50 YEARS AFTER
At 8.15pm on Sunday 17 August 1969, Ten Years After took to the stage at Woodstock to perform a set that would change the band’s fortunes forever and propel Alvin Lee on to guitar superstardom. This is the story of that night and of ‘Big Red’, the iconic ES-335 that Alvin bought in a Nottingham music shop for a mere £45 (with case)…
For most of us, Woodstock was purely a cinematic experience with the release of Michael Wadleigh’s film of the event that hit theatres the year after the festival. It was already the stuff of legend as music fans worldwide feasted upon highlights from the amazing line-up that included The Who, Santana, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Joe Cocker and a host of others. The guitarists in the audience waited eagerly for a glimpse of the festival’s headline act, Jimi Hendrix, and his explosive rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner, but many were stopped in their tracks earlier on in the movie by Ten Years After’s I’m Going Home.
Despite some chart success in the UK, TYA were not as well known on this side of the Atlantic as they were in the USA, but when Alvin Lee ripped into his 335 with a flurry of lightning-fast blues licks, many were left shellshocked and spellbound. Who was this guy? At the time, Alvin was one of the fastest players on Earth, earning him the nickname ‘Captain Speedfingers’, an epithet he refused to take too seriously.
“Basically, it just came from the excitement of playing live – the adrenaline,”
he told us in an interview back in 1987. “I used to hear tapes of the band from the mixing desk after a show and sometimes I couldn’t believe it was me playing. I really didn’t know I could play like that. Ten Years After was all about excitement and energy. I basically played guitar from the hip – an instinct or reaction, if you like – because I’m not one for practising, I’m a jammer. My attitude was to go for it and, on a good night, I could get it.”
Sadly, Alvin is no longer with us, having passed away in 2013. However, Guitarist was recently given the opportunity to photograph his treasured ES-335 in detail and explore its history. The guitar, currently for sale via www.rockstarsguitars.com, is still enshrined within its original flight case, with “Big Red” on one side in Alvin’s hand: “My famous 1958 Gibson 335 that I bought for £45 in Nottingham. Best investment I ever made – even had a fitted case.”
The exact year of the guitar has been disputed in the past, with it sometimes being referred to as a ’59. In truth, it’s almost impossible to tell these days as the serial number on the rear of the headstock is redundant, the neck having been replaced in the early 1970s, and the orange label