Ten Years After

Ten Years After are an English 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.[2] In addition they had twelve albums enter the US Billboard 200,[3] 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".

Links to Peel
Peel first saw Ten Years After in 1967, when they were gaining a reputation with a residency at London's Marquee Club, and he later recalled enthusing over their performance with Andy Roberts, who had also attended the gig. In late 1967, he played tracks from their debut LP on Top Gear, and the band did their first session for the programme. But he gradually became disillusioned with their music. In International Times column in the issue of 23 August 1968, he wrote:

''A "live" LP not recorded at the Fillmore? A revolutionary concept, I hear you cry. But the new Ten Years After LP, due for release shortly, was recorded at Klook's Kleek. I'm not entirely easy about the music. All the members of the group are considerable musicians and Alvin Lee must be the fastest guitarist in the world, but there does seem to be a danger of their records degenerating into heartless virtuoso performances. I hope I'm wrong - and I usually am - but I didn't really enjoy the "Undead" LP as much as I'd hoped. Anyway hear it and see for yourself.''

Although Peel was still willing to give TYA a chance at this point, his opinion of the group did not improve, and eventually he and producer John Walters stopped booking them for Top Gear sessions. In Zigzag 24 (1972) Walters explained why:

''We could get much bigger names - in fact we've turned down some of the biggest international names - we just don't want to know any more, because they've stopped doing anything. A good example is Ten Years After; I did the last Top Gear session with them, and we broadcast it, because I thought that John liked them, and they'd been on in the past, and when it went out, he said "Christ, this goes on a bit", listening to a six or seven minute "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" boogie blues - one suddenly realised that they had started to become victims of their own publicity, and it was now "I will now break the hundred yards dash on the guitar"''

He continued: I didn't even bother to put on the last TYA album when it came in, but John still ploughs through everything that comes in, and he picked out a track that he felt showed they were trying to get out of their rut a bit, and it could happen that we might be willing although they might not be by now - to have them on again

tbc

Sessions

 * Number of sessions? Any commercial release of sessions?

1. Recorded: YYYY-MM-DD. First broadcast: DD Month YYYY. Repeated: DD Month YYY 2. Recorded: YYYY-MM-DD. First broadcast: DD Month YYYY. Repeated: DD Month YYY etc
 * Song title / Song Title / Song Title / Song Title
 * Song title / Song Title / Song Title / Song Title

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Other Shows Played
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 * DD Month YYYY: Song (single/album) Label