About Alvin Lee: Alvin Lee was an English singer and guitarist, best known as the lead vocalist and lead guitarist of the blues rock band Ten Years After.
There is a big age gap between my sisters Janice and Irma and myself so I didn't know them that well when I was younger although they have been very supportive in later life.
The chances of a reunion now are less likely. I was thinking of having a 40th anniversary of the band, but now they are really another band, so it's all a bit weird.
That's the beauty of creativity. It comes from the ether. I like to think, sometimes, it's like I haven't written it, it's more like I just reached up and grabbed it from somewhere. That song, 'Song of the Red Rock Mountain,' is one of them. I record...
That's the kind of musical freedom I like: jazz, rock, blues, anything. You adopt different attitudes when you play different music.
It's always been something I've been searching for - freedom. It's a very relative thing. It means different things to different people.
Musical freedom has always been very strong for me, something to strive for, to be able to play the music you enjoy playing rather than playing music that other people want to hear, which I find rather shallow and unrewarding. So I make albums I like...
We used to play the underground clubs like the UFO, and Middle Earth, and they were great because they would have on things like a poet, string quartets, and then a rock band! It was kinda cool!
They have decided to tour under the name of Ten Years After which I don't think is very cool. To be honest, they have had to do that as it's the only way they can get any work.
Back in those days we thought we could change the world.
My father was always playing this ethnic blues stuff around the house, and both my parents played. Then one day my father brought home Big Bill Broonzy, and there he was sitting in our living room playing, and blues was in my heart from the time I wa...
I started off playing the clarinet, after I was inspired by listening to my dad's Benny Goodman records.
I went to see John Mayall at the Marquee, with Peter Green on guitar, and that was a particularly good gig.
It wasn't very satisfying playing the big arenas, but it was good as far as a paycheck. But the sound was terrible, especially in hockey arenas - the sound would go on for 30 seconds after we quit playing.
George Harrison was also a pleasure to work with. He was one of the most famous people I've ever known, but in spite of that fame, he was such a nice and friendly guy.
It will be the first time I've played live with a double bass.
I think a lot of modern day guitarists start off playing like Eddie van Halen, and they don't take the time to learn the basics.
I write and record all the time; it's my hobby and my passion.
Strangely enough, through all those school years I decided at 13 or 14 I was going to be a musician and so school was just something to get out of the way, a waste of time and not to bother with it.
My solos are more tastefully conceived now. But I still get going in places. It's just that I build up to it now. I don't race off on a solo. I take my time.
We also did something called the Texas Peace Festival, which was actually a better gig both musically, and in the way it was organised.
