Ten Years After


Ten Years After are a British 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.

Formation

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 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. Roy Cooper 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, one of Lee's idols.. Some sources claim that the name was pulled by Leo Lyons from a magazine, advertising a book, Suez Ten Years After.

1967-1974

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 a first version of 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". 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/lead guitar, 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. The full studio version song appeared on the band's fifth album, their most successful in Britain, Cricklewood Green. In August 1970, they played the Strawberry Fields Festival near Toronto, and the Isle of Wight Festival 1970.
In 1971, the band switched labels to Columbia Records and Chrysalis 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.

Break up and reformation

The band subsequently broke up after their final 1974 Columbia album, Positive Vibrations. In the 2nd half of the 1970s and early 1980s, Alvin actively toured with a new band he called Ten Years Later. The original Ten Years After 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 with producer Terry Manning in Memphis. They stayed together for their longest continuous period, until 2003. 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.
In January 2014, it was announced that both Gooch and Lyons had left Ten Years After. Two months later, veteran bass player Colin Hodgkinson and singer/guitarist Marcus Bonfanti were announced as their replacements.
In October 2017, the band released its most recent studio album, A Sting in the Tale.

Band members

;Current members
;Former members

ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:18
PlotArea = left:100 bottom:90 top:5 right:20
Alignbars = justify
DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy
Period = from:01/01/1966 till:01/01/2019
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy
Legend = orientation:vertical position:bottom columns:4
ScaleMajor = increment:2 start:1967
ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:1968
Colors =
id:Vocals value:red legend:Vocals
id:Guitar value:green legend:Guitars
id:Keys value:purple legend:Keyboards
id:Bass value:blue legend:Bass
id:Drums value:orange legend:Drums
id:lines value:black legend:Studio_albums
id:lines2 value:gray legend:Live_albums
BarData =
bar:Alvin text:"Alvin Lee"
bar:Joe text:"Joe Gooch"
bar:Marcus text:"Marcus Bonfanti"
bar:Chick text:"Chick Churchill"
bar:Leo text:"Leo Lyons"
bar:Colin text:"Colin Hodgkinson"
bar:Ric text:"Ric Lee"
PlotData=
width:11 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:
bar:Chick from:01/01/1966 till:31/12/1974 color:Keys
bar:Chick from:01/01/1983 till:31/12/1983 color:Keys
bar:Chick from:01/01/1988 till:end color:Keys
bar:Ric from:01/01/1966 till:31/12/1974 color:Drums
bar:Ric from:01/01/1983 till:31/12/1983 color:Drums
bar:Ric from:01/01/1988 till:end color:Drums

bar:Leo from:01/01/1966 till:31/12/1974 color:Bass
bar:Leo from:01/01/1983 till:31/12/1983 color:Bass
bar:Leo from:01/01/1988 till:31/12/2013 color:Bass
bar:Colin from:01/01/2014 till:end color:Bass
bar:Alvin from:01/01/1966 till:31/12/1974 color:Guitar
bar:Alvin from:01/01/1966 till:31/12/1974 color:Vocals width:3
bar:Alvin from:01/01/1983 till:31/12/1983 color:Guitar
bar:Alvin from:01/01/1983 till:31/12/1983 color:Vocals width:3
bar:Alvin from:01/01/1988 till:31/12/2003 color:Guitar
bar:Alvin from:01/01/1988 till:31/12/2003 color:Vocals width:3
bar:Joe from:01/01/2004 till:31/12/2013 color:Guitar
bar:Joe from:01/01/2004 till:31/12/2013 color:Vocals width:3
bar:Marcus from:01/01/2014 till:end color:Guitar
bar:Marcus from:01/01/2014 till:end color:Vocals width:3
LineData =
at:27/10/1967 color:black layer:back
at:22/02/1969 color:black layer:back
at:01/06/1969 color:black layer:back
at:17/04/1970 color:black layer:back
at:01/12/1970 color:black layer:back
at:01/08/1971 color:black layer:back
at:01/10/1972 color:black layer:back
at:01/04/1974 color:black layer:back
at:22/10/1989 color:black layer:back
at:13/07/2004 color:black layer:back
at:01/01/2008 color:black layer:back
at:20/10/2017 color:black layer:back
at:10/09/1968 color:lines2 layer:back
at:01/06/1973 color:lines2 layer:back
at:01/01/2001 color:lines2 layer:back
at:01/01/2003 color:lines2 layer:back
at:01/01/2005 color:lines2 layer:back
at:01/01/2014 color:lines2 layer:back

Discography

Studio albums

Live albums

Compilation albums