The legendary British blues band Ten Years After will release their Woodstock performance on streaming and physical media. This release is the first time their Woodstock set has been released as a standalone recording. The album will release on Friday, August 16.
Singer/guitarist Alvin Lee and bassist Leo Lyons rose to local fame in Nottingham, England as the Jaybirds in the early 1960s. Following the addition of drummer Ric Lee and keyboardist Chick Churchill in 1966, the band rebranded themselves as Ten Years After. Throughout the 1960s, the band released four studio albums, including the live LP Undead. This album contained the first rendition of their anthemic hit “I’m Going Home.”
As the band made a name for themselves, they quickly began playing shows across the United States. In July 1969, they broke barriers being one of the first rock groups to perform at the Newport Jazz Festival. Following a summer of cross country touring, the band arrived in Bethel, NY for the Woodstock Music and Art Fair.
Ten Years After were slated to perform on Sunday, August 17th: the festival’s third day. Following acts like Joan Baez, Santana, and Long Island’s Mountain, they certainly had a high bar to meet. By the time their 8:15 set began, conditions were gloomy. The sun had begun to set, and rain poured down covering the stage and turning the fields into mud pits. These conditions in tandem with a jet-lagged band seemed to spell disaster for their performance.
However, their set was anything but a disaster. Looking out to the audience, Alvin Lee calmly said “This is a thing called ‘I’m Going Home’… by helicopter!” In no time, Lee’s guitar erupted into a fiery breakneck solo, before the rest of the band joined. The 12 minute long jam seamlessly switched between funky numbers and psychedelic guitar passages enthralling the audience of 500,000. Throughout the live recording, the audience can be heard whistling, hooting, and clapping along illustrating just how captivating their performance was.
Their Woodstock performance and the ensuing 1970 Woodstock film propelled Ten Years After to newfound levels of fame. The concert footage made the then up-and-comers seem like rock gods. Throughout the performance Alvin Lee’s long hair waved in the wind, as Lyon’s headbanged in the background.
Following the release of the Woodstock film, the band’s shows began to grow larger and larger. Soon audiences of all ages were attending their shows, propelling their releases even further up the charts. 1970 also saw the band’s highest chart success with the release of “Love Like a Man,” which reached no. 10 on the UK Singles Chart. This success however worked to destroy the band. Growing arguments and disillusionment with touring slowly ate away at the group. Lee remembered ““You’d walk on stage and people would be shouting for I’m Going Home, which was the last song. I often wonder what the rest of our career would have been like if the Woodstock movie had used another song. As it was, everything became focused on the last song, the high-energy number.”
Following the release of their 1974 record Positive Vibrations, the band broke up. Throughout the 1980s, the band occasionally reunited to play shows like the 1983 Reading Festival. In 1988, the band permanently reunited, releasing four albums and touring – albeit with varying lineups.
Now for the first time in history, the original recording of Ten Years After’s Woodstock set will release to the public. This release features a new remaster of the original 2” multitrack tapes. In addition to streaming platforms, the album will also release on physical media. The album releases as a 2LP, 180gm black vinyl, and single-disc CD. There will also be an independent record store exclusive release on pink tie-dye vinyl. All releases come with liner notes from legendary music journalist Chris Welch.
For more information on the August 16th release of Woodstock 1969, visit the link here.
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