Ten Years After
The Atomites
(1960 - 1962)
Alvin Lee - guitar/vocals
Leo Lyons - bass -
The Jaymen
(1962 - 1964)
Ivan Jay -vocals
Alvin Lee - guitar
Leo Lyons - bass
The Jaybirds I
(1964 - 1965)
Alvin Lee - guitar/vocals
Leo Lyons - bass
Dave Quickmire - drums
The Jaybirds II
(1965 - 1966)
Alvin Lee - guitar/vocals
Leo Lyons - bass
Ric Lee - drums
Ten Years After
(1966 - 1975,1988 -1998)
Alvin Lee - guitar/vocals
Leo Lyons - bass
Ric Lee - drums
Chick Churchill - keyboards
For whatever reasons,
Alvin Lee is no longer connected to
Ten Years After*
Ten Years After
(2002)
Leo Lyons - bass
Ric Lee - drums
Chick Churchill - keyboards
Joe Gooch - guitar,vocals
Ten Years After emerged from the underground to become one of the top concert attractions in the world.
As part of the second British Invasion of the late 1960s, they toured America 28 times between 1967 and 1973. They also notched an impressive five U.S. Top 40 albums, eight U.K. Top 40 albums, a U.S. Top 40 single and a U .K. Top Ten single. They built their reputation through constant touring, increasingly proficient and inventive LPs, and memorable live shows that in turn led to massive album sales, culminating with a half hour of electrifying entertainment at Woodstock that Michael Wadleigh captured in his film adaptation of the concert. His 1970 documentary film, Woodstock, pro- vides 11+ minutes of Alvin Lee's immaculate guitar-hero posturing as he and the band motored through their hit song, "I'm Going Home."
But the band was not without their critics, many of whom focused their ire on frontman Alvin Lee, whose playing, they complained, was excessive.
Alvin Lee and Ten Years After always courted controversy and had a knack for generating resentment from certain quarters in the music world.
From their very beginnings in 1967, the members of Ten Years After were mavericks who challenged everything about the music business.
They became known for doing such seemingly snobbish and puzzling things as turning down offers to appear on Top of the Pops, a U.K. TV show that was an irresistible ticket to instant exposure and disposable fame (even for rock bands), as well as for riling Rolling Stone publisher Ian Wenner in an incident that many believe from then on caused the magazine (renowned for its maniacally exacting standards) to turn particularly vicious whenever it reviewed a Ten Years After album.
At their best, Tep Years After offered a high-energy fusion of blues, rock and jazz presented with style and excitement; at their worst, many groused that they were the originators of some of the most indulgent and protracted blues-rock soloing of the 1960s. Addressing the critics' comments directly, Alvin once told Circus magazine, "I've read a lot of good things. I've read a lot of bad things. The only conclusion I've ever come to is that I'm not going to please all the people all the time. I know some people are really down on my guitar style. Personally, I'm happy with what I do. I'm still striving. I realize I'm moving in the right direction and the fact that that direction has proved to be a successful one is a matter of chance more than anything else. That is, I mean what I happen to like to play, people happen to like to listen to. That, in a way, is luck."
Alvin also expressed concern that the group might be getting to indulgent on stage.
"Another thing that worries me slightly is that I think we might be getting a bit too freaky on stage.Sometimes when we're playing, I go into a guitar solo that lasts about tweny minutes.And though the group's enjoying themselves, we tend to forget about the audience.
If they don't understand what's going on, they might get bored - and sometimes they do.
TYA - Germany
TYA - Nottingham
Deciding to quit while they were ahead, in March 1974, Ten Years After called time, they did do one last U.S. tour in 1975