2013 to NOW – What Happened After

2013 – DVD Re-Release of Alvin Lee & Ten Years Later, ‘Live at Rockpalast’ 1978

 

 

 

September 2013 – CD Release of ‘The Last Show’

* Blogcritics – The Last Show review by Wesley Britton
* Premier Guitar – The Last Show review by Corbin Reiff

 

 

 

September 2013 – CD Re-Release of Ten Years After, ‘Recorded Live’

 

 

 

2014 – Eulogy by Tim Hinkley

Tim was probably Alvin’s longest lasting collaborator throughout the decades, here he recounts his memories of Alvin .

 

 

 

August 2014 – CD Re-Release of Ten Years After, ‘Positive Vibrations’

 

 

 

October 2014 – Vinyl Re-Release of Ten Years After, ‘Watt’

 

 

 

June 2015 – CD Re-Release of Ten Years After, ‘Ten Years After’ (first album) and ‘Undead’

 

 

 

August 2016 – “The Gibson ES 335 Guitar Book”

 

 

 

July 2017 – Vinyl Re-Release of Ten Years After, ‘Ten Years After’ (first album), ‘Undead’ and ‘Stonedhenge’

 

 

 

October 2017 – Release of Alvin Lee & Co, ‘Live at the Academy of Music, New York 1975’

* Bluesmagazine review
* Sea of Tranqulity review
* Jazz Weekly review
* Elmore review
* Guitarworld review

 

 

 

November 2017 – Chrysalis Release of the Ten Years After BOXSET

Includes all TYA studio albums between 1967 and 1974 plus one previously unreleased bonus disc ‘The Cap Ferrat Sessions’

* Bluesmagazine review TYA 10-CD-Box feat. CAP FERRAT 1972
* Superdeluxeedition review by Paul Sinclair

 

 

December 19, 2017 – Guitar World magazine

Woodstock Shred: Revisiting Ten Year After’s “I’m Going Home”

 

 

 

2018 – Re-Release of Alvin Lee “Live in Vienna”

 

 

 

November 2018 – Triple Vinyl Release of TYA “Live at the Fillmore East 1970”

 

 

 

Guitar Techniques magazine – June 2019

 

 

 

Guitarist magazine (UK) -issue 450- September 2019

 

 

 

April 13, 2019 – Vinyl Release of TYA “Cap Ferrat Sessions”

The bonus disc of the TYA box set released in 2017 sees a special release for Record Store Day.

 

 

 

August 2019 – Release of “Woodstock Box Set”

A 38 Blu-ray CD box set (limited edition) is released for the 50th anniversary of the Woodstock festival – containing all recorded audio material from the three day event.

 

 

 

2019 – Gibson Guitars release the Alvin Lee “Festival Model”

The legendary guitar manufacturer dedicates another guitar model to Alvin: Big Red as it would have been at Woodstock festival 1969 and ‘aged’ accordingly. Notable differences to the guitar as it looks now are the Bigsby tail piece, the original dot neck and only a few stickers.

* Guitar World – Head back to the garden with Gibson’s Alvin Lee ES-335 ’69 Festival’ reissue guitar

 

 

 

September 2019 – USA Vinyl Release of Alvin Lee “In Tennessee” / “Back To My Roots”

 

 

 

Guitar Player magazine – November 2019

 

 

 

Guitar Player magazine – April 16, 2020

* Woodstock Shred: Revisiting Alvin Lee’s “I’m Going Home”

 

 

 

Guitar Player magazine – September 2, 2021

* see Alvin Lee’s fabled Gibson ES-335 Up Close

 

 

 

Goldmine magazine – Oct/Nov 2022

advertisement by Rainman Records

 

 

 

March 2023 – Stonedhenge Vinyl-re-release via Proper Records, limited edition

 

 

 

March 2023 – Re-Release of TYA “A Space In Time”

Featuring an all-new mix by Chris Kimsey from the original recording on 16-track tape reel
Album Review on American Blues Scene

new mix vinyl edition USA

click to enlarge

 

 

 

March 3, 2023 – American Blues Scene”

* Part 1 – Ten Years After The Passing Of Blues & Rock Guitar Legend Alvin Lee

* Part 2 – Further Alvin Lee Tributes from musicians and one superfan

 

 

 

February 2024 – Book “ES Believers Plus”

With a foreword by Joe Bonamassa where he describes playing Big Red on one occasion at the Royal Albert Hall London

 

 

 

August 2024 – Release of TYA’s “Woodstock” set on vinyl

 

 

 

October 2025 – Re-Release of TYA “Ssssh”

3 CD edition

2 LP vinyl edition

 

* Classic Rock Magazine review Ssssh.- by Claudia Elliott

After taking Woodstock by storm in the summer of ‘69, Ten Years After continued skyward with the December release of their third studio album, Ssssh. Much lauded for his quicksilver guitar pyrotechnics, Alvin Lee also sang like a rock’n’roller in the tradition of Jerry Lee Lewis or Eddie Cochran. With Leo Lyons at head-tossing full pelt on bass, Chick Churchill pounding keys, Ric Lee on drums, for a few golden years they were unstoppable.

Taking centre stage is If You Should Love Me, which skates along astride Lee’s almost incognito speed guitar. The third CD in this set (also available as two LPs) is a live recording from Helsinki in December 1969, rescued from Finnish radio archives and remixed. The Cream-like performance includes I May Be Wrong from ‘68 live album Undead, No Title from Stonedhenge and The Hobbit, with its lengthy drum solo.

The 18-minute finale, I Can’t Keep From Crying Sometimes, sees Lee taunting bursts of Sunshine of Your Love, Foxy Lady and Peter Gunn. Good Morning Little Schoolgirl appears in both studio and live form. Irresistibly feral, even by the standard of ‘69. Great balls of fire indeed.

* North Jersey Blues Society review Ssssh. – by Dennis Rozanski

* 2025 November Vinyl Fan review Ssssh. (German)

* Now Spinning Magazine review Ssssh. – by Phil Aston

 

 

 

August 2026 – Re-Release of TYA “Cricklewood Green”

2 CD edition

 

2 LP vinyl edition

 

* Now Spinning Magazine review Cricklewood Green.- by Phil Aston

” …The double-vinyl set is a beautiful physical object. It uses lovely textured card stock and recreates the original gatefold artwork, complete with its striking internal illustration and Alvin Lee quotation. The two printed inner sleeves contain the excellent new essay, photographs, memorabilia and historical material. They are not poly-lined, so I will be replacing them with my own poly-lined sleeves, but the records themselves are beautifully pressed.

The first LP contains the newly remastered original album, while the second presents Ten Years After’s previously unreleased second set at the Fillmore East on Friday, 27 February 1970.

Phil Kinrade handled the remastering at AIR Mastering, and to my ears this could be the best I have ever heard the original album. There is power and weight, but also plenty of space around the instruments. It retains the character of a record made in 1970 while sounding wonderfully immediate.

The tactile element also matters. Holding this substantial gatefold sleeve, reading the notes and looking at the old photographs and concert material turns the package into a musical time machine. It takes you back to a period you may have been too young to experience personally. That is something physical music can do particularly well. It becomes more than simply listening to the songs.

The 2CD edition follows the presentation established by the earlier Ssssh release. This is a proper hardback media book rather than a basic digipak, with the discs securely housed inside and the photographs, tape-box images, memorabilia and liner notes incorporated into the book. The CD also provides additional music that is not included on the vinyl edition.

Alongside the original album are the single edit of “Love Like A Man,” the outtakes “Warm Sun” and “To No One,” and a previously unreleased instrumental demo titled “Cricklewood Jam.”

“Warm Sun” is excellent, but “To No One” is absolutely outstanding. If you are a fan of Alvin Lee’s guitar playing, this track alone could persuade you to buy the CD edition. His playing is astonishing.

“Cricklewood Jam” is gentler and quite different from what some listeners might expect. It reveals another side of Alvin’s playing and could easily have become part of the original album.

The live CD also includes “Sweet Little Sixteen,” which is not on the vinyl edition. This performance of the Chuck Berry song is thunderous. Ten Years After would record the song for their next studio album, Watt, but this Fillmore version captures the band tearing into pure rock and roll with tremendous energy.

The previously unreleased Fillmore East set was newly mixed by Charlie Russell, and the 2CD track listing confirms the additional studio and live material available exclusively in that format. The real revelation for me is the live recording.

“I’m Going Home” will always be regarded as Alvin Lee’s great showcase. His performance of it at Woodstock helped create the “Captain Speed Fingers” reputation that followed him for the rest of his career. However, as good as “I’m Going Home” is on this Fillmore recording, it is not necessarily the high point. Listen to “Love Like A Man,” “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl,” “Working On The Road” and particularly “50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain.” The latter becomes a psychedelic, progressive masterpiece, constantly moving in directions you do not expect.

Above all, listen to “I Can’t Keep From Crying Sometimes.” The song, written by Al Kooper and originally recorded by Ten Years After for their debut album, became an extended vehicle for exploration. This Fillmore performance is one of the finest versions I have heard. It also helps reveal something about Alvin Lee that can sometimes be lost behind the emphasis on speed. His improvisational instincts were not based solely on the blues. There was a considerable jazz influence in his playing.

Alvin could take a familiar blues form and use it as the starting point for a journey. He would follow a musical idea along the fretboard, change direction and then take both the band and the listener somewhere completely unexpected.

He was an explorer. In 2026, lists of the greatest guitarists often lean towards players associated with hard rock and metal. Alvin Lee’s name does not appear as frequently as it might have done several decades ago. These Ten Years After reissues are an important reminder that he deserves to be discussed alongside the truly great guitar innovators. The “Captain Speed Fingers” label only describes one small part of what made him special.

Cricklewood Green combines blues, hard rock, folk, psychedelia and early progressive influences, but it is the jazz-informed freedom of Alvin Lee’s guitar playing that really stands out to me now. The remastered studio album sounds fantastic, but the previously unreleased Fillmore East performance makes this release essential.

This is music recorded more than half a century ago, yet it sounds as if it could have been recorded last week.

Absolutely amazing and highly recommended….”