This Photo From Musik Express Magazine 1969             New  Musical  Express  January  11, 1969   New  Musical  Express  January  11, 1969 17 January 1969 - at the Royal Albert Hall     From   Melody  Maker  January  25, 1969 July 4 and 5 1969 - Newport Jazz Festival, Rhode Island  "Ten Years After this week became the first British blues or pop group to be invited to the world's top festival, the Newport Jazz Festival". They are also to play two American concerts with the Woody Herman Orchestra during their fourth Stateside trip in July. The concerts arranged by Fillmore promoter Bill Graham will be in New York and San Francisco and the New York  show will probably be at the famed Carnegie Hall. Ten Years After's next American tour starts at the end of February. Their third album, "Stonehenge"  will be released by Deram on February 7th.  Ten Years After perform - "I May Be Wrong But I Won't Be Wrong Always" - "Good Morning Little School Girl" and "Help Me". They appear on the same night as Jeff Beck, Jethro Tull, Roland Kirk, Steve Marcus and Blood Sweat and Tears. It is the only time that rock bands are invited to play at this event.  Alvin Lee: "We started the tour at Newport, which didn't really work out - to say the least. Shall we say sometimes you get those days when you shouldn't have got up, and that was one of them. We could not find the dressing room, the amps broke down and the P.A. system was crummy. We did three numbers and the guy who was worried about the fences came on after the third number and he said there would now be a fifteen minute intermission, and we had only just warmed up.....can't win them all !!"       Melody Maker – February 1, 1969 Getting Into A Jam With Woody  There will no doubt be cries of “Sacrilege!” up thrown hands and heads shaken in despair from some sections of the jazz fraternity at the news of Ten Years After invitation to play at the renowned Newport Jazz Festival in America this year. And they probably reacted in the same way when Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters were invited in previous years. But it proves that the Newport Jazz Festival organizers are aware and open-minded enough to accept that a certain area of the group scene is reflecting a jazz influence more strongly than it has ever done and that Ten Years After, who have made a huge impression in the States, are a good example. What could be an awe-inspiring occasion for some groups, doesn’t appear so judging by the confidence of drummer Ric Lee and bass guitarist Leo Lyons. “We’re not really worried,” said Leo, when I met him and Ric last week. “It’s a challenge if nothing else. When I heard about it , I said “Oh really, how much are we getting?”  he added with mock nonchalance. “We weren’t surprised when we heard aboit it. We knew there were whispers that it might happen and the next thing we knew, we were reading about it on the front page of Melody Maker,” said Ric. “It’ll give us a chance to see all those jazz blokes”. Would the group be preparing anything special for their Newport appearance in July? “No, we’ll be doing the same sort of thing we’re doing already,” replied Leo. “But we are rehearsing a new act before we go to the States,” said Ric. ”It’ll be more interesting to see what they say after we’ve done it,” reckoned Leo.  “I think one of the main reasons we’re going is because of the gigs we’ve done in New York and the help we’ve had from Billboard magazine.” Another significant  factor concerning Ten Years After’s moving into the jazz field is that Woody Herman has agreed to play two dates in concert with the group. They will be in New York and San Francisco. The Herman band and Ten Years After will each play a set and then both will get together for a jam session. “Woody’s a progressive musician, even though he’s been around a long time,” said Leo, “but he always has good musicians. We’ll probably play “Woodchoppers Ball” and a few standards.” Said Ric, “I just hope his blokes can play as fast as we do. I’m only joking, I don’t think that will be any problem. We’ll just play our own versions and  jam away.” Ten Years After aren’t the first group to play a jazz festival. Brian Auger, Julie Driscoll and the Trinity appeared at the Berlin Jazz Festival last year, but Ten Years After have made the big breakthrough with the Newport invite and the Herman band dates. “Pop and jazz are getting much closer together now,” opined Ric. “The jamming scene is like the earlier jazz days”. “It’s becoming respectable,” said Leo. “People like Leonard Bernstein talk about the Cream and when people like him talk about it, it does mean it’s being taken more seriously. “Newport will open up the way for other groups. I quite enjoy it if you get yourself a more ambitious task. It makes playing more interesting”. Article by Tony Wilson     New  Musical  Express February 1, 1969   Record  Mirror  February 1, 1969  -  click picture for the PDF file Tricks of the Recording Studio on New Ten Years After L.P. Chick Churchill, organist with Ten Years After, devoured a chicken sandwich and explained: “We’ve been working very hard lately and now that we’re back in England I’ve been eating and eating, but I can’t put on any weight ! Ten Years After have been busy recording their L.P. “Stoned Henge, which is released on February 7th.: “The release date had to be put back,” said Chick, “We’ve had difficulty getting the L.P. sleeve as we want it. We saw a fantastic picture in an AA book. It was taken at Stonehenge on mid-summer-day, the only day when a beam of light shines straight on the sacrificial alter ! Unfortunately, we had to pay five pounds per L.P. cover if we used it, so we scrapped that idea ! The L.P. is now going out in the States with a different picture of Stonehenge, with our faces super-imposed. We’re still working on the British cover though. “On this L.P.” continued Chick, “there were some strange little things. Six of the tracks last approximately five minutes each. On four other tracks, Alvin, Leo, Ric and I play solo, but the numbers are only about a minute long. We use the tricks of the recording studio on them, but that’s the only time we do. I asked Chick, if he felt that the long L.P. tracks might become rather repetitive, without the visual medium of a club. “Will, if that’s so, there must be 80,000 bored people in America !” Laughed Chick. “I think that when the numbers are longer you can become more involved in them. That’s really why we’re more involved in them. That’s really why we’re not over worried about singles, the charts are in such a state anyway, that I don’t think it would be representative of anything to have a chart entry”. Ten Years After have become noted in clubs for their long instrumental numbers, and more recently – Love Sculpture have also been praised for their instrumental ability. I asked Chick if he felt the two groups had a common influence: “I’ve not yet seen the group live on stage, but I don’t really like “Sabre Dance”. It reminds me of a present day Shadows, and I’d expect to see them doing those little dance steps! The only music I really like is jazz-people, like Thelonius Monk and Jimmy McGriff. Family are really great, they’re my “fave-rave” group! I like some West Coast groups, including – Big Brother and Moby Grape, West Coast is exciting music, though it’s not technically good”. Chick Churchill’s main hobbies in life circulate around music and girlfriends. He can often be found at the Speakeasy when Ten Years After are in town:  “I go to the Speakeasy most nights” says Chick. “One evening there, I joined in a terrific jam session with Aynsley Dunbar, his bass player, Long John Baldry, Tony Ashton and Roger Chapman. We played till quarter to five in the morning – and most of the audience stayed. We all really enjoyed it! During moments of relaxation, Chick also likes to write lyrics, and he hopes to buy a stereo tape recorder, so that he can record the music as well. Ten Years After, however, will soon be leaving Britain again on a nine day tour of Scandinavia. “I’m looking forward to that,” said Chick, “It will be our fourth visit and it’s going to be a concert tour. That’s much better than playing ballrooms. In ballrooms, you get the crowd saying, “Can’t you play Knock on Wood?” Then we reply, “Surely you know, sir, there’s a blues boom on” !  After their Scandinavian Tour, Ten Years After return to America on February 26th. Before you go, just one last question Chick. How did the name Ten Years After originate? “Well, there was no real significance in mind, when we got the name. It could mean, Ten Years After the present day, which would be 1970, or Ten Years After 1959, which would be today! Let them work that one out”.  Chick laughed before disappearing!  By Valerie Mabbs       Record  Mirror  February  8, 1969   The Album Charts At Number 6 in the UK “Stonedhenge was the first experimental album, and also the influence of the West Coast, San Francisco thing – strange sound effects and oddities going on”. Alvin Lee   Ten Years After – Stonedhenge – Review Another “ADRM” London release, this is far removed from the speedy boogie with which Ten Years After and guitarist Alvin Lee are normally associated. That facet of the band’s talents does surface on “Hear Me Calling” and “Going To Try” but the rest of the album is much more eclectic. Each musician is allowed a minute or so of solo weirdness, with Ric Lee’s transformation of  “Three Blind Mice” into a drum solo, the strangest. And there are a couple of cool blues songs which are remarkably restrained when compared to the rest of the band’s output. The sound isn’t as sharp as some London offerings, but certainly isn’t anything to complain about either.       New  Musical  Express  February 15, 1969 New  Musical  Express  February 15, 1969         Was  Stonedhenge “Filler” or was that “Experimental” ? The reasoning behind „Stonedhenge“ was to show what Ten Years After, as a hard working stage band could do in a controlled studio setting. According to Alvin Lee, this album wasn’t particularly what we wanted to do, but the way we did what we happened to do…I still don’t know if this really worked, all I do know is, it kept the wolf from the door and made us some bread. This enabled us to pay the cost of hiring our own studio, and being more free than ever before while recording.     Colour Me Pop Ten Years After – Caravan – Family all made appearances on “Colour Me Pop", March 1, 1969 but none of the performances survive today. The BBC got a lot of viewer complaints, so the powers that be enforced an “Underground Embargo”  which may have been the reason why the show was cancelled soon there-after. Ten Years After performed: A Sad Song – No Title - I’m Going Home – bootleg audio exist. It was broadcast on Saturday March 1, 1969 – from 11:05 – 11:25           Ten Years After at the "Toronto Electric Circus" Sunday, March 2, 1969               FILLMORE EAST - Wednesday and Thursday, 9 + 10 April TEN YEARS AFTER, THE NICE, THE FAMILY and THE JOSHUA LIGHT SHOW     Fillmore West All  four members  on  stage  at  the  Fillmore East  1969 A great photo of Leo Lyons Backstage at the Fillmore East 1969 Chick Churchill     New  Musical  Express  March  8, 1969 click picture for the PDF file   New  Musical  Express  March  8, 1969 Hit Album Different From Live Shows – Say Ten Years After By Richard Green – For New Musical Express – March  8, 1969  Ten minutes after – Ten Years After had gone off stage, a thousand – strong crowd of Swedish fans were still on their feet stamping, clapping and yelling for more. This was my first impression to the group that looks like developing into a major force this year and already has its first album in the L.P. chart.  Braving the bitter cold of a Gothenburg night, I left the warmth of Ten Years After’s hotel to see them in action before a full concert hall. What I was to see dispersed for all time my slight feeling of cynicism about all the eulogies I had heard directed towards them. They over-ran by about twenty minutes, or so, on each forty five minute set, and came off stage wringing wet and exhausted – especially drummer Ric Lee, who had delivered a fantastic twenty minute solo of “Summertime”.  SURPRISED: I was pleasantly surprised to learn that is more to the group than seeing how fast Alvin Lee can play his lead guitar. Back in London, I invited Ric to come along for a drink and talk about the group’s new album “Stonedhenge”, which entered the chart last week. “It’s a complete trip on its own”. He began. “It’s an album of numbers that we put on a record as opposed to numbers we do on stage. Each track is individual  and people have said they like it, because each track is so different”. Thus, “Stonedhenge” in not typical of what Ten Years After do on stage and people like myself, who had previously only witnessed a “Live” performance are surprised when hearing the album. “Keeping the two things separate helps you to show your paces and widen your audience”. Ric explained. “The first album was a display to get over to people, the second was done in a rush and “Live”.  This one, was taken more slowly.  INNER SELF: “It’s Alvin’s inner self and we’ve come into it. We all worked on the arrangements and contributed bits. We started recording it before we went to the States in July and finished it sometime in August”. Ric pointed out: That Ten Years After are trying to lose their blues tag, and to this end have rehearsed a new act for their American Tour, which began last Friday. “There’s a lot of stuff on the album we can’t do on stage,” he went on. “I hope we haven’t gone over people’s heads. A lot of our numbers start, then develop into a jam-session and people throw in ideas”. For example, “Sometimes I Can’t Keep From Crying” once started off as a five minute thing, and ended up as a twenty minute set. We always end up playing longer than we’re due to do”. In the two years of its formation, the group has, according to Ric, become less mild in its musical attitudes. “There’s a lot more freedom now, but a lot more affinity with one another. Alvin’s only got to drop the hint of a riff and we’re off”! As one of the fast rising groups, Ten Years After have noticed a change in the way bands are playing. “The majority of up and coming groups, are more concerned with something to say”. Ric commented. “People didn’t use to think like that, they used to put this bit and that with the formula. “It’s sad that some groups used to do that, get a hit and disappear from the face of the earth”.  HIT SINGLE: How about a hit single for Ten Years After, who are essentially an album group! “A hit would be nice,” Ric agreed. “It wouldn’t make much difference to us-money-wise, but it would establish us as a national name rather than an underground group”. Then, he left to rehearse the new act, in preparation for two long American Tours within the space of a few months. Ric is quite pleased about the visits, but Pete Townshend, who was sitting with us, just shook his head and muttered, OH MY GOD”!     Ten Years After – Seattle, Washington – Live At Eagles Auditorium March 22, 1969 – Audience Recording For those of you who feel that the blues ended with Eric Clapton, you’ll be very surprised at how good Alvin Lee is. He was simply blistering at this 1969 Seattle Concert. Great Show! The ferocity of Alvin Lee’s guitar is incredible, he just pounds and shreds his way through these cuts like a meat grinder making sausage. This is when they were young and hungry and it shows. Loud, fast and fun. The mix is pretty good, the guitar is placed out front, the vocals are in the middle, drums and cymbals are slightly behind the vocals and bass, somewhat in the back and not all that muddy, considering. The sound quality is at least as good, if not slightly better than the bands commercially released “Undead” album of about the same time period, but the performance is much more intense here. Bootleg Review By – Peter Demarco Jr.       New  Musical  Express  March  29, 1969   New  Musical  Express  March  29, 1969     New Musical Express -  April  5, 1969 Ten Years Alvin reveals group’s new outlook Alvin Lee of Ten Years After phoned me this week, and having talked about Elvis (we’re both super fans) for a good quarter of an hour, he told me some of the things the group has been doing while they’ve been visiting our fair city. I say “fair” because we’ve had 45 degree in the sun all this week! Ten Years After have been touring the States, and Alvin said the reaction has been tremendous and their albums have done very well in the best-seller charts. While in Hollywood, the group has been horseback riding and go-karting, and when they are not frolicking in our warm sun, they’ve been working in the recording studio doing their next L.P. Alvin told me: “On this album, we’re getting back to the way we were at first. For awhile, we tended to sway and go into a more musical bag. But lately, we’ve been getting back to more of an excitement thing on stage, and this is the feeling we want on the album. “We want to keep our show exciting too. We realized it’s better to create an atmosphere rather than just be musicians, and we found out we had more fun when the shows were more exciting”! The group is hoping to pull a single from the album. “We don’t want to go into the studio just to cut a single hit, because we don’t want to sell out all the way. I suppose it would be easy to record a commercial hit, but we’d rather compromise and get a single from the album,” says Alvin. Ten Years After are set to do a concert tour of Britain soon, a complete blues package, featuring an American group, as yet unnamed, plus Jethro Tull. Then they’ll play some dates in Switzerland and return to America for the Newport Jazz Festival.       Ten Years After – April 26, 1969 – Thee Image and The Miami Rock Scene: Thee Image was Miami’s biggest and best known psychedelic rock club venue, although it was only in operation for thirteen months. It was located in a former thirty two lane bowling alley at 18330 Collins Avenue, just north of Miami in sunny Isles Beach. The venue was principally owned and operated by two brothers, who also owned a pharmacy store and made sun tan lotion. Also involved with a band from Tampa Florida that was originally called The Motions, who changed their name to The Blues Image, in homage to The Blues Project. Blues Image were reputedly hip Florida’s best live band, that had twin drummers and a funky, swinging sound. Besides helping operate the club, they were also the house band and apparently they played there just about every weekend, whether they appeared on the concert bill or not. Thee Image opened on March 15, 1968 featuring The Mother’s Of Invention. The last band to play there was Ten Years After, and then the venue closed soon after that and was demolished. It’s my understanding that the owners were under great pressure to shut down. This after the Jim Morrison incident at the Dinner Key Club, that was also in Dade County Florida.   Ten Years After – At Thee Image: There’s nothing cerebral about this group, just high energy British Blues Rock. Alvin Lee was one of the fastest players that I heard on the scene at the time. His singing style reflected an Elvis influence. The bass player (Leo Lyons) had a hard-driving-slapping style that helped propel the band.   Thee Image Club consisted of a big open ballroom floor, with  three stages, a meditation room, multiple seperate rooms, day-glow paint everywhere, black-lights and along the wall were  Ampeg Speakers, so it wasn’t just a converted building. The club seems to be remembered fondly by performers and fans alike. There’s very little in the way of photographs, live recordings or tapes, all that remains is the occasional poster that comes around from time to time. Visiting bands were very impressed with The Blues Image. Frank Zappa himself suggested that if they wanted to make it big, they would have to break into New York City or Los Angels, and in the spring of 1969 they closed Thee Image and moved to Los Angels California. The briefly worked backing Eric Burdon and from there the band scored a big success with their big hit single “Ride Captain Ride” in 1970, which reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart…..and “Pay My Dues”.   Who Performed At Thee Image: Ten Years After – Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention – Led Zeppelin – The Grateful Dead – The Loving Spoonful - John Sebastian  – The Velvet Underground with Nico  Country Joe and the Fish – Big Brother and the Holding Company – Cream – The Yardbirds – The Troggs – Procol Harum – The Electric Flag – Paul Butterfield Blues Band – The James Cotton Blues Band (James jammed with The Blues Image until the sun came up) – Cactus  Elvin Bishop Blues Band – Savoy Brown Blues Band – and the U.S. Premier of Magical Mystery Tour…Fantasy – Canned Heat – Tiny Tim – The Jeff Beck Group with Rod Stewart – Steppenwolf – Blues Image – The Doors – Nicky Hopkins – Blue Cheer – Spirit (Randy California) Deep Purple – Jethro Tull – John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers with Mick Taylor – Jimi Hendrix. Jefferson Airplane - Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes Blood Sweat and Tears.   The Jimi Hendrix Story – Playing Thee Image For Free: Jimi Hendrix was scheduled to play at Gulf Stream Race Track, but the concert was rained out. The promoters couldn’t refund the money at this point, so we invited Hendrix to Thee Image, where we would throw open the doors to anybody who wanted to walk in. Jimi went on the Gulfstream stage and invited everybody to come to the club. It was 8:00 on a stormy tropical night, we called all our concession people, the ice cream vendors, the chocolate cake sellers, the hot dog guys, the body painters and ask them to come right down. The body painters gave away Day-Glow-Paint that lit up under the black-lights, which was a big deal in concert lighting at the time, and Thee Image boasted one hundred black-light bulbs. Jimi, his roadies and his band showed up as promised, for free and started to set up on the stage. The club already had a wall of Ampeg speakers with enough amps to blow the windows out. There were also the two giant strobe lights with a slow to fast dialler that made people look like they were moving very fast, or in very slow motion, like a haywire silent film.   Word was getting around, kids were calling kids and by 9:00 the parking lot was packed full, and so was Collins Avenue, and there was a traffic jam right down to Haulover Beach. Jimi started playing at about 9:00. He began by using all of the Thee Image’s speakers and his own to produce wild feedback wailing, and that got people’s attention. Then he jammed with the house band, The Blues Image, in a set that never stopped until after midnight. The audience, full of painted bodies, mostly sat on the floor and listened. They were all in various states of high, higher and highest, while Jimi played rock guitar that was more dramatic than anything, most of the audience had ever heard. His guitar solos melted down and re-formed, turned into vivid images and then into smoke. It was a wild night of cheering. Then the ice cream battle began. Somebody brought Jimi an ice cream cone with a ball of chocolate on it. Jimi threw the ice cream ball to somebody in the crowd. That somebody threw it back at Jimi. “get me ten cones” Hendrix called out. He passed them to everyone in the band, and they began to throw ice cream balls at each other. Pretty soon, hundreds of members of the audience raced to the concession stand to buy scoops of ice cream, forget the cone. In fifteen minutes the air in the club, under the day-glow lights, was filled with flying ice cream balls. They hit the walls, the speakers, people’s heads, hair and clothes. Then, when the ice cream ran out, they all began throwing chocolate cake. Meanwhile, Jimi and the band kept right on jamming away. Then Jimi says, “let’s go swimming”. He left the stage without his guitar, walked right out the front door, like a Pied-Piper, as he walked past the IHOP (International House of Pancakes) then up to Collins Avenue, with three to four thousand kids dancing insanely behind him. This was a few months before Jimi played his Star-Spangled-Banner at the Woodstock Festival – in August of 1969.   About the Blues Image. They were a well respected band among their peers. It was reported in Melody Maker, that Jimi Hendrix said, “The Blues Image was one of the best up and coming bands around”. Shortly before Jimi’s death, he was seen jamming on stage with Manny Bertematt at the popular underground club, “The Experience” on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. The Blues Image debut album was released in February 1969. Their second album was released April 1970 and featured their hit song “Ride Capitan Ride” with Kent Henry (Lord Sutch) on guitar and Pinera on lead guitar at the end of the song. The song was co-composed by Pinera and Konte. It sold over one million and earned the band a gold record. Bertematti went on to work with The New Cactus Band (Senseless Rebel and Hook, Line and Sinker). Pinera went on to become part of Iron Butterfly (Butterfly Bleu and Easy Rider), Ramatam with Mitch Mitchell and guitarist extraordinaire April Lawton.  Alice Cooper (I’m Eighteen and Schools Out). Konte joined Three Dog Night. Lala played with Stephen Stills / Chris Hillman and their group Manassas. Kent Henry also played lead guitar with Steppenwolf just prior to their break-up.     15 - 16 - 17 April 1969   New Musical Express  April 19, 1969   New  Musical  Express  April  19, 1969   Cash Box Caption  April  26, 1969 Ten Years After, really began the British „Underground“ scene, when they appeared at the „Windsor Jazz & Blues Festival in 1967. All were the undoubted hit of the three day festival, and soon became one of the major crowd – pulling groups in Britain, despite the fact that they virtually ignored the conventional method’s of achieving fame in Britain, via the singles charts. Their Deram album “Stonedhenge” (released February 22, 1969) is a major hit on both sides of the Atlantic. Ten Years After also appear at the “Newport Jazz Festival” on July 4, 1969 and during the same month will make their fourth tour of the U.S.A.       click picture for PDF file click picture for PDF file Record  Mirror  May  3, 1969   15th May 1969   New  Musical  Express  May 17, 1969   Photo by Thom Lukas   New Musical Express, May 24, 1969 Three Months Before Woodstock 1969   John Lennon and Yoko Ono didn’t know what they were starting when they appeared nude on their “Two Virgins” album. That scene led to bigger things, culminating in Ten Years After Group Playing Naked, during their American tour, which ended the other day. Fresh back, but tired, from a lengthy trek, lead guitarist and mastermind Alvin Lee told me, ”We played in the nude at a free concert in Chicago. It was a free expression concert, one of those hippy places. Nudity is really very popular over there – it’s a minor revolution against society. “When you first get over the hang-up of playing without clothes it’s quite fun. Freedom of expression is a nice thing, I don’t think it’s something we could try here, though. At least it’s a better way of revolting than beating up little old ladies or smashing windows”. Ten Years After found the Americans are still very pro the English musical scene. “The scene is going very much towards the English thing at the moment,” he pointed out. “They take a lot of interest in our charts and what’s going on here. “That nudity bit…it might be an emphasis of what John Lennon and Yoko Ono are doing. People there think they go everywhere without their clothes on. Reaction to Ten Years After in America was enthusiastic and Alvin gave me one example of the type of response they were getting. “We came off the other night, had a shower and a wash and they were still clapping”. He recalled. “So we had to go on again”.  Alvin feels that the group worked possibly a bit too hard. They certainly had no time to record any numbers for their next album and that job will take priority over all else now. “Some of the English bands are happening in America,” he revealed. “Jeff Beck is big, only nobody knows if he wants to play or not, he keeps going over and coming back. The “Nice” “The Family” and “Led Zeppelin”  are very big”. Alvin is moving into a new Baker Street home, having been unkindly asked to leave his last residence. He told me the circumstances surrounding the move. “I got kicked out of the last one because the landlord said I looked like the kind of person who could smoke drugs! It was a private estate and all the neighbours were snobbish. They looked at this fellow with long hair and didn’t like the look of him, so I had to go”.       New  Musical  Express  June  7, 1969       The Boston Tea Party: Was a venue, small music hall, housed in a building that was formally a Jewish Synagogue, number 53 Berkeley Street, and opened on January 20, 1967  It was located in Boston, Massachusetts, and every week groups like Ten Years After, The Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Jeff Beck Group (with Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood), Joe Cocker, The MC5 (with Fred “Sonic” Smith), The Velvet Underground (with Nico), Little Richard Black Diamond, The James Cotton Blues Band, Johnny Winter, Sons of Champlin, Ten Wheel Drive, Fleetwood Mac, The Byrds, The Raven, and the home of Aerosmith from 1970 to 1972 would perform there. It was a great magic time for music in Boston and that time in the late 1960’s and into the early 1970’s. The Boston Tea Party was Boston’s premiere rock `n´ roll and psychedelic club, and it helped break uncounted British and American bands stateside, before its unfortunate closing in the early 1970’s. John Cale played his last show with the Velvet Underground in the late 1960’s. He was later replaced by a native Boston guitarist, Doug Yule. In 1969 the venue moved its location next to Fenway Park where today it remains as The Avalon.  Part Two Boston Tea Party: Muddy Waters, Howlin` Wolf, John Lee Hooker. Van Morrison played there when he first moved to Cambridge from Belfast and was in the process of developing material for his classic album “Astral Weeks”. Big Boy Crudup played there in 1969, it was also the first place that Brian Auger played in America. The Mothers of Invention (Frank Zappa) and Cream played there. Many musicians and bands played here as a warm up place in order to perfect their performances before heading into New York City for the big time. Jonathan Richman started here long before he became Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers. Peter Wolf was with the band The Hallucinations before joining The J. Geils Band and B.B.King played there. Don Law and Steve Nelson managed the Boston Tea Party. Don Law - Boston From Circus Magazine - Jimmy Page is quoted as saying: “ I can tell you when I knew we’d broken through, which was at San Francisco. There were other gigs, like The Boston Tea Party and the Kinetic Circus in Chicago which have unfortunately disappeared as venues, where the response was so incredible, we knew we’d made our impression….but after the San Francisco gig it was just….bang!”  John Paul Jones recalls the show: As far as I’m concerned, the key Led Zeppelin gig, the one that put everything into focus was the one that we played on our first American Tour at The Boston Tea Party. We had played our usual one hour set, using all the material from our first album and Page’s “White Summer” guitar piece, and by the end, the audience just wouldn’t let us off the stage. It was in such a state that we had to start throwing ideas around….just thinking of songs that we all might know or some of us knew a part of and work it from there. So we’d go back and play things like “I Saw Her Standing There” and “Please Please Me”… the old Beatles favourites. I mean, just anything that would come into our heads and the response was quite amazing. There were kids actually banging their heads against the stage….I’ve never seen that at a gig before or since, and when we finally left the stage we’d played for four and a half hours. Our manager Peter Grant was absolutely ecstatic. He was crying and hugging us all. You know….with this huge grizzly bear hug. I suppose it was then that we realized just what Led Zeppelin was going to become.         BATH FESTIVAL – JUNE 28 - 29 - 1969   The 1969 bash only attracted 12,000 punters, and has in general been overshadowed by its far bigger and younger sibling festival of 1970. Less than two months (about 48 days) before the famous “Woodstock Music and Arts Fair” August 15, 16, and 17 – there was the “Bath Festival”. Ten Years After, featuring the pyrotechnical guitar skills of Alvin Lee. Ten Years After came into world wide prominence in 1969, after their blistering performance at Woodstock. There is no doubt in anyone’s mind, that Alvin is an excellent guitarist, but their lack of ability to write strong tunes was a distinct problem because, one cannot forge a long term career on blindingly fact solos alone. The really great musicians (guitarist in this case) move on to develop their own style and sound, which is something that Ten Years After failed to do. It’s more than likely that this one factor alone caused the bands final decent into a long term, Semi-obscurity and Semi retirement of sorts. While many other bands from the 1960’s who are now defunct, have had a much larger following,    At the Bath Festival, it is reported that Ten Years After were the last band to perform there. They also played their showstopper “I’m Going Home” to close out their set and performance at Bath. Their set lit contains the following songs: I Woke Up This Morning – 8:10 Good Morning Little School Girl – 7:00 I’m Going Home – (It should be duly noted that the entire bootleg is of very poor quality. Also, I’m Going Home is not on this recording. Their performance according to one fan says: The usual Alvin Lee pyrotechnics, playing rather too much, and rather too fast for my personal taste. Newspaper Article: The four entrances were crammed with the fans from all over the country. Most had patiently queued for their tickets, but some attempted to climb the fences and were stopped by police and stewards. Radio One’s D.J. John Peel called on the crowd to impress the authorities, that they were in the city for a great event, and to show they were well behaved. Mr. Fredrick Bannister, the concert promoter, was looking very happy, and was counting on an attendance of at least 15,000. One group who hitch-hiked from Coventry said, they saw at least a thousand fans making their way to Bath. Some others from Coventry, who travelled by train were forced to go via, London to reach Bath, because of a “Lightning (Labour) Strike by Birmingham rail men yesterday. One said, “We got a lift in a dry cleaners delivery van, to reach Bath, we went two hundred miles out of our way, helping the driver at his various delivery points. But he was a Bath man, and he brought us early right to the ground.   Many of the overnight visitors took busses and cars into the country to find fields in which to sleep. The tow path alongside the REC ( Recreation Grounds) was cluttered with tents. There were no real hitches (problems) John Peel in introducing the first group, “Just Before Dawn” (is the name of the band) says, “All the groups are here, and there do not seem to be any hang-ups. The People Speak Out: The Reverend Norman Veysey from  Sumerset, England said, “It’s good clean fun, They look like a crowd of very good young people”.  “This event is something that we have to cater for in this generation. Provided it’ s organised on the proper lines, and every precaution  has bee taken, and these people don’t get mixed up with leather jacketed beatniks, these hippies should be quite peaceful. They add colour to an otherwise drab scene. It’s the outside element that’s the danger”. June  28, 1969 Record Mirror Report. The Bath-Festival of Blues was no picnic for the poor kid stranded in the middle of the football field and badly in need of a public convenience. As one peered out on a veritable sea of heads (pun?), it appeared as if there were two or three more hippies than blades of grass on the field. 40,000 or more raving music buffs migrated to the site on Saturday the 28th via train, plane, car, foot or meditation to see the vast line-up of acts, which included among others, Fleetwood Mac, Lep Zeppelin John Mayall, Keef Hartley Band, the Nice, Roy Harper (?), Chicken Shack, Liverpool Scene and a never~ending list of others. The stages (two) were barely visible from the opposite end of the field, but the sound was audible throughout the grounds. Hot dogs were being consumed with gusto and there was a run on the ice cream van which put poor old Luigi under great stress. People shuffled through mile-long queues, forget-ting half way, what it was they were queueing for. A space forty feet from the stages was worth its weight in Watney's. The great teeming hordes behaved exceptionally well with the frequent Persuasion Of Johm Peel and Mike Quinn. It was a great day for armpits and whiskers and not an idle one musically. Led Zeppelin and the Nice appeared to have stolen the show, but all the other acts were received with voluminous applause. The only incident occured during John Mayall's set when one monumental idiot who had been annoying the crowds and bands for hours. chucked a bottle and was promptly chucked in return. Things otherwise were handled well by the genuine people who came down to hear some good sounds. Chicken Shacks man with the 200ft. Iead, Stan Webb, had this to say: " `It was an exceptionally good festival, but I think they should have erected a scaffold or bleachers in the back so all of them could see. Also the bar went dry!" "We're not supposed to drink, so the bar doesn't affect us (cheesy grin,)” said ZepPelints lead singer Robert Plant, ."The only drawback to the show was the short sets. We have trouble with short bits because you can't connect as people unless everybody has a chance to do their solo. But still. there were a lot of acts to go on! " A lot of people got well tanned in the sun with the music going through their ears. It was a big day for the exciting town of Bath and as the great migration north started late in the evening, apprehensive Pensioners could be seen standing in doorways casting the heavy eye on the passing crowds and thinking, 'Whats it all about? Arrrrrr'         New  Musical  Express July 12, 1969      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 (Michael) Churchill - Organ / Keyboards Born in Flintshire, England on January 2, 1949 Five foot eight inches tall, brown hair and blue eyes.           The Laurel Pop Festival 1969 – Ten Years After Location – The Laurel Race Course Laurel, Maryland Friday July 11 and Saturday July 12 Produced By George Wein and The Newport Jazz Festival  - Saturday July 12, 1969   Ten Years After began making music together in England in early 1968, just in time to be caught up in the resurgence of the blues sweeping that country and became one of the prime movers in exporting and making the sound popular here in the States. Behind the music, are four English lads who look like naughty school boys. Their names are Alvin Lee, Ric Lee (no relation) Leo Lyons and Chick Churchill. They don’t get together and make mischief though, just music. In fact they met for the first time in a place as innocuous as a North Whales bus shelter, and shortly afterwards found themselves playing the first of many dates at London’s famous Marquee Club. Club manager John C. Gee recalls how he sat in his office and heard the strains of Woody Herman’s “Woodchoppers Ball”.  John writes: “Seized by curiosity, I entered the club and there on the stage were these four guys, obviously having a ball. To this day I’ve never discovered how they got there, and I’ve never bothered to ask. I was excited by their playing and gave them a date at the Marquee”.  After gaining attention in England they toured the U.S. in July and August of 1968, meeting with excellent audience and press response. As a result, their second album “Undead” took off on the American charts. They were immediately booked for a second tour which kicked off in New York at the Fillmore East.   The Concert Bill: Friday Night - July 11, 1969 Led Zeppelin Country Joe and The Fish Jethero Tull Al Kooper Johnny Winter The Edwin Hawkins Singers Buddy Guy’s Blues Band          Saturday Night – July 12, 1969       Sly and The Family Stone       Ten Years After and Jeff Beck       The Mothers Of Invention       The Savoy Brown Blues Band       The Guess Who         Ten Years After at the Singer Bowl - July 13, 1969 – New York City On The Old Worlds Fair Grounds in Flushing, Queens.  Led Zeppelin joined Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart and Alvin Lee of Ten Years After on stage for an encore of “Jailhouse Rock”, John Bonham played drums for Rice Pudding. They performed at The Pavilion during the Singer Bowl Music Festival. This was further substantiated from a press review that was published shortly thereafter the event.   Press Accounting: The Nine Man Jam – Sunday July 13, 1969 Jeff Beck, Vanilla Fudge, Ten Years After, The Edwin Hawkins Singers concert at the Singer Bowl resulted in an unexpected “Jam Session” amongst members of The Jeff Beck Group, Led Zeppelin, Ten Years After and Jethro Tull. The music excited Zeppelin drummer John Bonham to the point where he started tearing his clothes off. He was carried off stage by friends before he could get past his underwear. The concert roused the audience and pulled an okay gross of $31,500 with a $5.50 top. The Pavilion and Singer Bowl are being presented this year by Lee Guber and Shelly Gross.    Press Accounting – From The Bridgeport Post The Doors at the Singer Bowl August 1968 Rotating Stages Suck – The Doors perform on a revolving stage which breaks down part way through their performance, and right in front of eye witness Steven Peart. Steven was twelve years old at the time and reports that a riot broke out with about two hundred teenagers and students breaking up their wooden chairs just as the band was completing its last two numbers. The audience ran for the stage forcing the musicians to retreat backstage and having to leave their equipment on stage. The students began smashing the equipment using the wood sticks from their broken chairs, before the guards could stop them. There were approximately one thousand people in the audience and they were already aggravated because of all the time consuming delays due to the revolving stage not working. Photo by Thomas Monaster The Who were on stage right before the Doors, and the revolving stage got stuck during their performance so that a quarter of the restless crowd  couldn’t see the band and infuriating the audience.   Vanilla Fudge in Solid Territory: From Billboard Magazine New York – Vanilla Fudge, in fine form, capped the season’s first Singer Bowl concert at the old Worlds Fair grounds (1964 – 1965) on Sunday July 13, 1969. The Atco quartet, however, faced a Herculean task as they had to follow an exciting nine – man – jam – session. The jam just followed the fine “Jailhouse Rock” encore of Epic’s Jeff Beck Group. Before the quartet could leave the stage, they were joined by other British musicians. By the time the jam was finished, members of three other groups had joined, including three from Atlantic’s Led Zeppelin. The Beck unit also had its work cut out for it, as the preceding band was Ten Years After, one of the most popular British groups to ever play New York, gave their usual powerful performance. “Good Morning Little School Girl” was among the strong numbers for the Deram quartet, as guitarist Alvin Lee, one of the leading pop guitarist, and Leo Lyons, an outstanding bass guitarist, played to each other in exciting fashion. Drummer Ric Lee and organist Chick Churchill joined Lyons to afford Alvin Lee a guitar virtuoso stunning rhythmic support. Alvin Lee also was in excellent blues voice. Probably the most difficult assignment of the evening belonged to Pavilion’s Edwin Hawkins Singers, who had to open. The inclement weather, which held the crowd to 7,000 made the audience, waiting for their rock favourites, restless. Some rain during the set aided neither audience nor performers. But, the large gospel choir was at their fervent spirited best, giving an exceptional performance, especially in their big hit “Oh Happy Day”. The Beck Group had given one of their best sets, especially by vocalist Rod Stewart and Beck, another of today’s great guitarist. No sooner had Beck explained that there would be no more encores, than the fun began. Stewart was joined by Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin, one of the most exciting vocalists on the scene. Glenn Cornick, bass guitarist of Reprise’s Jethro Tull, joined in succeeding Ron Wood of the Beck Group, as did drummer John Bonham another Led Zeppelin’s group of star performers, who succeeded the groups Tony Newman. The excitement heightened as Jimmy Page, another of the evening’s string of great guitarist, joined the jam. Newman and Ric Lee joined in, making three drummers performing simultaneously. Musicians not only played and sang, they also danced, affected by the jam’s high spirits. In fact, Bonham practically had to be dragged off stage to end the jam. Then came the Fudge with their languid, deliberate style, strong vocals and the sinewy organ playing of Mark Stein, who also possesses a good, distinctive voice. It took a few numbers for group and audience to warm to each other, but by the time the Fudge reached their “You Keep Me Hanging On” hit, all was in order and Stein was at his best. In the following, “Take Me For A Little While”, other musicians had their opportunities and they came through splendidly, especially bass guitarist Tim Bogart, one of the best in the business, whose solo again demonstrated the variety that can be produced by that instrument. Lead guitarist Vince Martell also came through well in his solo, the longest of the evening. And, drummer Carmine Appice was strong as usual. The show lasted well past midnight. By Fred Kirby   The Singer Bowl Music Festival took place on July 13, 1969 and will undisputedly go down in the music history books as the heaviest show in the stadium’s history. It included the following bands: The Edwin Hawkins Singers (Oh Happy Day) Raven, Jethro Tull, The Vanilla Fudge, Ten Years After, The Jeff Beck Group and a brand new band from England called Led Zeppelin. As with all late 1960’s rock concerts, there was the obligatory jam session at the end of the show that included the members of Ten Years After, Led Zeppelin and The Jeff Beck Group.   Notes: Bonham was invited backstage to a Ten Years After concert, he throws orange juice on Alvin Lee the most respected guitarist of his generation.  Note: Jimmy Page was awe-struck by Alvin’s super-sonic playing, much to the annoyance of an inebriated John Bonham who suddenly lurched forward and threw a glass of orange juice all over Alvin’s guitar, in order to slow up his (Alvin’s) finger work as the strings and fret board got stickier. When asked about this incident Alvin has no recollection of anything being thrown, although Ric Lee confirms the story. Ric also remembers, that at the end of the show, when he and Bonzo joined Jeff Beck for the encore: “There was Robert Plant, Rod Stewart, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and three bassists. I think Bonzo was beating off a riff (The Stripper) on the drum kit, so I grabbed a floor tom and started thumping hell out of it. The crowd were going ape-shit as we banged out a blues standard and Bonham who was already stripped to the waist, took off his trousers and under pants. He was sitting there naked, playing away, when the police saw him, I then saw Peter Grant and Richard Cole spotting the police as the number fizzled out, all I saw was Peter and Richard running on stage, each grabbing one of Bonzo’s arms and his bare-arse disappearing as they carried him off”. Ric Lee (Drummer Ten Years After)    This article starts off with The Jeff Beck Group performing at Schenectady Hall in upstate New York. Led Zeppelin having just been signed to the same stable as The Jeff Beck Group, and under the management of Peter Grant. Both bands were to cross paths over the next few days as Led Zeppelin were also in the American East Coast at the time, on their inaugural United States tour, and arrangements were quickly made for the two bands to hook up for some serious partying. Imagine, The Jeff Beck Group and Led Zeppelin – talk about an explosive combination! The problem is, great talents are notoriously “too hard to handle”. Jeff Beck, one of the worlds greatest guitarist and a proven record seller, temperamental often stroppy but always ready to pull a rabbit out of the hat. Led Zeppelin was coming along on the Jeff Beck Group’s tour bus to the Schenectady Hall gig. But it was at the Singer Bowl concert where the trouble was already brewing. The Singer Bowl is a massive sports complex doubling as a concert venue just outside of New York’s Flushing Meadows, and things were coming to a head. Jeff and the boys were supporting America’s newest flavour of the month, The Vanilla Fudge a band out of Long Island, New York. More significantly, as it turned out, Alvin Lee’s new band called Ten Years After, were opening the star-studded bill. The Led Zeppelin boys and their entire entourage said they’d be there to lend Jeff a bit of moral support. I thought, that was quite touching to begin with, such a selfless solidarity between two of the UK’s best bands while they were touring on foreign turf. But of course it wasn’t as simple or as innocent as that. Nothing ever was! As hindsight being 20:20 maybe I should have guessed that there was more to their eagerness to attend this particular gig, than just helping their mates along. In fact, that had nothing what-so-ever to do with it. The Led Zeppelin boys were there to settle a score with Alvin Lee for some pretty nasty remarks he’d once made about Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck’s roadies seemed happy to help them wreak their revenge, egged on inevitably by John “Bonzo” Bonham and Richard Cole. Chick Churchill, one of Ten Years After’s associates (keyboard player) was unlucky enough to be caught without back up in a locker room by a vengeful rabble of roadies who scared the crap out of him before ruthlessly stripping him of his clothes. Then they stripped him of his dignity by dumping him naked and tossed like a lamb to the slaughter in the starkly lit corridor outside. Next it was Ten Years After’s turn for the revenge of Led Zeppelin. Hidden in the anonymity of the shadows, in a corner right in front of the stage, the Led Zeppelin crew pelted Alvin Lee mercilessly from the moment he took the stage, with anything that came to hand, including hot dogs, burgers, orange juice and probably much messier and more painful missiles. It was glorious! Alvin Lee and his band had no idea who the mysterious assailants in the shadows could be. The shower of debris stole their thunder, undermining the storming performance that they’d had their hearts set on, and understandably enough, mediocrity was all they could muster. In retrospect, Peter Grant and Jimmy Page, the two partners in crime had to be behind this. It was their way of saying, “don’t ever mess with the Zeppelin!” If that had been the sum total of their retribution for Alvin Lee’s off colour comment, I guess it would have been “fair dos”. But they’d already planned a masterstroke that would add insult to injury. Of course, as far as the audience was concerned, Led Zeppelin joining the Jeff Beck Group on stage as an impromptu jamming session. I knew different! Having ruined Alvin Lee’s entire set, a band that hadn’t even been booked to play, was about to steal the show…. and steal the show they did. But even the Led Zeppelin boys hadn’t planned the finale that was to be the highlight of the night!   The Real Story of “Bonzo” at the Singer Bowl: Bonzo had been at the backstage booze, nothing strange or unusual about that, or about the fact that, drunk as a lord, his drumming on the fast blues the galaxy of rock stars was playing was as blisteringly bang on the nail as ever. What was a bit unusual was the fact that he’d suddenly decided to do a “full – monty” while he was at it, still hitting that kick drum with mechanical, maniacal precision and venom despite the strides and underpants that were now tangled around his ankles. For most of the audience, the sight of his private pubic hair being made public, was just a bit of a “Bonzo – Bonus” to the already exciting event. But among the ogling crowd, some punters were less than impressed at the sight of Bonzo’s  manhood flapping about on the drum stool. I clocked one humourless woman talking animatedly to one of the fairly heavy local police presence like a chill wind, the prudish outrage swept through the crowd and it was clear to see that the cops were not amused. Now, I’m not saying I’d normally think Bonzo getting his kit off was going too far. On the contrary, high spirits and outrageous behaviour like that are all part of the sheer joy of rock `n´ roll, and long may it stay that way. A few people will always be upset by it, but when the police are among the ones with the hump, that’s when the fun stops and the trouble begins. Of course it was my job to make sure it didn’t. I could see the cops rallying together, conferring and calling for back-up. I had to get Bonzo off the stage before they could arrest him. Suddenly, I had a plan. I took Henry the Horse aside and told him to kill all the lights the moment the performers finished their song. He did so, plunging the stage into total darkness for about ten seconds, just long enough for Richard Cole and I to grab Bonzo under the arms, pull his pants up and drag him full pelt backstage. Obviously, we couldn’t try and hide him here, right in the bands dressing area, that is the first place the cops would look for him. So we lugged him into another locker room that was equipped with shower facilities and the like and the walls plastered with sporting paraphernalia, I assumed it was an American Football players changing room. Somewhere out there, the police were stumbling about in the darkness and their mood was turning as black as the blackout that we plunged them into. I kicked the door shut and locked it. Hearts banging as loud as Bonzo’s drumming, and holding our breath in case we were heard. Richard and I sat about tidying up the legless stickman. We waited, and Bonzo by now was unconscious and his body draped lifelessly over a chair, marooned helplessly in the empty tiled expanse of the backstage changing room. With the distant rumble of very angry men echoing along the corridors outside, then suddenly it loomed uncomfortably close and then there was an explosion of outraged voices. At first it was an incomprehensible babble, then it was way too close and clear. “Where is the dirty motherfucker?”  One loud American voice kept roaring with an authority that cut through the general furore. At least I thought, we were safely locked in this room, and no one was able to hear us. Bonzo was temporarily out of commission. Keep calm and we’d be in the clear. But then there was a thunderous banging at the door, the kind of persistent banging that won’t take no for an answer. The door burst open to reveal five or six huge cops with waists as wide as their minds were narrow. Some traitor must have given them the master (Skelton) key. Needless to say, we were out numbered, out muscled, out weighed and most importantly, out-lawed. Richard and I stood in front of Bonzo in a forlorn attempt at solidarity, as if we could hide and protect him. Two of the police posse strode forward and too close for comfort, intimidating, demanding to know if this was the drummer who’s just given his public a pubic naked performance? The cops language and attitude was far from delicate about it. “Look, he’s just drunk, he’s harmless” I spluttered. (showing no signs of a clear and present danger to anyone). Look at him, he didn’t mean any harm…..” The cops looked with utter distaste over my shoulder at the inert figure sprawled over a chair in the middle of this bleakly lit and Spartan room. Neither was impressed. Their collective sense of humour bypass was obviously complete. I suppose it wasn’t much of an excuse. It can’t have been, because then they whipped out their batons threateningly, making it utterly clear that they meant business. To be honest, at that point, Richard and I had given up the ghost. We were all going to get nicked and that was that. But neither we nor the cops had reckoned on a far more superior authority. I’d thought the police had made a fairly impressive entrance just minutes ago, but the door through which they’d marched with such self-righteous import, suddenly exploded open once again to admit the furious, fuming and fighting mad figure of Peter Grant. He was always almost ludicrously huge, but when fluffed up, furious and bristling with rage like a giant mother hen, hell-bent on protecting her chicks, he almost too the door right off its hinges. The door wasn’t the only thing almost unhinged by this entrance: the cops clucked in panic, overshadowed and over-awed and chickening out completely. “I’m the manager of the band”, Grant Boomed Imperiously. “Who’s in charge here?” The gob smacked police officers silently pointed out their Captain, whose eyes met Peter’s and were fixed in his glare. Peter said, “you and me need to talk – alone” he said quietly. “get your men out of here”. With a wave of his arm the Captain dismissed his troops and Richard and I followed suit, we didn’t need telling, closing the door carefully behind us, we left Bonzo, Peter and the Captain in the room and waited – waited – and waited. Finally, after about ten minutes, that seemed so much longer, the Captain emerged, all that anger drained from his face and beckoned his men to follow. Bemused, we gingerly stepped back into the locker room where Peter greeted us with a smile. “Well done!” he beamed, “Now, lets get Bonzo on the bus”. I don’t need to be told twice. I grabbed the still prone Bonzo and hauled him bus-wards and within minutes Peter and the Led Zeppelin boys, complete with their semi-conscious drummer, were speeding out of town. No charges were pressed, no arrest were made, in fact, it was as if the incident never happened at all. Peter’s unique brand of diplomacy had somehow convinced the outraged cop captain to let the entire matter drop. It was amazing the authority that Peter Grant commanded. Maybe it was his sheer size and physical presence of his wallet, as I found out when I asked him later on the tour bus. His reply was, “That was a cheap get-out Don!” He laughed heartily, “it only cost me $300.00!”   Epilogue: For a great many years, this orange juice story has been circulating around in bits and pieces, mostly concerned with who threw the orange juice at Alvin Lee and his precious guitar. What I did learn in my little unprofessional investigation, was that all the rumours held a basic seed of truth in them. It was a long and complicated story, but in the end a fun mystery to unravel. So the ultimate answer as to who threw the orange juice is: Jeff Beck, John “Bonzo” Bonham and the Led Zeppelin Roadies as pay back for off colour comments made by one Alvin Lee towards Jimmy Page!  The unfortunate innocent bystander in all of this was Chick Churchill.   From Epilogue to Introduction: While this has nothing to do with Alvin Lee or Ten Years After, the time frame is so ironic and thus included here as well. Just fifteen days after the Singer Bowl event, came the most talked about incident in rock music history. The incident is destined to take its place in your mythology, says Frank Zappa, and he even wrote a song about it, appropriately called: “Mud Shark” in June 1971 at the Fillmore East. I’ll make the event as short as possible, and clean it up as best I can, it’s actually pretty funny, and now engraved in stone in rock `n ´ roll legend !  The Led Zeppelin boys and The Vanilla Fudge guys and Leppelin’s road manager Richard Cole, were heading to Seattle Washington to play the Seattle Pop Festival on July 27, 1969  at the Gold Creek Park.   The bands were staying at The Edgewater Inn which is located right on the Puget Sound. What makes this place so unique, is that you can go fishing right out of your hotel window and in the comfort of your room.  The shark episode is alleged to have involved some type of sexual contact with a fish, (yes you heard right a fish) with many variations of the story, all involving some of the band members, as well as the type of fish involved – often claimed to be a mud-shark. It was Jimmy Page who caught a spiny "dog-fish" also called a "mud shark". The groupie involved was Carmine Appice's groupie. Rock writer Stephen Davis in his Led Zeppelin book, “Hammer of the Gods” reports: “One girl, a young pretty girl with red hair, was disrobed and tied to the bed. According to the legend, Led Zeppelin then proceeded to place pieces of the mud-shark on her private parts”. The band stayed in room 342 and the incident became known as  "the sleaziest  moment in rock history". Zeppelin road manager Richard Cole disputes this version and tells it this way: “It wasn’t Bonzo, it was me. It wasn’t a shark at all, and it was only the nose of the fish that was put in. We caught a lot of big sharks, at least two dozen, we stuck coat hangers through the gills and left them in the closet…. It wasn’t a shark it was a red snapper and the girl happened to be a red-head, and that’s the truth. Bonzo was in the room, but I did it and Mark Stein of Vanilla Fudge filmed the entire thing, and the girl loved it. There was nothing malicious or harmful, no way! No one was ever hurt – end of story.  A later visit by Led Zeppelin in 1973, the band and their entourage caught some thirty mud-sharks and left them under beds, in elevators, in bath tubs, in hallways, in closets and all over their rooms….while beds, TV sets, china, glassware, mattresses, lamps, and drapes all ended up in Elliott Bay. The damage they made, cost the band $2,500 and they were banned from the hotel forever. The Edgewater Inn 1964: When first constructed, it was called “The Camelot” then it was changed to “The Edgewater Inn” and finally to just “The Edgewater”. It’s a four story building with 223 rooms hotel, located in Seattle, Washington, right on the central waterfront, on a pier over Elliott Bay on Puget Sound. In the early years, the hotel advertised on its north elevation that you could fish right from your room. Some famous people have stayed here over the years including: The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Frank Zappa, Led Zeppelin, The Beastie Boys and even U.S. President Bill Clinton. Over time Robert Plant was welcomed back.     The Beatles played in Seattle, Washington, at the Seattle Coliseum. This was during their very first American tour, and this was their third show. This was on August 21, 1964. They played to 14,300 screaming fans, and this was at the height of “Beatle-mania”. At the concert, the stage had to be raised twelve feet for the bands protection. For their concert, they were paid $34,569 dollars. The following day they left for Vancouver, British Colombia. At the Edgewater Hotel the band stayed in suite 272.       Even if there were other factors at work in keeping the hotel open, many acknowledge that, “The Beatles” stay there helped cement the Edgewater’s place in Seattle’s history Says the hotel manager Ric Nicholson: “Now the Beatles and Rock and Roll History is what we hang our hat on”.            TEN YEARS AFTER - Central Park, NYC July 16, 1969 (Schaefer Music Festival, Wollman Skating Rink) Photography by Thomas Monaster www.monasterphoto.com                              Ten Years After – July 16, 1969 The Schaefer Music Festival – Central Park, New York City On the bill are: Ten Years After – Chicago Transit Authority – and Fleetwood Mac (Fleetwood Mac was originally scheduled to play this date – but were apparently cancelled) The Schaefer Music Festival began its life as the Rheingold (Beer) Central Park Music Festival in 1966. It was held during the summer between 1968 and 1976 at the Wollman Skating Rink which is now known as Trump Wollman Skating Rink and located in New York City’s Central Park. This music series was sponsored by the F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Company, brewer of Schaefer Beer. This continued until 1976 at which point the sponsor became the owners of Dr. Pepper, and then became known as, The Dr. Pepper Central Park Music Festival. Then, because of residential complaints due to noise violations, the concert series was then moved to Pier 84 on the west side of town in 1981 and 1982. Where by, it then changed hands once again. In 1983 The Miller Brewing Company, the owners of Miller Beer, took over sponsorship and it became Miller Time Concert On The Pier, through 1988. The last thing I read was, renowned club owner and musician Hilly Kristal who founded CBGB’s in 1973, co-founded the festival with producer and concert promoter Ron Delsener took it over.            The Seattle Pop Festival – July 25 –28 – 1969 – Prelude To Woodstock It was held Gold Creek about twenty miles outside of Seattle, and organized by Boyd Grafmyre Promotions. The tension there was high, there was only one thin chicken wire fence separating the stage – and us – from 50,000 rock fans. Twenty six musicians / groups performed there, including: Ten Years After, Chuck Berry, Chicago Transit Authority, Black Snake, Do Diddley, Albert Collins, The Doors, The Byrds, Crome Syrcus, Tim Buckley, Floating Bridge, The Flock, The Guess Who, The Flying Burrito Brothers, It’s A Beautiful Day, Led Zeppelin, Charles Lloyd, Lonnie Mack, Lee Michaels, Rockin´  FU, Murray Roman, Santana, Spirit, The Ike and Tina Turner Review, Vanilla Fudge, Alice Cooper, Frosty and The Youngbloods.  The recorded total attendance for the three day event was 50, 000 rock fans attended, many more than was expected, so extra food and water had to be brought in. Reports say, that the people were orderly, with a few minor exceptions. It was a non-stop music festival and the first annual Seattle Pop Festival, that was a marvel of crowd control and smooth organization. It was also the first time ever that Led Zeppelin appeared on the same concert bill with The Doors. The Zeppelin boys blew the doors right off the stage, as they immediately  followed the Doors set The big mistake of all, was hiring the Black Panthers to provide the Security. They cut a hole in the fence and let anyone in who had money to pay them. Besides that, half of the tickets presented at the main gate were counterfeit. This festival was held, just a few weeks before the big Woodstock event took place, and the bands who performed at Seattle also performed at Woodstock. Seattle was to rival Woodstock in many people’s minds, but it was not Woodstock, of that, there’s only one. As for Seattle, just ask The Guess Who about this monster of a music festival. It was Seattle’s version of Woodstock, and it’s now forty two years later, but still some things never change: “Near by neighbours complained of traffic and the hippie atmosphere”. But the message remains the same: “I disagree with their movement one hundred percent”, said Dawsey, “But some of us adults better get the hell closer to them. They respond very much to kindness, we older people better learn this – if they need a drink of water, we the establishment, should go out and offer it”.   Another fan says, “I was so excited about going to The Seattle Festival, that I had already made my plans to go to Woodstock. The reality was that I probably enjoyed the Seattle Pop Festival more than I did the Woodstock Festival. Seeing Albert Collins and Lonnie Mack was kind of an education in a hardcore electric blues idiom, and Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry were nothing if not great, and I mean great showmen.   Ten Years After started playing at 9:00 AM in the morning, fans said, it was a nice way to wake up though. Ten years After and Santana were both amazing, and they proved the same a few weeks later at Woodstock. Also of note, The Ike and Tina Turner Review, was hands down the best set, they kicked everybody’s  ass – even better than Led Zeppelin and The Doors said one fan.         CIRCUS MAGAZINE – FROM JULY 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            “We have attempted with this album to lay down the basic Ten Years After music and at the same time create an atmosphere which involves  more than what is heard. A lot of things have been left in, which previously technicians would have hidden. We have attempted to compensate for the lack of visual and physical experiences, by adding sounds to the basic tracks. The major problem of being Ten Years After, has been to record an album”. Alvin Lee       The release of  Ten Years After's  fourth  album  -  August  1969 Alvin Lee takes over as the producer on this album and it is destined to become one of the top "Underground" Rock LP's of that period    "We moved over to an independent recording studio, called "Morgan Studios" and that was an eight track. So the "Ssssh" album was the very first to be done that way, and for us was a turning point".  Leo Lyons       Ten Years After - 1969 Ten Years After are a group I think will go even further, because if their increasing popularity, their excellent stage act and terrific albums – including “Ten Years After” – “Stonedhenge” and “Ssssh”. They have a strong reputation, both here in the UK and also in the States (where they spend a lot of their time), and are admired in both Western and Eastern Europe. They’ve been invited to appear at many jazz festivals including – “Newport” – “Monteux” – “Berlin” and “Bath”. Ten Years After are also a group’s group, in that they are the most widely acclaimed musicians in the business. Ten Year After: Alvin Lee (a brilliant guitarist) Leo Lyons (bass) Ric Lee (drums) and Chick Churchill (keyboards).         Ten Years After Ssssh Ten Years After made two great albums. Ssssh is one of them and has just been re-released. Cricklewood Green, the other one, hasn’t. In 1969 Ten Years After released two albums, “Stonedhenge” and “Ssssh”. The former pictures the band on the gatefold, the later has Alvin Lee’s face on the front. Sandwiched between them was Woodstock – the event that transformed the clog- shod, fast-fingered Nottingham guitarist into a superstar. This is a no frills, no bonus tracks, no free gifts reissue (Ok, a potted history booklet) of one of his / their finger movements, equal parts speed-digit virtuosity and bash it out British – Blues – Boogie – Energy. Exemplary stuff – “Stoned Woman” – “Two Time Mama’s” fine slide guitar, the slow blues, “I Woke Up This Morning”. The high point is the only cover, Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl”. Banned by U.S. radio, of course. And responsible for an epidemic of bedroom air guitar. By Sylvie Simmons                                    Very Rare Photo of Ten Years After    Ten Years After performed at the “Catacombs” venue on August 30, 1969. The concert took place immediately after their appearance at the Woodstock Festival and right before their performance at the Texas International Pop Festival. It wasn’t a very large place, yet it still had a handful of national acts like Ten Years After and Jethro Tull. The Catacombs was the first exclusive rock and roll club in Houston, Texas. Catacombs 1, opened in 1966. Catacombs 2, opened in 1969. In 1972 the venue closed for ever.        August 1969 - Two Weeks After The Historic Woodstock Festival: THE TEXAS  INTERNATIONAL  POP-FESTIVAL  September 1, 1969 - Labor Day Weekend   Ten Years After at the Texas Pop Festival Photos by Steve Campbell     The “Texas International Pop Festival”  or “The Best Little Woodstock in Texas” Known these days as: “The Rock Festival That Time Forgot” It took place from August 30th to September 1, 1969 – and just two weeks after the now historic Woodstock Festival. Woodstock generated a half million people over the three day period, while the Texas Woodstock reported 120,000 to 150,000 during the same time frame. The Texas Pop Festival was held in Lewisville, Texas, just north of Dallas, at the now defunct Dallas International Speedway. Thousands of hippies, music lovers, and lovers of peace converged here to see and hear their favourite bands perform. Staring the following acts: B.B. King – Freddie King – Ten Years After – Janis Joplin – Johnny Winter – Grand Funk Railroad – Led Zeppelin – Sly and the Family Stone – The Incredible String Band – The James Cotton Band – Santana – Space Opera – Tony Joe White – The Nazz – Delaney and Bonnie and Friends – Chicago – Rotary Connection – and Herbie Mann plus others. Ten Years After performed on Monday September 1st.    As this festival was much smaller than Woodstock, it definitely worked to its advantage. This one wasn’t plagued with wall to wall traffic jams, hygiene problems, lack of toilets or over crowding in general. There were no fights, and the dozen or so arrests were mostly from people trying to sneak in, but the fences this time held, keeping the festival from becoming a free-for-all, like in New York State. It also, didn’t rain, which made a world of difference. One person died from heat stroke, and one baby was born there, proving yet again that God has a very interesting sense of humour. In many other respects, the two festivals could have been identical. Yes, there were plenty of  drugs available and excessive nudity at both events. Doctors who showed up expecting to treat a bunch of overdoses all weekend, instead wound up mostly patching up people’s cut bare feet.  Many performers who appeared at Woodstock, barely had a chance to un-pack their road cases. Appropriately, the Texas Pop Festival, traded in the folksy strains of Richie Havens, Joan Baez and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young – for a heavier blues element, with the likes of: B. B. King, Freddie King, James Cotton, Sam and Dave, Delaney and Bonnie and Friends, and Tony Joe White. Texas Pop also marked Santana’s Lone Star State debut, and it also fell right at the end of the first USA tour by a new band of brash young British blues-rockers called Led Zeppelin. According to Richard Hayner (wavy-gravy himself), “the Led Zeppelin boys brought the house down.”    Another thing that both festivals had exactly in common was that, they were both financial disasters in the first degree. Texas Pop reported a loss of $100,000 – way less than the financial bath that the men of Woodstock took !  According To The Press: “Young people assembling  to hear music is one thing, but young people assembling in unspeakable costumes, walking around half clothed, bare footed, defying propriety, scorning morality and swimming in the nearby lake naked – is another issue. Who and where are their parents? Where do these young people get the money to loaf around the country, in their smelly regalia? (There’s a dvd of this event, called: Got No Shoes / Got No Blues).  Unfortunately, the Texas Pop Festival occurred in the wake and shadow of Woodstock, and the memory of Texas, is fading away accordingly fast. There was nothing memorable for the people who weren’t there. In my opinion, it would be better to remember both rock events together in the same breath. Texas Pop was given the overflow of Woodstock and that’s not a bad thing at all. Both festivals had eye-opening and thought provoking effects on everyone who attended. Just like at Woodstock, the masses who were there, spread the word to family, friends and neighbours. The American youth spread it like wild fire, the USA became the “Woodstock Nation”. This then spread the love, peace and music message, around the world. Via TV and Radio Stations, that by the time it hit all four corners of the world----the Woodstock Movie was released and that solidified the entire event in history and engraved it in our minds.     The one thing that gave the Texas Pop Festival bragging rights, was that they had Led Zeppelin!!!        New Musical Express September 27, 1969 Ssssh – A somewhat tongue in cheek romp through boogie, blues and country – pop served up with lashings of lightning guitar, groans, grunts and weird noises. By Chris Cole      New Musical Express September 27, 1969        From Cashbox Magazine      SSSSH – 1969 – Updated By Dave The Latest and Greatest Album by Ten Years After. It’s very “Advanced” the article says, and that’s a definite understatement, if ever there was one. It still holds up perfectly in my book, and may only sound slightly dated when compared to the music of the present day. So what if it lost a little surface shine and lustre, in the grooves it’s rock hard and always hits its mark. A little buffing does wonders to this treasure. On the records inner sleeve Alvin is quoted as saying the following: We have tried to lay down the groups basic music, while creating an atmosphere, “which involves more than what is heard”.  Now, to me Ten Years After is one of the most advanced groups in all of England, ranking right up there with the likes of: “The Nice” – “Jethro Tull” – “The Moody Blues” and the late great and lamented super-group “Cream”.  TYA – Side One: Bad Scene – it isn’t a Bad Scene at all, in fact it’s just the opposite. It’s a perfect opener and a very good rocker at that. Alvin’s lead guitar gets most of the listeners attention for sure, but Leo Lyons bass workout cannot be missed either. Leo is superb and frantic from beginning to end of this song. At a fast pace the original reviewer claims. Two Time Mama – Is a drastic slower pace than the rip-snorting-sweaty opener Bad Scene. But not at all disappointing or as uncomfortable as one might think. It’s a countrified bluesy number that just plugs along pleasantly and peacefully without losing the listeners attention at all. It’s not boring or experimental, it’s the blues of course, with a mans warning to his woman, and this style suits Ten Years After to a tee. It gives you just enough time to catch your breath before the next track gets you cranked up again.  Stoned Woman – It sounds as though the band had a great time recording this one. As there’s all kinds of almost inaudible sounds, noises, grunts, groans and background yells creeping in all over the place. It’s an infectious mixture that sucks you right in for the fun of it. Chick Churchill’s organ really gets a chance to come into the forefront for a change, on a couple of occasions. The general feel is one of instrumental demonstration – stretching out as a group jam and rolling right into the next song without a break this time. Good Morning Little School Girl – It was written by the one and only  Williamson and is the only song on the entire album that was not penned by Alvin Lee himself. It’s introduced right after Stoned Woman by a child’s wire toy that walks down stairs by itself (a slinky) that was stretched between two microphones and then being flicked by Alvin with a drumstick or his finger created  echoes and a slashing sound. This song is one of the bands best stage numbers. As popular then as it still is today 2011. It’s long and basic, offering lots of room for improvisation between all the members. The best part, is that it sounds just as good on your stereo as it does being played live on stage. Back when it was first released, this song was banned from radio play in the States, because of it’s lyrical content – “I Want To Ball You” the FCC found to be offensive. Ball was a new phrase at the time, meaning I want to have sex with you. Ten Years After Involved:  If You Should Love Me – Opens up side two as the pace / tempo slows down to a temporary crawl – very temporary. This song is a blues-ballad-number…tasty playing…just a straightforward song that I personally find attractively beautiful. You’ll find Ric Lee doing an excellent job backing up Alvin’s vocals and guitar on a piece of music that gets steadily more intense and involved, with maracas entering the mixture.  I Don’t Know That You Don’t Know My Name – It reminds me of the Beatles song called, “You Know My Name Look Up The Number” – This song is a slight departure in style for Ten Years After, after being in three four time, but it seems to come off alright in the end. There’s some good piano playing from Chick Churchill with a non-ending melody that’s kept quite effectively simple. The drumming from Ric Lee has some very nice phrasing generally speaking.  The Stomp – Is a John Lee Hooker sounding piece. Going from the previous track into this number, the band uses an oscillator that has a diminishing frequencies down from the previous song is used to good effect. It joins the end of one song with the beginning of the next together. The title is more or less self explanatory, the song itself is not very hot says the original author, to which I strongly disagree. The Stomp is in the Ten Years After style and many of us wish it was even longer, it’s a wonderful little jam number.     The Final Track Is: I Woke Up This Morning – Which has also been going down very well on “Live Performances”. Alvin gets into his stride right away. He works over a very heavy blues-riff. I think the band has really achieved what they started out to do here. I regard this album higher than their last effort “Stonedhenge” but it did reach number nine in the New Musical Express Album Chart. I tip this album to reaching into the top five album chart this time around         September 1969 - Fillmore East - Photo by Joseph Sia Other acts on the bill were: The Flock, Mother Earth and Fats Domino         New Musical Express - October 11, 1969 The tour opens in December 9 at New Castle City Hall. Further stops are Birmingham Town Hall (December 10), Guildhall, Southampton (11), Town Hall Nottingham (12), Colston Hall Bristol (13), Royal Albert Hall (15, Usher Hall, Edinburgh (17) and Free Trade Hall, Manchester (19).  Engagements before the tour – Ten Years After resume work tonight (Friday 10), at Birmingham University after a short holiday – include Regent Street Polytechnic tomorrow (11), T.V. filming in Paris (15) and Manchester University (18).   On October 20, 1969  Ten Years After flies to Germany to film “Beat Club” in Bremen and then play concerts in Brussels (23), Paris (24), Rotterdam (25) and Amsterdam (26). The group begins a tour of German concert halls in Munich on November (10), and from the 28 of that month until December 6, will be touring Scandinavia. After their British Tour, and a concert in Czechoslovakia on December 22, Ten Years After returns to America in January.  Blodwyn Pig – whose first LP “Ahead Rings Out”, is currently in the New Musical Express Albums Chart – flew to America on Tuesday to begin a seven week tour. Its album was released in the States on Friday – on the A & M label.         The Amouges Actual Festival Belgium October 24, through the 29, 1969 The main incentive was to invite jazz and rock musicians who were getting little or no attention in the United States to come to Europe and play, many of whom were already there and working after the Pan-African – Festival in Algiers in July of 1969.      Mont de L En élus Amoungies was The First Paris Music Festival, organised by BYG Actual, a French Record Label and Supported by the Ricard Foundation 60 Hours of Music for 60 Francs, with the Masters of Ceremony being Frank Zappa and Pierre Lattes. The five day, twenty four hour, open air festival was to be held at the Parc de Saint Cloud on Paris, but the French authorities banned the festival at the eleventh hour / just a few days before it was due  to start. “There were this group of people from Paris who put the shit on this festival, mainly because they were scared to death of having such large numbers in that city. The organisers then moved the entire festival to a cow and turnip pasture, where the temperature was approximately twenty or thirty degrees out there. Amougirs, Belgium, this was now a three hour drive east of Paris, but 20,000 people attended the event over the five day period, despite the seasonal cold, damp and foggy weather. It was really miserable, a few tents and the people began to show up out of nowhere. There was a tent that was held up by steel guiders and it held 15,000 freezing cold people, it was the most miserable circumstances that you could imagine. The kids who came there had their sleeping bags with them, and they were sleeping through…they were just in this laying on the ground, sleeping while the music went on around the clock, with all these different groups…and it was also being filmed.                   The people in charge turned on the PA (public-address – system) and to their surprise it worked. Next they turned on the lights and surprise once again, they also functioned properly. Then the groups actually began to play and by God, they had a Pop festival in the works, and then they looked at it and realized that they had to keep it going for five complete days. According to Frank Zappa, “The Mothers of Invention" had broken up, and I had time on my hands, these people contacted me and offered me $10,000 dollars to emcee at the festival, with all expenses paid. Except there was one major problem, they failed to inform me that the audience spoke only French, and I only spoke English, what kind of help could I be. So then they asked me if I would play guitar with some of the bands on the concert bill, but to make matters worse, I didn’t have my own guitar with me, so I ended up playing other peoples guitars. On top of this, the amplifiers that were around for everyone to us, kept blowing up or messing up all the time. Credit has to be given to Jean Karakos who did one hell of an excellent job getting it all together on such short notice. Despite the massive setback, the festival also drew a considerable amount of publicity than it might otherwise have had. It was a considerable success for Karakos, enabling him to finance his BYG record label. But overall a financial disaster, later on the record label went underground.   Why the festival didn’t take place in Paris, in further detail: This was due to the fact that this festival was happening one year after the violent student riots that took place in May of 1968. The Actual Festival was scheduled to be held in central Paris and the last thing the French authorities wanted was a Woodstock type festival where tens of thousands of youth would be congregating in the heart of the city. The authorities, were of the Charles de Gaulle’s presidency, vetoed the original concert site. Although it was widely attended when moved between the Belgium / France border, a lot of musicians felt that they had been ripped off. But on the positive side, quite a lot of good music was made there, and there were some very interesting jams. It also provided opportunities for many of the new jazz musicians to play in front of a large and enthusiastic audiences.   The Missing Film Footage: According to Delbrouck’s book, (Chronique Discographique)  - Jé rome Laperrousaz filmed all concerts at Amougies except – Ten Years After. Ten Years After duet of guitars with Alvin Lee, and East of Eden’s Philippe Thieyre. Said Frank Zappa in France 2003. In a conversation with the film maker, he was more than a little reluctant to discuss the situation, choosing instead to side-step the entire issue. So, the where a bouts of the original sound / film remains unknown to this day. At best, it’s gathering dust somewhere, at worst, it’s lost forever.                         The Beat Club 1969 1969 was a transitional year for the Beat Club, which saw the program rapidly shifting its focus from pop music to rock music, and reintroducing live performances. The first half of the year’s episodes were largely made up of middle of the road pop acts, miming / lip syncing to their latest hit record. Although there is some rare surviving film footage of Spooky Tooth and Caravan from this time period. Also, the only existing footage of Marsh Hunt’s brilliant rendition of  Dr. John’s “Walk On Guilded  Splinters” and Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger doing “Indian Rope Man” and two very quirky numbers from Melanie. After the live policy came into effect, the band “YES” belted out a memorably fantastic version of “No Opportunity Necessary” and Ten Years After did a great run through of “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl” that was accompanied by some impressive hippie dancing from an unknown girl in the audience. Co-Host Dave Lee Travis left the series after show 46 and was briefly replaced by Dave Dee. The show that featured Ten Years After was broadcast on Saturday October 25, 1969 from 4:15 to 5:16 pm. Also on the same show were, “Blodwyn Pig” doing “Modern Alchemist.” The band called “Tea and Symphony” doing “Boredom” and “The Nice” doing their “Hang On To A Dream.”               Thanks to Herbert Hauke for  permission to use the following great photos on our website                                      A photo may say a thousand words, but  for me, the eyes say it all in this photo. Copyright Herbert Hauke/Rainer Schwanke GbR www.rockmuseum.de     Ten Years After “Bad Scene”  on USA TV “Music Scene” show in colour October 27, 1969       Photo by Thom Lukas There's nothing like a good black and white photo, in order to bring out the real essence of the subject.     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.            This is another rare photo, four happy musicians, that are friends as well.        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.”    New Musical Express November 15, 1969     Ten Years After - Original Concert Program - From  1969 Chrysalis Presents Ten Years After – Stone The Crows – Bloodwyn Pig     Photo by Thom Lukas               Ten Years After  If an “Underground Group” is a group which achieves success without the paraphernalia of publicity, stunts and gimmickry, then Ten Years After are truly and “Underground Band”. They have earned their position in one way only, by their devotion to their music. Without mass exposure on television and Radio-One, they have become chart topping album sellers and one of the most important groups in England today. Their fame grew from the appreciation of people like yourselves in the audience tonight, who saw the band’s “Live Shows” and bought their albums. It’s gratifying to know that the British music scene has undergone a worthwhile transformation through the success of such groups as “Ten Years After”. The honestly of their approach has led to their having tracks, such as “Stoned Woman” and “Good Morning Little School Girl” being banned by the timorous Radio stations. Thus today, with artists who are appreciated for their musical validity and originality, Ten Years After hold a unique position on both sides of the Atlantic. After this concert tour, the band plan to spend six weeks rehearsing, writing and recording for a new album, for release in March, which they believe is going to be their “Heaviest” one yet. Alvin Lee’s brilliant guitar work has always been appreciated and has earned him one of the highest reputations in the world, moreover, his creative ability continues to expand at an incredible rate. He now writes much of the groups material, as on their album “Ssssh”. Leo Lyons (bass), Chick Churchill (organ) and Ric Lee (drums), are also musicians with an individual talent and loyal following. They each contribute as a unit whose heavy exciting sounds we shall hear this evening. Their enormous following in America is well known, they achieved a major success when they were at the legendary “Newport Jazz Festival” this summer, where they justified that invitation by the excitement they created, for the thousands upon thousands of music fans who travelled there just to see them perform. Ten Years After – Live on stage, work hard to create that atmosphere of excitement. That they continue to develop musically, is an indication of the reservoir of talent within them that that is still being tapped. STONE THE CROWS: At each of the Chrysalis concert tours this year, we have presented a good but relatively little known act in Britain as the bill opener. These have included Blodwyn Pig, Clouds and Terry Reid, each of whom has enjoyed increasing success following the tours. On our current tour we present “Stone The Crows” – featuring Maggie Bell (Vocals), Les Harvey (Guitar), Jim Dewar (Bass), Colin Allen (Drums), and John McGuiness (Organ). Although the group only got together in London at the end of October, they are no newcomers to the music business. The line-up includes ex-members of “Cartoone” and drummer Colin was formerly with John Mayall. Lead vocalist Maggie was a former member of the “Frankie and Johnny Duo”. With the exception of Colin, the band are all from Scotland. Already they have toured the preliminary rounds of “Blues” clubs and have recently completed their very first album, in a matter of only a few days. The band is finding it very easy writing material for their act and a prime example of their togetherness is the recently recorded song, “We Saw America” which extends for at least an entertaining twenty minutes. Captain Beefheart recently saw the band perform at the Speakeasy and afterwards over a round of drinks he told Maggie that she “knocked the shit out of Janis Joplin”. Whatever conclusion Beefheart has come to concerning Maggie’s talent, is his own opinion, you will have the opportunity of forming your own opinions this evening. This tour should consolidate the band’s promising future and they are already set for a two month tour of the States early next year.       BLODWYN PIG: It’s been a very hectic year for Blodwyn Pig, who formed in January of this year (1969). Within a week of formation, they were on the road and playing six or seven nights a week. Their album, “Ahead Rings Out” was recorded only a month after they teamed up together and hit the charts in both Britain and America. Since that time, they have knitted together to such an extent, that their second album promises to be quite a musical adventure. With no time for even a few days of rest, Blodwyn Pig were appearing extensively on the Continent, toured on a Nationwide Concert Tour with Led Zeppelin, appeared at several major festivals, including The Bath Festival, The Plumpton Festival and The Isle of Wight Festival, and then flew to America where they enjoyed immediate success. The band has still not had a break yet, as this tour began almost as soon as they returned from America, but they do enjoy the frantic pace of living that they’re engaged in. Although their success was immediate, it was deservedly so, for they have seen some pretty lean times prior to 1969. Mick Abrahams has been playing guitar professionally for almost six years and although the fruits of his labours have paid off, five of those years were spent in near poverty. The fact that he continued to play the type of music he considered worthwhile during the days of teeny-bopper domination, is a credit to his perseverance and belief in the intelligence of the British music enthusiast. Mick was pleased to gather such a talented team around him, musicians with the same approach and similar musical ideas to himself. Multi-instrumentalist Jack Lancaster is rated as one of the most versatile of all British musicians, and Andy Pile (bass) and Ron Berg (drums) help to make Blodwyn Pig the force they are today. On the formation of the band, Mick Abrahams comments: “Andy Pile used to be Victor Brox’s bass player, but before that he was in a group with Clive Bunker and myself, a three piece called “McGregor’s Engine”. At the time we always said we’d stick together, but things happened to split us up. Jack Lancaster I knew from when I used to live on Manchester. We used to blow at some of the jazz clubs up there. Ron Berg has proved himself a mate in the short amount of time that I’ve known him. Yes, the geysers I’m working with now are all my mates, as well as good musicians. We like looning around a bit, but music is the most important thing”.       NEW MUSICAL EXPRESS, November, 15, 1969   Friday December 12, 1969 - Albert Hall in Nottingham - a very  special  concert  for  the band and  their  loyal  local  fans.      Record  Mirror  November 19, 1969       December 4, 1969 – It Magazine   Ten Years After have just returned from another highly successful tour of America. The groups fourth album is high in the British L.P. charts, and things look rosy for Alvin Lee and Company. What does Alvin really think of the Stateside scene, and the group’s image in Britain? Alvin and Leo were interviewed in the group’s house off the Edgeware Rd. by Dave Williams, after a long trudge from the Chrysalis office, on the day of the last tube strike. (Background info for groupies and others). Ric Lee and Chick Churchill were out attending to the modes of transport, a Bentley and a Morris Minor respectively. The interview has been ruthlessly edited, due to the fact that it lasted about two and a half hours, and was interrupted by phone calls, parcels arriving and a very welcome tea-break. Dave: How did Ten Years After begin? Alvin: We originally came from Nottingham and moved up to London about four years ago. Ten Years After started about three years ago. (enter Leo in Wild West attire) Myself and this cowboy walking in, we’ve been in different bands for about ten years. Ric joined us, and we began doing backing and session work. Then we got Chick Churchill, so we decided to give up that trip and play something else. We started Ten Years After and that surprisingly enough, is when we started to make some money. All the time before, we were thinking “How could we make some money”. We’ve had four albums out now, but never really had a single. Well there was one but……… Dave: “Hear Me Calling”? Alvin: Yes, but they more or less released that without our knowing. Dave: You’ve just returned from the States again, Alvin, What do you think of the place? Can you stand it for months on end? Alvin: It’s an interesting place. He’s all for it (points to Leo Lyons). I couldn’t stand it for long. After a while I want to get back home.    Dave: Because of the travelling, or the people? Alvin: Well, I don’t like the people too much. They’re a bit paranoiac, don’t you think? Leo: I don’t really take the people into account too much when I say I like the country. There are people you like and people you don’t like in every country. Alvin: But then as far as that goes, I suppose you could say Russia is groovy if you don’t take the people into account! Leo: I’m sure there’s some nice people in Russia. There’s got to be. Alvin: But in the States, there’s such an antagonistic thing between short and long hair. Leo: Yeah, but you’ve got to take into account that England is like a quarter of the size, of one State of America. Dave: You think that America has trouble spots in a few places then? Leo: What I’m saying is that it’s so much bigger, that there are places which are good and places which are bad. You can’t really take it as a whole. Alvin: I think it is a hole! Dave: Did you see Easy Rider? Leo: Yes, I enjoyed the film as an extreme.   Dave: You don’t think the film was very reprehensive then? Leo: Oh yes; it was reprehensive as an extreme. You’ve got extremes in every country. It put forward a general feeling of a percentage of people in America. There are a lot of people who think certain things are disgusting, but they wouldn’t throw bricks at you or blow your head off with a shotgun for it. They amplified it to put a point over, in other words. Alvin: The underground is exceedingly so there. Like, it’s very split from everything else. Dave: Yes, but youth is more united there. You don’t have so many divisions like hippies, skinheads and angles. Alvin: I don’t think skinheads really exist though. A lot of them are mock skinheads, just following a fashion. Leo: The thing is they read what they’re suppose to be and copy it. It’s rather sick that people stick labels on things: like a hippie, a skinhead, a straight. Alvin: To most people we’re probably hippies. Yet I don’t think I’ve never met anyone who says “I’m a hippie”. No-one ever admits it, people are just called it. Leo: People have got to stick labels on things, and they’ve got to generalise. Alvin: What I don’t like, I saw it creeping in from the States and I see it creeping in here, is the kind of cutting off of the underground from the rest of society. It’s not going to be cool in the long run, because you can’t just say “Fuck the establishment we’re going to have our own trip”. Dave: Do you mean people like squatters? Alvin: Yeah, I could quite understand how anybody could say that wasn’t cool. It’s going to cost somebody an awful lot of money to repair that building after all. Dave: 144 Piccadilly?   Alvin: Yes, they have these communes in the States. People go out into the desert and build huts and things. That’s all very well, but after awhile somebody’s going to wish they had hot water and a tap. It’s just the idealism to that extent isn’t going to make it. Dave: There’s a world of difference between, say the people in 144 and the people who go to see a concert at the Lyceum. They might look and dress the same but the difference is in the attitudes. Alvin: Oh, 144 was an extremist thing. It’s the first time anything’s happened to that degree, but it shows a leaning towards it happening that way, and I don’t think it would be cool if it caught on in a big way. Leo: The difficult thing is that everybody is forced to take sides. Look at it this way – I’m on one side now, but if I go out tomorrow and get a haircut and wear a suit I’ll be on the other side. It’s like the underground press in a way, split from the rest. Dave: What do you think of the underground pop press in general? You don’t seem to get an awful lot of good reviews lately. Alvin: I’ve got past that stage where I worry about bad reviews. The only thing you’ve got to worry about is when people start throwing bricks at you on stage, but whatever people write doesn’t worry us too much. (Alvin reads out nasty reviews of Ten Years After’s last album from recent IT embarrassing interviewer Dave and friend Hillary). Dave: (Covering Up) I think you got a worse one in Time Out actually. Alvin: Oh, we get some real stinkers. One of the reasons is we’ve never been a group to make it big on the social scene. We go to press receptions and its not that we don’t like individual editors as such, but we get a bit pissed off with the general hyper-market games. We go home and everybody takes offence. We don’t really mean any harm – it’s just a reflex action. Dave: You’ve had some bad interviews then? Alvin: Well, I spent an evening with three reporters from IT once, then found out that they didn’t really work for IT at all. One guy came round to interview us, and about sixteen people came round and scored off him. He’d given them all our address. Perhaps wrongly, but I associate that with IT for a long time. Then there was the time we did an interview with Rolling Stone. A guy came in like, very heavy and matter of fact. We just weren’t quite ready for it. Leo: Their attitude is, “Well, we both know where you’re at, and nobody else does, so lets shoot straight. Like, we’ve got you completely figured, so kiss my ass and maybe I’ll say something nice about you. Plus the fact that they like to be heavy. This guy was trying really hard, and we were sending him up a bit. Ever since, Rolling Stone has been really down on us in the States. Alvin: I think people who are intellectual enough to know what, they want, make up their own minds anyway. (pause) Alvin: That seems to have ruined the whole idea of doing an interview. (break for tea). Dave: Which groups turn you on? Alvin: Oh, a very mixed bag really. From Classical to…I don’t know what…as far as rock bands go, I like Steve Miller. Dave: Did any of the bands impress you at the recent Belgian pop festival you played? Alvin: There were about four avant-garde  jazz bands, Aynsley Dunbar and ourselves the night we were on. By the time we played it, was about half past two in the morning and the whole audience had been completely battered by these avant- garde jazz bands, that went on before us. I’ve never heard anything like that in my whole life. The drummer was hitting everything in sight, with no timing and the sax player, had the microphone right down his sax, It made a terrible row. All horrible harsh sounds. Dave: Was the concert open air? Leo: No. In a tent. Amazing really, it was about half the size of a football field. Alvin: We jammed with Zappa in Brussels while we were there. Dave: What did you make of him as a person? Alvin: He is in fact pretty straight. Like more of a business head type. He’s completely the opposite of what he looks like. Never taken any dope in his life. I’m always a bit wary of people who have never tried it. It tends to me to look as if they are saying “I’m on to something, and I don’t think you are, because you’re stupid”.  Perhaps it’s just me….But for someone in Frank Zappa’s position, as one of the underground heads, and he’s not even had a joint, well that’s a really strange scene. Leo: He’s obviously kept it together and got his own scene. Dave: Do you find much problem in Europe with the language barrier? Alvin: The last gig we did in Amsterdam  was incredible. When you play another country for the first time, it’s difficult to tell what’s happening because everybody’s got their own characteristics. We did the first number and they all started slow-hand-clapping, and we thought they were telling us to piss off, or something. It was only later that we found out that it was their way of saying something was groovy. As for the language barrier, most of them on the continent speak a little English. All the English sounds get in the charts. The English are very lazy with languages on the whole. Dave: What is the most interesting gig you have played? Alvin: Oh, Woodstock definitely. A quarter of a million people – you can’t imagine what it was like. If I spent two hours explaining, you still wouldn’t have the full picture. It was like an underground world, everything was there but completely cut off – you know – tents, water, supplies – just everything. We had to fly in by helicopter. Dave: How did you go down: Alvin: It was nearly a disaster. We went on, started a number, and we were miles out of tune. It was “Schoolgirl” we were going to play, and there was heavy riffling between bass and guitar and the organ and everything was tuned differently. So we had a quick tune-up, started again, and it was even worse. We stopped, fiddled around, restarted and it was worse again. So I said something really funny like, “We’re going to try this number once more, because its nice if we can play it in tune, and I wish I was dead!” It was really a bad start, but it all came together well in the end. Dave: There was some trouble with “Schoolgirl” in the States wasn’t there? Alvin: Not Really. One station in New York banned us. They started bleeping over the part where it said “I want to ball you” so we decided that it was better for them not to play it at all. I mean it doesn’t sound right does it, “I want to bleep you”? When we went over there we learnt the word ball as opposed to all the others, like screw. Everybody says it there – ball-ball-ball, all the time. I thought it was just accepted like you might say, “getting it together” over there. I thought it was a cool word to say, and they didn’t dig it, that’s all. Must be the language barrier again.  (laughing). Dave: I hear you’re recording a single for future release. Did you write it? Alvin: I’m getting it together now. There are some policy problems on it. We don’t really know as a group whether we want a big money-earning hit. Dave: I think a well played single can be a good thing. It spreads the word a little. Alvin: Yes, it helps make the underground less underground. At first. I said “We’re not going to sell out”, but that’s like saying that we only play to underground people and that’s not true either. I don’t agree with that. We’re not going to record a commercial single, but the difficulty is getting something that represents the group sound on a short enough track, because the whole point of having a single is that it has to be reasonably short – otherwise nobody will play it. Leo: You see, if there were FM stations over here, like there are in the States, then people would have the opportunity of getting to know what’s happening without going to such an extreme as checking up on a group personally. If they could hear things on the radio, then there wouldn’t be an awful need for a single. Alvin: A single gives people an added opportunity of finding out about a group. We could record something, like some of the managerial demons suggested, that would make you run into the bathroom and shut your ears. But that’s just thinking of the bread really. It’s just a small minded way of looking at it. A short term trip. We could make a noise in the studio, create a commercial single; but it would have nothing to do with Ten Years After, except that we did the session, and we would probably get a reasonable hit out of it. It’s fairly easy to get a hit if you play something  merry that jogs along, we wouldn’t play it live though, and it wouldn’t relate to us. It could mean we’d have to go on Top of the Pops and do the whole thing, and that would kill us. I just don’t see the point of it all. Dave: I think Jethro Tull have done reasonably well as far as singles are concerned, don’t you? Alvin: They’re not one of my favourite bands. I’ve never really been sure about Jethro Tull because I know the manager. I don’t know if Jethro Tull does in fact exist. Dave: You think they are a bit artificial? Alvin: Certainly the bass player and the guitarist, they’re not saying anything, they’re believing. I’m not saying it’s bad, after all they’re providing entertainment, but I wouldn’t do that.. I was a bit annoyed because they came to the States, with a kind of “British Underground Group” thing, you know like a hype on the States. They didn’t catch on there, and then came back to England with a, “Here they come after their fantastic tour of the States” trip. Dave: And when that happens you usually find it cost more to go and see a group right? Alvin: Right. I don’t like to brag, but we were lucks in the States and did pretty well, and it gets a bit of a drag when you read that all the bands that go over there come back and “everybody’s done a bomb – fantastic tour of the States” Then if we say the same thing, people say, “Oh Yeah, everybody’s doing that aren’t they”. Dave: Finally. How do you see the group progressing in the next year? Alvin: Ah, the big question! To a certain degree it will be a natural progression. Personally, I’d like to get some hi-fi together or rock, rather than Mantovani. I might even like to open a hi-fi shop. I don’t want to work out, musically, what we are going to be doing that far ahead.   Article by, Dave Williams November 5, 1969                  Ten Years After on Danish TV – December 6, 1969 – play: I Can’t Keep From Crying Sometimes – I May Be Wrong But I Won’t Be Wrong Always – Scat Thing and Good Morning Little Schoolgirl     Record  Mirror  December  20,  1969     Ten Years After – Three Years Later Disc and Music Echo – December 20, 1969 Ten Years After, who don’t like being pigeon-holed, but for all that are one of Britain’s finest progressive blues groups, were unusually scared last week at the beginning of their short sell-out concert tour with Blodwyn Pig and Stone The Crows, which ends tomorrow (Friday) night at Manchester’s Free Trade Hall. Scared because they have spent so little time this year in their native land, that they were unsure whether or not they would still  be accepted. “But the audiences have been really fantastic,” says bass guitarist Leo Lyons. “We were afraid people here had gone off us for being away on the Continent and in America for so long. “I think it’s great to work all over the place, but on the other hand I’d like to work more in Britain, and hope that next year we will be able to”. Now, Ten Years After are back on the British road again, and what does Leo think of Alvin’s remarks a few months back, that Britain has no really good concert halls? “I don’t fully agree. I still love the Marquee and Klooks Kleek and places where we started and got our first great audiences. And the Albert Hall does have something special attached to it which affects you quite differently from any other place in the country. “Right now we want to do more than anything else, is get down to writing and rehearsing some new stage numbers. What we’re playing on this tour, we’ve been playing for nearly three years, and while we still like the numbers, we do get the feeling that audiences have seen and heard it all before. “We’re very much affected by audience reaction, and we like to create an atmosphere of sympathy with our audience whenever possible, and the more responsive the audience is, the better we play”. On stage in fact, Ten Years After are very set in their ways. They jam freely during each number, but the numbers themselves are fairly rigidly  fixed. “We shouldn’t complain, but we’ve just not had the time to sit down and write new material, and it’s got to be good new material. While we’re about it, (at it) we’re going to try and get much of it down for the new LP. “We’ve never really been satisfied with our LP’s so far. The last, “Ssssh” was the best, but it suffered from having been recorded too quickly. It only took two and a half weeks. After a week off for Christmas, we’ve got six weeks to really get something together”. On February 13, 1969 Ten Years After leave for yet another tour of America, but do they feel they will be around after the “British Blues Boom” is over? “I think, as with every boom, those who were in at the beginning will survive, and I think that includes us. There are an awful lot of groups only just leaping on the American bandwagon and somehow I don’t think many of these will benefit or last very long. It never pays to copy !” Ssssh…It’s Ten Years After, now midway through their sell-out British Tour Left to Right:  Chick Churchill – Leo Lyons – Alvin Lee – Ric Lee      This is an excellent way to finish  this page - with a serious looking Alvin Lee    back to MENU