Playing The Fillmore East 1970 By Ric
Lee
Who better to tell
the story than the drummer who was there. Ric has an
excellent story telling style, and even in retrospect, his
tales never seem sugar coated, romanticized or glorified
in any way, “it just is, as it was”. The following is from
Ric himself, from the liner notes of the missing “Ten
Years After Live at the Fillmore East” tapes, that Ric
discovered hidden in the back recesses of the record
company vaults. To steal a line from Humble Pie: They
were, “As Safe As
Yesterday Is” these tapes recapture the band at their
height of popularity and commercial success. What follows
now, is directly from Ric, with minor editing from me, but
in no way changes the content at all.
Dave
Ten Years After
Fillmore East – February 26th , 27th
, and 28th of 1970.
The Fillmore East,
opened after the fin nominal success of the Fillmore West,
in San Francisco,
California, owned and operated by concert promoter Bill
Graham. The Fillmore East
was located on Second Avenue and Sixth Street, Manhattan,
New York, New York, USA.
It officially
opened on March eighth 1968 and closed forever on June 27th
1971.
Ten Years After’s
first performance at the Fillmore East was on the second
and third of August 1968, this was during our very first
tour of America. We opened for Big Brother and the Holding
Company which featured their female singer Janis Joplin
and The Staple Singers. The Staple Singers
were magnificent, but the awesome Janis Joplin completely
blew the audience away.
Our next
appearance there was on September 27th and 28th
of 1968, this was sandwiched in between Country Joe and
the Fish and the openers Procol Harum, who were friends of
ours with the same management.
February 28th
and March 1st of 1969, saw our first headline
gig, supported by John Mayall and Slim Harpo. It was at
this gig that I got into trouble with our managers for
going on stage in the first set to jam with John Mayall
and Mick Taylor, the guitarist that replaced Peter Green
in John’s and who would leave again very soon, in order to
join The Rolling Stones.
Although, this was
in a time of spontaneous jamming between members of
different bands at assorted venues, I was told in no
uncertain terms, that on this occasion, that it was not
appropriate for a member of the headlining act to jam with
the support bands, this in spite of the fact, that the
entire audience went crazy when I did that, and my actions
didn’t jeopardise our status later in the evening in any
way. There were other jam sessions at the Fillmore too.
After hours, Bill
would supply some food and drinks and the bands, along
with some invited guest, would get together and jam until
dawn, when everybody staggered out into the cold morning
light, and hoping to be able to find the way back to their
hotels without too much grief.
The English
Invasion was next on April 9th and 10th,
1969 with our mates (friends) The Nice and Family. Family
and Ten Years After had enjoyed a friendly (and healthy)
rivalry, since the early Marquee Club days in England,
when both bands were booked by separate agents from the
same office. A wager was taken as to which band would
first receive a sixty pound fee for an engagement, at any
club in the UK during the 1967 period. We won!
On the second day
of this engagement at Bill Graham’s burgeoning venue, all
of us were pleasantly surprised and flattered when Jimi
Hendrix turned up to watch the show.
Alvin, Leo, Chick
and I had met Jimi on a couple of previous occasions; the
first of which happened when we played support to The
Experience at Sussex University, in Brighton, England,
early on in our careers, and later when Jimi, drummer
Mitch Mitchell and guitarist Larry Coryell came to sit in
with us during our residency at Steve Paul’s Scene Club,
which was the first New York venue that we played back in
1968.
In 1970, we
headlined on February 26th with John Hammond
and Zephyr (featuring Tommy Bolin on guitar) and on the 27th
and 28th with John Hammond and Doug Kershaw.
Luckily, the shows on these dates were recorded, and have
been re-mastered, in their entirety for this double CD
set. None of the tracks here have been released before,
this the exception of: “Love Like A Man”
which was the B-Side of a vinyl 45 single that was
released in April of 1970 on the Deram label, and gave us
a Top Ten hit in the UK, in the summer of that same year.
The Fillmore East
was a cosy theatre with a seating capacity of 3564, and
unlike it’s brother venue, The Fillmore West in San
Francisco, which was previously known as the Carousel
Ballroom, it had very limited seating arrangements. Before
the shows, the street outside would be teeming with
hippies, stone freaks, groupies, fans and street people
from the East Village. Sometimes, we entered the gig
through the front door and were immediately bombarded by
all of them, requesting “Spare Change”, and do you have
any spare change?”
None of those
demands were ever threatening to our safety in any way,
and Leo’s initial response was, “Thanks, how much have you
got?” Which later would become our stock answer to all
panhandlers. Wisely, we never gave in to these constant
request, and later on some of these same protagonist who
were protesting poverty, would be seen in Chicago and Los
Angeles making similar request outside of the gigs in
those cities.
Shows at the
Fillmore East were twice nightly at eight and eleven
thirty. But, no matter which time you went on stage, with
three other acts on each night, there was always a long
wait until your second set. So in order to relive the
boredom of sitting in what were pretty basic and somewhat
dismally (grim) dressing rooms, we would often go out
front and watch the other acts perform for awhile, and
then if it was going to be a long evening, we would
venture next door to Ratners. Unlike its English namesake,
in later years, Ratners was not jewellery chain, but a
superb Kosher dairy restaurant. Their nut cutlet was
fabulous. This was a dish of mashed potatoes and mushrooms
with an outer crust of bread-crumbs. It looked very
similar to Chicken Kiev, but the taste was strikingly
different and inimitable. (Indescribably Delicious).
Backstage was
Spartan. The bands performed on staging built out over the
old orchestra pit. The area behind the light show screen
was stripped of wings, flies and backdrop to facilitate
quick changes between acts. It was very stark
(barren/empty) and even though the old theatre was very
well heated, it always seemed cold on the main stage;
surrounded only by three bare brick walls. (Hi Ric, most
likely if you drilled a hole in those walls, you would
find the outside right behind those bricks. No insulation,
and a never ending draft from one end of that stage to the
other.
All of the heavy
back-line gear; Drum Kit, Hammond Organ, Marshall Amp
Stacks, and the like were set on low, mobile risers. When
the first act finished, the light show screen was raised
and the equipment was rapidly rolled in and out of
position. Beneath the stage was a grim, mucky basement,
but more about that situation later. The stalwart engineer
of the tracks on this CD package was pucker Englishman
Edwin H. Kramer, better known to us as Eddie.
He is perhaps,
most famous for recording all of Jimi Hendrix’s hits, and
is the master-mind behind the building of Jimi’s New York
Recording Studio called “Electric Ladyland”.
For these Ten
Years After recording sessions, poor Eddie was consigned
to the grim mucky basement, with: “What was probably a
rented, handmade, console and a Scully eight track tape
machine, which I believe, I also used at Woodstock 1969
for recording the festival.
The desk was
probably made by Bill Hanley who supplied all the PA
systems around that time. There I was in that dingy
cellar, cans (my headphones) on, crouched over the desk,
surrounded by enormous heating pipes and although I never
actually saw one, I’m convinced that there were rats
within spitting distance. As soon as the band on stage
right above me leapt into action, I was showered with dust
and had to dash to cover the sensitive recording gear with
sheets, polythene and anything else directly at hand. Not
the easiest (or the most ideal way) way to record”.
The atmosphere up
top side however was electric. As Bill Graham introduced
us individually and the minute you hit the stage, the hot
air from the overhead lighting, the air thick with the
smell of dope, instantly warmed you, and set you up for
the show. The audience at once seemed like best friends,
just wanting to share whatever we were going to give them
with tremendous involvement and appreciation. In addition
to the usual stage lights, was Joshua’s fabulous light
show. Behind my low drum riser was an enormous screen
which filled the whole of the proscenium arch, providing a
kind of living backdrop / background to the band, which
was projected, from a gallery at the back of the stage,
the most amazing psychedelic images; forming, then
disintegrating / then re-forming again and again in
sympathetic
(unison /
synchronicity) with the music.
A quick note about
some of the rare gems that are included here:
“Spoonful” – has
been an intrical and principal part of our stage act in
the early days and was incorporated in our very first
studio album for that reason. By the time this Fillmore
East concert came along, it had unfortunately been
dropped from our set list, in favour of new tracks from
the bands forthcoming; “Cricklewood Green” album. This
studio album produced such powerful / memorable hits such
as – “Love Like A Man” – “50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain” –
and “Working On The Road”. This is most likely why it
shows up here an an encore.
Ric Lee:
“We seemed to be
playing quite spur of the moment stuff in this period as
witness, “Help Me Baby”,
about which Alvin comments, “I might add, that’s the first
time we’ve played that number for about nine months. Yeah,
was a good trip, wan-nit?” (great / perfect)!
“Roll Over
Beethoven” – the Chuck Berry classic, has to my knowledge,
never before been released on any Ten Years After set,
which makes this track extremely rare”.
“Hobbit” – my old
chestnut, is included here as it was an integral part of
our live sets all through our career and is different to a
later version that was on “Recorded Live” 1973.
I was
experimenting with different forms at this stage, in the
live context. Similarly, many of Ten Years After’s
classics gained development on stage, in front of our
fans. I don’t mean we were getting paid for rehearsing.
What we were doing was more akin to the way jazz players
had developed their chops in the years before; taking a
basic theme and then jamming it out.
This way, each
performance would have something different, however small
and the music was kept exciting for both the performers
and the aficionados. A good example of this happens in, “I
Woke Up This Morning”. There’s a “living on the edge”
approach from the rhythm section during Alvin’s extended
solo. In effect, we were all soloing and you’ll hear Leo
and Chick and me all playing phrases across the beat in a
jazz style to both complement and contrast with the
guitar, which became one of the trade marks of a Ten Years
After performance.
In my humble
opinion, these tracks are among some of the best Ten Years
After live recordings. When putting this collection
together, we tried hard to recreate the excitement and
ambience of the gigs when mixing and although the final
selection is taken from different nights, we’ve tried to
present the album as near to the running order of the
show, so that you the listener can sit, get stoned or
whatever, and either imagine being at the Fillmore,
soaking up the atmosphere if you were never there, or
relive it if you were, in what was one of rock’s most
famed and revered venues.
Ric Lee 2001 – Fast Western Ltd.
The Ric Lee Drum
Solo – Then and Now – Is A “Hobbit”
One spectacular
event that’s never missing from a Ten Years After concert,
is of course “The Hobbit” a Ric Lee special drum solo
segment, that die hard fans of the band have come to
expect. It’s based on the J.R.R. Tolkien book of the same
name. Ric does the segment where the banging on the door
is recognisable to the listener, familiar with that part
of the story. It’s become Ric’s tried and true trademark
over the years. So, for about a quarter of an hour, you
are invited to slip into the world of fantasy, to middle
earth and enjoy the sounds of a first class drummer
telling a story through different sounds, coming from his
kit.
Awesome sounds,
weird sounds, punching sounds, quiet and delicate sounds,
surreal sounds, loud sounds, strange sounds…and on and on
and on. It presents itself as a kind of intense
worshipping moment, when you look side to side around you,
and notice that the entire audience is as solemn and quiet
as a grave yard, transfixed, not moving, and listening
intently with great awe. I can hardly find the right words
to describe this masterpiece done with only one
instrument, but sounding like many. After all these many
years, nothings seemed to have changed very much, as Ric
still plays with the same amount of passion and energy,
just like in the groups heyday. Early Ten Years After fans
will be drawn into thinking about great times and memories
of days gone bye. The new younger generation will no doubt
find this and the Ten Years After of today, just as
exciting and desirable as we ourselves did back in 1969,
when we first discovered the band for the first time. This
is the redeeming factor and just reward, that the process
starts all over again. We are now able to turn these young
adults onto the music that we ourselves loved, and pass on
our knowledge to them. All this in a fifteen minute,
intricate and intense drum solo involving a little bit of
fantasy!
Hats off to you Ric Lee
Ten Years After
reformed in 1988, but after a European tour and the
release of their “About Time” album, they once again
parted company. They came together – minus original
guitarist Alvin Lee in 2001 to promote the “Live At The
Fillmore East” album from 1970, the tapes of which had
been lost or misplaced. They were eventually found,
down the back of drummer Ric Lee’s sofa after 30 years.
They returned to the studio to record Ten Years After
“Now”, and are still touring in 2011.
Content provided
by Sound-Unwound – Copyright 2008 – The Personal
Encyclopaedia
Note: I found this
article on the internet, and am still laughing at its
content. As I have never heard this version before, nor
has Ric ever confided in us, that this is the true
tale of the lost Ten Years After Master Tapes from 1970.
We'll be happy to check into this, and be sure, this will
make for some good levity (jokes) the next time we see Ric
in person.
Dave
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