ALVIN LEE: Speed Fingers With A New Grip

I admit it. The first line of this article was written a week before the concert: “Having assured us all most emphatically at Woodstock that he was ‘Goin’ Home,’ old butter fingers is back . .. Well, it was a waste of time and talent. The fact is that Alvin Lee has just broken a precedent: not only is he back, but he’s also better than ever. Claws in. Next victim, please.

So Alvin’s back. Who isn’t? But it’s news this time. He’s doing what Eric Clapton wanted to do: sacrificing lone star status to be one of the boys. The difference is that Alvin Lee has a strong and spirited bunch of musicians to play with. They don’t kowtow, and he has found strength in the challenge. He has to work for his riffs, and he burns brighter with every exchange. The final few moments of every song are explosive, but never fear. Alvin is in control how. It’s no longer how many notes he can play that counts; he’s out to prove how well he . can play them. Quality over quantity at last.

Of course he has a lot of help to keep him in check. Alvin Lee and Company is no small time operation. There are the two members who have been with him for over a year, the amazing Mel Collins on various horns, and the dynamic Ian Wallace on drums. Newer members include Ronnie Leahy who handles the keyboards, and Steve Thompson on bass. Brother James is a killer on congas and other percussion instruments, and Donnie Perki and Juanita Franklin make up the angel’s choir. That’s a lot of band to handle.

Alvin Lee tackles being back with a vengeance. He does have a mean streak -the meanest mother in rock and roll, attitude wise. From the moment he told promoter Howard Stein where he could stick his spotlights, there was no real doubt that Alvin Lee could chuck it all, any time. “I’ve done that a few times,” he says. “I mean I did it after Woodstock. I hid away for about six months. And everybody said I was mad because the band could have been out makin’ a fortune on the strength of Woodstock. That big screaming rock and roll circus thing I’ve always been against.”

I kept teiling everybody l wanted to do something else! AA

He may have been against it, but his business associates and various moneymen were not. He was subsequently held in check, which led to his retreat, which led, ultimately, to his rebellion.

“1 kept telling everybody I wanted to do something else! And nobody would take it seriously, until I said, well, ‘Here, I’m gonna do it! HERE I COME!! And I’m having to prove the fact that I’m serious.”

The music ranges now from the mellowest of jazz and soul - a Junior Walkerish “Freedom For The Stallion,” no less - to the bluesiest of blues. Alvin’s guitar is at times supportive, although always with a sting. When he has the show to himself, he really lets himself go. Letting go now, however, means controlled combustion, there’s more feeling than flash. Whatever he does is usually right for the moment. For instance, “Every Blues You’ve Ever Heard” was, and wasn’t. Though it did utilize every blues cliche imaginable - what blues doesn’t - he couldn’t have made them seem as urgent or as authentic years ago. That is the difference -maturity. The precocity has given way to a kind of raunchy practicality.

He hasn’t abandoned all fun, though. Towards the end of the show, having pulled off one helluva rock and roll number, Alvin, “let fly” with his old freaky fingers act. But suddenly he crumpled over sideways onto the boards and rolled on the floor, kicking up his heels, still playing away, laughing at himself and enjoying the parody immensely. The.audience was with him all the way -it had been rolling and rocking in the aisles from the git, and the sud-den burst of insanity from the great scowl face was a welcome release.

Backstage was a bit less refreshing, at first. It generally is. Recently L.A. Free Press editor Tim Hogan and I were stealing food and booze and a few laughs at a backstage circus for Kiss, and he remarked, “Y’know, as many times as I’ve been here before, it still feels like I’ve been here before.” Maybe it’s an inside joke. But it’s nonetheless true. After a good show, a precedentbreaking show like Alvin Lee and Co. had put on that night, one cannot help hoping that perhaps the stars themselves will be different -that for once the surprise will carry over backstage as well. It never does. And if experience is the best teacher, we journalists should know better. There are no new twists to the backstage promenade.

Alvin was doing his super stud act from bygone days. He’s a healthy boy and he likes his women, and doesn’t care who knows it. With a babe on each knee he posed proudly for photographs, very much the conquering hero. He’s not sickly slim or milquetoast white like most British cutie rockers. He’s rosy and robust: Nordic looking. And he is as commanding offstage as on. He knows who he is, and to handle him, it pays to let him know who you are and where you are as well.

That established, he can be a thoughtful interviewee. Delightfully cockney, he drops his “aitches” and says “meself ’ and “me own,” and takes his time about it. He wants to make certain that his thoughts are clearly stated. Gets to the point, ‘e does. No pussyfootin.’

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The point that night was that despite the numerous encores and grinning critics, Mr. Lee was a bit skeptical about the performance and spoke right up. Didn’t need to be asked.

“Yeah... Problem is, tonight we played too loose. Messed around a bit. Normally we don’t do that. Normally we!re much tighter.” Reflecting, he let up some. “It was the mood, y’know? The mood of the day. Every night is quite different because of the crowd, and us, and . . .”

With a shrug he resigned himself perhaps to the fact that despite his reservations things had gone well. He has learned to be easy. C’est la vie - tommorrow, perfection.

Still, this trial run tour was too important for him to allow for any further foolishness. Alvin is out to find himself again, and he is very much aware of the fact that the former TYA legions may not be willing to tolerate the image exchange. But so far, the audiences have been receptive; even inspiring. And he was delighted.

“We’ve been out about three or four weeks and it’s goin’ GOOD!” he grinned. “What’s been nice is gettin’ across acoustic and with the jazz band numbers and funky numbers and all that variety of material. Now, they don’t take it too well in the backwards places, like .... Milwaukee and that. But we’re playin’ good halls. This tour’s had a concert hall feel, where everybody can hear and you don’t have ... You don’t get so many policemen clubbing people and that. It’s nicer, y’know? I really get kind of fed up with doing those big potty stadiums, y’know?”

He got fed up with more than that. Alvin Lee got fed up with Alvin Lee. And he admits iffreely. Characterising his former self as “Captain Speed Fingers” (he says that today he’ll settle for being “Captain Gross Out”), he explained why and how the metamorphosis had come about. And as he spoke he became oblivious to the backstage oglers gallery, the flash-bulbs, and the hubbub. True confessions.

“I still like ... lettin’ fly. I still like that. I slipped back into it tonight actually. I’ll do that if I happen tQ feel that way. I’m not against doing that and I did, as long as it’s not obligatory . . .”

He sounded almost defensive; obviously he explained himself many times, almost imploring spectators to understand. Almost. Remember, Mr. Lee has a mean streak. There was more than a touch of “I don’t really give a fuck if you get it or not” even in his humblest moments. Alvin Lee is, never forget, his own main man.

And that man knows where he went wrong. “What I originally wanted to do when I started to play... when I decided to play the guitar, was to be a musician. And the rewards of bein’ a musician are workin’ with musicians and playin’ things before, like, small crowds in clubs or . . . anyway. Now when it gets to be a habit, instead of what you want to do, then you’re workin’.

“I never found an outlet for the things I was into. 1 wrote about thirty new numbers and never recorded any of them and that’s sort of frustrating. I couldn’t do that, ’cause it didn’t fit the format at the time. So I was boxed in. Boxed in by the audiences ... the musicians . !. by the image. And I got fed up with everything! All the bullshit. I was part of the rock and roll machine, earning money for people. And ... I dunno, I did enjoy it. Originally. But it kinda got to be like a trap, you know?

“The business machine would prefer to have twenty or thirty percent of Ten Year’s After’s billions and millions than thirty percent of Alvin Lee and Co.’s hundreds and thousands. And they said, ‘Stick with what’s making the buyer happy, kid.’ It’s common sense. But I don’t believe in that. Not when it boils down to commercialism. Not for the sake of it. I mean, if any of your readers could get paid a thousand pounds a night for standing onstage having an epileptic fit, they’d probably do it quite happily for a few years. But it’s got to get to a point sooner or later where you ask, ‘Isn’t there anything more?’ ”

He sat back with a decisive nod. “There is more. And this is what I have to find out. I didn’t know if people were gonna say ‘Shut up!’ and yell for ‘Goin’ Home’ or what, but. . . like, I got the seven year itch, musically. So now I’m just experimenting. This is one experiment. The album with Mylon was another experiment, and the next thing I do will be another experiment and I hope to keep changing direction ‘til nobody knows where I’m going. Including me.

“So I... I’m trying to give meself an unlimited outlet... unprejudiced outlet. An outlet which doesn’t tie me down to any one kind of scene. See? It’ll take a couple of years from now... this is the start. I’m controlling me records, me own records. I’d like to be able to control me own concert environment. But this is opening it up, you see. It’s like starting again. Relatively. And I’ve gotta do this first tour to prove I’m for real.”

The best way to prove that, he believes, is by putting his music where his mouth is. And so far, that policy has paid off. He plans to be back in June, to get at more of the public, to prove that he has grown and intends to keep growing. He plans to do all this, Jirst of all, and most importantly of all to him, by giving that public a first class chance to judge for themselves.