Uncompromising, inventive, exciting, highly influential electric blues musicians 
The 60's English blues~rock boom
Led by John Mayall,
saw the emergence of
The Second Wave Of British Bands
John Mayall's Bluesbreakers
Cream
Chicken Shack
The Keef Hartley Band
The Groundhogs
The Savoy Brown Blues Band
Fleetwood Mac
Humble Pie
&
Ten Years After*
A little 4 piece unit from England that took some early American blues tunes,added their own style to the music, re-cycled it in America
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Ten Years After eventually became the name of the group. The music of the group in the beginning was more interwoven with jazz than it is now,, but at the time there was no identifiable form. As fusion music, the boys felt that the name "TEN YEARS AFTER" would suggest roots going back 10 years before as well as inclinations toward the future.
It took very little time, realitively speaking, for TEN YEARS AFTER to rise from obscurity to huge world-wide acclaim, following the unveiling of the eponymously=christened debut album simply called TEN YEARS AFTER on October 27, 1967 After The Summer Of Love. Upon coming to America in 1968, the music & atmosphere of the times drastically influenced the future music to come form TYA.
To the rock fans of the late '60s and early '70s, Alvin Lee was the hippest of guitarists and Ten Years After was the coolest of underground bands, A shining light of British blues rock, Ten Years After defined the mood of that time period. The Blues~Rock boom continued into the '70s, influencing practically every guitar based group in the world. Today the music of Ten Years After continues to prove timeless. Ten Years After probably lent new meaning to the concept of facelessness which dominated so much of the rest of British blues.
Of all the 2nd Wave British Invasion Bands, Ten Years After is the only band to continue touring with the original lineup. Alvin Lee, Chick Churchill, Leo Lyons, Ric Lee
Beginning in 1967 ~ Lasting on & off up to 1999
Together these 4 musicians were a prime band, who always did it in their own unique musical fashion Who can mistake a classic TYA riff with any other band of their time?
Ten Years After always played to record crowds during the 80's-70's Festival Days
75,000 new fans a week
4,000,000 fans a year
Missouri Blues Fest Newport Jazz Festival Atlanta Pop Festival Goose Lake Festival The Miami Pop Festival
Toronto Peace Festival Woodstock Music & Arts Fair Texas International Festival Atlanta Pop Festival Isle Of Wight
The most U.S. tours (28) of any British band during 1968-1975
The music of Ten Years After was always above & beyond the music critics, maybe because they couldn't fit them into one specific slot / bag
Where do you think TEN YEARS AFTER fit into the scheme of the music scene of the middle 60's to the middle 70's?
Alvin Lee
Ten Years After
Headlined these venues in my neck of the woods The Chicago, Illinois Vicinity
* Syndrome *
* Aragon Ballroom *
* Kinetic Playground *
* International Ampitheatre *
* McCormick Place / Arie Crown Theatre *
* Auditorium Theatre *
* Park West *
* House Of Blues *
* Holiday Star Theatre *
* Hammond Civic Center *
Even if the music of Ten Years After doesn't totally agree with you, give them credit for what they are...........
.................... Musicians
Ten Years After Ssssh1969
TYA On Stage-Bad Scene
"Nobody dominates in our band, although most people
think I do.
I'm the lead singer and and lead guitarist and I do try
to bring out what's in the
the others.
But Ric, Leo and Chick
bring out things in me.
None of us are selfish musicians.
Five years ago we went through the early hassles of
who was going to go on stage
first, and I was known as the fastest guitarist, but we've gotpast all that.
Now we're just interested in making music.
"We've been described as virtuoso musicians and all sorts of things like that.
I'd be very pleased to think we
-but even if we were, I
wouldn't say it.
A lot of people misunderstand Chick because he doesn't do super solos.
He's there to blend it all together, even though he's the more advanced technically than the rest of us.
If he wanted to do 20-minute erotic solos, jumping up and
down the keyboard he could.
Alvin on Ten Years After-1971
