Alvin Lee

Alvin Lee, in so many ways the embodiment of the 'Sixties, hasn't quite made it into his own seventies. He established the gold standard for speed as a guitarist - in fact, before Alvin Lee, speed just wasn't an issue except among small groups of competing musos. The term 'rock hero looks' wasn't coined until one or two guys including Alvin made pop music appeal to the big girls again. He combined his talents with the attitude of a Real Hippie: effortlessly generous and modest on-stage and off.  I base my sketch on  passing acquaintance: Ten Years After's performance of 'Crosscut Saw' at the Railway Hotel West Hampstead August 1968, featuring Roger Chapman on vocals and Cliff Hanley on harmonica.

The harp had its own story - it had spent a few years stuck in a saddle round my neck before I went electric, and saw some busking and partying in Germany and Istanbul, before allowing its owner a rare and memorable plug-in to a bit of the best of the Love Decade. TYA obviously had their night in the pub as a regular open mic thing - after us, John Mayall joined them for a tune. And the moothie?  It ended being given with some change to a very pleased beggar in Oxford Circus tube station around 1985.