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Ten Years After Biography |
| After several years of local success in the Nottingham/Mansfield area as a band known since 1962 as The Jaybirds (its core was formed in late 1960 as Ivan Jay and the Jaycats), and later as Ivan Jay and the Jaymen, Ten Years After was founded by Alvin Lee and Leo Lyons. Ivan Jay sang lead vocals from late 1960 to 1962 and was joined by Ric Lee in August 1965, replacing original drummer Dave Quickmire, who had joined in 1962. In 1966 The Jaybirds moved to London, where Chick Churchill joined the group. That November the quartet signed a manager, Chris Wright, and decided to change their name to Blues Trip, Blues Yard (under which they played a show at the legendary Marquee Club supporting Bonzo Dog Band), and finally Ten Years After in November 1966. They became the first band of the soon-to-be Chrysalis Agency. They secured a residency at the Marquee, and received an invitation to play at the renowned Windsor Jazz Festival in 1967. That performance led to a contract with Deram, a subsidiary company of Decca — the first band so signed without a hit single. In October, their 1967 self-titled debut album was released.
Their first album was not a success, but in 1968, after touring Scandinavia and the United States, Ten Years After released their second album, live Undead, which brought their first classic, "I'm Going Home" a six-minute blues workout by the fleet-fingered Alvin, hit the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. This was followed in February 1969 by studio issue, Stonedhenge, a British hit, that included another classic, "Hear Me Calling" (it was released also as a single, covered in 1972 by British glam rock rising stars, Slade). In July 1969 they appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival, in the first event to which rock bands were invited. In August, the band performed a breakthrough American appearance at Woodstock; their furious-to-slow-to-furious rendition of "I'm Going Home" was featured in both the subsequent film and soundtrack album and catapulted them to star status.
Their next album, Ssssh, reached the U.S. Top 20 in 1969. During 1970, Ten Years After released "Love Like a Man," their only hit in the UK singles chart. This song was on their sixth album, Cricklewood Green. The name of the album comes from a friend of the group who lived in Cricklewood, London. He grew a sort of plant which was said to have hallucinogenic effects. The band didn't know the name of this plant, so they called their album Cricklewood Green. It was the first record to be issued with a different playing speed on both sides - one a three-minute edit at 45rpm, the other, a nine-minute live version at 33rpm. In August, Ten Years After played the Isle of Wight Festival 1970 to an audience of 600,000. Watt completed the group's Decca contract, after which they signed with Columbia and moved in a more mainstream pop direction, typified by the gold-selling 1971 album A Space in Time and its Top 40 single "I'd Love to Change the World." Subsequent efforts in that direction were less successful, however, and Ten Years After split up after the release of Positive Vibrations in 1974. They reunited in 1988 for concerts in Europe and recorded their first new album in 15 years, About Time, in 1989 before disbanding once again. In 2001, Ric Lee was preparing the back catalog for rerelease when he discoverd the Live at the Fillmore East 1970 tapes. He approached Alvin about getting back together to promote the lost album, but Alvin Lee declined. The rest of the band was up for it, though, and together with guitarist Joe Gooch, Ten Years After started touring again. In addition to touring the world, this new incarnation recorded their first new material in about a decade and a half and released Now in 2004 and added the live double CD set Roadworks in 2005.
Members |