Ten Years After – Bad Scene
Ten Years After
For many bands, the performance at the Woodstock Festival has become a ticket to a great career. This was the case with the band Ten Years After.
Of course, we are talking about the famous first Woodstock, which took place from August 15 to 18, 1969 at Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel near New York. On Sunday, the last day of the festival, Ten Years After appeared on the stage.
The British showed the Americans their way of seeing blues, rock-blues, boogie and swinging. Guitarist Alvin Lee and his friends found a perfect match on the American market, they quickly became the attraction of club concerts, and later the star of large music festivals. Their records sold well, as did tickets to their performances, and Alvin Lee’s speed of guitar placed him in the super band.
However, a crisis ensued, as a result of which Alvin suspended operations of Ten Years After, establishing the Ten Years Later, the Alvin Lee Company and the Alvin Lee Band, respectively. His friends from the group made many attempts to negotiate with him and finally the musicians decided to continue operating under the name Ten Years After. However, there were changes in the line-up, the most important of which was Alvin’s final departure from the band in 2003 (the musician died a decade later). He was replaced by Joe Gooch, and in 2013 he was replaced by singing guitarist Marcus Bonfanti, winner of the British Blues Award. At the same time, Colin Hodgkinson, a musician who has collaborated with, among others, Chris Rea, The Eric Delaney Band, Back Door, Whitesnake and Jon Lord, became the band’s bassist.
However, the personal turmoil did not change the nature of the music performed by the band – it is still a passionate and energetic mix of blues and hard rock. The keyboards Chick Churchill and the drummer Ric Lee are constantly on guard of this quality. They are instrumentalists who have been part of Ten Years After from the very beginning – they played at the famous Woodstock festival in 1969, and also took part in the recording of all albums of the British group. So, Ten Years After still perform all their most famous hits – at the Saturday concert at the Alibi club there will certainly be the biggest ones, i.e. “I’m Going Home” or “I’d Love to Change the World” – adding a little bit to them now. more bluesy flavor and contemporary sound.
TEN YEARS AFTER
The band was founded in 1967 and operated until 1975. It was reactivated for a while in 1983, and has been operating continuously since 1988 until now
Studio albums: “Ten Years After” (1967), “Stonedhenge” (1969), “Ssssh” (1969), “Cricklewood Green” (1970), “Watt” (1970), “A Space in Time” (1971), “Rock & Roll Music to the World” (1972), “Positive Vibrations” (1974), “About Time” (1989), “Now” (2004), “Evolution” (2008) and seven concert albums
The Ten Years After the band was formed in 1967. It includes Alvin Lee, Chick Churchill, Leo Lyons and Ric Lee.
The first album Ten Years After, released by Decca, was not a great success, but the second – concert album “Undead” from 1968 – won the charts, thanks to the song “I’m Going Home”. The Stonehenge album also turned out to be a great work of the group. It was similar to “Ssssh” and “Cricklewood Green”. On the latter was the hit “Love Like a Man”. The album “Watt” became the last record recorded in cooperation with Decca, and the band moved to Columbia.
There, he changed the sound of his work to more pop, thanks to which in 1971 he created the album “A Space In Time” with the hit “I Want Love To Change The Word”. The record sold in a golden edition.
In 2001, Ric Lee, searching for re-edition CDs, came across recordings from “Live at the Fillmore East 1970”. He asked Alvin for help in the promotion of the publishing house, but he refused. Fortunately, the rest of the team was more enthusiastic about this proposal and along with Joe Goochem again went on tour. Band also worked on new material, thanks to which in 2004 they released “Now”. A year later, we could also listen to the double album “Roadworks”.
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