Rock Scene Magazine 1978-1981
NME – October 11, 1980
Music Week – October 11, 1980
October 16, 1980 – Poole
Music Week – November 22, 1980
“Ciao 2001” magazine (Italy) – December 14, 1980
Translation:
**From our correspondent**
**LONDON.** Alvin Lee, the hero of the mythical Woodstock, “the fastest guitar in the West,” one of the most idolized rock guitarists, today has a wife, a daughter and is 35 years old. Yet he is still “on the road.” After about fifteen years of musical ups and downs with Ten Years After, alone or with the more recent Ten Years Later, Alvin continues as a good rock’n’roller on his pioneering path in contemporary music. Alvin Lee stands on the threshold of the Eighties with a brand-new band, made up of excellent musicians not too young, but with a vitality and freshness that are rare nowadays.
“The Alvin Lee Band” has been around for about six months and, after a long warm-up, the first album, *Free Fall*, has finally arrived, already released in England and scheduled for early January on Ricordi in Italy. With the album also come the tours and, after the USA between the old year and the new, Europe will follow.
The English tour has just ended and the last two dates were a Friday and a Saturday at the Lyceum, a regular meeting place for a lot of British R’n’R. Naturally *Ciao 2001* was present.
The interview took place in the offices of Avatar, the record company of which Alvin is a part owner. Introduced by the very sweet Maxine, absolute mistress of the field at Avatar, we find ourselves facing Alvin and Tom Compton, the hyperactive drummer of the Band.
**2001 —** I heard that your last attempt to come and play in Italy failed — what happened?
**Alvin —** The tour was ready a couple of months ago, but then partly for legal reasons concerning the export of money and partly for some messes created by the promoter, nothing more came of it. It’s a pity because we had a series of dates and new venues on the list that I had never even heard mentioned.
**2001 —** Any other attempts for the future?
**Alvin —** We hope to include some Italian dates in the next European tour that starts in February; perhaps in Italy in April, who knows.
**2001 —** What memory do you have of the Italian concerts of seven or eight years ago, with T.Y.A.?
**Alvin —** It went very well. Ten Years After were very successful in Europe, especially in Germany, and as far as I’m told I still have a good reputation in Italy.
**2001 —** You have a wife and a daughter (4 years old — Ed.). How do you reconcile rock’n’roll and family?
**Alvin —** For me it’s all rock’n’roll, I assure you; I don’t find it difficult to devote myself to music and family at the same time.
**Tom —** Just imagine a guy who has already written a song for his daughter, and sooner or later we’ll record it.
**2001 —** Alvin, I think you must have played “I’m Goin’ Home” at least a thousand times.
**Alvin —** At least!
**2001 —** Aren’t you fed up with it?
**Alvin —** Yes, I got fed up with it once, some time ago, and for a long period we never played it, but then that individual arrived (Tom laughs — Ed.) who one evening in the studio started pounding on the drums and “I’m Goin’ Home” was reborn, took on a new life. And damn it, we had a lot of fun and put it back into the set.
**Tom —** It’s a perfect finale, you can vary it as much as you want, turn it into boogie or fast blues, you can stretch it out and it always satisfies the audience as well as us who play it.
**Alvin —** And then the people who come to our concerts always wait for a bit of the old Alvin Lee; we’ve tried to play only new material, but in the long run it was nonsense, something was missing. “I’m Goin’ Home” is a vehicle, it’s not an end in itself; you can express yourself, there’s all the rock and roll of a generation inside it. I’ll probably play it for another thousand times!
—
### *Free Fall*
**2001 —** In your latest album, *Free Fall*, you worked completely on your own, without keeping any account of critics, public, commercial considerations? In other words, could you finally do what you like, or not?
**Alvin —** No, I don’t think so. Unfortunately you have to take into account all the things I mentioned. You can’t make ten blues and rock’n’roll tracks on two sides. *Free Fall* is certainly not mass rock’n’roll, but I like making music, I like doing things that are more “soft” if you like. For example—
**Alvin —** I would really like not to have any role; I think that even being invested with a certain social responsibility, as a human being I absolutely don’t feel the so-called “expression of my time.” I play and that’s it, I do what I like and what works best for me. I only think I’ve given something to a lot of people, of having placed my brick for R’n’R and that’s enough for me.
**2001 —** Do you read or write music calmly, what you do, your music or your solos?
**Alvin —** No, I’ve never done it and never will. Anyone who reads and writes music soon learns to despise music.
**2001 —** A provocative question: a reunion of T.Y.A.?
**Alvin —** No, certainly not.
**2001 —** Why, did you break up, do you hate each other?
**Alvin —** We simply didn’t have anything more to say.
**2001 —** Tom, your drum kit is immense, it seems like it never ends!
**Tom —** Yes, and it’s not even all of it; there are other pieces, spare parts. Every now and then another branch is added, kind of like a forest. Actually, I remember that at the beginning it was known as the Compton Drum Plantation (the Compton plantation).
—
## The Concert
It took place, as mentioned, at the Lyceum, a former dance hall of cyclopean dimensions, at the back of the Strand, in the heart of the City of London. Alvin arrives a little late; brief introductions and finally the four are on stage. The meaning of “plantation” immediately becomes evident in reference to Tom’s drum kit: the jungle of drums, bass drums, crash cymbals, cymbals and electronic toms would scare Franz Di Cioccio. Alvin seems to have put on weight, a slight double chin, but his gaze, his hair, the white clogs are always the same. The Gibson 335, red, full of stickers, the neck completely worn from use, so familiar, takes us back in time.
Alvin starts rather calmly, almost shyly, two or three songs from the new album; there is also “Ridin’ Truckin’,” really beautiful, perhaps one of the best things done after T.Y.A. Among the very varied audience, but more than thirty years old, there is a handful of Germans and Dutch who shout until the encore of “Goin’ Home.” Listen to the opening attacks of the songs recorded for the double *Live* in Germany and you will find exactly the same atmosphere.
Half an hour passes and finally the evening ignites. Alvin hammers the chords against the microphone stand, the attack of “Sweet Little Sixteen” unmistakable, sounds so memorably familiar. The audience sways. Alvin Lee works hard, sweats, he is no longer twenty years old; the voice comes out powerful, the same as always. Then “Slow Blues in C,” endless; the very fast and masterful “Silly Thing” gives us a moment to breathe, the emotional tension too high. And finally, rhetorically asked “where did you think it was going?”, the answer, a roar: “Goin’ Home.” Hearing it start with that initial cascade of notes, always perfect, always in time, one wonders how he does it, but beyond the technique, the desire to penetrate the mystery, we abandon ourselves for one last run at full speed. It’s an almost twenty-minute race, with a mixed finale: Chuck Berry, Lee Lewis, Presley, the bis, the final farewell, “Choo Choo Mama.” Tom comes down from his drums, Alvin as if by magic has shaken ten years off his shoulders.
**Nicola Bandini**
Single Spain – I Don’t Wanna Stop / City Lights
Single – I Don’t Wanna Stop / Heartache
1980
