficult to know which will be the best for us. Everybody’s had lots of thoughts musically and no chance to put them into any solid form.

We’ve got to decide whether we want to go on just as we are because if we do it might get too out of hand, we might get too teenyboppery. We’ve got to discuss if we want to control it and if so, how we can. It’s been suggested that we don’t do any small clubs anymore which in a way is sad because they always have a very good atmosphere. The question is can we play at any small clubs again? If you get a lot of people turned away at the door, which happened in the States, you get trouble outside. There’s not really the venues in England anyway. There’s such a lot of difference between going down well in the clubs and from stepping up to the Albert Hall. There’s nothing between, say the Marquee, and the Albert Hall and then that’s it.
Once you’ve played the Albert Hall it’s difficult to go back to the Marquee and there’s nothing beyond the Albert Hall really except for the festivals.
I miss the club dates in a way because that was half rehearsal, half playing, sort of thing where we used to experiment a lot. When you’re doing really organised gigs you get rushed in backstage, quarter of an hour before you’re on, and before you know it you’re on, you’ve played and you’re rushed out again.

Have you considered increasing the size or instrumentation of Ten Years After?
Our musical interest in TYA is seeing what we can do with what we have. The format is very loose the way we play now and any more instruments –although it might sound strange—would limit us because then you start getting into set arrangements. As soon as you’ve got a certain section playing this and a certain section playing that, you loose any informal thing that you may have. Now we can just play and if we don’t like the way it is going, I can switch the rhythm around and everyone picks up and we’re off again somewhere else. Any more people than four and you might get some problems.

Do you feel that you’ve reached as far as you can go with four people?
I think when you hear that it’s an excuse. Like King Crimson reached as far as they could go in one album? I don’t believe it, I believe bands break up because of personal problems. I’m sure if we can keep our heads together and keep a good relationship on a personal level, the music will go on forever. It gets to the point when you even surprise yourself with what you’re doing. I don’t like forcing progression, you let it progress naturally, but you can be making and album and you’ll find yourself onto something else which you don’t realise until it’s done. There’s no limitation at all with four people, probably even less with three.

You’re interested in electronics. Have you considered getting into electronic music a little more deeply?
It’s like a hobby thing which is creeping into the albums a bit. I’ve got ideas for using it for effects on stage but there again I’m not too sure because electronics is my personal thing, it’s a hobby, and if it gets to be part of the band, it could ruin the hobby thing about it. Basically we want to stay musical. We want to play music, everyone has interest which are side trips but it’s the music the TYA makes together that is Ten Years After’s music, if you exert any one influence in any one direction on it, it can change the group’s direction and it’s wrong to interfere with something that’s happening all on it’s own. TYA is a fusion of four people and it just happens to work that way. If it doesn’t well, it doesn’t, but if it does that’s fine.
We prefer to let it happen and improvise rather than guide it. We could say, guide it more towards jazz, we could take it to jazz, we could take it anywhere, but we prefer to let it have it’s own natural head and see what happens to it.

You’ve been singled out as the face, the spokesman, of Ten Years After. Does it worry you at all, this superstar image?
Only when I’m accused of doing something that I haven’t done like ego-tripping or being a superstar or something. A lot of it is just stories Rolling Stone did a story about me having my own limousine; it was completely untrue. In fact the actual thing was that it was Ric and his wife travelling in another limmo. I think the reason I’ve been singled out is because I sing and it’s the singer who has the spotlight on all the time. It wasn’t planned that way and whether it’s good or bad I don’t know.
What does get annoying, and what can happen to anyone is that you get put up on a pedestal, somebody puts you up there, and then other people start knocking you off. I long ago realised that whatever you do some people are going to like it and some people aren’t. Some people write things which they can’t possibly know about, the most common is being accused of being on an ego trip. It’s really weird because that’s the one thing that I have always been aware of and tried to avoid.
It’s easy to get too flash and for the seven years that I was struggling I always thought to myself if I got anything together I would definitely not get into one of those flash scenes. And I’ve always done the opposite. I’ve always gone out of my way to be non-egotistical.

What about the criticism that you sacrifice taste for speed in your guitar playing?
I never know how to answer that, I just play the way I want to play and I can see that in some people’s eyes that might be true, but it’s not true to me. I don’t play as fast as I could, I could play a lot faster, I could be a lot showier, a lot flashier and a lot more commercial. If I go too fast for some people then that’s up to them to decide but to actually say something like “he plays too fast”, that’s a very weird thing to say. How do they put themselves into a position to judge anything so definitely. I’m going somewhere, my own style is developing still, and I’m never going to be happy with it. I know that, I’m always striving for something more but I’ve never strived for speed except for perhaps eight years ago when I used to do speed scales and things but that was just to get fluent.
When I’m playing I get kinda heated and then what I play is more or less sub-conscious. I don’t think “now I’m going to play this or I’m now going to play that”, it just happens I don’t see any reason to change it.

I think what is most valid is what is most real and what’s most real comes out naturally. If I play too fast for a lot of people’s taste and I therefore slow down because I want to please them, then it wouldn’t be real anymore.
The whole business is really funny anyway with all the lights coming down on you and all those people looking. I mean how can it be a normal event. I can’t really relate to it, I just do it, I don’t analyse it. If I thought to myself I’m walking out onto a stage, bathed in floodlights, where ten thousand people will be watching. I’d probably crack up and never do it again.

Rock music is being used as a medium of political protest with bands like MC5, Country Joe McDonald, Grateful Dead and our own Edgar Broughton involved. Does this present a difficulty in the States where everyone seems to be on some political bandwagon?

I don’t believe people can learn from other people’s values. What’s right for me isn’t going to be right for someone else. I’m not really interested in politics enough to talk about it and even if I was to use my popularity as a musician as a platform for something else is a bit strange.
When we’re in the States people come into the dressing room and ask you questions but you don’t really talk. You just answer questions—“What do you think of this? What do you think of that? What are your views on this? – They obviously attach importance to your views but I don’t. I don’t attach importance to anyone’s views unless they’re actively involved in it, and I’m not involved in anything besides music—and I don’t think you reach anyone who’s going to do anything about it anyway.

You’ve got a very wide selection of albums here. Do you still listen to people like Broonzy and do you take much notice of what other groups are doing?

No, if I listen to too many rock bands it’s obviously going to influence me in the direction which isn’t very good because we’ll start sounding like someone else. Rock music to me is something that I enjoy playing rather than listening to.
Music to me falls into something like fifty different aspects: music for for listening to for company, nice sounds in the corner like Crosby, Stills, Nash and the Band which just make nice noises to me. And then there’s the intense stuff-jazz and the more progressive rock sounds that get into heavy thing.
I still enjoy listening to the Beatles, I don’t really know why, it’s just a matter of interest to see what they’re up to. I listen to electronic music as a means of escapism. I think that I probably listen to it in the same way as someone who doesn’t play an instrument listens to rock. They’re not aware of the effects and how the instrument is being played, it’s just a noise to them and electronic music is just a noise to me.

There’s been a revival of interest in rock and roll. A lot of bands are going back to those roots. Why do you think this is?
There’s a tendency to go round in circles in music and as a musician tends to progress much faster than the people in the people who are listening, you tend to outgrow the audience after awhile which tends to make you feel less successful. I think this has happened to the Beatles, they’ve gone on in themselves but they’ve left the audience behind a bit and then they try to go back and pick it up where it was but then you lose your own interest in it. I think it’s inevitable that it’ll happen at some stage and if it does then I’m ready for it.

October 24, 1970 - New Musical Express

Is This “Reduced?” – Last week’s New Musical Express stated that Ten Years After were doing a short British tour at reduced prices. After applying for a ticket at Bournemouth Pavilion, I was told that prices were 18s each, 4s. more than Black Sabbath the previous week. Having seen Ten Years After for 12s. twice last year, it seems that prices are spiralling out of all proportion. Guys just haven’t got the bread to throw around at these prices. Greedy promoters will kill off the club circuit by their own actions.
K.J. Woodford, Christchurch, Hants

November 7, 1970 - New Musical Express

Live Concert – Ten Years After – Front Row Reviews – By Roy Carr –

Without a doubt, Ten Years After have always been a people’s band … playing to and for their audiences. Never over or above their heads. Despite the fact that it seemed like the start of the monsoon season, Ten Years After filled the Civic Hall at Dunstable on Monday Night to the point of overflowing. It was a most enjoyable night when Alvin, Chick, Leo and Ric went back to the roots and created some nice crowd reaction. Starting with the now familiar riff of … “Love Like A Man,” they then presented some new material from their next album, which included “I’m Coming On”. “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl” brought forth cheers of approval and countless bobbing heads”. “I’m Going Home” was the obvious show – stopper, which had Chick a – top of his Hammond organ leading the cheering, yelling, dancing crowd into a right old rave-up for their encore of “Sweet Little Sixteen”. Those who did wish to make Ten Years After the subject of their own petty controversy should be left well alone to get on with their mindless rappings. For me, I’d rather just go along like most people and hear some good contemporary rock.

New Musical Express November 7, 1970

November 14, 1970 New Musical Express – New Music News

Led Zeppelin is virtually certain not to appear in this country before 1971, and Ten Years After’s projected concert at London Royal Albert Hall on December 9^th has been cancelled by the venue’s management as a result of damage caused there during the group’s last appearance at the hall. Zeppelin was to have undertaken four or five concerts at major venues in late November or early December – including the

Albert Hall – but manager Peter Grant has been unable to find halls willing to accept the group, because so many are apprehensive about possible rioting.

Ten Years After last appeared at the Albert Hall on December 15, 1969 – A number of seats were damaged by fans, and the group has now been banned from appearing there. A spokesman for the Albert Hall told the New Musical Express, that application had been made to book the venue for the Ten Years After concert on December 9^th, but that the booking had been rejected “because of the trouble which occurred the last time the group was here”. A spokesman for Ten Years After’s management said:

“More and more venues are refusing to book rock groups, and it is becoming impossible to find large halls to accommodate them. It is no use playing small clubs, because many fans would be turned away, and those allowed in would be extremely uncomfortable”.

Melody Maker – From November 14, 1970

“Rock Causes Trouble” Ten Years After Banned From Playing London’s Royal Albert Hall On December 9, 1970 – Alvin Lee says “Unfair to Fans”

Alvin Lee, leader of Ten Years After, lashed out this week against a ban on the group’s projected concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall on December 9^th. The date was cancelled because the hall’s management fear the group will provoke damage and vandalism.

“Our music is not violent,” Alvin told Melody Maker, “But it does provoke excitement, and people may climb on chairs to get a better view. “But we are all fully insured. The last time we played there we paid out 200 £ for damage to chairs. “A ban like this is hardly fair to fans. The Albert Hall is the only place in the centre of London with the capacity for a good concert. It seems the Royal Albert Hall is doing a bit of an Establishment thing. They seem more interested in giving out Duke of Edinburgh prizes, than putting on a pop show.”

Would Alvin and Ten Years After accept the ban? “We shall do what we can to protest,” he added. “But I can’t see myself walking up and down with banners outside the hall.”

Chris Wright, of the Chrysalis Agency, told the Melody Maker, “I called the Albert Hall, and was told I could have December 9^th, when there had been a cancellation. Then someone phoned to say they didn’t want Ten Years After to appear there.”

A spokesman for the Royal Albert Hall confirmed that the Ten Years After booking had been rejected. The spokesman said: “A ban does apply to some groups, where we’ve had trouble.

“It may seem very harsh and a bit arbitrary, but there was trouble at a concert in which Ten Years After appeared about eighteen months ago.”

THE ROCK PILE

What this country needs – and has always needed – was a sex symbol. Not so much for the boys: there are always loads of Hollywood starlets and models cooing silently from billboards to give young males the stuff that dreams are made of, but something for the girls. After Elvis came the Beatles, then Mick Jagger and Jim Morrison. Now Morrisom’s gone too way out, and Jagger’s gone too way in (into himself, really) and about all a girl can say these days is, “Thank heaven for Alvin Lee!”

What is so astonishing about the handsome and talented leader of Ten Years After
super-group is that he himself felt that he was already beyond superstar – pop idol status at the time that the group first broke big. Their name was a highly accurate, descriptive one – they had been together, more or less, for about ten years when things really started popping, and Alvin thought of himself as a mature, seasoned, musician, and hardly grist for the teeny-boppers´ mill. The teenyboppers thought otherwise. At sell-out concerts everywhere, their frantic screams for the presence of Alvin Lee can be silenced only by his walking out on stage. After that they are quiet. God bless em´ for that. One thing, at least, can be said for this brand of fan: they listen. And that is a groovy thing, as anyone who has ever attended a superstar concert can tell you. Like, people went to the Beatles concerts to see them; it was impossible to hear them, because all their adorers were screaming at the tops of their lungs, and drowning out the possibility of catching a single note. But the audience for groups like Ten Years After has matured, not in age but in taste and respect for their idols. They are no less adoring, but they dig the sounds that the groups are laying down, and they come to listen as well as look.

This is very gratifying to Ten Years After, because they consider themselves to be musicians first and idols after. They each grew up in Nottingham, which for centuries was famous as the hangout of the legendary Robin Hood, but now has a more contemporary claim to fame in the form of the famous foursome. They gigged around the area, first as a trio, then adding Chick Churchill on organ to Leo Lyons on bass and Ric Lee on drums.

Although they are all natives of the same little English town, their roots, as a band are fundamentally American. It was the big beat of American - rock – the Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry generation of sound – that turned each of them on to opo music, although they had all started playing their respective instruments long before they ever met or thought of becoming professional musicians. And it is the blues, in its purest form, that is the greatest influence on them as a group today.

They started making it big as a group right after the Beatles broke the music scene wide open.

The duality of the situation led to this, they would play the first set of the gig in typical mod gear, velvets, ruffles and the like, and do soft tunes that the girls in the audience went crazy over. Then they would come back to do their second set in rougher work clothes, and play the blues, and that would get to the guys. So from the very beginning, they had the best of both worlds going for them. And the best it was. Alvin had been listening to authentic blues and jazz ever since he was a child. Both of his parents were jazz buffs, and later on, when someone mentioned the work of the late guitar great Charlie Christian, Alvin was able to head home and go through his old records and find just what he needed. This is still another example of English musicians knowing more about American music and musicians than Americans did. Alvin would hang out in the clubs of Jamaicans living on the outskirts of the city in order to dig the music. He listened, and he learned, in the same respectful way that his fans are listening to him today, and for some but not all of the same reasons.

They listen in part, because fans today are so much more knowledgeable than they ever were before. Nobody who screamed over Elvis in the old days ever stopped to think that his gestures, his wiggles, even his songs were taken directly from the soul singers like Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, and Big Mama Thornton, whom he watched and listened to so carefully. But today’s fans know where the roots of the music are, because artists like Alvin Lee have acknowledged their indebtedness and inspiration.

The other reason they listened is because there is a gorgeous man up front worth screaming about. No question. Alvin Lee is a face of today, and a mighty good one at that. He has that famous something that no one has ever been able to define, only identify, by ticking off the names of those who do have whatever it is: Presley, McCartney, Morrison, Jagger, Sinatra in the middle ages: maybe James Taylor in the soon. But right now, it’s Alvin Lee country, and we all want passports!

Photo by Thom Lukas (see below)

Billboard Magazine - 28 November 1970

Ten Years After – Tuesday December 1, 1970 – Atlanta Auditorium

“It was like I was going through a door and into an alternate universe. I’m not sure that I ever came back into this one after that experience. That was a heavy scene."

From Melody Maker - December 19, 1970

Ten Years After: “Watt” (Deram)
In the past most would agree that the figure of Alvin Lee has dominated the group, as a guitar hero, rock idol, singer and writer. But from the evidence of this solid, unpretentious album of modern group wailing, Ten Years After are now much more of a band.
It’s nice to hear Chick Churchill’s piano and organ coming through strongly on the swinging jazz blow “Gonna Run,” and adding meaningful chords to “Think About The Times.”
Leo Lyons and Ric Lee make a driving rhythm section and Ric gets a nice “feel” going particularly on numbers like “She Lies In The Morning.” Production is excellent and has only sparing of use of gimmicks that became a little heavy handed on one of their previous albums.
The significance of the Duane Eddy inspired “The Band With No Name” followed by street noises is somewhat obscure—but it sounds effective! Alvin sings in a painless style that makes him a good band vocalist without being a new Neil Young , and his guitar playing displays invention and good taste without any of the excessive histrionics of which he sometimes stands accused.

It’s fun to hear the “Sweet Little Sixteen” track a “live” recording from the Isle Of Wight festival and the first from that extraordinary event we have heard. The drums stomp along. Alvin shouts with funky power and blows a mean guitar….and the crowds cheer. When they write the history of rock (if they haven’t already), Ten Years After could well be exemplified as the archetypal crowd pleasing, open air festival, guitar boogie shuffling rock band. And for proof that they have even more to offer—give an ear to “watt” they have been doing in the studio.

Photo by Thom Lukas

From December 26, 1970

Watt by Ten Years After, shows how much the group has matured during the last few months.

Alvin Lee is still the star with his inventive guitar playing and funky singing, but the other members get a chance to shine, particularly CHICK CHURCHILL on piano, and organ. Included is Sweet Sixteen, a ‘live’ recording from that historic Isle of Wight concert—and it’s a knockout (Deram).

Tracks: I’m Coming On; My Baby Left Me; Think About The Times; I Say Yeah; The Band With No Name; Gonna Run: She Lies In The Morning; Sweet Little Sixteen.

New Musical Express
December 26, 1970

After a break of several months since the last album, during which time they managed a record-breaking American tour, a smash appearance at the Isle Of Wight Festival, and—ye Gods!—even a hit single, Ten Years After have popped up again with a splendid effort designed to bring joy to their fans as they gather round the log fire digesting the Christmas pud.

The brave hero Alvin Lee is up front again, collecting the honours as he races away on his electric steed (heavily disguised as a guitar), but loveable Chick Churchill plays a more audible part than of late, while Leo Lyons and Ric Lee consolidate their respective positions of strength within the merry band.

In no time at all, I expect to see the album cutting a dash up the rungs of the ladder of fame, sometimes known as the chart, and mighty will be the roar of the pennies clanking into the coffers of the record company, and the group alike. But enough of this little tattle, here is a track by track run down on the goodies in store:

1.I’m Coming On:

Not to be confused with the TYA standard I’m Going Home, this features Alvin building patterns on Leo’s repetitious bass riff. Ric’s drumming compliments the bass on a number that is mostly instrumental with a fast and exciting build up.

2.My Baby Left Me:

Piano chords introduce a slow blues with Alvin’s voice revealing traces of Dylan. It suddenly switches to a boogie rhythm. Alvin and Lee fusing their music together, then reverts to the original mood before once again picking up the alternative theme.

3.Think About The Times:

Another slow blues, Leo’s bass is prominent playing very clearly, and leading the other instruments in support of the vocals. The lead guitar solo midway is subdued with a lot fuzz on it.

4. I Say Yeah:

A long track, Alvin creates all manner of effects at times sounding like the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, and Leo plays superbly, proving his leadership in the field of bass players. The excitement mounts, and the toes begin to tap.

5. The Band With No Name:

Very short and obviously a spoof, this sounds like the theme from “A Handful Of Lire” or some other spaghetti Western.

6.Gonna Run:

A variation on the basic 12-bar that has been used by thousands of bands for many, many years. The difference here is the way in which TYA build the tempo gradually. Chick’s piano becoming more prominent as the number progresses. There’s the famous Alvin Lee-Leo Lyons combination of Leo running up and down the scale, and Alvin relaxing into a jazz mood. The drumming is skippy and fluent, and the piano takes a very good solo, rolling and jumping about in fine form.

7. She Lies In The Morning:

The drums show the way on what begins as a medium-tempo rocker that gets so fast it sounds as if the tape has been speeded up. As suddenly as it increases in speed, the whole thing slows almost to a crawl before the drums, bass and piano tempt the lead guitar into a fit of wildness.

8. Sweet Little Sixteen

Recorded “live” at the Isle Of Wight Festival, it packs a hell of a lot of power and gets right into a beautiful rock and roll beat. The excitement generated by the crowd and the group makes up for the poor recording quality. If you listen closely you may even hear my piercing whistle at the end. Where are my royalties, Alvin?

Record Mirror – December 26, 1970

When The Riffing Has To Stop – By Garry Monroe

Ten Years After “Watt” Album Review

Well, this is going to be a very successful album – following on precisely from “Cricklewood Green” with Alvin Lee’s guitar as the dominant factor. “Watt” starts with Lee’s own “I’m Coming On,” a fast number displaying Lee’s fast guitar-work.

That’s followed by “My Baby Left Me” a slow blues, and not the Arthur Crudup number – again written by Alvin Lee. The next two tracks, “Think About The Times” and “I Say Yeah” are both taken at the same tempo, a little more relaxed than the opening track, and both based around a permanent riff. The opening track on side two,

“The Band With No Name” is a little different taken a little more lightly than the other, with Lee on acoustic guitar. “Gonna Run” built around a medium-paced riff, while “She Lies In The Morning,” the long third number, changes tempo mid-way.

           The final track is Chuck Berry’s “Sweet Little Sixteen” – recorded live at the Isle Of Wight Festival August of this
           year. Altogether, a certain chart entry and presumably, a must for Ten Years After fans. But really, the riffs must be
          wearing a little thin by now, and as for the groups version of “Sweet Little Sixteen,” well, I prefer Chuck Berry.

This review is from: Watt (Audio CD)

In hindsight Ten Years After's breakthrough (their star-making turn at Woodstock in 1969, and especially when they featured prominently in the film of the festival) was both the best and the worst that could have happened. The best because it graduated them to a real semblance of commercial success on their own terms after two years' slogging (and an unforgettable live album, "Undead," still the best set of their career); the worst because they'd spend the next two years trying to live up to it and running out of gas. A decent remastering job still cannot overcome the point that "Watt" sounds written and cut under sheer exhaustion---which is probably how it was cut in the first place. (It also finished their original recording contract.)

After the last truly luminous exercise of their career (the marvelous "Cricklewood Green"), here is a band just about out of ideas. Which is saying something for a band that didn't exactly have pocketfuls of ideas above and beyond their distinctive enough marriage of blues and bluesy jazz. ("Undead," their early live set, is the best example of that marriage and probably the best album of their career.) How drained were they? The lyrics (never a TYA attribute in the first place) are even more throwaway than in the past; the butterfingered guitar runs sound extremely repetitive (against each other and against a lot of Alvin Lee's earlier exercises) and almost mechanically executed; and, even allowing for bad recording, the version of "Sweet Little Sixteen" that closes the set, drawn from a 1970 concert, sounds anything but the band whose rip-snorting Woodstock set made them superstars in the first place.

If "Watt" was Ten Years After's way of saying they were gassed, they couldn't have done it more vividly. The lone exception, perhaps: "Gonna Run," which graduates almost seamlessly from a simplistic but paranoid-sounding stroll into an exuberant, jazzy blues jam not dissimilar to what they loved to unhorse pre-Woodstock---so exuberant, in fact, that you'd be forgiven if you suspected Lee and the guys were really yelling "Stop!" to the two-year whirlwind that slammed them to this point. They took a long break (and signed with a new label, Columbia) after this album hit the racks. Then, they tried a mild shakeup, adding a few folk and soft rock elements to an attempt to streamline their style a little more overtly. They got away with it for one album ("A Space in Time," their first and best Columbia album), learned the hard way it wasn't really them (they hinted as much with "A Space in Time"'s closing track, the quick "Undead"-like "Uncle Jam"), and faded away quietly enough by 1974, not exactly the way you would have expected one of Woodstock's biggest breakouts to go at the time of the festival.

POP Magazine No. 2 - 1971

This is an article in German about the newly released "WATT" album 1970

Ten Years After – “Watt”

WHAT is WATT – is the question? Watt is the sound of the wheels starting to seize up on Ten Years After. It was their fourth album within eighteen months of their career-defining moment at the 1969 Woodstock Festival and the supply of riffs that had propelled them to the sharp end of the British heavy blues rock brigade was running out. There’s a sense that they need to broaden out, but have no real idea of how or where. The last couple of riffs are used up on the opening “I’m Coming On” and “My Baby Left Me”. After that they’re winging it – although Alvin Lee drops some hints on the acoustic ballad “Think About The Times”.

By the end they’re reduced to adding another Woodstock track as a makeweight.

By Hugh Fielder – four stars cold. (The other live track that Mr. Fielder is talking about is not from Woodstock at all, it’s from the Isle of Wight Festival 1970, and stuck on the end of the WATT album).

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