In addition to recording their fourth album, Ssssh. (which was entirely written by Alvin Lee apart from a cover of Sonny Boy Williamson’s classic “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl”), they were among the first rock groups invited perform at the Newport Jazz Festival.
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Ten Years After was busy in the summer of 1969. charts, which was Ten Years After’s highest chart placement to date. This was the first Ten Years After album to be largely self-written, with contributions from Leo Lyons and Chick Churchill in addition to more Alvin Lee originals. This live album, recorded during a club show in London in May, continued the pattern set by the first album and included Alvin’s Lee’s closing showstopper “I’m Going Home.” After yet more relentless touring, the band was able to record their third album, Stonedhenge, which was issued in February 1969. A second album, Undead, was released in August of that year. The band toured internationally for the first time in 1968, with tours of Europe and the United States. The self-titled Ten Years After album (Deram, 1967) mixed old blues covers and Alvin Lee originals. The album mixed blues standards like “Spoonful” and “Help Me” with bluesy Alvin Lee originals and sold well enough to gain the band a larger profile in their native country. Without so much as an initial single release, the band recorded their first self-titled album in September 1967, which was rush-released by Deram in October. In August 1967 the group played at the Windsor Jazz Festival and were so ecstatically received that they were offered a contract with Deram Records, a subsidiary of the British Decca label. Now sporting an edgy blues sound, the band gigged around London using the names Blues Trip and Blues Yard before settling on Ten Years After, a name chosen in honor of 1966 being the 10th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s commercial breakout year.īy 1967, Ten Years After was melting audiences with a residency at London’s prestigious Marquee Club, during which time they honed their loud and aggressive performance style. In short order, the group attracted the attention of a manager in the form of Chris Wright, who with his business partner Terry Ellis would go on to form the Chrysalis management agency and later the Chrysalis Records label.
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Not long after this stint, the band expanded to a four-piece with the addition of keyboardist Chick Churchill. Trimmed down to a three-piece, The Jayhawks migrated to London and got a gig working as the backup band for the British vocal trio The Ivy League. Following Jay’s departure, Alvin Lee assumed vocal duties and the band continued to perform as The Jaybirds.ĭavid Quickmire left the band in 1965 and was replaced by Ric Lee (no relation to Alvin). This band featured rhythm guitarist Ray Cooper and drummer David Quickmire and was fronted by vocalist Ivan Jay, who left the band along with Ray Cooper in 1962. Inspired by earthy American blues and early rock and roll records, guitarist Alvin Lee and bassist Leo Lyons began playing shows together around the Nottingham/Mansfield area of northern England in 1960, initially as Ivan Jay and the Jayhawks. Good Morning Little Schoolgirl (including two false starts).
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Performed Sunday night, August 17, 8:30–9:30 pmįrom the 1970 feature documentary, Woodstock, Alvin Lee of Ten Years After in split-screen on the Woodstock stage. Capturing the total absurdity of playing for half a million people on a farm in upstate New York, guitarist and lead singer Alvin Lee of Ten Years After announced the final song in the band’s Woodstock set this way: “This is a thing called “I’m Going Home”…by helicopter.”Ĭelebrating the 50th anniversary of the Woodstock festival, August 1969–2019 Day Three, Performer 3: Ten Years After