Ten Years After

Three words: "I'm Going Home". Now, to a lot of people, that's all there ever was to this band, but (also, with a lot of the same crowd) it was definitely the starting point for me with these guys. It was the summer of 1978, and Dad had put on side four of Recorded Live, and let that one rip...wow!!! I was only in a T-shirt and a diaper, but I had never heard such a fast and an overdriven mix of blues, boogie and swing before, and I was hooked. Over the next couple of years, I would hear selected cuts from A Space In Time, Undead and Cricklewood Green, among others, and was just as equally amazed. Just great stuff. Geoffrey is taking a liking to "Ten After", as he calls them. Flash forward almost 35 years later, and I would be stunned to hear of the passing of lead guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Alvin Lee. But I soon reflected on the fact that he left this world a guitar legend and a true rock-and-roll hero...someone who had always done things his own way, and someone who never sold out. There's not very many who can claim that one anymore!