Ten Years After are an English blues rock band, most popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
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 drummer Dave Quickmire, who had replaced Pete Evans 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 Marquee Club supporting the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band), and finally in November 1966, to Ten Years After (in honour of Elvis Presley, an idol of Lee's whose momentous year in rock, 1956, helps to better explain the band's title). 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.
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." 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, and 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-soft-to-furious rendition of "I'm Going Home" featuring Alvin Lee as the lead singer was featured in both the subsequent film and soundtrack album and catapulted them to star status.
During 1970, Ten Years After released "Love Like a Man", their only hit in the UK Singles Chart. This song was on their fifth 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 did not 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.
In 1971, the band released the album A Space in Time which marked a move toward more commercial material. It featured their biggest hit, "I'd Love To Change The World". But a few albums later, the band broke up after the 1974 album Positive Vibrations. They re-united 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, they re-united for a few concerts and recorded the album About Time (1989). Finally, in 1994, they participated in the Eurowoodstock festival in Budapest.
Alvin Lee has since then mostly played and recorded under his own name. In 2004, the other band members replaced him with Joe Gooch and recorded the album Now. Material from the following tour was used for the 2005 double album Roadworks. Ric Lee is currently in a band called The Breakers, along with Ian Ellis (Clouds).
Band Members ...................
Alvin Lee – guitar, vocals, harp; born Graham Barnes, 19 December 1944, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire.
Leo Lyons – bass; born David William Lyons, 30 November 1943, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.
Chick Churchill – keyboards; born Michael George Churchill, 2 January 1946, Mold, Flintshire, North Wales.
Ric Lee – drums; born Richard Lee, 20 October 1945, Cannock, Staffordshire.
Joe Gooch – guitar, vocals; born 3 May 1977, Highbury, London (joined in 2003).
In his 1971 Elvis Presley biography, rock journalist Jerry Hopkins claimed Alvin Lee named his band "Ten Years After" because they started ten years after Presley (by another source, the name Ten Years After was taken in 1966 from London's local radio listings – one radio station was called Ten Years After (the end of national service in the UK).
Norm Coleman, former U.S. senator from Minnesota, worked as a roadie for Ten Years After in 1969.
I Can't Keep from Crying
Woke up this Morning
Change The World
Help Me
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
Love Like A Man
One Of These Days
The Hobbit
I'm Going Home
