Ten Years After

	Ten Years After
	Ten Years After at Woodstock
Performed on	Day 3
Started at	8.15 pm, Sunday, 17th
Played for	60 min.
	Further Information
	Official link; All Music Guide link; Wikipedia link;
	Festival Day Chronology
Prev. artist	Country Joe & The Fish at 6.30 pm
Next artist	The Band at 10.00 pm

The British band Ten Years After hit the stage on Sunday, August 17^th at about 8.15 pm. They were known for heavy blues rock, and long guitar and drum solos. But what could have been a world-shaking performance failed due to technical reasons: the high humidity caused the instruments to go out of tune, the sound recording partially failed, and the camera team was just able to film the last song, "I'm Going Home", an intense performance which was one of the highlights of Woodstock.

Musicians[]

Alvin Lee - guitar, vocals
Leo Lyons - bass
Chick Churchill - organ
Ric Lee - drums

Setlist[]

Spoonful
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl (w/ 2 false starts)
Hobbit
I Can't Keep from Crying Sometimes
Help Me
I'm Going Home

Details[]

Because of the high humidity they had problems with their instruments (especially the guitars) which went quickly out of tune. That led to some unplanned interruptions for re-tuning^[1].

However, the over 12-minute encore number "I'm Going Home" demonstrates the power of Ten Years After, and especially the virtuosity of guitarist Alvin Lee. The song is a tribute to '50s rock'n'roll. It has a very fast and repetitive guitar riff in the refrain and is built upon various solos. The middle part (of the Woodstock version) features a short medley of "Blue Suede Shoes" and "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On", as well as "Boom Boom" from John Lee Hooker.

Availability[]

Only one song is available: "I'm Going Home".

Ten Years After weren't the only ones plagued by equipment failures. There were also problems with the sound recording during their set. The pick-up of the drums failed so Larry Bunker, a studio percussionist, had to overdub them in the studio, and sync them to the movie.^[2] Original drummer Ric Lee was not available for the studio recording. It is a common misbelief that Corky Laing, drummer of Mountain (but not during the Woodstock festival), did the overdubs. This is not correct, as he states in interviews.^[3]

About 45 seconds of 8mm film was shot from an audience member. There are also some recorded song fragments on an audience tape.