THE ASTOR THEATRE, DEAL, KENT, ENGLAND

 SATURDAY, MAY 24TH, 2003

 O.K. - the name thing first. Sure, I appreciate both sides of the debate, although not the intemperate language all too often associated with it. But look at it this way: if three original members of TYA want to reform - a fourth declining an invitation to join them - to play the music most closely associated with that name, and including in their number the founding member who not only came up with the name in question but was also their first manager, ask yourself this: do they really have the right to call themselves anything else?

 During the hour-long journey to the gig I ponder on my reasons for making it. My rock gig-going days have become somewhat a thing of the past. Certainly, it’s over thirty three years since I first saw this particular band, and over twenty nine since I last did so. What’s making me drive the 55 miles to the south coast of England to see them again tonight? Loyalty? Undoubtedly. Curiosity? Inevitably. Nostalgia? Plenty of that too. And a final incentive is an e-mail invitation from Leo to meet him after the gig. All things considered, I have to be there.

 Arriving outside the theatre at 8:30 I see that no-one could be accused of unfairly representing the act that will soon appear on-stage. The posters advertise “The Flashback Tour”, with three “original members” of TYA, and introducing the “sensational” Joe Gooch on guitar and vocals. I collect my pre-booked £15 ticket (£17.50 on the door) and wander inside.

 And inside - for the very good reason that there aren’t any seats - it’s standing room only. Looking around I see that the Astor is a small, old theatre, with a bar to the left and a low stage straight ahead, fronted by a strange archway. I seem to be one of only about thirty members of the audience; but gradually it begins to fill up. There’s no support act, but booming out over the P.A. is something that sounds like “Family’s Greatest Hits Live”. I get a drink and begin to take stock of my fellow audience members.

 Later, at their peak, they will number perhaps a little over a hundred, a fact which will prove to be the only disappointment of the evening. Gender? 90%+ male. Ethnicity? 100% white. Age? Resoundingly middle. Clearly, TYA will not be reaching out to a new rock generation tonight, although reconnecting with an old one will still be an achievement well worth making. I also realise that when I first saw TYA (May 1970), Leo - aged 26 - was not just the senior man on-stage, but probably one of the oldest guys in the entire hall. Now, in May 2003, at about the same age, Joe Gooch will not just be the junior guy on-stage but probably the youngest guy in the entire hall. Quite what that proves, I don’t know - but it’s an interesting reflection on something, all the same.

 But, at 9:10, the time for reflection is over: the lights go down and the music stops. A suitably respectful introduction is given - and then they’re on, with Leo, Ric and Joe in black, and Chick in blue. But what’s this? Leo now has a mike, and makes the first address to the audience: “Hi, how are you?” A few words too from Joe ... and then five familiar notes ring out. We’re off, with a blistering version of “I Woke Up This Morning“.

 I’m making notes, so I can confirm that the complete set list is as follows:

 1)  “I Woke Up This Morning” - same arrangement as on Ssssh! except that Joe does his own original solo. In less than a minute I realise that I am in the presence of a truly shattering talent. It’s that obvious, that quickly.

 2)  “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl” - shorter lead/bass solo interface than of old, and a longer whole band jam element. It’s great to hear Leo’s bass playing, up against Joe’s lead, each note’s soft yet firm whumph! sounding like a bag of flour being dropped into a sandpit.

 3)  “Bad Blood” - after two from 1969, we jump twenty years to one from 1989’s About Time album ... and why not? It’s a great number.

Then Ric comes out to Joe’s mike, towel around his shoulders, and makes an announcement, which contains the following comments:

 “We know it’s a bit different without Alvin ... but we love playing with Joe ... he’s a monster guitarist ...”

The audience breaks out into a spontaneous round of applause, because after only three numbers, it is obvious to all present that Joe is indeed a world class addition to the line-up. But more of that later.

 4)  “I May Be Wrong, But I Won’t Be Wrong Always” - from Undead. Of all the numbers played tonight, this is the only one which Joe plays pretty much as Alvin originally played it. Great bass solo by Leo, who seems to be loving every second on-stage. In fact, they all do. The three original TYA members are all multi-talented guys, with a variety of different musical and commercial accomplishments to their names. Yet something tells me that nothing gives them more pleasure than to be doing what they’re doing right now.

 5)  “She Keeps Moving” - a new one, from the album out in September, we are informed. Includes a wah-wah pedal solo from Joe.

 6)  “Hear Me Calling” - Joe appears to add in a new verse - certainly, I’ve never heard the one that ends with the line “Then I’ll be leaving this town”. (But it doesn’t really matter.) Great organ solo from Chick.

 7)  Another new one, but I don’t notice a title being announced. The refrain “She Keeps Walking” is repeated several times, so maybe that’s a clue.

 8)  And here - I lose the plot a bit. I could swear I hear Joe announce ‘Time for a slow blues ... this is called “Angry Words”’. Yet what we indisputably get is Hendrix’s “Red House”.

 9)  “Big Black 45” – with a great hook. From Leo’s Solo Project with KICK.

 10) “Hobbit” - Ric’s traditional piece de resistance, although shorter than (what used to be) usual.

 11) “Love Like A Man” - I’ve been waiting for this one, and at last it’s here. Traditional arrangement, different solo.

 12) “I’d Love To Change The World” - Leo announces that it’s only the second time they’ve ever played this live. Accomplished by Joe playing an amplified acoustic until the solo is due. Then he takes it off and picks up his electric while the rest go twice through the chord sequence. Then the solo, and retention of the electric until the end of the song. It works perfectly. Why wasn’t it first done thirty years or more ago?

 13) “Time To Kill” - another powerful new one.

 14) “I Can’t Keep From Crying, Sometimes” - largely along the lines of the Recorded Live version, but shorter. Now with added “Smoke On The Water” in the “rock riffs” section.

 15) “I’m Going Home” - we all knew it was going to be the one to finish with. However, like the other two traditional TYA epics (“Hobbit” and “I Can’t Keep From Crying, Sometimes”), it’s a bit briefer than of old.

 And then they’re off. It’s 10:50, so that’s nearly one and three quarter hours they’ve been on-stage - and that’s significantly longer than in yesteryear. Of course, there has to be an encore, and so they’re back for:

 16) “Choo Choo Mama” - sounding much as you would expect, and;

 17) “50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain” - “I think this is about drugs”, says Leo. True or not, it’s certainly the last number of the night.

And there they are, the seventeen numbers that make up the TYA set list in 2003. All the traditional (live) TYA bases are touched - riff rock, rock and roll, jazz, jamming, blues and boogie. Of all the official TYA albums released between 1967 and 1989, only two - Watt and Positive Vibrations - are unrepresented tonight. As for those critics who have been concerned that TYA without Alvin will still be playing “all Alvin’s songs”, they might wish to note my rough calculation that only eight of the seventeen played tonight - so that’s less than half - fall into that category.

 So, what’s the audience reaction been like? For a while the atmosphere was strange, as if the crowd could hardly believe their eyes, that here - in a small hall in a little town on the southern edge of England - was reappearing one of the greatest rock bands of all time. Everyone kept a respectful distance, no-one venturing nearer than about ten feet from the front of the stage. Applause was rapturous throughout, but only towards the end - perhaps in realisation that it would soon all be over - did the desperate requests start to be shouted out: “Choo Choo Mama!” (he was lucky), “Standing At The Station!” (he wasn‘t) ... and, inevitably, “’Goin’ Home!”

 I’m on my own, so I’ve no-one to compare notes and opinions with. However, upstairs in the gents’ toilets, I can’t help but overhear anonymous fans exchanging their views.

 “Fantastic, weren’t they?”

 “Yeah - Wishbone Ash were here recently, but they were nowhere near as good as this lot”.

“Really?”

 “Yeah. But I just don’t understand why there weren’t more people here ... ?”

 And neither do I. That is the only criticism I have of the whole evening, and it’s almost certainly one which it would be inappropriate to lay at the band members’ feet. Why wasn’t there more, and better, publicity for this gig - and perhaps the others on the tour, too? I check through most (admittedly, not all) of the national newspapers and magazines in the following days, and they’re awash with adverts for rock gigs, tours, festivals, etc. for all sorts of famous and not so famous acts - but there’s nothing for TYA. Even if the promotional budget didn’t stretch to national media advertising, all it takes is a ‘phone call and the national papers will mention acts for free in their “gig guides”. No TYA mention in those either. What advertising there is seems to have been placed only in each town’s local press. But perhaps that’s another tradition living on, for - excellent musicians as they always were - TYA never quite got the hang of how best to blow their own trumpets.

After the gig I have the pleasure of meeting and talking to all of the band members in turn. While the other three are engaged in conversation and the signing of autographs (and a copy of Stonedhenge, which appears out of nowhere) Joe sits down in the corner of the bar, and lights up. I wander over and congratulate him on his performance, and we chat awhile about how he got the TYA gig. For all those - relatively few, in fact - who have ever posted derogatory comments on the message boards of the various TYA-related websites, without ever having heard him play (or sing), without ever having met him, or without ever having even stood on the same continent at the same time as him, you would most likely feel thoroughly ashamed of yourself if you were ever to spend just a few short minutes in his company: Joe Gooch is a very quietly spoken, and quite exceptionally modest and pleasant guy. Having had the pleasure of meeting him myself, I now realise that the derogatory comments in question tell their readers far more about the character of those who have made them than they ever will about the thoroughly likeable and genuine guy at whom - in total ignorance - they were directed.

 But what about his performance tonight? You will probably have read complimentary comments about his abilities elsewhere before, but let me try and put a little flesh on those bare bones. Joe plays Fender Stratocasters - tonight’s is metallic blue - with the tremelo arm removed. As well as the aforementioned wah-wah pedal he also has an effects pedal board, which seems to consist of six separate units connected in series, although I didn’t detect enough tonal variety in his sound to suggest that the buttons of all six felt the full force of the sole of Joe’s shoe on this particular evening. I forget to note the amp, but let’s say that - as always - there are a lot of Marshalls on a TYA stage. He is extraordinarily accomplished in ability - and extremely fast, when he chooses to be. I could be wrong, but the fact that his fingers tend to be vertical (rather than slanted) to the fretboard, and that he incorporates the use of his little finger in his runs, may well be indicative of a classical training.

 Does he sound like Alvin? Well, firstly, let’s acknowledge that there’s no way he can win that particular battle in the eyes of those who are determined to criticise. Imagine if he walked on-stage with a red Gibson 335 and a pair of white clogs and tried to play Alvin‘s solos, note for note - he’d obviously be accused of being an unoriginal copyist. (Mind you, he’s got the black leather trousers.) On the other hand, if he plays noticeably differently to Alvin, then the critics can carp that “it doesn’t sound like TYA”.

 The reality is somewhere between the two. Those who want to hear the sublime hollow-bodied, woody warblings of Alvin’s 335 will be disappointed - but only if they can’t appreciate the harsher, more staccato metallic tone of a brilliantly played Strat. And though it is clear that Joe has the technical ability to play and sound like anyone he might choose to, he doesn’t copy Alvin’s solos. Certainly, where he really has little option but to play Alvin’s notes - intros mainly, such as “I Woke Up This Morning” and “I’m Going Home” - then he does so superbly. But - with the exception of “I May Be Wrong” etc. - the rest of his solos are his own.

 (Note: we all know the recorded solos to TYA classics, such as “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl” and “Love Like A Man” - indeed, we could whistle them if we could move our lips fast enough. Yet when I saw the Alvin Lee Band, in 1995, the solos to numbers such as those were largely unrecognisable to the originals. So if Alvin doesn’t play them the way they used to be anymore, then I don’t suppose Joe can be criticised for not doing so either.)

 Does he make use of any of Alvin’s showbiz idiosyncrasies? Rubbing the guitar neck on the mikestand? Playing the guitar with a drumstick? No, none of that. What about “Scat Thing”, “Classical Thing” or “Silly Thing”? Apparently now consigned to history. So does Joe have any showbiz flash of his own? Well, there’s a bit of fret tapping, and a slight use of feedback - but not too much of either. Also, just as critics and fans alike tended to fixate on Alvin’s guitar wizardry and commented on his vocals only as an afterthought, I’m in danger of doing the same to Joe. So, for the record, he sings very well - but he doesn’t try to sound like Alvin.

 You might wonder if the new numbers sound like traditional TYA tracks. Well, no - not particularly. But did they ever? Can you really believe that it’s the same band on 1971’s brilliantly progressive and sophisticated A Space In Time who only four years earlier were the gauche studio amateurs who recorded that eponymously titled first album? And whether you start with that first studio outing and travel forwards from 1967, or you start with 1989’s About Time and travel backwards, does anything you hear along the way prepare you for arriving at 1969’s Stonedhenge? So, as has always been the case, I expect that the new will become familiar enough in the course of time.

 I exchange a few words with a very laidback Chick, and have a longer chat with Ric, with whom I have a mutual friend. My longest conversation is with Leo and, although much of the detail of that must remain private, there is one interlude within it that is perhaps worthy of dissemination to a wider audience. A man joins us at the bar and - referring to the “Sunshine Of Your Love” riff in the middle of “I Can’t Keep From Crying, Sometimes” - he asks Leo: “Did you steal that riff from Jack Bruce, or did he steal it from you?” Ever the gentleman, Leo patiently explains that it was Jack Bruce/Cream’s riff originally, and the questioner departs, satisfied. (Still, how was the guy to know? He was one of the evening’s whippersnappers, only in his late thirties. Frankly, I was surprised that his mother would let him stay out that late.)

 And after chatting to all three members of TYA, I appreciate another reason why Joe fits in so well. All four members are politeness personified, decency defined. They wear their illustrious talents and industrious achievements lightly, and with unassuming modesty; they are - quite literally - among the nicest guys you could ever hope to meet. Strangely, it feels like I’ve known them most of my life. And then I realise that, in a way, I have - and that my life has been the better for it.

 The rain pours down for the entire journey back home. I ponder on what I have seen and heard tonight, and an analogy suddenly presents itself to me. It may be simple - but it works. Imagine you have an old friend. (And that’s “old” as in “longstanding”.) You haven’t seen him around for a while - a long while - and you know he hasn’t been getting out much because he hasn’t been well. It’s his heart - gradually it’s been winding down over the years and losing it’s enthusiasm for the vital task it needs to perform. Nothing wrong with that, it’s worked hard, and for a long time - these things just happen. You heard that a little while ago it failed him completely, and faced with the unenviable prospect of certain death, your friend agreed to a transplant. Now you meet up with him again. Sure he’s a little different than before, not quite how you remember him - but would you rather that he was dead? And which of your other old friends hasn’t changed a bit over the years, anyway? (For that matter, you’ve changed a bit yourself, haven‘t you?) He’s got plenty of other friends besides you, and apparently a few of them think that he should change his name, that he’s not entitled to use his old one since he’s had that transplant. You weren’t particularly convinced by that argument before you met up with him again; now that you’ve done so, looked at him, heard him, seen him back at work, you know just how wrong they were. He’s still very recognisably your familiar friend of old.

 The analogy is clear enough: think of Joe Gooch that way. He’s the new, strong, youthful heart of TYA, pumping the lifeblood back into that venerable warhorse, revitalising its other elements, and enabling it to live again, safe for some time yet from the clutching cold embrace of the rock graveyard. Don’t criticise him, thank him. 

 And let me put some personal cards on the table. I am a huge fan of Alvin Lee. His abilities not only as a guitarist, but as a vocalist, performer, songwriter and riffmeister, mark him out as one of the greatest rock talents the world has ever known. If a TYA without him didn’t work, and wasn’t worthy of the name, I would be forcing myself right now to the front of the queue to say so. But I’ve seen it and I’ve heard it - and it does and it is.

 So go and see your old friend if he comes round your way. Spread the word, support him, help him make new friends, buy his work, and feel confident about rekindling your previous relationship. 

And whatever else you may do, call him by his rightful name.