Retrospectarticles     page 14-3

 1973   /   Articles 5 - 9

Rolling Stone Magazine 2/1/73 Group Gropes: Ten Years After’s Bout With Image        Los Angeles - It’s almost Twenty Years After, if you believe the story that Alvin Lee turned pro ten years after Elvis Presley’s English invasion of 1954, but Ten Years After are still struggling with their image. Ever since Woodstock has dragged around the “Going Home” albatross, a “boogie,  get – yer rocks- off number” that imprisoned them in the Grand Funk category, had them setting off riots in LA and finally drove them into a three month rest-retreat in an effort to escape.   “Part of it was my fault” says Lee, “When I first came over to the states I was very headstrong and I thought interviews, radio and anything other than playing was just hype. So I didn’t do any interviews for a long, long while. Then all sorts of stories built up –about me and the band and everything else, so I figured it was just due to lack of communication on my part. LA always tends to be a little more freaked out than the other places. I remember the first Forum concert we played, the cops were hitting people with sticks on the front row; we ended up just walking out halfway through our number, and as far as I know, nobody particularly noticed, they all applauded at the end of the half number and thought that was it. I just felt really sick; I couldn’t get high with that going on.”   Recently, in front of an L.A. Forum audience disposed towards chaos after an hour’s equipment delay, Ten Years After was marvellously  unaffected, making no effort to incite the crowd beyond the energy of the music itself. Instead of the classic glowering, menacing British blues band demeanour , TYA just laid back and played music.  To some degree, of course, the stage antics remain. “I think it’s called histrionics isn’t it?” said bassist Leo Lyons playfully. But, overall the actions remain natural, something they just feel like doing. “It’s not forced in any direction”, says Alvin. “and it’s not meant as phallicism, it’s meant as a bottleneck with the mike-stand.” Throngs of gasping young ladies might dispute the claim, but Alvin insists that he avoids the superstar role as much as possible. “I think it affects Alvin more than it does us” said Lyons, “because his face was on Woodstock more than anyone else’s. I think it’s the cause of all this knocking. We’ve probably had the worst press that anybody’s ever had. To a certain extent, Woodstock set him up as a figure larger than life, and people are gonna come along and want to knock him down, see if he really can walk on water.”   Alvin, a filmmaker of sorts himself (“It’s a side trip”) complains that Woodstock took “Going Home” out of context and set them up cinematically as something they are not. “It represented part of us, but that part was put out of proportion to the other parts. It brought us to the attention of a wider audience; however, that wider audience wasn’t particularly the right thing for the concerts. The whole FM, underground feeling is one I’ve always been happy with. To play to the minority audience, to me is better than playing to a mass audience that just came for the event. But we started getting that kind of audience, little 13-year old screamers and gigglers and people pulling your shoes, which wasn’t helping us do what we wanted to do—to turn on people with our music.” A three-month, self-evaluating layoff  before the Space In Time album seems to have exorcised some of those elements.   “We’re all equal members of the band” said Alvin “We all get paid the same; we all work the same. I personally don’t think a band’s structure should have a leader and the rest of the musicians just a backup band. When people started to say “Alvin Lee and Ten Years After’ that caused some alarm to me as well. At first I ignored it, but it didn’t go away, so we sat down and talked about it and we got it together.” To look at the band, it would be only logical to assume that Alvin is the leader; lead singer, lead guitarist, he writes all the material and stands  center stage as well. But, he explained, “It isn’t my music, it’s the music of the band. Four heads make up that music. I just write basic structures which the band develops by jamming.”  The other band members, Lyons, organist Chick Churchill and drummer Ric Lee (no relation) agree that they are a cohesive unit, not a backup band, but concede that Alvin still gets the most attention. Among the band, Alvin and Leo Lyons are the closest, having been together since they were 15. Leo dresses like a cowboy, but says, “In a way I’d be ashamed of calling myself a cowboy after reading what a so-called civilized nation did to the Indians. So I’m an Indian.”   That story about Ten Years After and Elvis Presley provided some nice tie-ins about the influence of rock & roll on the band, but, unfortunately, was quite fictional. They just needed a catchy name and Leo dug one up out of the  radio program listings: Ten Years After was almost Life Without Mother.  Alvin now says, “If it meant anything at all, it meant ten years after now, not necessarily futuristic , but it had that connotation. It was a kind of surrealistic feel, and it was nice. Blues was as much an influence as rock & roll and though Lyons will sportingly try to make a case that blues is a British form (since it was originally African and the British were instrumental in enslaving the Africans) both admit in serious moments  that musically they feel more American than British.   “My father”, said Alvin “used to collect early American blues. My brother in-law used to listen to all the big swing bands.  When, in England there was a blues boom, I found myself, without having to think, really knowledgeable on blues because of my father’s collection and his interest in it and I read quite a few books on it as well and it kind of gave me a confident edge.” That edge was bolstered by his family’s illustrious career in country music. “About once a year they’d do a local gig—“Home on the Range” with cowboy hats on. They were interested and involved in music; they weren’t tremendously active. There was always a guitar around the house. They encouraged me to take up an instrument seriously. I was 12 when I first took up the clarinet, which didn’t lead me anywhere. It was like a chore. “Through playing the clarinet I listened to Benny Goodman a lot. With Benny Goodman was Charlie Christian one of the pioneers of the electric guitar. I got turned on to him, really…and when I started the guitar lessons, my guitar teacher was a Django Reinhardt fan and all he actually taught me to play was the kind of chording  Django plays, those really vamping chords. I got off on hearing somebody with the technical skill to play whatever they want. In fact, for a long while, if I heard somebody play a piece that was really hard to play, I got off more on that than the melody. The melody side of things came later, like the Beatles. His admiration for technical skill has brought Alvin cartloads of criticism for flashiness. “It kind of gets lodged In the back of the head somewhere, particularly the speed thing where everybody was saying “ The Fastest Guitarist in the West---so what?’ I just had a fast style. “When I got aware of this kind of buzz going on I subconsciously at first wanted to show that I could be more structured and I wasn’t all just speed,  which I wasn’t. I knew that, but I wanted to point it out to the people that didn’t, which I think is a mistake. You’re always gonna get knocked and you’re always gonna get praised and neither one is healthy to take seriously.”  But anyone who criticizes Alvin Lee for being the stereotypical arrogant kid guitarist has obviously never met him, at least recently. “The only thing I think about myself,” he said, “is that I am doing something original. I am following my own path. I’m not a great innovator, but I try and do my best. I’m doing something which is coming from inside of me.” By Paul Bernstein

 

CREEM MAGAZINE – From April Of 1973 News Stand Price - Seventy Five Cents Volume 4 – Number 11 – Spiderman Cover         Photos by Judy Linn and Richard Creamer   Alvin Lee has the biggest teeth in the world. They’re as big as a horse’s. They’re BIGGER than Carly Simon’s. When sitting on the couch in his hotel suite, he’s a pretty reasonable guy, brighter than you’d expect a boogie man to be. But you still get distracted by those teeth, which flash like big pearly piano keys – except when he shuts up to take a toke. Onstage it’s even worse, because all the lights are shining on him, and with the adulatory eyes of the masses on him he can’t help but smile; his choppers pierce the gloom like two dozen headlights. When he really gets into his music, breaking out with an especially involved solo in “Goin´ Home” or leaping proudly back onstage for the “Sweet Little Sixteen” encore, he forgets himself completely and starts to grind his teeth with such ferocity that he looks like Dr. Sardonicus; it’s a wonder he’s got more than molar stumps at this point.   When Lee really gets down to it, though, you can forget his teeth long enough to dig his whole act. As it stands now it’s one of the best-honed unqualified boogie venues on the boards. Lee has been doing basically the same thing for so long that he’s got it pat. It’s not boring or cold but Alvin Lee is a true professional. He knows exactly what his audiences want, and always gives it to them. If you’re on the other end of the noise, there’s a kind of comfort in the absolute predictability that Ten Years After represent. Half a decade now they’ve been at it, and if they’re not quite the monstro superdraw they once were, they still have a good time. You get the feeling from watching them play and from talking to Alvin that even years from now, when the whole pop-star riff is up for them and they’re back playing bars in England, their music and their attitude will both remain the same.   When he’s in full flight Alvin sidles up to the microphone and grins like a moose. He’s built like a football player, and his guitar English is in accordance with the image – none of this fey barely-touching stuff for Mr. Lee (unless he wuz touching one of the Bobbettes) – he grits and grinds and bumps and juts, making it clear without overstating his virility that he don’t fuck around. He has a great sense of humour, too – whilst playing 78 RPM ultimo methedrine guitar with one hand, shacking the mike with the other, bouncing stage front in a kind of electric slouch (like a vibrating spring) and singing in the corniest and most blatant ripoff of something resembling an old New Orleans Smiley Lewis vocal style ever heard, he’ll swivel his skull and literally leer at the audience with glee at once sly and mindless. Naturally they eat it up. That man ain’t no fool.   The other members of Ten Years After have been resigned to being out of the spotlight for so long that they seem almost sheepish about it. I can’t even remember what they look like right now. When you go for the interview it’s apparently a tacit, unspoken assumption that you want to talk to Alvin and if they come in at all it’s to tell their manager something or cop a joint. All of which is too bad, in a way – I still remember Ric Lee in the movie of Woodstock, thrashing back there behind the cymbals, licking his drawn lips like a chameleon, face so literally black and whole visage such a classic frame of beyond-the pale methedrine beatitude (like the cool channel at the eye of the jet stream) as to summarize the nervous immolation of a whole generation in one frozen piece of celluloid. But that was then and this is now, when Ten Years After are in some ways the grand-daddies of the whole blooming boogie-bloozup-getdown school of band which has proliferated since they first hit the sets. Savoy Brown copped their riffs in all comradeship, Cactus would be lost without their model, and Foghat would never have existed had Ten Years After not blazed the trail, Alvin hacking away the jungle with a machete that arced up the frets of his guitar light years beyond  “Lightnin´ Hopkins” pocket-knife. They’ve been around, they’ve prospered and endured, and now they can afford to kick back just an ampere or a decibel, cruising on the highway they themselves laid. The audience doesn’t care, because the fire is there often enough, on stage or record. Just like their stage show, their new album “Rock & Roll Music To the World” is just more of the Same Old Shit. “Choo, Choo Mama,” or “You give me lovin´ that I can’t return / Bomp Blam / You give me money that you know I’ll burn…” – but it’s good same old shit, and all the Ten Years After fans, including yours truly, are perfectly satisfied with it. I recall seeing Ten Years After at a West Coast concert back in the summer of 1969, and being highly amused; for a week afterward I went around my job entertaining anybody who would stand still long enough with free vocal imitations of the Ten Years After instrumental sound: “Ah-drnt drnt drnt drnt DUUUUHH, ah-drnt drnt drnt drnt  DUUUUUUHH,” and then of course the solo break: “SKREEEEEEEE-harowlarggblunzzzzawonk!”   What I was too snotty to realize at the time was that music like that may have been obvious and one-dimensional, but was still valid as a concept. Fuck aesthetics – it was still a whole crock of fun. Nobody will ever be able to accuse Ten Years After of taking themselves too seriously.    Up in his hotel suite, Alvin Lee sat back, slouched low on the couch with his feet sprawled on the carpet in front of him and the back of his head hitting the couch at Kilroy level. He looked like a lazy sap but he was a cheerful fellow, gave us some grass (marijuana) which made him even more benevolent and made no bones about where both he and Ten Years After, were at now and were headed. “We’ve gone the whole route, from little clubs to ballrooms to festivals to arenas. When we were in the clubs we’d get fired for being too loud, or earlier for having long hair, or for too many long guitar solos. I always got off on solos, even before it became a sort of fad, and now I guess some people come for that and nothing else.” We asked him how the concert scene looked now in comparison with what he’d seen of it all down the line. “I really wonder,” he said, “why a lot of people come to concerts these days. The places have gotten so big that you lose all contact, and the audiences know what they’re supposed to do. They wait for a trigger. Like tonight, they were waiting for “I’m Going Home,” and the instant it started they were rushing down to the front of the stage. “I would prefer it if the process were more organic, somehow, with everybody getting off on the music to the fullest possible extent, all through the evening, building up to a peak. That’s an ideal situation. When you play one of these big arenas, you never know what the audience is thinking. There’s one out there  that’s listening to the guitar, the next one’s listening to the drums, the next one’s not paying the slightest attention … the next one’s really listening. So like we play for our audience, not to it or at it. There’s a sea of faces, but I see a lot of individuals, and I play for them. I play for the guy who’s sitting there and he’s listening to it just as if he was listening to it through headphones.”    We’re interrupted by the entrance of the group’s manager, who hands Alvin a silver mezuzah coke spoon on a chain, and tells him that it was a gift from a girl outside. “Where is she?” asks Alvin. “She’s gone now.” “Uh-huh. Stop trying to cut me off from Fate.” He’s joking, but in another way he really means it. He looks at the coke spoon. “It’s nice but I wouldn’t wear it anyway. But you should have brought her up.”  Well Alvin, we press on, ever alert for some scum, (dirt) what about drugs? “I don’t know … certainly have nothing to tell anyone else on them, as far as advice goes. I just smoke grass (marijuana) myself, though I might take acid again.” Yeah, we pry, but you guys are supposed to be the big speed-freaks!  “Naww, says Alvin, and launches into a rap that from anyone else, phrased or intoned a whit more intensely, would start to seem pretentious on the usual dreary cosmic levels. He’s such an easy-going, unaffected cat, though, that it comes out as a simple statement of operative policy, philosophy if you like, in his life and his music. “When I go onstage each night I have to have a certain concentration. We’ve done tour after tour and if you don’t know how to handle yourself it can wreck you. I try to keep things building through the set, but sometimes that can get me wound up so tight that my jaws are clenched and I just grind my teeth away. And it’s really hard to unwind from something like that. “But I try to get a certain type of concentration that, if you have it, you can play music or work or do anything you have to do without spending yourself. You can block out the distractions and perform at the peak of your abilities. That’s what I try to do onstage. I’m usually oblivious to what’s going on out front; I have to be. If I’m getting off on it, they will be too. It’s like Baba Ram Dass said: “I perceive nothing but what is essential for me to perceive in the present moment.” He had to go to the Himalayas to find it, and he was a Harvard professor!”    Yeah, we said, but what else would you expect from one of them? Tumbling headlong into a rare non-boring discussion of whether cosmo dudes in the line of Baba R.D. and Leary are or are not worth their weight in shit. Alvin Lee maintained that they were, to at least a limited degree, and said that he had gotten some good advice and hot tips out of Ram Dass´ last book, Be Here Now”. We said that the reason that Dass the Ass’s Himalayan guru didn’t come on to all that acid he gave him was probably because the old fart was too stupid! Alvin said he wouldn’t know about that, so we changed the subject to football, or more precisely the wide world of sports in general: Are you a frustrated athlete? We asked shyly. He pursed his lips, relaxedly swinging the coke spoon in an arc around his head, and considered the question: “Well, no, but I have wondered what it would be like to play professional football. It must be like being an invulnerable bullock.”   Before he’d even consent to let us talk to his charge, Ten Years After’s manager had fixed us with a probingly icy stare and said: You’re not going to ask all those stupid questions like “what kind of guitar strings do you use,” are you?” Sheet no, we said. We’re pros! And since we had comported ourselves in such pro like manner as to keep the interview at a properly lofty  level of intellectual dialogue up till now, we decided it would be even more pro-like and super-cool to say fuck it and make idiots out of ourselves, so we shot from the hip: What kind of guitar strings do you use, Alvino? The next question was going to be, did your parents name you after Alvino Rey?, but he didn’t answer the first one, so we never got around to it. Instead he laughed and said: “It’s really funny, ya know. I could never be the kid who’s screaming out in front of the stage. Not anymore; there’s no way I could ever put myself in his shoes at all. People that wait in line to see you, or shake your hand. But I was just like them once. I remember the first time I met Eric Clapton. I was going to be real cool, not act like I was just some kid. When I wanted more than anything else just to shake his hand. So when I finally met him I blew it, blew my cool entirely. I shook his hand and he looked at me and I started asking him every one of the usual stupid questions. The first thing, the very first thing I asked Eric Clapton was, what kind of guitar strings he used. And now I can’t even remember what he said.”

Ten Years After From Melody Maker 4/21/73 Past: Alvin and Leo were originally part of a Nottingham power trio called the Jaybirds, but TYA with Chick and Ric came to prominence in London as the Psychedelic Era melted into the Blues Boom, around 1967. Alvin was flash and fast, and the lack of character in the rest of the band never mattered. Their appearance at Woodstock, featuring Alvin’s guitar marathon was a turning point on the road to worldwide Sell-out status. Present: These days they seem not to believe in over-working themselves, concentrating on infrequent well planned concert tours and the occasional album. Live appearances rely heavily on old material , and judging by the charts their recent albums don’t appear to have sold fantastically well. Future: It seems doubtful that they can continue much longer with this format—their musical horizons were never considerable, and their abilities limited. Alvin Lee will almost certainly form a new band, which might rejuvenate him, ‘cos he’s always had the makings. Author Unknown

6.

Ten Years After - Alvin Lee

Melody Maker 5/5/73 

Ten Years After, who became one of the super groups of the sixties, culminating their career with a triumphant appearance at the Woodstock Festival, started their career as an 18 a night band at the Marquee. Alvin Lee in New York this week shared the views of many fellow musicians, that without the break the Marquee gave them, it might have been a different TYA story. Says Alvin: “of all the clubs in London in those days, the Marquee was the most important. I remember That Leo (Lyons) got us an audition there, and we were all very scared of John Gee. He was very strict you know. He’d tell all the bands they had to be in the dressing room a quarter of an hour before they were due on. “And He used to time the road managers at work. Many a band never really a stepping stone.

The last time I played there I got to play there again if the  roadies were slack. But we knew John Gee was a jazz fan so we did a quickly improvised version of  “Woodchoppers Ball” and we got a gig. A lot of bands used to say they were big fans of Frank Sinatra to get in. “Our first gig there was an interval spot for half an hour, and we had to follow the Bonzo Dog Band. The stage was literally smothered in blue smoke from their explosions , and we had to go and play. But we managed to build a small following among the blues freaks and got a residency in 1966.

We did a Christmas show when we went down the queue outside playing banjos. We got a quid in the hat, and some people even crossed the road to give us money. They thought we were genuine buskers.”“They were a very attentive audience at the Marquee and they didn’t clap a lot. Some musicians didn’t like that, and it wasn’t until later the audiences started going wild. I was quite in awe of that place. I remember going to see groups there before we started. People like Peter Green with John Mayall, and a gig there was passed out on stage, through lack of oxygen. It was during the last number and I completely blacked out. They had to rush me to hospital. It was about three years ago, and the size of the audience was beginning to get uncomfortable.

“But I still like the feel of playing in a sweaty club. The sound is so much better and you get more interaction with the audience, instead of just being a performer upon the stage. “I don’t see why we couldn’t play there again, but it might be a disappointment, as we are more in tune with big concerts now. I’d like to have a jam there. you know, I always used to get nervous playing the Marquee. I only lived three miles away from the club but but it seemed a very important gig. I can play to 20,000 people in New York and it doesn’t worry me at all.”

Did Ten Years After ever contribute to the famed graffiti wall in the dressing room? “I’m sure we wrote something, I can’t remember. But my girl friend told me they had my name written on the wall in the ladies. So that was some kind of status symbol!”  

Author Unknown  

TEN YEARS AFTER
“Rock & Roll Music to the World”, nennen Ten Years After ihre jüngste L.P. Sie ist ihre siebte und erfolgreichste. Auf ihr rocken die vier Engländer hart und heiss und ohne Schnörkel. Seit drei Jahren spielen Ten Years After Rock ´n´Roll. Damit füllen sie die grössten Hallen dieser Welt, damit sind sie auf der Bühne die strahlenden Stars. In Frankfurt erzählte Ten Years After – Boss Alvin Lee BRAVO die Geschichte der britischen Gruppe, die eigentlich im Sommer 1966 im Hamburger „Star Club“ begann...

TEN YEARS AFTER:
Anfangs pfiffen uns die Rock – Fans aus

Vor sieben Jahren sah Deutschland für uns noch ganz anders aus, “erzählt Ten Years After – Sänger und Sologitarrist Alvin Lee.“ Da feierten uns keine 6,000 Fans –so, wie heute abend.“
Jetzt, sieben Jahre später, strahlt Alvin Lee über das ganze Gesicht. Gemütlich sitzt er bei „Karrenberg“, einem exklusiven Speiserestaurant in der Frankfurter Innenstadt. Genugtuung über endlich Erreichtes strahlt aus seinen Augen. „Damals, 1966, nannten wir uns noch „Jaybirds“ und spielten in Hamburg – im Star-Club. Der sollte für uns das Tor zum Ruhm werden. So wie er es für die Beatles war. Dachten wir. Stundenlang schufteten wir wie die Wahnsinnigen, spielten Blues und viel reinen Jazz. Doch der Erfolg blieb aus. Zumindest waren wir davon überzeugt, wenn wir nach der Vorstellung die kahlen und feuchten Wände unseres Zimmers sahen. Die Rocker hatten uns im „Star Club“ zuvor regelmässig ausgepfiffen. Glücklicherweise waren im Star-Club auch immer ein paar Studenten, bei denen unsere Musik ankam und die uns Mut machten. Aber davon wurden wir nicht satt.

Leo spielte Filmstatist

Darum nahm unser Bassist Leo Lyons noch Statistenrollen in Filmen an, die gerade in Hamburg order in der Lüneburger Heide gedreht wurden“.
Fast ein halbes Jahr blieben Ten Years After in Hamburg. Einen Sommer lang traten sie dort auf. Doch als sie in ihre englische Heimatstadt Nottingham zurückkehren wollten, trennte sich Sologitarrist John Kelly von seinen Freunden. Er wollte einfach lieber in Hamburg bleiben.
„Wir aber brauchten unbedingt einen neuen, vierten Mann. Allerdings hatten wir in Hamburg so viel gelernt, dass wir nur einen Organisten suchten. Damit hätten wir musikalisch mehr Möglichkeiten. Anfang 1967 fanden wir ihn – Chick Churchill. Kollegen priesen ihn als Wunderkind. Aber Chick besass keine Orgel und wir kein Geld, um ihm eine zu kaufen.

Damit keine andere Gruppe uns Chick vor der Nase wegschnappte, verpflichteten wir ihn erst mal als Roadie.“ Chick nahm an, schleppte die paar Verstärker der Gruppe, während Alvin Lee den Bandbus fuhr und Leo Lyons sich als Manager um neue Jobs kümmerte. Alvin „Das ging plötzlich besser als erwartet. Wir bekamen Auftritte im Londoner Marquee und im Roundhouse. Außerdem behaupteten die Clubbesitzer auch nicht mehr, wir würden mit unserer Musik alle Gäste vergraulen, obwohl wir immer noch Blues und reinen Jazz spielten. Hamburg hatte uns doch etwas Glück gebracht.
“Der entscheidende Durchbruch aber gelang Ten Years After beim“ 7. National Jazz-und Bluesfestival“ in Windsor. „20.000 Leute feierten uns, und die Zeitungen schrieben Lobeshymnen wie über keine andere Gruppe. Das brachte uns einen Plattenvertrag ein, den wir dann im Juli 1967 unterschrieben.“

Neuer Name und alte Musik

Schon einen Monat später erschien die erste LP: „Ten Years After“. „Den Namen fand Leo Lyons beim Blättern im Rundfunkprogramm.  „Ten Years After“ (Zehn Jahre danach) war eine damals sehr beliebte Sendung. Uns gefiel der Name sofort. Allerdings hatte er für uns keine besondere Bedeutung“.
Mit dem Namen wechselten die vier aber nicht ihre Musikrichtung. Bis 1969 blieben sie dem Blues treu. Ihre nächsten LPs „Undead“ (August 1968), „Stonedhenge“ (März 1969) und „Ssssh“ (August 1969) wurden langsam immer rockiger. „Trotzdem hatten wir damit nur bei Jazzern und Undergroundfans Erfolg. Geld verdienten wir immer noch wenig“.

Woodstock – das war die Wende

Das kam erst nach dem schon legendären Auftritt am 16. August 1969 beim Woodstock-Festival. “Neun Minuten und 20 Sekunden genügten – und wir waren weltberühmt. So lange nämlich spielten wir unseren Rocktitel „I’m going Home“. Plötzlich hatten wir Fans in der ganzen Welt und füllten bei Konzerten die grössten Hallen. Aber die wenigsten Leute wissen heute noch, dass wir einmal begeisterte Jazzer waren. Wenn wir unsere alten Songs spielen, wundern sich viele, dass eine Rockgruppe auch jazzen kann“.
Seit Woodstock wurden Ten Years After immer härter. Ihre LPs „Cricklewood Green“ (1970), „A Space in Time“ (1971) und die letzte LP „Rock & Roll Music to the World“ begeisterten immer mehr Rockfans. „Jetzt spielen wir fast nur noch reinen, harten Rock. Nur wer genau hinhört, kann noch leichte Jazz- und Bluesanklänge entdecken.

K. E. Siegfried
   

7.

Melody Maker 6/23/73

When does a band become a jukebox? And when does it cease to be a creative musical force? These are the questions that have been worrying Alvin Lee. But it does not necessarily signify an end to Ten Years After,  the band born of the British blues boom that became one of our most popular rock exports to America. Ten Years After are still alive and well and touring the world, despite growing press criticism and an apparent  inability to progress. There are progressive bands in this world, and those destined to rock on. TYA are one of the latter.  But they intend to fight off stagnation , and a serious reappraisal of their entire structure is underway.  

  LOYAL: While some claim that Ten Years After are ten years out of date, they can still command a happy and loyal following in the countries they visited in the early part of this year, which for the record included Europe, England, America, and Japan. They could probably afford to carry on regardless, playing the same tunes and completing their twentieth (it’s a fact), tour of the States. But as Alvin explained to me this week besides his sun drenched swimming pool, on the borders of a manor house, parts of which date back to the 15^th century:  “There’s a million things I want to do.” Alvin has just completed three lengths under water, without coming up for air, when I arrived, and was catching his breath.

  PALLOR: Health-giving fruit juice arrived and the pallor of a thousand night clubs and dressing rooms was dispersed amidst this earthly paradise. “ The last tour was a good one,” said Alvin, idly spotting newts in the nearby rock pool. “It was like going to the States a couple of years ago. We played a lot of smaller towns and the audiences were just that bit keener which was nice. “ We did a few gigs with the Strawbs and they were doing very well, and getting good reactions. I was really surprised when they split up. “ English bands still have a good name in the States and I suppose the reason is they have to get good in England before they can go across. “it’s funny, but there are a lot of American bands being influenced by us, and you hear guys singing with English  accents. We took our influences from America, and now they are taking them from us. “But I don’t see anything apart from that happening. There’s nothing happening in New York except a trend towards country music. “And the radio stations seem to be changing their policy. It used to be the FM stations played underground music and AM played pop. Now the underground has turned into contemporary pop which AM  plays, while FM seems to be going for easy listening and classical.” Alvin recalled that one of the highlights of their last US tour was a concert for 10,000 fans at a resort called Big Surf in Arizona. As the State is many miles from the coast, they have built their own sea—a man made lock, with a hydraulic machine to create six foot waves. “The lake is about a mile long and has its own beach and surfing. At the end of the gig, the audience jumped into the lake!”  

  But what is the future of TYA, I asked, attempting to spot the newt that Alvin was spotting. “We had planned to take three months rest, but there are no future tours planned as yet. It’s the first time we have ever sat back. The rest of the group is scattered on holiday all around the world. “For some time I’ve had the feeling that we had started to turn into the old travelling juke box again. We do have a new live album due out, which was recorded in Frankfurt, Paris, Rotterdam and Amsterdam on the Rolling Stones mobile, featuring most of the best numbers we do live. “It’s an answer to the bootleg albums that have been issued. We’ll also be doing one of the Alexandra Palace concerts.’’ ‘I’m busy building my own studio, and there will be a lot of recording projects there including Ten Years After. “But we’ve got to wait and see what happens. We’ve become directionless musically. The music we play, we play naturally, and we play what we like. It’s been relatively successful. “But we’ve got to find something to get our teeth into. We want to do more rehearsals and arrange more music to carry us forward. “There are things I want to do on my own as well. Next month Felix Pappalardi is coming   to stay with me and Mylon and Alan Toussaint.  We’ll be recording an album in my own studio, and it’s going to be very heavy. “Allan has been doing production, but he’s a piano player and wants to get back into playing. Felix will come a bit later to play bass, and Ian Wallace will be on drums. “We’ll also be doing a thing with Ian and his sidekick Boz. They have a funky rhythm section going and the idea is to do an English Muscle Shoals.

  “We’ll make an LP with myself, Boz, Ian and Mel Collins, who is an excellent musician and a good arranger.  “I’m learning a lot by working with guys like Mel. In Ten Years After we all listen to similar people. “These blokes are laying records on me by people I’ve never heard before. My style is broadening a lot and it’s been very beneficial. “The advantages of working with the same people for years is that you can feel what each other is doing. But after a while you can get into a rut.”  

  Are the rest of TYA happy at Alvin’s involvement with other musicians? “Oh yeah. The thing is, I want to remain active, and to learn more. TYA will pull through and anyway, the others have different projects too. At this stage, we just need to rehearse.” What was the alternative? “The alternative was nothing. We could carry on touring, but the music would suffer and we need fresh ideas. “I’ve been listening to bands like Focus and the Mahavishnu Orchestra,  and I don’t want to be a dated musician. I want to stay with what’s happening. “I’m forming my own production company to release the albums we’ll   be doing here, and we’ve got all the facilities and freedom to do so many different things. “I could go on touring, but that’s time consuming and my real ambition is to find a new music altogether, something that  nobody has touched upon. “I have all the facilities, so there is no excuse for me not to do something amazing. That’s what I keep telling myself anyway. I’ve got to shame myself into doing things!”  

  BARN: Alvin’s studio is situated in a converted barn and is so huge that it dwarfs many top London studios. Equipped with a 16 track machine, it has the further sophistication of a remote control unit, which will enable Alvin to record himself from the studio floor, without having to climb the stairs to the control room. Ancient beams support the roof, hundreds of years old, now being sealed off with soundproofing material which Alvin  and friends put up themselves. But the bulk of the work is being done by contractors and the courtyard of the manor currently resembles a building site. The manor, with its indoor tennis court (once a milking shed), swimming pool, sauna, cattle pens, duck ponds, greenhouses, and acres of surrounding countryside, was once the home of millionaire Charles Clore. It’s expensive to keep up, even for a successful rock idol. And collecting the water rates from local cottages won’t be any subsidy. It depends on whether Alvin can make his ambitious studio project earn some returns, before he can be assured a permanent home.  

  DESK: “We started work on the studio about six months ago, and the desk was built by Dick Swettenham  who built Olympic Studios’ which is reckoned to be the best. He’s a genius, and the new one is really space age. “We’ll start sessions with Mylon in July, but up to 3:30 last night, we were still putting up soundproofing.  “Ten Years After have made eight LP’s and the money we spent in studio time we could have bought our own one. “This will eventually be the best studio in the world. We’ll run it on a private basis, but it will be nice to get some good selling LP’s out. “Essential in fact, or I’ll be moving sooner than I want.”

Author Unknown   

Recorded Live  - Ten Years After

Chrysalis (VK 41049 / DIDX 4148)

Recorded in 1973 in various European locations, this album was originally on two LP's and now makes it onto one midline 72 minute CD. That's a great bargain, especially when you consider that the sound quality is pretty damn good (not as radiant as you'd hope for, but pretty damn good). Unfortunately, it's a rather dull album - was then, still is. By 1973 Ten Years After had surpassed their performing peak, and the group had long ago become little more than a showcase for guitarist Alvin Lee's excesses, borne out here by two eleven minute - plus tracks and one sixteen minute take on Al Kooper's "I Can't Keep From Crying." That Lee was a dynamic flash guitarist isn't in question, but that his flashes don't quite work anymore is also true. Ten Years After initially released this as a response to bootlegs proliferating at the time, and one supposes it served its purpose then. Today, you'd have to be a true loyalist to sit through all seventy two minutes without a break or three. Note: This article was written on 1/12/83 upon the release of Recorded Live onto CD format for the very first time. The American CD version says that due to time limitations of the CD the song "Hobbit" had to be left off of the finished product…while on the European release the entire recording is intact - including "Hobbit".

Album Note: This album is a truthful recording of Ten Years After with no overdubs or additives. What you hear is what happened on the night. Recorded over four nights in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Frankfurt and Paris with the Rolling Stones mobile recording truck and later mixed from sixteen track to stereo at Olympic Studios in London. In answer to the inferior live recordings sold illegally, this is the official Ten Years After bootleg.

Produced by Ten Years After CD Preparation: Rhonda Shoen, Sterling Sound, New York

Ten Years After: Live 2 LP Set Nadat ik de besprekingen over de lp's "Ten Years After Recorded Live" had gelezen heb ik de pen ter hand genomen. Ik ben niet zo weg van Ten Years After, omdat ik niet zo van die Ellenlange gitaarsolo's hou, maar ik heb toch de moeite genomen om deze platen te beluisteren. Met als resultaat dat ik hem meteen kocht.Wat re op deze lp's staat is het summum. Er staan prachtige nummers op zoals het nummer: "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" en de prachtige drumsolo "Hobbit" van Ric Lee. Bij het nummer "Help Me" zit een geweldig ritme. En dan het nummer "I Can't Keep From Cryin´Sometimes" wat heel mooi is met die bass-solo. En "I'm Going Home" hoef ik niet eens te bespreken, want iedere popliefhebber weet dat dit een geweldig numer is. En ze hadden geen mooier afsluitingnummer kunnen geven als "Choo-Choo Mama". Deze dubbel elpee had makkelijk 5 sterren kunnen halen. Ik heb maar van 1 ding spijt en dat is dat ik hun optreden in Amsterdam of Rotterdam gemist heb. En ik zal die andere lp's van "Ten Years After" eens goed gaan beluisteren.

Afz. J. Tijsse Troelstrastraat 7 Breda P.S. Een recensie schrijven is toch moeilijker dan ik dacht.

Ten Years After - Recorded Live July 17, 1973 - The Boston Phoenix Newspaper This Album is long overdue. Most of the stars of Woodstock followed through right away with live albums. But Ten Years After held back - till now. Here are dazzling live performances of songs from the first Ten Years After album to the most recent. Recorded in front of rock and rollers in Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam in Lee-o-phonic sound. $4.99 LP - $6.99 Tape

EXKLUSIV BRAVO INTERVIEW
September 20, 1973 - NR. 39

Blass ausgepumpt, mit den Nerven am Ende erklärte Alvin Lee Anfang 1973 bei der letzten Europa - Tournee: "Wir haben die Nasse voll. Fünf Jahre sind genug. Ten Years After wird es in Zukunft nicht mehr geben". Mit diesen drei knappen Sätzen hatte der wortkarge Alvin Lee völlig überraschend das Ende der explosivsten Blues Rock Band der Welt verkündet.
Der Schock war perfekt. Bereits geplante Konzerte wurden kurzfristig abgesagt. Die Band zerstreute sich in alle Winde. Alvin Lee verkroch sich in sein eigenes Studio in Reading bei London, Organist Chick Churchill bastelte an einer Solo-Platte, Bassist Leo Lyons und Schlagzeuger Ric Lee tauchten völlig unter. Man hatte sich Goodbye gesagt.

Sechs Monate später. Londoner Rock - Festival 1973 im riesigen Alexandra Palace von den Fans liebevoll "Ally Pally" genannt. In der engen Garderobe warten Ten Years After auf ihren Auftritt. Kurzfristig hatten Alvin Lee & Company ihren Namen auf die Plakate setzen lassen. Ein Abschiedskonzert? Ein letzter Gag?

Im Alexandra Palace herrscht nervöse Spannung wie vor einem Boxkampf. Auch hinter der Bühne. Kaum ein Wort fällt als Alvin Lee und Leo Lyons ihre Gitarren stimmen. Sie sind nervös. Niemand ahnt, was hinter ihren starren , konzentrierten Mienen vorgeht. Nur Ric Lee ist die Ruhe selbst. Hingebungsvoll umwickelt er sein Trommelstöcke mit rotem Klebestreifen, damit sie beim Auftritt nicht so leicht brechen, Dann ist es soweit.

Ein frenetischer Jubelschrei, als Alvin Lee auf die Bühne springt, etwas unsicher lächelt. Ein Meer von Händen reckt sich ihm entgegen. Die 10,000 Fans kreischen so laut, dass Ten Years After gar nicht anfangen können. Alvin Lee klatscht den Takt vor, bis die ganze Halle mitmacht. Dann steigt er mit " Rock n´ Roll Music To The World" ein. Ein hämmernder Rock Orkan fegt von der Bühne. Ten Years After spielen nicht nur Rock, sie zelebrieren ihn. Alvin Lees Finger huschen so schnell über die Gitarre, dass man zehn Hände auf einmal zu sehen glaubt. Faszinierend sein Gesicht. Zu jedem Ton eine neue Grimasse. Völlig mitgerissen von seiner eigenen Musik spitzt er die Lippen, bläst die Backen auf, schüttelt seine blonde Mähne.

Leo Lyons scheint wie bei jedem Auftritt unter Strom zu stehen. Er schüttelt seinen Körper immer wilder. Schneller noch als die ekstatischen Bassläufe, die er seinem Instrument entlockt. Chick Churchill scheint auf der Orgel Alvin Lee an Schnelligkeit noch übertreffen zu wollen, Im Hintergrund, nur von einem matten Spotlight beleuchtet, wütet er auf den Tasten, treibt den Sound noch mehr an.
Wie in alten Zeiten thront Ric Lee grinsend auf seinem Podest und tritt die Basstrommel, dass man es in der Magengrube spürt. Nach, "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" und "Sunshine of Your Love" stampft ganz "Ally Pally" mit. Und dann kommt der Song, der Ten Years After in 9 Minuten und 20 Sekunden berühmt gemacht hat. Damals, bei ihrem Auftritt zum legendären Woodstock-Rockfestival. Der Song den Ten Years After seitdem bei jedem Konzert spielen mussten, der ihre Visitenkarte wurde: "I'm Going Home". Heute will es Alvin Lee wissen. Er streichelt und peitscht seine Gitarre, stampft, klatscht, schreit, haucht. Immer schneller, ohne Ende. Zehn, zwanzig, dreißig Minuten lang. Dann ein donnernder Schlussakkord.

Ausgepumpt wie 100-Meter-Läufer lehnen Alvin, Leo, Ric und Chick an ihren Verstäkerboxen, als der Beifall auf sie niederprasselt. Jubel für eine Band, die es eigentlich nicht mehr geben sollte. Jubel, der für Ten Years After an diesem Abend mehr bedeutet als Beifall, Applaus.
In der Garderobe knallen wenige Minuten später die Champagnerkorken. Spaßmacher Ric lässt ganze Fontänen durch den Raum sprühen. Ich weiß nicht so recht, was hier eigentlich passiert. Bis Alvin Lee sein Schweigen bricht. Plötzlich packt er aus, sagt, was es mit diesem Konzert eigentlich auf sich hatte...
"Dieser Auftritt entschied über die Zukunft von Ten Years After,
Eigentlich war unsere Trennung schon besiegelt" , sagt Alvin Lee, "kein Wunder, wenn man wie wir seit fünf Jahren fast täglich auf der Bühne steht. Da kommt man sich plötzlich vor wie eine Musicbox, die jeden Abend dieselbe Platte spielt. Und das ist tödlich für jeden Musiker. Deshalb wollten wir nach unserer letzten Live - Album Schluss machen, unsere eigenen Wege gehen. Ein halbes Jahr ging das gut. Dann juckte es uns wieder in den Fingern. Wir trafen uns bei mir zu einigen Sessions. Und dann beschlossen wir, dieses Konzert zu geben.
Wir wollten sehen, ob diese Musik uns und unseren Fans noch Spaß macht. Allein davon machten wir unsere Entscheidung abhängig..."

Ten Years After wird es also auch in Zukunft geben?
"Wir machen weiter", erklärt Alvin Lee, "etwas anders allerdings als zuvor. Wir werden nicht mehr so viele Live-Konzerte geben, weniger Platten zusammen produzieren. Jeder soll die Freiheit haben, seine eigenen lnteressen zu verwirklichen. Ich beispielsweise mache zur Zeit eine Platte mit dem Gospelsänger Mylon Lefevre.
Chick hat ähnliches vor. Trotzdem werden wir jeden Monat mindestens ein Konzert geben. Denn während unserer Funkstille haben wir gemerkt, dass wir auf die Atmosphäre von Live-Auftritten, auf die Feuerprobe vor den Fans, nicht verzichten können..."

Written by - Gerald Büchelmaier
Fotos by - D.Zill

 8.

New Music Express 10/73

Ten Years After - Alvin Lee, Leo Lyons, Ric Lee, Chick Churchill

Alvin Lee and Leo Lyons met in home-town Nottingham, played together in Hamburg before being joined by  Ric Lee (no relation) to form Jaybirds. Chick Churchill added later and name changed to Ten Years After. Emerged as one of top bands of second wave British blues boom (1966) although drawing on “rock”. More heavily than  “authentic” contemporaries like Fleetwood Mac, Chicken Shack. Led to Marquee Residency and spot on Windsor Blues Festival which drew standing ovation.

By then had established style that they’ve stuck close to ever since , basically blue-based and fronted by the speedy highly taut and accomplished guitar style of Alvin Lee. After initial success in Britain, made impact in Europe and States with release of Undead and Stonedhenge, The quintessential eary TYA albums. Both in writing and playing, Alvin Lee came more to the fore, being elevated  to super-star status after band’s appearance at Woodstock Festival in 1968. Their Goin’ Home tour de-force proved one of most exciting sequences in subsequent movie. After extensive touring, took time off in 71 / 72 to cure “Woodstock Hangover” and to make “A Space In Time” an attempt at more than a straight rock record. TYA utilised electronic effects and a quieter approach. The Album was partially successful.

In last few years critics have suggested TYA are in a rut, but band still prove a strong live attraction, Undead (1968) and Recorded Live (1973) give support to the view that  they’re often better on stage than in studio. Went off the road for six months through summer ’73, working on solo projects. Alvin Lee has recorded album with Gospel singer Mylon; Chick Churchill also has solo LP upcoming.  

TYA have distinction of undertaking more U.S. tours than any other British band.

Author Unknown 

Disc Magazine  11/24/73    

Alvin Lee and Mylon LeFevre -   On The Road To Freedom   (Chrysalis CHR 1054)    

Alvin has talked about working with Mylon for years now. They met up in America a long time ago, and have had a mutual admiration society ever since. Now, besides doing this album they have recorded an NBC “Midnight Special” at Biba’s with much the same line up. The album overall, have a lot of the feel of George Harrison’s solo things - that sadness that comes from a minor key Guitar, blues and lonely country feel - indeed Harrison’s is on there. Nice work from Alvin; admirable session work from Jim Capaldi, Stevie Winwood, Rebop, Tim Hinckley, Ron Wood, Mick Fleetwood ect.    

Average Album –Rating Three Stars  

Review  by CB