ALVIN LEE & TEN YEARS LATER

 

Melody Maker  -  17 February  1978     Alvin Lee, who emerged from the ashes of  Ten Years After to form Ten Years Later earlier this year, flies into Britain next month to play a one-off show at London’s Hammersmith Odeon with his new band. The band – Lee (guitar, vocals) Mick Hawksworth (bass) and Tom Compton  (drums), started a European tour in May that included a show in front of 5,000 Parisians. Melody Makers own Chris Welch was there for the evening and witnessed a show that included “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl.” “Help Me” and the song Lee once vowed never to play again, “Going Home”. Since, Europe and the release of the bands first album, Lee has been playing in America, but he and Ten Years Later return to Britain for the Hammersmith show on September 8, 1978

18 February 1978

 

The Alvin Lee Photo to the left, is from this German T.V. guide magazine seen above. The Alvin photo was a part of Brigitte's vast collection of clippings. By accident, I stumbled upon the original cover on ebay. It gives us great pleasure to reconnect the original source with  the clippings.This gives us a valuable time frame within which to work Every fragment is a part of the whole Ten Years After / Alvin Lee history.  <--  "...In March the band will be on tour in Germany"

  "Rocket Fuel"  released in April 1978

Tour Dates 1978 Germany

April 4, 1978   Alvin Lee and Ten Years Later, Audimax, Hamburg

 Photo by Jens Strube

 

1978, April 8 - ALVIN LEE & TEN YEARS LATER in Stuttgart at Gustav-Siegle Haus         Stage Set Up - Photos by Christoph Müller -               John Hembrow       Alvin Lee's second Gibson       John Hembrow, Mick Hawksworth, Alvin Lee   Tom Compton, Alvin Lee

10 April 1978 - Ten Years Later -   Hochschule der Künste, Berlin, Germany

  26 April 1978 - Pavilion de Paris

10 May, 1978   -   ROCK HEBDO, French newspaper

front page

Ten Years Later in Paris, 26 April 1978  -  Photos: Gilles Bascop

French Magazine ROCK HEBDO, 10 May 1978 - page 9

     (Contribution by Christoph Müller)

"Melody Maker" mentions recent concert in Paris

 

6 May 1978 - Melody Maker   The English tamed a monster that terrorised the streets of Paris last week. A giant boiled egg seven feet in its cup, was manfully tackled by Alvin Lee with a flying leap the drew cheers from revellers spilling across the cobblestones at 3:00 am. The monster had wobbled majestically along La Rue Farncois Miron, propelled by a team of bearded madmen who turned out to be, Alvin’s road-crew. They had captured the prize and presented it to the phantom guitarist as a token of their love and affection. There was a lot of affection for Alvin on this night of nights. It marked a return to active service by one of the giants of the rock guitar. If Alvin ever felt uncomfortable, worried or embarrassed about making a comeback, with a band called Ten Years Later, he didn’t show it in the slightest on this trip to France last week. Earlier, there had been dates in Germany where he had been greeted with heart-warming fervour, and the fans at the Pavilion Porte de Panpin on Wednesdaylast week roared, whistled and stamped their approval after a blistering performance. When Tom Compton on an enormous drum kit, and Mick Hawksworth on a double necked bass guitar. Ten Years Later are strickly into hard rock violence, as all three are survivors of the 1960’s. But for Tom and Mick, it’s a case of success arriving after some years of struggle. They played Good Morning Little School Girl – Friday The 13th – but the best feature of the night came with Tom and Mick pounding out a simple four to the bar beat, while the guitar player extemporised, quoted from other songs, including Sunshine of Your Love, and played every rock guitar lick of the past fifteen years. As a piece of history, it was quite unique. I think it was on "Writing You A Letter" that Tom played his drum solo, withsome splended bass drum work, a ferocious turn of speed and good sense of construction. But all sense of proprieties of rock were stripped away as Alvin cocked his head to the chants of the audience – "Going Home" he asked ! The bands album, just released has already sold 300,000 copies in America, and after their European warm-up, eyes are already turning towards the States. To my surprise, it transpired that Ten Years Later have already played a tour of England, and Alvin who went unrecognised in Manchester, was told he was a brilliant young guitarist who should get a recording contract. Alvin told the would be A&R man, that he already had nine albums. At one club, punks thought the added attraction was to be Johnny Rotten and the Sex Pistols, who were actually doing the same thing at the time, and on the same circuit. "They kept yelling for punk-rock, so I took a mouthful of beer and spat it all over them." Said Alvin. "They loved it!" Certifiable Maniacs drove us through the streets of Paris at 70 miles per hour. Here the road crew, astounded by us desending the steep steps into the caves where we were drinking, and armed with the giant "Polystyrene Egg." Apparently, the night before they had nicked (stolen) a "Plastic Chicken" in Germany and presented it to Alvin on stage. "Oh, I don’t know what to say!" said Alvin as he attempted to restrain Tom Compton from carving the monster up with a table knife. Alvin says, "There was even an attempt to re-form Ten Years After with Chick Churchill and Ric Lee, which had apparently been a disapointment." "The audience reaction has been really good on this tour." "With Ten Years After, it got to the point where it was all too much. We didn’t have the time to change the music – ya know." Alvin’s Comeback – Ten Years Later – Alvin Lee Returns !

11 June 1978 - CIAO2001

page 62 & 63

CIAO2001, page 64

 

Alvin Lee Tour Dates 1978 -  USA and Germany U S A   May 3, 1978 – Cobo Arena Detroit Michigan   3 May 1978 - TEN YEARS LATER at Cobo Hall, Detroit, MI Photographer: Thomas Weschler   Contributions by JOHN T :)       Alvin Lee / Ten Years Later  1978 -  RKO Orpheum Theatre, South Bend, Indiana May 19, 1978 – Winterland San Francisco, California Alvin plays the following: Gonna Turn You On – Good Morning Little School Girl – Help Me – Ain’t Nothin´ Shakin´ (but the leaves on the tree) – Scat Thing – Hey Joe and I’m Goin´ Home. May 24, 1978 - Alvin Lee & Ten Years Later Uptown Theater in Kansas City, Missouri, USA.  Opening act were "Shooting Star", a local Kansas City, Missouri band that one year later would become the first US act to be signed to Richard Branson's Virgin Records.     Our Thanks to Jay Plumb for sharing his memories and ticket stub with all of us   May 28, 1978, Dallas       May 31, 1978 – Armadillo World Headquarters, Austin, Texas   July 1978 – Stage West,  Hartford, Connecticut July 23, 1978 – Calderone Concert Hall, Hempstead Long Island, New York. This concert was broadcast Live on WLIR radio. The songs included: Gonna Turn You On – Good Morning Little School Girl – Help Me – It’s A Gaz – Ain’t Nothin´ Shakin´ which also includes a twenty minute drum solo from Tom Compton. Scat Thing – Hey Joe – I’m Goin´ Home – Choo – Choo – Mama – and Rip It Up. July 27, 1983 - Stanley Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA August 11, 1978 – Municipal Auditorium, San Antonio, Texas       Germany August 26, 1978 – Dona Park Ulm, Germany – other acts on the bill include the following: Frank Zappa – Joan Baez – John McLaughlin – and The One Truth Band – The Scorpions and Brand x. September 1, 1978 – Radrennbahn Mungersdorf Cologne, Germany  September 3, 1978 – Ludwigspark Stadion Saabrücken, Germany September 8, 1978 – At the famous Hammersmith Odeon in London, England September 13, 1978 – At the Grugahalle in Essen, Germany. The entire concert was video taped / recorded and several songs were broadcast on the “Rockpalast Music Television Program”. September 29, 1978 – At the Deutschland Halle in Berlin, Germany

June 1978  -  POPULAR 1 Magazine No. 60,  Spain

front page

Ten Years Later in Paris, 26 April  -  Photos: Martin J. Louis or Juan M. Mercado

page 43

 

Many Thanks to Jay Plumb: "A snapshot of how Alvin Lee fit into the Kansas City concert scene of 1978."

click picture to enlarge

"Fingerflink" im PDF Format  

      

Bangor, Maine - 1978 “I first saw Alvin Lee and Ten Years After at London’s Royal Albert Hall in early May 1969, where they appeared with Jethro Tull and an unknown and now long since forgotten band called Clouds. As a guitar player in my own right, I was blown away. I was fortunate to see Ten Years After four more times between then and March of 1973, all in Berlin, Germany. The concerts included the Berlin Superfest, which featured: Ten Years After with Procol Harem, when Robin Trower was with the group, Canned Heat, on the same day that they found Alan “Blind Owl” Wilson dead in California, and Jimi Hendrix, in what proved to be Jimi’s last “Live” concert. Ten Years After, was always a class act, taking time out to acknowledge their fans and pay them respect. It was some years later, while I was a working reporter with a Maine daily newspaper, that I got to meet Alvin Lee in person backstage before an appearance at the Bangor Auditorium. At that time, Alvin was heading his new band configuration called, Ten Years Later, and the audience they would be playing to was extremely small. Alvin and his crew came out swinging and burned the house down. I’ve played guitar for more than thirty years now and Alvin’s influence on my style is hard to miss. Only a handful of guitarist have ever made me stop and take notice, and Alvin Lee stands at the head of the class. He is truly an original, and Alvin and Ten Years After more than deserve to be inducted into the “Rock `n´ Roll Hall of Fame.” They’ve paid their dues, and their influence on a generation of blues-based rockers cannot be over-looked. By Peter Weaver Alvin Lee and Ten Years Later in Michigan, 1978 - Photo by Thomas Weschler

Albany - Saratoga Springs Rock Music Festival 1978
Blue Oyster Cult, Alvin Lee of Ten Years After with his new band band Ten Years Later, Rick Derringer
and the British Lions

12 August, 1978  -  "Alvin's return"  -  Melody Maker

8, September 1978  -  Alvin Lee & Ten Years Later at Hammersmith Odeon, London

 

16 September 1978 ALVIN LEE By Karl Dallas Oh dear, I thought, same old thing: a hundred million choruses of “Going Home,” and each more boring than the last. Then I thought: That’s no attitude to take when you’re going to a big comeback concert, so I pulled myself together, tried to remember those halcyon through sweaty days down at the Marquee, when Alvin and his band really deserved the title of guitar heroes, buckled on my faded denims and prepared to enjoy myself at Hammersmith Odeon.  I’m afraid I was right, the first time. Undoubtedly, there is still an audience for this kind of thing, as evidence the seemingly unending stream of sound alike heavy metal bands. American record companies seem to dredge up from old corners of the mid-west, and though the audience was not jam-packed, there were enough of them to ensure that Harvey Goldsmith didn’t loose any money on the gig.  He came out in person, incidentally. To ask for a minutes silence for Keith Moon, and got it surprisingly, which was nice. Then he introduced the band, and all hell let loose long before  the interval had ended, about ninety per cent of the audience had left their seats and packed the area in front of the stage, and they got no hassles from the usually ubiquitous Odeon bouncers, for doing so. Fists grabbed for sky as Alvin came on, and from then on it was your actual time warp. Woodstock and all that, the fingered V-Signs, (two arms extended up into the air, making a third V). and even to the peace symbol on Alvin’s guitar.  Me, I found it quite easy to stay in my seat. It wasn’t merely that it was so predictable, which was probably the charm of it all to the audience, but that Alvin seemed determined to grab for himself the mantle of all the heave metal guitarist who had gone before.  So we got a bit of Cream, a version of Jimi Hendrix’s “Hey Joe”  that was sufficiently alike to provoke invidious comparison, but not good enough to be described as a true tribute. And  even, incongruously enough a brief chorus of “That’ll Be The Day”. I might have thought Alvin was thrashing around, wondering what in hell to do next, if everything hadn’t been so tight, for this is a good little band. If only the leader could display a little more creative inspiration. After the first couple of numbers, a treacherous thought crossed my mind, that I had actually heard it all by now, and I could reasonably slope off without hearing the same licks done to death for the rest of an evening, which I might spend more profitably elsewhere. I perished the thought and sat it through to the end, which was (of course) “Going Home”. It didn’t go on as long as it did in the Woodstock movie, but out of its time it didn’t have that performances period charm either. I chewed my knuckles and waited for the inevitable, because I think those heavy metal freaks would have torn the place apart if Alvin hadn’t come back, though God knows why, They had all the same licks on all their Ten Years After albums at home.

 

December 6, 1978 - Rock Hebdo, France     Front Page:  Ten Years Later in Paris, April 26 - Photo: Gilles Bascop     page 7