As with many of the other English beat groups of the '60s, Alvin Lee cut his musical teeth in Hamburg, Germany in a band called the Jaybirds. By 1966, back in England, he had changed the name of his band to Ten Years After and was rapidly becoming a major attraction because of the virtuosity of his solo work. Most Americans first became familiar with Alvin Lee through his appearance at Woodstock, although he remained active throughout the decades which followed; among his releases were 1974's In Flight, 1986's Detroit Diesel and 1996's Live in Vienna. (allmusic.com)
Hey ALVIN!..Thanks For The ADD..Check Out MY Guitar!!..Every Show I Play "Love Like A Man"..Just Like The Old Sound Check Days!....... Did You Get A Harley Yet? ....YOUR EX Guitar Tech!
We've just added four new tracks to myspace completed at the Weekend, with Phil Innes at the controls. These are the first recordings to feature Alan Ibbotson on drums, and we are all really happy with the results. It's a shame that we've not been able to get back into the studio before this but we've been able to build up new material in the meantime.
The timing was perfect as we all went down with Swine Flu after the session, with Guy just able to complete the last vocals before admitting defeat!.
"Judgement Day" is a totally retro song with a very 70's (complete with cowbell) Bad Company-Free - AC/DC vibe with a storming solo from Guy at the end.
"I Know" - Very fast with a great hook - very unlike anything we've done before, a sort of punk/blues take on things - great vocal and lyrics. The opening section is from a German radio broadcast being picked up from Guy's heavily overdriven Peavey 5150 valve amp - can anyone translate? :)
"Chains" takes us back to our blues roots, with Guy sounding rather like John Lee Hooker in the opening section, before the song hurtles into a very Led Zepelin style meltdown, complete with some suitably wailing guitar.
" Salvation" is a slowie with added Hammond! - some nice guitar licks too! - almost prog rock at the opening section (reminds me of Andy Latimer and Camel), before building around a very moody bluesy set of chord changes into some very epic choruses. Phil added the keyboard parts - and we got a bit carried away - sounded almost like "Highway Star" for a while - But Phil very diplomatically as ever got us back on track. We argued for weeks about this song prior to the recording - as to whether or not it made the grade - I'm glad we kept it!