They followed Undead with, Stonehenge, in February 1969 that made the Top 10 of the UK album charts. It featured their show stopping, ‘I’m Going Home’, which the band played so effectively at Woodstock it was the genesis of Alvin Lee – guitar-god. It made the UK charts in the autumn of the same year. In 1968 they released Undead, a live album that showcased the band’s great stage show. Among the tracks was an excellent cover of Al Kooper’s ‘I Can’t Keep from Crying Sometimes’. This secured a contract with Decca Records subsidiary, Deram who released their self titled debut album in October 1967. Ten Years After’s big break came in 1967 when they played the National Jazz & Blues Festival held at Windsor Racecourse to the west of London. After several name changes they settled on Ten Years After in 1966 Alvin Lee idolized Elvis Presley and this was ten years after 1956, Elvis’ annus mirabilis. It was just Alvin and Leo Lyons of the Woodstock line up in the original band, with Ric Lee joining in 1965 (Ric was no relation to Alvin, who’s real name was the much less glamourous sounding Graham Barnes) Chick Churchill joined a year later, by which time the band had moved to London to try and make the big times. Ten Years After were no overnight sensation, having originally learned their chops in the Nottinghamshire area of the English Midlands, in 1960 as Ivan Jay and the Jaycats to begin with they were just another beat band. After the festival, the band, and Alvin Lee in particular, were elevated to superstar status. But Alvin Lee really was that successful, as a guitarist and as a member of Ten Years After, who were, for a while, one of the biggest live bands in the world thanks to their appearance in the Woodstock movie.īefore their appearance at Woodstock, Ten Years After was just another British blues band, with jazz overtones. It’s all too easy to look back through the telescope of history and be fooled into believing that an artist was influential and significant, when perhaps their reputation has been created by subsequent generations.
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