Alvin Lee Quotations

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 just couldn't take school seriously: I had this guitar neck with four frets which I kept hidden under the desk. It had strings on it so I would practice my chord shapes under the desk and that's about all I did at school.

Back in those days we thought we could change the world.

It was by listening to Goodman's band, that I began to notice the guitarist Charlie Christian, who was one of the first musicians to play solos in a big band set-up.

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.

I just play to the people I can see. So it's almost like you are playing to the first few rows of the crowd. You can see the faces of the first hundred people, but then it becomes a blur as the crowds disappear over the hill.

I strongly encourage listening to the radio to hear something you haven't heard before. It's a very healthy thing to do. It's strange: unless you reload your iPods every couple of weeks, you're listening to and recycling the same music all of the time. I'm serious. Listen to your radio station.

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.

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.

Anywhere you go in the world is what you make of it, not what you read in books.

It wasn't until the movie came out that it all changed for us. Some people say it was the start of Ten Years After, but in another way, it was the beginning of the end.

I've always been much more of a guitar picker, but I began to feel forced into a position of being the epitome of a rock & roll guitarist. Originally, TYA wanted to make it without having to compromise to pop. It worked for a while, but after five or six years, the fun went out of it for me; a lot of the music went out of it.

My favorite country blues player was Big Bill Broonzy. City blues was Freddie King, but I liked them all - Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Ralph Willis, Lonnie Johnson, Brownie McGhee and the three Kings, B.B., Albert and Freddie. Jazz-wise, I listened to Django, Barney Kessel and Wes Montgomery.

Strangely enough, I wasn't into fast guitarists. I preferred Peter Green's subtle touch. I saw him with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers at the Marquee Club in London and was very impressed. He was the only guitarist I've ever seen to turn the volume control on his guitar down during a solo.

I think I'll continue to work as a solo artist.

I write and record all the time; it's my hobby and my passion.

We also did something called the Texas Peace Festival, which was actually a better gig both musically, and in the way it was organised.

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!

It will be the first time I've played live with a double bass.

It's always been something I've been searching for - freedom. It's a very relative thing. It means different things to different people.

My all-time favorite rock and roll players were Scotty Moore, Chuck Berry and Franny Beecher, and I listened to the country playing of Merle Travis.

So if you see Ten Years After, it's not me anymore. I'm very happy with what I am doing now.

That's the kind of musical freedom I like: jazz, rock, blues, anything. You adopt different attitudes when you play different music.

He saw us play a few times in fact. I did this song called I Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes, and Jimi loved it. He paid me a huge compliment when he told me that he was thinking of doing something similar himself!

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.

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.

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.

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 was 12 years old.

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.

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.

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 recorded it and thought, 'Where did that come from?'

We started playing ice hockey arenas and baseball stadiums which was not as good as the underground circuit. I didn't enjoy it as much.

I lost a big part of me. That's what inspired me to take our music outside.

We're definitely pushing for everyone to do the band full-time, ... But right now, we're just trying to set everything in order, and I'm trying to do it so we have a big record out and have the bookings and the following to support us.

We wanted to make something that represented what we were actually doing, ... The first album was OK, but that was almost three and a half years ago, and we more or less did that on our own. But with Arhoolie, we were able to go into a bigger studio -- it was a lot more professional -- and we did the whole recording in one day, because we already knew what we were going to do. And we had a good engineer that had a nice system, and he let us feel free to do what we do, and I think that's the best way to record a group of guys like us.

Yeah, we're definitely developing a following. I mean, we had such an impression on the people here, they wanted us back again. And actually, in South Florida, we do have a good fan base. It's just that because of how our schedule is, we don't go back to the area a lot. That's what we're trying to push now -- we want to build a bigger following in Florida.

... I'm not conscious of the speed ... it's not my motive ... my motive is displaying a voice through the fingerboard ... it can get to the point where I don't have control over what I am playing ... I never end the gig until I can't sing anymore

I'd love to change the world, but I don't know what to do

I began to learn a lot of chords and rhythms. It was a bit boring at the time but came in very handy later on.

We want to go more mainstream but stick to what we do, ... Every place we go, the people are receptive with the style of music we're doing. And even if we go into a club setting, we're still singing about God. We want to be the people that change the trends of what's acceptable and what's not. We believe it's in our music, really. And I think it's the music that's touched everyone when they deal with us.