HIT PARADER MAGAZINE FROM JULY 1969 PRICE 35 CENTS ONE MONTH BEFORE THE WOODSTOCK FESTIVAL SPECIAL GUITAR ISSUE TEN YEARS AFTER ALVIN LEE - LEAD GUITAR - Fastest Guitar In The West Alvin Lee: I was born in 1944 in Nottingham, England which is also where Robin Hood came from - the Sheriff of Nottingham and all that. I left home for London at the age of fourteen. London seemed the only place to make something of myself. I joined a rock and roll band when I got there and started to take care of myself. My favourite kind of music was country blues and jazz and I went to all the nightclubs in London to hear my favourite musicians. One day I met Big Bill Broonzy in a club and that's what started me off really. I went to see him every night. I was playing clarinet at the time in a little club band - just regular standard tunes. That's where I learned the rudiments of music. The proper way to play things. There was always a guitar around the house and I learned chords from different books. Back then, I loved the country rock style of Scotty Moore, with Elvis, and that led me to Chet Atkins and I found it very clumsy for quite awhile. I learned all the conventional ways to play, the tuning and everything. Occasionally I use a straight A tuning. When I first used an electric guitar it wasn't good to obviate the distortion or feedback. It was just for a good clean sound. A few changes have gone down since then. After playing in bands for so long, I got more and more interested in amplification and the various sounds. About four or five years ago I experimented with this and had some special things built for me, but now I've got Marshall equipment, straight tops and bottoms. I have a Gibson guitar that I had re-wired. I put another pickup in it and it has more range from bass to treble. Ten Years After was established as a blues band. I had known Leo our bass player foe nine years. We played on and off in various bands. We got together in London finally as recording session men. We did a lot of rubbish together. Then we went on the road doing backup work and we met Chick. The three of us decided to get together as a group to do sessions and we were quite successful. We played every type of music imaginable. We did lots of super clubs with songs like "How High The Moon", "Lover" and stuff like that. We had a lot of work but we grew rather bored and wanted to do something more adventurous. I listened to all types of guitar players from Spanish classical to Chuck Berry to Django Rheinhardt and took a little from each one. I might sound like certain players, but now I'm to the point where I sound like many different players in one song. So we decided to get into blues heavily. At the time, we were the heaviest thing going in England. We were very happy with it because we really dug it. I don't know why it caught on, but we developed a following right away. Maybe it was because we were playing music we believed in. It might seem that there's a big blues thing happening in England. It's no better than the States actually. Most British bands are doing better outside of England. Like, we have a good thing going in Sweden and Denmark. In England the blues audience is too strict. There are people who only want Elmore James songs and won't touch modern blues or country blues and then there are strict country blues fans. You can't find an audience in England that digs all kinds of blues. American audiences seem to dig a good feeling from any kind of music. In England it's an intellectual thing. We're not going to jump into an other kind of music. We've been quite successful playing jazz-blues so our progress will be very slow. It would be hard to change our stage music, but on albums we can do different things. On an album we can use the studio. That's just a side trip. Personally, I feel my own style, my own music moving into a new place. I'd say it's getting more spiritual in that it's coming from my subconscious. I can leave the conscious mind and fingers and play flashes of ideas, whatever I think of. I can play whatever I think of - the right phrases - but I want to think of the right things. You can fall into patterns, like B.B. King is a stylist and I can feel exactly what he's going to play next. He's got thousands of riffs, but I can hear them coming. I don't knock that but I want to do something different. I hate hearing myself play the same thing every night. The thing is to play from my mind and not my fingers. Sometimes I'll know my instrumental break is coming and I'll already hear the licks and riffs. I don't like that. I want to play things from nowhere. Just let it come without thinking. But this is my personal trip. I try to modulate between fast playing and slow playing. The speed in my playing grew out of exercises. I found I could think of more things to play much faster if I played fast. The guitar will always be popular because it's the best instrument for very vibrant music. It will go through phases though. The Motown sound sort of phased guitars out in England for a while. As a sessions man I just played chords behind the band. Then organ came in all of a sudden and everybody had Hammonds. Horns are around a lot more now too, but they can be very limiting. It holds down the spontaneity of a band. If the horns are spontaneous, they'll be doing boring riffs so they have to be arranged to fit well. I can play a great many types of music but I wouldn't want to inflict my taste on the public. I'd just be showing how virtuoso I am. I'm just happy that other people dig what we dig to play. I like all kinds of music for different reasons. There's technical music, pleasant music, emotional music. I prefer the emotional. I love classical guitar, but to me classical guitar isn't a good way of putting over classical music. Electric guitar is the best way to put over anything. I'd like to try it on electric guitar but I don't know if I could pull it off. I don't think anyone would be interested. Beefing up the classics would be a very difficult thing to do and still keep the beauty of the music itself. It has to be done very well. A musician is much more aware of sounds than the average person. I like to get into detailed things, things with lots of subtlety. I might hear a Pneumatic hammer and think it has a good rhythm or a chord hitting a wall and echoing back. Our new album has a song called "Stonehenge." It's a good example of how I transpose a visual subject into music. When I saw Stonehenge it gave me a definite inspiration. It's very difficult to explain. Imagine looking up at a giant redwood, touching it and seeing it and amplify that feeling 500 times. Stonehenge dates back to 1840 before Christ. It was erected then and no one knows what for. Different tribes found it and used it for various purposes. I've always been aware of Stonehenge.  I saw it as a child and many times since and I've read books about it. There's another ancient place in England called Gladstone that has these same weird vibrations. Flying saucers have been spotted there. The mystery of these things gives me a feeling which I transcribe into sounds. Alvin Lee and Jim Delehant

 

From ALPHABEAT Magazine - 1969 (pop, psych and prog rock 1967-1970) Ten Years After Ten Years After are one of the most successful of Britain's musically progressive groups in America. The demand for them to appear there is so overwhelming that they now work six months of every year there. Formed in 1967, this four-man outfit first came to prominence when they emerged as the stars of the 1967 Jazz and Blues Festival at Windsor. Guitarist Alvin Lee, bass guitarist Leo Lyons, drummer Ric Lee and organist Chick Churchill then began to build up a formidable army of fans. Like the Who and many groups before them they drew packed houses of discerning audiences at London's Marquee Club and various other prominent venues. The major breakthrough in their career occurred early in 1968 when they first toured America. Demand was so strong that they remained for twice as long as they had planned. Following a short return to Britain, during which they completed a "live" album at Klooks Kleek called "Undead", they returned to America until the end of the year. As far as the American critics and Underground radio in the States are concerned, Ten Years After have filled the gap left by The Cream. Alvin Lee in particular is venerated as one of the most brilliant guitarist anywhere in the world. Drummer Ric Lee produces some unique sounds by various techniques and ingenuity, including his actually playing a drum solo with a microphone. Chick Churchill, another fine musician and versatile soloist, is the "raver" in the group - he likes living it up and has become particularly fond of an American drink called Southern Comfort. Bassist Leo Lyons is steeped in the history of the old West, collects firearms ( he has over three dozen) and intends to buy a ranch in Arizona. Line Up: Alvin Lee - Lead Guitar Born in Nottingham, England December 19,1944 Five foot ten and a half inches tall. Fair hair and green eyes. Leo Lyons - Bass Guitar Born in Standbridge, England on November 30, 1944 Five foot eleven and a half inches tall. Brown hair and blue eyes. Ric Lee - Drums Born in Cannock, England on October 20. 1945 Five foot nine inches tall. Black hair and brown eyes. Chick (Mike) Churchill - Organ / Keyboards Born in Flintshire, England on January 2, 1949 Five foot eight inches tall, brown hair and blue eyes.

 

CIRCUS MAGAZINE – FROM JULY OF 1969 News Stand Price - .50 – Fifty Cents  Photos By Alan Grossman   TEN YEARS AFTER: Last fall a relatively unknown English Blues group came to New York to start the first leg of a national tour, that all but changed the status of pop music in America. They played the Fillmore East, The Scene, and did a memorable freebee in Central Park with Traffic and Country Joe, establishing themselves as a household word among rock fans in New York. Ten Years After is one of the best groups to come out of the contemporary progressive blues movement. Their musicianship both as a unit and in solos, far exceeds that of almost any other group you can name. Formed in May 1967 in London, they worked at getting themselves together for several months before making their debut appearance at the Marquee Club there. From that point on, Ten Years After had little hassle getting people to listen to them. It’s their desire to turn people on with their music, that is, they dig audiences and get turned on themselves when they see people appreciating music. To see them perform on stage, one can easily sense the great amount of communication that goes on between group and audience. Their live performance leaves very little to be desired. They are exciting, extremely versatile, very visual and seldom, if ever, dull. Their repertoire ranges from heavy blues to pure rock and roll and enables the listener to gain a better understanding of the blues idiom in rock and other current musical trends.   Alvin Lee, lead guitarist and vocalist has to be one of the best guitarist in the field. He has been praised by his peers and audiences alike. He is and excellent blues singer and his facial expressions alone are worth the price of admission. Their live version of The “Stones” “Goin´ Home” is a hard driving rock spectacular which makes you remember what rock and roll really is. During the break in this number they go into several rock riffs including bits and pieces of “Route 66” and “Blue Suede Shoes.” It really knocks you out. Alvin Lee plays his guitar with the microphone stand (don’t ask me to explain) and switches to playing it with a drumstick. The amazing part is that he never misses a note, and he’s playing damn fast! Leo Lyons, the bass player, is a dynamic musician who credits Bill Black, Elvis Presley’s early bass player, as one of his influences. Chick Churchill is an accomplished classical pianist who worked as the groups´ road manager before actually joining as their organist. Ric Lee (no relation to Alvin) is the drummer who credits Buddy Rich and Joe Morello among his influences. He does a long solo in their live sets, which ranges from mediocre to excellent, depending on how well he feels when he’s doing it. However, he is a rather creative and solid drummer who complements the rest of the group well. They are without a doubt a “must see.”   Ten Years After has three LP’s on the Deram label; Ten Years After, Undead, and Stonedhenge, their latest work, which takes the music of Ten Years After a few steps further, incorporating more jazz and progressive rock than before. They are currently on their second tour of America, which includes a gig at the Newport Jazz Festival. (That in itself tells you plenty.) You may ask one more question. What does Ten Years After mean? According to Chick Churchill, “It could mean ten years after the present day which would be 1979, or ten years after 1959 which would be today.” You figure it out for yourself ....   Special Features by, John Leitzes

 

CIRCUS MAGAZINE From November 1969 (Just three months after the Historic Woodstock Festival) Price Fifty Cents  Ten Years After:  Reelin´ And Rockin´  It’s really a shame that the best cut of Ten Years After’s new LP, Ssssh, has been banned by most of the radio stations across the country.  The song, an old Sonny Boy Williamson number, “Good Morning Little School Girl” has so much style and form, much more than most other blues groups, that it establishes Ten Years After as a mainstay of British sound.  This is their fourth album, and the only one that lead guitarist and vocalist Alvin Lee is really satisfied with.  “We have attempted with Ssssh, to lay down the basic Ten Years After music and at the same time, create an atmosphere which involves more than what is being heard,” says Alvin on the liner notes. He just about apologizes for the first three albums, and obviously put a lot of time and hard work into making Ssssh. Basically a “live” group, they are in the midst of their most extensive American tour yet. To fully appreciate Alvin, and Leo Lyons on bass, with Chick Churchill, keyboards and Ric Lee on drums, one must of course have a liking for the blues, and be prepared to get totally involved in their music. Alvin Lee makes some of the best grimaces and contortions this side of Jimi Hendrix, while playing his fluid and dominating guitar. The stage act is brilliant and exciting. Something rare and graceful. They are practically the house band in London’s Marquee Club, which is small and intimate; just perfectly suited for their smoke-filled, magic music. All the songs on Ssssh were written by Alvin with the exception of Sonny Boy’s tune, and was produced by him and the group. Ten Years After have risen to the top, and without doubt, will stay there. Lee is a phenomenal guitarist and singer, and Leo Lyons is considered by many to be the finest bass player in England.   It is only occasionally that a group will emerge from a flock who are trying to cash in on the blues phenomenon and Ten Years After is one. They work hard. Ssssh is their fourth album in a relatively short time, and they never stop touring and playing in England. That’s the way to keep in shape, and keep music in shape. The group is now making a cross-country tour on the heels of their fourth and most successful album, Ssssh.

 

Melody Maker, November 15, 1969 ALVIN LEE’S BURNING AMBITION British Progressive artists are travelling to America regularly these days. Some lay down a solid foundation for future tours, some establish themselves as album artists—but only a few so far have achieved major success “on the road” at the biggest American venues. Ten Years After and Led Zeppelin are two of the really giant acts in this calibre. Ten Years After are in the high income bracket as far as U.S. tours go, having established themselves via a number of successful tours. Leader Alvin Lee points out: “There’s a general acceptance for all British artists in the States. The Americans regard any British groups as “interesting” and having some merit. But the emphasis is on the heavy stuff. It’s the heavy rock groups from Britain who produce the most reaction from American audiences. “Why do they regard the British acts as better than the local product? I think it’s a lot to do with association. The Americans can’t really make a superstar of an American because they all know each other and they see that the other American acts are pretty much the same as they are, they realise them as having similar hang-up’s. But with an English band they see them in a different light. They seem to think that England is ultra-groovy and that everyone’s cool in England—and unless a band disproves this, this is in fact what the people think before they even see the group. “ All, in fact, it gives to an English band in America is the advantage that when they first go over people will give them a chance and listen—and they’ll criticise from that. If they think the cat’s not good they’ll say so. “I realize that we’re more successful than a lot of other British bands who visit the States. Whether we’re better is just a matter of opinion, but as I said earlier, it’s the heavy bands who tend to be the big stuff over there. “Zeppelin are great stars over there. Zeppelin have got it together. They are doing the same circuits as we are and they’ve got the advantage of having exceedingly good record sales. It’s difficult to think of other British acts and how they rate with the American public without offending anybody. I don’t want to offend anybody. But as far as success with on-the-road bands I can only think of Zeppelin and us. Alvin has been very busy writing material for the group’s albums for quite some time now and I wondered what his approach to writing a number was. “It’s very un-together, really” he said “I do it in scridges and scratches and kind of try to do it in a way to tap what’s there rather than force myself to create anything. I have been known to sit down and say “right I’ll write a number tonight” and usually I get very depressed doing it that way. You know, if an idea’s there, good enough, it will force its way out make me sit down and record it and get it into shape on my own account. “I usually do the demo myself in my flat, which is a home made studio. It’s of a good quality but limited—I’ve got two Revox tape machines. They’re professional-domestic and if you wire round and use mixers and added facilities they can be used professionally then. It would be easier using an Ampex 8 track, for instance—then I could do the same with a lot less trouble, whereas it takes me a whole evening to set up to record a backing track, an Ampex would be easier. “I tune the guitar down and play bass and I’ve got a few magic inventions which get other sounds. Then, when I get together in the studios with the group and play it to them, not only does it give them a basic, it also gives them a feel and an atmosphere. It’s better than just playing the number on a guitar in the studio. I want them to go along with the atmosphere, so everyone can contribute to the atmosphere rather than just contribute chord-wise and just play. You know they can sense the atmosphere and contribute to that rather than to the basic song, “cause the atmosphere is a lot of what we’re about on recording.” “Ssssh,” which went high in the charts on both sides of the Atlantic was Alvin’s first try at producing an album. Did he find the task difficult? Service “No, It was much easier than having anyone else involved, cause we cut out the middle men. You see, the producer’s job for a pop band is an established service. He takes the band and presents their music to the audience in a way he knows the audience will accept. “But for bands like ourselves who know what we want to create, the big problem is getting it on tape—so all we really need is a good engineer . So I can say to an engineer I want a guitar sound that kind of goes like this and like that—and how about coming in here, and the engineer knows where to put his fingers to get as near to it as possible. Of course, you’ve got to have the right engineer. But engineers lean towards being producers. Any engineer would like to be a producer really, he likes to produce the band’s music in his way. But with a band like ourselves, we want to produce it our way. An engineer should just physically look after the controls. “With “Ssssh” we used two engineers. Andy Johns who unfortunately fell ill and was too fatigued on some of the sessions anyway and Roy Baker who we also used on “Stonedhenge”. Roy I think is really very good. Up to now he’s been hampered by not having a studio of his own desire. He’s now going to go to Trident. But Trident’s a new thing to us and if we were to go with Roy to Trident we’d have to completely get to terms with the studio which is like starting from square one again. “What I’m striving for at the moment is my own studio. Well, it won’t be in my present flat, I’m getting a bigger place out of town. What I want to do, this is my burning personal ambition, is to have my own studio. In many ways it will be unconventional as studios tend to be a general compromise. For instance, although a 16 track isn’t often needed a commercial studio will have one for those that occasionally need it and therefore anyone using the studio will have to pay the money of such equipment, which is immense. “When somebody with a studio will, instead of making their own mixers, just go to Sound Techniques and order a $20,000 bank—it’s putting things completely out of all proportion for bands who have to compete in the recording field. A lot of bands can’t afford to pay a great deal of money over a period of time to make a record. Their finances are limited—yet any band making a record is in direct competition with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones who can afford to pay $100.00 an hour for a studio. “Even in our position we couldn’t spend a whole month in a studio, for instance, on an album. You’ve got to remember that you’re not only paying out the tape charges and, let’s say an average fair studio will cost about $25.00 an hour—but so much else as well. We usually spend 12 hours a day in a studio—if we had it for a month that would mean that we wouldn’t get any bread from working gigs. Then, apart from losing your income from gigs you’re paying road managers, insurances, expenses and millions of other things. Apart from the fact that you’re not bringing in any bread you’re paying for the studio and $8.00 for reel and tape, and you get through some tapes as well! “So what I want to do costs me money, but It won’t be a commercial studio. I mean, no matter how successful it would be in producing good sounds, I wouldn’t use it commercially, I wouldn’t hire it to a record company. It would be strictly on a hobby, kind of personal level. I mean, I wouldn’t go out of my depth taking too much stuff on. Marquee “The idea is it would give a lot of opportunity to bands who need a break. There are a lot of bands I know who are exceptionally good and in the old days of the Marquee where you would a name there, appear on a Windsor jazz festival and sign a recording contract, things wouldn’t be so bad for them. But these channels are somewhat closed down. There are bands that are struggling on the breadline. What I want to do is to have them in the studio for two or three weeks and get to know them personally and find out what they want to create. I’d like to get involved with them production wise and generally get together.”

 

Many Thanks to Wolfgang Cramer  for this rare single "Love Like a Man"

   

From Melody Maker, February 14, 1970 With Alvin Lee THE JAYBIRDS: It was me, Leo and a drummer called Dave Quickmore, (Quickmire) who left the band just before we came to London and missed out a bit. I think he’s still playing in Palais bands. I’ve been thinking of reforming them for an album—we used to specialize in Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley numbers—and in a way it was one of my favourite little bands. I really enjoyed playing with them. Now I’ve had the initial burst of ideas, I would like to do something with them even if I have to cut the tapes myself to see if we can recapture some of those old things. COUNTRY BLUES: I immediately think of Big Bill Broonzy who was an early influence of mine. I actually met him when I was a mere wisp of a lad. My folks used to go to a jazz club in Nottingham and they got him to come home one night. I was only about 10, I think, but I was most inspired to say the least, I collected all his records and I’ve liked him ever since even though I’ve moved away from that style. I still play Broonzy occasionally, it’s very real music. AMERICA: I can never make up my mind up about America, I’m always glad to leave but in a way I look forward to going. It’s an adventure, you never know if you’re going to get back alive or not. It has a lot of good things going for it but it’s a country of extremes—the good things are good, especially for musicians, but the bad things are really bad. America seems very wild and uncouth to me but it’s done us a lot of good. THE IVY LEAGUE: We got hung up with the Ivy League. When we left Nottingham we were in “Saturday Night and Sunday Morning” at the Prince of Wales Theatre—playing music in the wings and coming on shouting—but that folded up quicker than we expected and Leo, Ric and myself stayed on in London to seek our fame and fortune. We started doing the backing for the Ivy League and I think they were quite an important little event in our careers because we learnt a lot while we were with them. All we had to do was to make noises behind them but it was very boring musically and when we split from them it took about six months to get our own things back again. RADIO: Apart from the Pete Drummond show, there’s more progressive sounds played on BBC-2 than there is on the BBC steam radio. I’ve several hundred pounds worth of fidelity tuner there but I’ve never found anything worth tuning in. Their middle of the road attitude towards music annoys me. The radio only seems to appeal to Northern housewives, teenyboppers and old cronies which leaves me right out and there are quite a few people like me. WOODY HERMAN: All we’ve ever done is to do a version of one of his numbers—“Woodchoppers Ball” –which is really a verse but people started making arrangements for us to do a Carnegie Hall concert with Woody. As we do it twelve times faster than he does, I motioned (voted) against the motion. JAZZ ROCK: I suppose you mean Blood Sweat and Tears and Chicago. It’s nice background music, it’s cocktail jazz, it’s eating your dinner to jazz which just isn’t jazz to me. I’ve got disenchanted with jazz especially the jazzman’s attitude. I went to the Dave Goldberg thing at the Bull and it was drowned by a display of noise. A lot of the things being put down have no reason for being there, they’re just making noise to play on a record player. As far as jazz-rock goes there’ll be a barrier as long as we are using that term to describe it. Why does everything have to be categorised? SUPERSTARS: Don’t believe in them. It’s categorisation of success for commercial exploitation. GUITAR SOLOS: A subject near and dear to my heart. And they are handy when you forget the words! NOTTS – YMCA: That was our fave - rave stamping ground. We had a good thing going in Nottingham and we were making good bread too—about fifty pounds on a Saturday night which we used to split three ways on the night. It seemed a lot more then than what we are getting now. That was a most enjoyable area of my life. POP PRESS: I think the press itself does a pretty good service (lick- lick – crawl- crawl) but I think sometimes it’s a little bit too middle of the road as far as trends go. The press doesn’t knock anything in case it snowballs and becomes the big scene. I always get good ideas for what I should have said about three hours after the interview has finished but I don’t take it that seriously because I don’t like rambling on and boring people.

 

From Melody Maker, April 21, 1970   With Alvin Lee Alvin Lee walked into the MM office wearing a pair of old denims, a worn leather shoulder bag and a green tee-shirt with Fillmore East etched across the front in white lettering. He admitted right off that he had not listened to many records for quite a while, so we ought not to be surprised if he did not guess many. MCDONALD AND GILES: “Flight Of The Ibis” from the Island album “McDonald and Giles.” Alvin’s Comments: Sounds like a fervent Paul McCartney fan, I’d say. It’s a nice tune, quite pleasant, but the production sounds a bit demolish. Could be your record player though! That’ll do for that one, thanks. (On being told the band) Alvin says, “Oh, is that who it is? I thought they’d get a better sound than that. It really sounds like a demo record. BURNING RED IVANHOE: “Gong Gong—The Elephant Song,” from the Warner-Reprise album “Burnin” Red Ivanhoe.” Alvin’s Comments: “Haven’t the faintest who this is. Sounds like Hollywood music to me, has something of Zappa’s stuff about it, but I don’t think it is him. Actually, I like it. It’s far out, in fact. Oh, if they’re not American, they must have been recorded in England. Not English? Mmm. Burnin´Red Ivanhoe, you say. Are they Danish? Ah, they’re friends of our photographer John Fowler. I had a record of theirs a year ago, a double LP, and thought it was very good. Yes, they seem to be reaching out for something. I don’t know what they’ve got there, but they’re on the road to somewhere. FAMILY: “Holding The Compass” from the Warner-Reprise album “Anyway.” Alvin Comments: Oh, it’s a live recording, is it? (As soon as the voice comes in). Ha Ha, it’s young Roger Chapman. Family are one of my favourites. I was knocked out by that first record they did—what was it? “Music In A Doll’s House.” Actually, I recorded them live in Copenhagen some time ago on me tape recorder, but it wasn’t as good as this. They’re great in stereo, they wipe me out. I’ve also got a film of them at the Isle Of Wight, this year. In fact, I got thrown out of the enclosure for doing it. Family really are far out. Chris Wright, as well—you know, at Chrysalis—has got a film of Roger Chapman smashing up his mike. JEAN LUC PONTY: ``King Kong´´ from the Liberty album ``King Kong.´´ cellPadding="6" Alvin Comments: Sounds like The Mothers again. Is that Ian Underwood? He’s very far out. I don’t really know the names of the band. It’s very advanced, isn’t it? It’s yer progressive jazz, really, isn’t it? That stuffs all right, but they tend to sound like screeching cats when they go too far out. This doesn’t this doesn’t go too far. I can’t think of anything concrete to say, it’s above my head. Shall we say, anything over 12 bars, maybe 16, and I’m lost. FRANK ZAPPA: “Sharleena,” from the Bizarre album “Chunga`s Revenge.” Alvin Comments: Everything sounds like The Mothers today. Oh no, it’s not is it? I played with them in the States, and they were just fantastic; they just jammed and jammed, only it was the tightest jamming I’ve ever heard. In fact, I can go so far as to say it was all completely organized, note for note, although it can’t be of course. All these albums you’ve played today are influenced by Frank Zappa. He’s a very together guy, a fantastic person. I met him at the Belgian festival—you know, the one that was suppose to be in France but was moved to Belgium—and we were stuck in a tent, eating hot dogs and talking. I asked him why America was so paranoid, was it paranoid because it smoked so much, or visa versa. He said it was a bit of both, and that America was freak-land. What do I think of this record? Well, I’m sure there would be something better than this on the album. CACTUS: “Let Me Swim,” from the Atlantic album “Cactus.” Alvin Comments: It’s American. You can tell that because all the Americans copy Led Zeppelin. This is the equivalent to those Kathy Kirby records of 10 years ago, although it’s a lot more hip and beatty. It’s deliberately commercial in the same way. It’s O.K., I suppose, but I can’t take it very seriously, because it was made for a reason, and I don’t agree with that reason. Who is it? Oh, yes, we’ve played with them in the States. I like the bass player. That wasn’t very special. EDWIN HAWKINS SINGERS: “When You Try,” from the Buddha album, “Live At The Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.” Alvin Comments: Mum, it’s the Edwin Hawkins Singers versus the English team. They all sound the same to me. It’s pleasant, but they don’t get me off, but then, not much does now. I’m getting very cynical, and blasé even—shall we say, between cynical and blasé. Even the musicians who are laying heavy things down, it’s coming out like chewing gum. What can I say? It’s good to tap your foot to.

 

CIRCUS MAGAZINE From May 1970 Breakin´ The Blues With Ten Years After Big things are happening for Ten Years After. They’ve released a new album, “Cricklewood Green”, (London) and dominate the Warner Brothers film “Woodstock”, in which Alvin Lee lets loose for a good twenty minutes of cinematic assault. When the announcement was made that the group would be appearing at the Fillmore East, there was a rush on the box office that within one day pressed the management to provide two extra shows to accommodate the hordes of fans. The new album is similar to the last one, said Alvin Lee. “We’ve concentrated on improving the quality, though,” he emphasized. Everyone seems to agree. A photographer who travelled with the group on this recent tour ( Joe Sia / Rene Du Bauge)  said they’ve cut all the speed trip stuff and have become one of the more tasteful bands to come from England. Their fifth album is a natural musical progression. “We don’t sit down and think, “Now we’ve got to sit down and show a progression” he said. “We just get together and do what we feel at the moment. It usually turns out best that way. A natural approach usually brings out the best.”   “We’re now playing to a new generation of audience than that of two or three years ago,” he philosophized. Three years ago we were playing to the twenty to twenty five age bracket. Now we find we’re getting a lot of young kids-like seventeen to twenty. Our audience is constantly changing. They’re not going to get fed up with what we do because a lot of them are new to it all the time.” Even though Ten Years After has almost a fanatic following no matter what age, Lee wants to experiment with the group’s music. Expressing great interest in electronic composer Tod Dockstader, he said new directions for the group might come from the field of electronics. Dockstader is a native of St. Paul Minnesota, whose past includes jobs as a painter, film editor, production designer, writer and cartoonist. He calls his music “organized sound.” This is what interests me, the electronic sounds, as opposed to music,” the guitarist said. “It still is music, but it’s just taking another step. It could be the wrong direction, I don’t know, but I’m interested in finding out. I hope to do a few experimental gigs with it and see what happens.” In the light of superstardom, many groups have broken up because of ego hassles, musical differences and general discontent with the group scene. Ten Years After have been together for three years and have put out five albums, a considerable track record. “Leo Lyons and I had been playing since we left school,” Lee recalled. “We played in different bands. Then we were in Nottingham and our drummer left and we got Ric Lee to take his place. Then just before we moved up to London we got Chick Churchill to take his place. Chick in fact, was originally our road manager. We gave him that job so we could keep in bread (money) and until we could work him into the whole thing.   “The early days were in Nottingham, which is in the midlands of England, and we moved up to London interested in whatever work we could get. So we could play what we wanted to at a later time, we did session and back-up work for others and finally made a bit of a bank balance that put us a few weeks ahead and we organized our own thing.   “We’d been practicing and playing our own kind of music, but the only kind of gigs we could get in those days were like pop stuff where we backed singers and things. Then we started off playing blues. It wasn’t getting accepted very much until we played the Marquee in London, which was like the center of new happenings in London. We built up a following there. “We never actually called ourselves a blues band,” he confessed, “although I’ll admit that to many that’s basically what we are. In England, it’s called jazz blues, here it’s called rock blues – but these categorizations are not very relative to what it really is. But call it rock, blues or whatever you will, it’s definitely something that stands on its own.   “We started playing basic blues and it built up into our own interpretation of it, which deserves another name. Of course the name might be irrelevant – you could even call it “Brand X” really. “It’s like people asking, ”What do you play?” In America, I’ll answer “rock” because that’s the term that’s used over here. In England, I’ll say “blues based” but it’s all relative to what people think it is – “And we leave that up to the listeners. For example, when I write a number, I give it a basic format, then we throw it around and it comes out however it comes out. I can never foresee how its going to come out – it might come out completely different than I first envisioned.” What about the difference in British and American rock bands? “I’m not that much in tune with the happening bands at the moment – any – where.” Lee said. “I only see the bands we play with. But I’d say the American bands are less disciplined than English musicians. “English musicians have a tendency to discipline themselves and create with an objectiveness while with the American bands, it’s kind of “get together and see what comes out.” Now this is very fine, but it’s leaving a lot to chance. The English bands hear something they want to create and strive towards it rather than just seeing what happens. “There’s a big opening for something very new in England now. Unfortunately, the bands that are now forming are basing themselves on successful bands that are already going. In England, the majority of the bands that just go around gigging are like juke box bands that play everybody else’s hits…obviously they’ve got to be more original to make any kind of impact.” His personal background, even though he is English, led him to the blues. “My parents were musical,” he said. “They were musical on a hobby basis. We had a guitar around the house and we used to play a lot of records, collecting Negro blues and jazz records. “My father collected some of those farm, working-on-a-chain-gang, penitentiary type records and they were always interesting. “Then I got into Negro philosophy – I really got into that before I got into the music, but I started to realize the two were connected. I was very young; I was doing it more as a project than anything else. But I think when rock music first started, I was then able to see the blues and Negro roots more easily than most people…     “I never really remember when I first started to play the guitar. I always kind of plucked on it. I thought I could get it together properly and I got a guy to show me the chords and chord changes, that was all it was.  “Then I played rhythm in a little combo in Nottingham and I picked up lead work from a guy who was playing in a band at the time. Then I worked on that. “It was always a hobby. I never really thought I’d be able to get on stage and play when I was young, but it came naturally after awhile. I went from Elvis Presley (who I got very hung up on as I used to dig his guitarist Scotty Moore) which lead me into Chet Atkins and Merle Travis. “Then I got into finger style and classical finger-style then into jazz. I listened to Barney Kessel; I listened a lot to Charlie Christian. I kind of went my way through all the different musical scenes of the guitar so I had a kind of basic background of the guitar and all its elements. This has helped a lot.” Blues always has been American to the English,” Lee answered. “The English form of folk is like the actual folklore from Wales, Scotland, the ballads of the time. There’s nothing as funky as American blues… “This kind of music is such a good thing because it’s got no limits whatsoever. You can actually make it-you can turn a number into something entirely different by the artists approach to the number rather than the number itself. I prefer music which gives the artistry to the performer rather than the actual music being the art.   “Also, when we play now-as opposed to three years ago, people are more attentive before we start. When we walk up to the stage they’re ready to listen, whereas before we had to sort of hit them with something to make them listen!” The group has been criticized for many reasons, among them, beating a good thing to death. “I’ve read a lot of good things, I’ve read a lot of bad things,” Lee answered. “The only conclusion I’ve ever come to is that I’m not going to please all the people all the time. I know some people are really down on my guitar style… “Personally, I’m happy with what I do. I’m still striving. I realize I’m moving in the right direction and the fact that direction has proved to be a successful one is a matter of chance more than anything else. That is, I mean what I happen to like to play, people happen to like to listen to, That in a way – is luck.” When asked if he personally feels he is as excellent a guitarist as his fans have described him as being, he replied with a grin, “It’s difficult to say, I believe I’m good. You know it goes against the grain to say such a thing. But obviously I do believe that because I take the music I like and play it the way I prefer to hear it. Obviously the music I make is my favorite music even though it’s very difficult for me to listen to it as objectively as I can listen to the music of other musicians. “I don’t think my music has a message, but it reflects me and life itself.   Music, or being an artist of any form, is a reflection of being part of a society and life. My life, my likes and dislikes, the experiences I go through (consciously or not), they come out in my music. Although he’s the star of the Woodstock film, Alvin Lee has his doubts about festivals. “I’m a bit of a fatalist about all that,” he answered. “I mean it’s nice all this talk about Woodstock and it’s been built up to be a happening of the century. But if fate had dealt with it another way, Woodstock could have been as much of a disaster as the Rolling Stones Altamont concert. “Then again, just a quirk of fate and the Stones concert could have been fantastically peaceful as well. There’s always a possibility of something going astray whenever you get a lot of people together. “Surely Woodstock was a step in the right direction. I think it was really cool. Then again, there’s nothing to say if it was organised again exactly the same way it would go as well. Something could go wrong. Nothing will ever be idealistic. One hundred percent peaceful concerts will never be peaceful every time, or all the time.   “We played Dallas, Woodstock…for the musician, festivals are very difficult. “When you get 16 or 17 bands in one day, there’s probably more hassle going on backstage than there is in front of the stage. There’s always some band that wants to go on before another or some band that doesn’t want to follow another or somebody that wants to get off quick because he won’t be there the next day…these kind of situations you know, which are inevitable.   “Personally, I get away from it. I ask somebody what time we’re on and like at Woodstock – I wander off and enjoy the scene.  Article written by David Harris

     

HIT PARADER MAGAZINE FROM JUNE OF 1970 TEN YEARS AFTER WANT A HIT SINGLE!   Mention singles to a progressive or underground group and you stand a good chance of hearing a snort of derision and a tale that albums are the thing. The latter may well be true, especially in the face of recent sales figures, but both Jethro Tull and Fleetwood Mac have had singles in England, and possibly, the day of the progressive 45 is upon us. Now Ten Years After have had a change of heart and are trying for success in the singles chart. Ten Years After has built a huge reputation in Britain, America and Europe, but mainly through concerts and albums. At the end of last year, their first single, the exceptionally good "I'm Going Home" was released in England and did nothing. Since then, strict silence has been maintained until now. "We were supposed to have recorded one during the last American tour for release over hear and there, but with one thing and another there just wasn't time", Ten Years After's drummer Ric Lee told me. "I'm Going Home" was released in America as a trailer for the album "Undead" and somehow it got released here. But we weren't available to promote it. I think the original idea was to release it three months later here." Ric and I were speaking in a West End recording studio in London where the main thoughts of the group were on the next album, though "Ssssh" had only recently been released. With Jethro Tull's "Sweet Dream" climbing the charts in England, the management decided the time was right for a Ten Years After single. It should be added that both Jethro Tull and Ten Years After have the same management. Recording the single took place towards the end of the last week and the finished product was planned to be out in a couple of weeks. How about "Ssssh" though? "We're very happy with it and I can't think of anything we'd like to change", Ric told me. "We don't record more than we need for any one album and if anything is left over we scrap it." Most of the tracks on "Ssssh" are Alvin's compositions but there are a couple of exceptions. "Good Morning Little School Girl" is one and a prominent New York radio station banned it because of one word. ("Ball" the line is "I want to ball you"). Perhaps as a result of this, the album shot up the U.S. charts.  I mentioned to Ric that Ten Years After are still playing a lot of numbers that have been associated with them for a long time and he explained that this was entirely due to public demand. "We want to get on with some new stuff obviously, but when we go on stage we find people calling for old numbers," he said "I agree this can be a bit frustrating night after night, but then we can usually manage to fit odd new things in. "There will be a subtle change in our material, but it's going to take a bit of time. Maybe we'll try one or two numbers a night and build up from there. We won't change the general feel of what we do, but after the Continental tour this month I think you'll notice a bit of difference." Ric expanded on the American audiences, saying, "They take the new stuff well and are enthusiastic, but when we go into one of the old numbers they go wild. That may sound a bit like bragging, but it's not. "At the Fillmore East we couldn't get off and when we did we were soaked and exhausted. America's such a big place that you can do five of six tours there and still reach only half the people." When Ten Years After return from America, they plan to do a few selected concerts where as many people as possible can listen to them. But the new single should already have been in the charts and perhaps more people will be clamouring to hear what I rate as one of the very best progressive groups around today. Written by Richard Green in London

 

From NEW MUSICAL EXPRESS - AUGUST 1, 1970 TYA's CHURCHILL SURPRISED BY SINGLE HIT (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.

 

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.