Ten Years After are an English blues rock band, most popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Between 1968 and 1973, Ten Years After scored eight Top 40 albums on the UK Albums Chart. In addition they had twelve albums enter the US Billboard 200, and are best known for tracks such as "I'm Going Home", "Hear Me Calling", "I'd Love to Change the World" and "Love Like a Man". Their musical style consisted of blues rock, and hard rock. The band's core formed in late 1960 as Ivan Jay and the Jaycats. After several years of local success in the Nottingham/Mansfield area, known since 1962 as the Jaybirds and later as Ivan Jay and the Jaymen, Alvin Lee and Leo Lyons founded Ten Years After. Ivan Jay (born Ivan Joseph Harrison, 1939, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, died in April 2009, USA) sang lead vocals from late 1960 to 1962 and was joined by Ric Lee in August 1965, replacing drummer Dave Quickmire (born David Quickmire, 1940, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire), who had replaced Pete Evans (born Peter Evans, 1940, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire) in 1962. Ray Cooper (born 11 November 1943, Huthwaite, Nottinghamshire) played rhythm guitar, vocals from 1960 to 1962.
In 1966, The Jaybirds moved to London to back The Ivy League. In the same year, Chick Churchill joined the group as keyboard player. That November, the quartet signed a manager, Chris Wright, and changed their name to Blues Trip. Using the name Blues Yard they played one show at the Marquee Club supporting the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. They again changed their name, to Ten Years After – in honour of Elvis Presley, an idol of Lee's. (This was ten years after Presley's successful year, 1956). Some sources[which?] claim that the name was pulled by Leo Lyons from a magazine, advertising a book, Ten Years After The Suez (referring to the Suez Crisis). The group was the first act booked by the soon-to-be Chrysalis Agency. It secured a residency at the Marquee, and was invited to play at the Windsor Jazz Festival in 1967. That performance led to a contract with Deram, a subsidiary of Decca — the first band Deram signed without a hit single. In October 1967 they released the self-titled debut album, Ten Years After.
In 1968, after touring Scandinavia and the United States, Ten Years After released a second album, the live Undead, with the noteworthy song, "I'm Going Home". They followed this in February 1969 by the studio issue Stonedhenge, a British hit that included another well-known track, "Hear Me Calling" (it was released also as a single, and covered in 1972 by the British glam rock rising stars, Slade). In July 1969, the group appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival, in the first event rock bands were invited to. Between 26–27 July 1969, they appeared at the Seattle Pop Festival held at Gold Creek Park. On 17 August, the band performed a breakthrough American appearance at Woodstock; their rendition of "I'm Going Home" featuring Alvin Lee as lead singer, was featured in both the subsequent film and soundtrack album and catapulted them to star status. In 1970, Ten Years After released "Love Like a Man", the group's only hit in the UK Singles Chart, where it peaked at #10. It was the first record issued with a different playing speed on each side: a three-minute edit at 45rpm, and a nearly eight-minute live version at 33rpm.[citation needed] This song was on the band's fifth album, Cricklewood Green. In August 1970, Ten Years After played the Strawberry Fields Festival near Toronto, and the Isle of Wight Festival 1970.
In 1971, the band switched labels to Columbia Records and released the hit album A Space in Time, which marked a move toward more commercial material. It featured the group's biggest hit, "I'd Love to Change the World". In late 1972, the group issued their second Columbia album Rock & Roll Music to the World and, in 1973, the live double album Ten Years After Recorded Live. The band subsequently broke up after their final 1974 Columbia album, Positive Vibrations. The members reunited in 1983 to play the Reading Festival, and this performance was later released on CD as The Friday Rock Show Sessions – Live at Reading '83' . In 1988, the members reunited for a few concerts and recorded the album About Time (1989) with producer Terry Manning in Memphis. In 1994, they participated in the Eurowoodstock festival in Budapest. In 2003, the other band members replaced Alvin Lee with Joe Gooch, and recorded the album, Now. Material from the following tour was used for the 2005 double album, Roadworks. Alvin Lee mostly played and recorded under his own name following his split from the band. He died from complications during a routine medical procedure on 6 March 2013. Ric Lee is also currently in a band called Ric Lee's Natural Born Swingers, along with Bob Hall.
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What sets this release apart from earlier TYA albums is the liberal use of tasty acoustic guitar and plenty of sound effects and studio tricks that complement the overall texture. From tuning a radio dial to open a 12-bar boogie blaster (Baby, Won't You Let Me Rock and Roll You) to backward tape solos (Let The Sky Fall) to 50's Sci-Fi (Here They Come), Alvin Lee and Company were in top form on this 1971 "Time Capsule". Lee also shows that he was no slouch on harmonica as he belts out the blues harp (One Of These Days) along with the nice licks from his trusty hot-rodded Gibson ES-335's. Lee's lyrics ran the full gamut on this collection, from country honk (Once There Was A Time) to otherworldly beings "who fly out of the sun", and "know everything we must learn" (Here They Come). He sings painfully about the pitfalls of drug addiction, but optimistically about recovery (Hard Monkeys, I've Been There Too) and tells us that he notices the World's ills but doesn't know what to do, so he "leaves it up to you" (I'd Love to Change the World).
Leo Lyons (Bass), Chick Churchill (Keyboards) and Ric Lee (Drums) are excellent as usual. This is the one that occupied a particular "Space in Time" for its era, and gets my vote as the best overall TYA album due to the diversity of the material and subject matter. There's just about something for everyone. (Douglas J. Hultsman)
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