1997
Album release “Solid Rock”
A “best of” collection
Mention the name Alvin Lee and most people will say what a wonderful blues guitarist the man is. Press it further, and the other half will respond with “I’m Going Home – Woodstock 1969 – Ten Years After – what fantastic rock and rollers they are”. This Solid Rock edition is a rocking greatest hits kind of jam release, a good introduction for the rank amateur, just discovering the band and the time, that they were in their classic prime. You’ll get to hear both sides of what the group was about. This includes Alvin with Ten Years After and also some tunes from Alvin Lee gone “solo”. It should be known, that Alvin himself hand picked the songs presented here. So, you can be sure that he’s giving you a little sneak peak as to what his personal taste consists of, and his most beloved rocking songs are.
When I first heard “I’d Love To Change The World”, my first impression of Ten Years After was “damn, who is that guy burning up the rosewood fret-board here?” During that time, the two guitarists who were grabbing up almost all of the accolades were, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. While Alvin Lee’s accomplishments greatly impressed me, and still do. Between the record companies, the music business and the sheer passage of time, all three have buried this guy in the forgotten pile. He’s truly one of the unsung heroes of rock and blues.
This collection also includes two bonus tracks, both never before released, “Fight For Your Rights” and “I Love You When You Rock and Roll”.
Martin Lake
TYA on Tour
In 1997, Ten Years After were lured back to the stage by the prospect of a major Scandinavian festival tour. All four original members signed on in earnest, eager to test the waters and rediscover whether the old chemistry still burned. The tour would also mark a significant milestone: their first-ever performances in South America.
On Wednesday, May 21, 1997, the band delivered a rousing, triumphant concert to a sold-out crowd in São Paulo, Brazil. The high-energy set featured fan favourites including “Hear Me Calling”, “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl”, “Slow Blues in C”, and “Help Me”, along with a spirited audience singalong to “Johnny B. Goode”. No Ten Years After show would be complete without Alvin Lee’s tour-de-force performance of “I’m Going Home”. The band returned for encores of “Choo Choo Mama” and “Sweet Little Sixteen”, sending the ecstatic crowd home on a high.
Two days later, on Friday, May 23, the band took the stage in Porto Alegre. Reviews confirmed the same electrifying impact, praising both the performance and the band’s renewed rapport with their audience. Media interest was intense, with journalists keen to capture the spirit of the reunion. Though clearly energized by the experience, the members remained undecided about committing to a long-term future together.
Saturday, May 24, brought the third Brazilian concert—arguably the highlight of the run. Three thousand fans turned out in Belo Horizonte and refused to let the band leave the stage, calling them back for three extended encores in a powerful display of appreciation.
From Brazil, Ten Years After moved on to Europe, agreeing to headline four major music festivals.
On May 31, 1997, they appeared at the Esbjerg Rock Festival in Esbjerg, Denmark, sharing the bill with Peter Green, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, and Richie Blackmore’s Rainbow. Their expansive set list included “Rock and Roll Music to the World”, “Hear Me Calling”, “Help Me”, “Slow Blues in C”, “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl”, “Love Like a Man”, “Victim of Circumstance”, “Hobbit”, “Johnny B. Goode”, “Classical Thing”, “I’m Going Home”, “Choo Choo Mama”, “Sweet Little Sixteen” and “Rip It Up”.
On June 14, 1997, the band headlined the Rock Festival in Karlshamn, Sweden, on a bill that also featured Mick Taylor, Molly Hatchet, Simon Bolivar, and others. Approximately six thousand fans gathered to hear their favourite bands, with Ten Years After once again commanding the spotlight.
The momentum continued on June 28 in Helsinki, Finland, where the band performed before an audience of ten thousand – many seeing them live for the first time. It was described as their “best ever” concert by tour manager John Hembrow. The enthusiastic crowd rewarded them with the longest standing ovation ever witnessed at that venue.
The summer run concluded on August 15, 1997, in Claremont, France, where concert reviews were uniformly positive, affirming that Ten Years After’s return to the stage had been both triumphant and warmly received.
June 28, 1997 – Puistoblues Festival, Jarvenpaä, Finland
Album Reviews
The British rock press never quite forgave Alvin Lee for his guitar pyrotechnics in the Woodstock movie, although any solo that inspired awe and even a little envy in Jimi Hendrix was good enough for me. Both with and without Ten Years After, Lee has been cutting blues and rock albums for three decades, but his media profile in this country isn’t so much minimal as missing.
In Europe and South America, though, Lee is respected as one of British rock’s finest ambassadors from the 1960’s and rated alongside the likes of Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Peter Green as a guitar hero par excellence. “Stonedhenge”, the bands third album from 1969, was their real commercial breakthrough, besides debuting a Ten Years After standard in “Hear Me Calling”. Produced by Mike Vernon, it accentuated their blues roots but left plenty of space for Lee’s eye-blurring fretwork.
“Ssssh” may have featured a cover photograph by Graham Nash, but there was no sign of three part harmonies or odes to large sea mammals. Instead, Ten Years After kept up the diet of blues, slow in “I Woke Up This Morning” to the fast blues of “The Stomp”. But “Bad Scene” opened the album with a metallic rush that suggested another horizon for the band to conquer in the decade to come.
The “A Space In Time”, album number seven in the Ten Years After catalogue, released in 1971, certainly marked a change in direction, but not the way people might have expected.
With Del Newman’s strings on “Over The Hill” and some wary experiments with a Moog Synthesiser. Ten Years After baffled some of their British fans, but helped by their constant touring schedule, it became their biggest-ever seller in the States.
The touring eventually took its toll, with the effect that “Rock & Roll Music To The World” became their final erratic, studio album – at least until 1989. Thereafter, Alvin Lee set out on a long, rambling solo career, that has veered between some degree of success and complete commercial indifference and back again.
“Detroit Diesel” won more attention for its George Harrison guest appearance than anything else, thought it did also reunite Lee with Ten Years After veteran Leo Lyons. More tracks from the Harrison collaboration belatedly appeared on Lee’s 1994 release “I Hear You Rockin'” which ended with a faithful rendition of the Beatles – “I Want You (She’s so heavy)” – not with George, of course… “Live In Vienna” is the best hint of where Alvin is today – still playing “Hear Me Calling”, “Love Like A Man”, “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl” and, of course the obligatory “Going Home”.
Article by PD – 1997
Ssssh. Review – May 1997, Jukebox Magazine No. 116, France
