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. – Alvin Lee
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. – Alvin Lee
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. – Alvin Lee
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. – Alvin Lee
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. – Alvin Lee
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. – Alvin Lee
It’s always been something I’ve been searching for – freedom. It’s a very relative thing. It means different things to different people. – Alvin Lee
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! – Alvin Lee
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! – Alvin Lee
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. – Alvin Lee
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. – Alvin Lee
I started off playing the clarinet, after I was inspired by listening to my dad’s Benny Goodman records. – Alvin Lee
So if you see Ten Years After, it’s not me anymore. I’m very happy with what I am doing now. – Alvin Lee
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. – Alvin Lee
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. – Alvin Lee
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. – Alvin Lee
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. – Alvin Lee
We also did something called the Texas Peace Festival, which was actually a better gig both musically, and in the way it was organised. – Alvin Lee
I went to see John Mayall at the Marquee, with Peter Green on guitar, and that was a particularly good gig. – Alvin Lee
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. – Alvin Lee
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. – Alvin Lee
