In 1967, four young musicians from Nottinghamshire, England, Leo Lyons, Ric Lee, Chick Churchill
together with Alvin Lee, formed Ten Years After and became one of the biggest names and the most explosive quartet
on the world stage.
Their now legendary encore, "I'm Going Home" performed at
The Woodstock Music and Arts Festival in August 1969, was captured on film and exposed their jazz, blues, rock amalgam to a large audience of movie-goers
who were blown away by the intensity of the band's erformance when the Academy Award winning
documentary was released in 1970. Their ten-minute appearance in the film is an acknowledged highlight and
established Ten Years After a place in the rock history.
From 1968 to 1975 constant touring, playing important musical events like The Newport Jazz Festival,
The Miami Pop Festival, The 1970 Isle of Wight Festival, The Toronto Peace Festival and huge venues like
The Royal Albert Hall in London, Madison Square Garden in New York and The Budokan Theatre
in Tokyo, exposed the band's music to a Global Audience. It is estimated that they performed to in excess
of 75,000 new fans a week. Almost four million people a year, not counting those who
saw the band in the "Woodstock" film. Between 1967 and 1974,Ten Years After recorded and released
ten multimillion selling albums. The band's albums are still
available and all have Gold or Platinum status.
Sadly, Alvin Lee decided to go solo in 1975 and the group disappeared
from the scene. However, there has always been a demand for Ten Years After and, over the following
twenty-plus years, there were to be three short-lived attempts at reformation and one new studio record,
"About Time". Each time, Alvin quit to return to his solo career.
Starting in 2001, to take advantage in the growing interest in legendary bands
like Ten Years After, EMI, and Decca Records digitally re-mastered and re-released
the whole Ten Years After back catalogue, most with bonus tracks, including a rare "find" that had
laid unnoticed --- the 1970 live recording of the band at its peak at the Fillmore East in New York.
Ric and Chick both approached Alvin with a view to touring to support the
releases, but Alvin declined. It was a frustrating situation and once again it seemed that fans would be denied hearing
the music being played live.
A chance opportunity early in 2002 for the three founder members of Ten Years After --- Leo Lyons (bass), Chick Churchill (keyboards) and Ric Lee (Drums) to work together gave them an insight into the intense,
re-awakened interest in the band. It is by public request, that the band is back together.
With the addition of new band member. sensational, twenty-five year old guitarist / vocalist Joe Gooch,
instead of Alvin Lee, they are recreating the music, energy and excitement they have been known for over the
past four decades.
Ten Years After will play most of their past "hits", but it will not be an oldies band riding around
on the cash cow of past successes. It has taken up the reins and is riding into the future.
Joe Gooch is fully conversant with all of Ten Years After's previous triumphs, but the fact is he has a
distinct personality that breathes new life into the band's performance and helps forge a new direction with this
highly respected team of legendary musicians.
The new line-up is currently writing and recording an album. A commercial 'Live Performance' DVD is to be filmed
in the autumn of 2002 for release in 2003 and the following tours are already
scheduled:
Italy: November 2002
Northern Europe: in Jan / Feb 2003
UK: April / May 2003
The USA:
autumn of 2003.
