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*MUSIC, guitar, Sold on Solos

sold on solos

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(*Header image by Carvin Audio*)

Guitar.

For those of us frequenting gigs, or ‘concerts’ as they were more often described in the ‘70s, there was always one main talking point on the bus journey back home – the mind-blowing ‘solo.’

In this short, occasional series, we’ll have a listen to some of my favourite, ‘less obvious ‘solos from the ‘70s.

So, let’s …kick out the jams, mofos, and start with the GUITAR!

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It may have been a rehearsed and integral part of a song; a short impromptu guitar lick; a prolonged jam involving several players taking turns to lead; an awe inspiring drum solo; a smooth sax piece; a finger-blurring burst on the keyboards … whatever. It was generally the highlight of the show.

With particular regard to guitarists, regular visitors to this blog will fully expect me to include at least one example of Rory Gallagher’s searing, blues infused playing. But that would be just too obvious; so too would likes of Allen Collins and Gary Rossington sharing solos on Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ‘Fee Bird.’ Or Jimmy Page on any one of a number of Led Zeppelin tracks. Or that Hendrix dude, when it comes to it.

The three I’ve highlighted below are indeed still particular favourites of mine, but for differing reasons. They are by what I’d consider under-appreciated artists in the ‘70s, though I’m sure they’ll be familiar to some. However, I’d say they are not of the ‘household names’ that would spring to mind when asked about the pantheon of great guitarists.

I’m not saying they’re ‘the best’ guitar solos in rock music, but I do regard all three as some of the most enjoyable.

Please feel free to suggest your own / debate the selection in the Comments section below, and / or post your own favourite on our Facebook Group Page.

OK – here we go:

#3: TEN YEARS AFTER: ‘I’m Going Home.’

Guitarist Alvin Lee formed The Jaybirds as a straight-up R&B trio in early Sixties, Nottingham, England. For a while they backed The Ivy League, and in 1966, like so many beat bands of the time, they spent some time developing and playing in Hamburg, Germany. 

They became a popular live act and upon change of management in 1966, also changed their name to Ten Years After – reflecting their new start some ten years after Elvis Presley rose to prominence.

They had released three albums by the summer of 1969, and established a reputation as one of the UK’s most popular bands. However, in August of that year, Ten Years After, really hit the big time, when their appearance at the Woodstock Festival was filmed, highlighting Lee’s speed guitar prowess.

The video above has been edited, I’m sure, for I have a recording of the festival and this song runs to over nine minutes.

Ten Years After would record several more albums throughout the early / mid Seventies, and cement their reputation as possibly the best blues rock band in the country (in truth, second best to Rory Gallagher!) before disbanding in 1975.

I love this particular performance and solos because it’s almost proto-punk in nature, brash and frantic, yet encompasses some raw boogie and classic rock ‘n’roll too.

And yes, I guess I should come clean, there IS a resemblance to many a Rory performance here!

#2: ROY BUCHANAN: ‘Roy’s Bluz.’

I really can’t recall how I came to love the music of Roy Buchanan. I did buy his LP, ‘That’s What I Am Here For’ as a fifteen year old, back in 1973. I presume I must gone down the Blues rabbit hole, having discovered, yes you guessed, Rory Gallagher the year previous!

Roy Buchanan was born in 1939 and brought up in rural communities of both Arkansas and California, where he was heavily influenced by the gospel music of his local churches, and the music heard on his radio.

He would, at age nineteen, record with Dale Hawkins who himself leant heavily on the influences of Louisiana ‘swamp’ music and mixed the blues sound of the local black artists with the ‘new’ rock ‘n’ roll style being popularised by Elvis etc..

Although not widely successful in a commercial sense, Roy Buchanan was held in high regard by fellow musicians, and reportedly, after Brian Jones’s death in the summer of 1969, he was asked to join The Rolling Stones. (So was Rory Gallagher in case you were interested!)

He declined the offer, concerned that he’d become more embroiled in the drink and drugs culture that surrounded the greatest band in the world.  He was also a famously shy man, and suffered some mental health issues. His voice was soft, and he had concerns about playing large venues and so never really became a ‘superstar’ as we’d now regard it.

Sadly, Roy Buchanan took his own life after being arrested following a drunken domestic dispute … though his cause of death remains questioned by his family.

As a lad, I was so enthralled by Roy Buchanan’s playing. I loved Blues music anyway, but his style just seemed so ‘clean’ and unassuming.  Hey – I can’t play a note on any instrument. I don’t do the technical stuff. I just know what I like.

And I still love the music of Roy Buchanan – one of rock’s true unsung heroes.

#1: ALBERT LEE: ‘Luxury Liner.’

I could play this song on endless repeat! (The first video is from a performance by Emmylou Harris and The Hot Band on The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1977.)

This particular track convinced me (a) I was in love with Emmylou Harris, and (b) that Albert Lee was at that point, the best guitarist I’d never heard of. I reckon he’s STILL the best many people have never heard of.

Albert Lee grew up in London and first gained recognition playing guitar for Chris Farlowe and his band, The Thunderbirds. He moved on to play with Heads, Hands & Feet for a while, before in 1974 moving to Los Angeles.

This was where he really found his feet, and more importantly, his hands. As a renowned session musician, his finger-picking style of play proved a perfect fit for the rock ‘n’ roll and country based music he’d be booked for. He played on three albums by The Crickets amongst others and for a period towards the end of the Seventies was hired to play with Eric Clapton – no competition there, in my book! 

Albert Lee has played with the great and the good of Rock and Country over the years and was awarded Guitar Magazine’s ‘Best Country Guitarist; five times.

Why do I love Albert’s playing so much? Sheesh! Really ….?

(Here’s  a later video of Albert playing the same song – kid’s still got it!)

(Post by Colin ‘Jackie’ Jackson of Glasgow – August 2022)

*MUSIC

memories of the apollo, glasgow – david bowie.

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Apollo, Glasgow.

I’d love to say my first Apollo, Glasgow memory is of Rory Gallagher standing front and centre of that high stage on the evening of 2nd March 1973, tuning his guitar before launching into ‘Laundromat.’

Rory Gallagher

Unfortunately, I can’t. Instead my first recollection is of ex Colosseum member Dave Greenslade in the guise of his new band, erm … Greenslade, boring me rigid as the strangely inappropriate support band.

Greenslade

Still, Rory and the lads more than made up for the purgatory I’d endured the previous forty minutes or whatever.

Throughout the remaining years of The Seventies, I’d get to as many Apollo shows as my meagre finances and other interests would allow. Suffice to say, I now have a great many exciting and happy memories from gigs in the hallowed hall – though some of these may be a tad addled by Carlsberg Special and Newcastle Brown Ale.

 Rory (five times over); The Sensational Alex Harvey Band; Lynyrd Skynyrd (twice); Man (two or three times); Jethro Tull (twice); The Runaways; Black Oak Arkansas; Ozark Mountain Daredevils; Baker Gurvitz Army; Ted Nugent; Queen; Devo and Gary Numan all spring to mind. I’d have to check my ticket stubs for others.

Rather surprisingly though, one of my most enduring memories surrounds a show I was not even at.

It was in the summer of ’78 and for some reason, I’d been up town for a drink with a couple of pals on a midweek evening. Even more surprising, we were still (relatively) sober as we made our way down West Nile Street to catch our bus home. As we passed Renfrew Lane at the back of The Apollo, we noticed a bit of a commotion.

We waited and we watched. Suddenly a blacked-out police van turned out the lane, followed by a horde of screaming and shouting fans. We watched as the van ignored the red traffic lights and eventually sped away from even the fittest of pursuing diehards.

Then, just as were getting back on our way, a chauffeur driven, black, limousine smoothly purred out Renfrew Lane. Only a few savvy fans who hadn’t been suckered by the decoy police van were in pursuit.

As the car slowed to a brief standstill right by us before turning left up the hill, the passenger, wearing a black fedora hat, leaned forward in his seat, smiled and waved.

David Bowie! David Bowie waved. To us! There was nobody else around.

Sure, I liked David Bowie – didn’t everybody? But I certainly wouldn’t have classed myself a ‘fan.’ And yet – Holy crap! There I was, a twenty year old bloke, feeling like a fourteen year old female Bay City Rollers fan. I suppressed the urge to scream and politely waved back.

Isn’t it funny how fate and circumstances shape the future? As a result of that spontaneous and momentary personal interaction, I became fan. Consequently David Bowie managed to sell several more albums than he would have done, had I not been passing the Apollo that night in 1978.

I bet he was so glad he took time to exchange pleasantries!

David Bowie album selection (CD)

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*MUSIC

name drops keep falling on my thread

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(Post by John Allan, from Bridgetown, Western Australia – March 2021)

The Burns Howff pub, West Regent Street, Glasgow.

Being in “The Biz” in those halcyon days of the mid to late 70s, I was privy to many  snippets of juicy gossip. What ? Being a musical instrument salesman by day and a gigging sax player by night doesn’t cut it ?

OK, I heard many a tall tale and true about bands and artistes working around the Glasgow area as a teenage wannabe.

Before death by disco, Glasgow was blessed with a myriad of venues and I was fortunate enough to play at several of them in the 70s. The Dial Inn, Saints and Sinners (King Tut’s), Tiffany’s (The Locarno/Zanzibar), Shuffles (The Astoria/Electric Gardens/The Garage), The Maggie and the mecca of them all, The Burns Howff.

The Howff  was where you played if you wanted to be discovered. Stone The Crows, Frankie Miller, Alex Harvey and Simple Minds allegedly all got their starts there. You certainly didn’t play for the money. I was in a 9 piece band and the payout barely covered our bus fares.

Many a band would try and fail at the Howff. One lot of Who clones decided to embrace the Roger Daltrey mic swinging act. It may work at Wembley Stadium when you’ve got half a football pitch in front of you and are on an 8 foot high stage, but it’s a different matter in a cosy wee nook of a Glasgow pub. People were ducking for cover as the swinging mic cleared glasses off tables.

A death metal band decided to go one better than Ozzy and have their singer emerge from a coffin at the beginning of their act. To enhance the theatre, they had hired a dry ice machine. Usually used in large auditoriums, the band had miscalculated the output of the device and within seconds the whole lounge bar was floor to ceiling in cold mist which then engulfed the public bar below. Petrified punters clutched their half ‘n halfs in fear of the Grim Reaper emerging from the fug!

Many a tale I heard from my boss, Freddy, like the infamous Glasgow/Italian organ player Mario with the high pitched voice. Mario’s piece de resistance when soloing, was to play descending arpeggios on the keyboard. Unfortunately, unable to similarly ascend, he would run his thumb up the keys while rocking the organ on it’s stand and attempt a handstand. Very Keith Emerson if your memory goes back that far. One fateful night at the Falkirk Town Hall with it’s notorious 6 foot stage, Mario got that wee bit over excited with the handstand, lost his balance and back flipped over organ and stage. As the band peered into the darkness of the hall, a faint high squeak could be heard “ama aw right boys” !

Then the bass player who, at a Yule time gig, momentarily forgot that he had updated his old rig and jumped onto his speaker at a climatic part of the show only to be propelled across the stage and smashed into the Xmas tree – his previous set up wasn’t on castors.

We played a few tricks on Freddy ourselves. We players all kept our instruments in the back of the shop as we would go to gigs straight after work. We swapped his cherished Les Paul Custom for a cheap Japanese copy, then turned up with his original minutes before his band were due to start. Then we strung his guitar left handed once and turned up with new strings and a string winder. Kept him on his toes.

Another story relates to a singer at an audition who was clearly struggling with hitting the high notes. Somebody suggested he stand on a chair. Reluctant at first, the vocalist stood up on it. A nod and a wink and the band lowered the key of the tune and miraculously he hit his note. Trying again with him off the chair, the band reverted to the original key and the singer continued to struggle (lead vocalist are not the smartest of breeds) This continued a few times more and the band members agreed that they liked his voice but couldn’t decide how to work the chair into the act !

Not all these tales related to that time. At the shop we were visited by elderly sales reps who had been big band players back in the 40s. One former alto sax player told us about getting a better paid gig on the night his big band were playing at their usual residency. He asked a non playing friend to sit in with saxophone section. Our alto buddy gave him one of his old saxes with the reed removed and was given the instruction to mime and just copy what the rest of the guys in the section were doing. Nobody would notice one saxophone part missing.

On the night, the drums and bass struck up, trumpets and trombones blasted out the intro then the conductor gesticulated for the saxophone section to stand up. Not a sound. All 5 ‘players’ were ‘deps’ (deputies or stand-ins) !

On Friday the 17th of September, 1976 my band Souled Out plus Cirkus, Legend,  Sneaky Pete, Skeets Boliver and Peter John Vettesse were finalists in the Sunday Mail “Popscot ’76” competition. I made it to the colour centrefold (fully clothed) of the Sunday Mail. Backing singers June and Marie in matching sparkly boob tubes and me all in black wearing a beret. As my head is tilted forward, you can’t see my face but I assure that’s me. (As if anybody would still have a 1976 Sunday Mail pull out – but if you do, please contact me !)

We were on early in the concert so it meant we could relax and watch the other contestants. I noticed one guy in the change room struggling to put on these ridiculously high platform boots. It was Peter John Vettesse. He then strode on stage and attempted to sit down at his Fender Rhodes electric piano and bank of synthesizers. Unfortunately he hadn’t calculated the extra legroom needed with platforms so couldn’t get his knees under the piano keyboard. He spent the next few minutes struggling to get the boots off again accompanied by the shuffles and groans of an impatient audience. What a loser thought the young man with the oversized beret.

That loser went on to be keyboard player for Jethro Tull all through the 80s, arranger and producer for Annie Lennox, Mike Hucknall and the BeeGees. Humble pie digested it was time to Roll Over Beethoven (Chuck beret !)

Peter John Vettesse of Jethro Tull.

Just for your information neither Souled Out nor PJV won Popscot ’76. That honour went to a Dundee oufit called Skeets Boliver led by a young Michael Marra who I believe wrote many a fine tune before his untimely death. The Skeets won a record deal but had to change their reggae tinged winning entry “Shithouse Door” to “Side Street Door”.

That’s showbiz folks and I’m glad I’m no longer a part of it !

Who am I kidding !!

*MUSIC, Social life

a packed lunch for a vampire and dennis neilson’s freezer – a who odyssey

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(By Alan Fairley – Edinburgh)

To many people, going to a gig and ending up in hospital would be regarded as an occupational hazard but to go through that experience while carrying out the comparatively mundane and harmless act of purchasing a ticket has to be regarded as something of a rarity.

It was an adventure I experienced back in October 1971.

The Who had just announced that they would be returning to Glasgow for the first time in over a year to play a show at Greens Playhouse and interest in the gig was sky high, coming as it did on the back of the band’s highly successful and unique Rock Opera Tommy which had been kicking around for a couple of years.

On top of that, Who’s Next, which is widely regarded as the bands finest ever piece of work and which featured the anthemic single Won’t Get Fooled Again, had just been released

The announcement came that tickets would go on sale at 10am on the Sunday before the show and plans began to develop as to how these sought-after pieces of paper could fall into the hand of myself and my two fellow Who fans from school, Angus MacAulay and Nicky Mawbey (both now sadly deceased).

Long before the days of Ticketmaster and online/telephone booking, anyone looking to attend a gig would merely trot along to the House of Clydesdale electrical store in Sauchiehall Street and proceed to the oasis-like ticket desk which was crammed in between the fridge freezers and the twin tubs. 

With demand expected to be high the best option to guarantee success for a high profile show like The Who was to camp out on the pavement overnight which, bearing in mind the onset of a Glasgow winter would have been a course of action palatable only to the foolhardy and the supremely dedicated.

None of us fell into either of these categories (although we perhaps verged on the borderline of foolhardy) so we devised a plan to wake up early and rendezvous at 6am on the day of the sale prior to making the six mile journey into Sauchiehall Street.

What we didn’t allow for, however, was the non-availability of public transport at six o’clock on a Sunday morning so, with no buses or trains running at such an ungodly hour, we resorted to the noble art of hitch hiking.

It was an activity in which none of us had any prior experience and as a result, we stood by the road with thumbs outstretched hoping that some passing driver would be daft enough to pick up three long-haired, denim clad teenage boys.

After getting some strange looks from the occupants of the few vehicles who sped by, a car finally stopped and our spirits were lifted when the driver shouted “ur yees gaun intae toon for Who tickets, boys? In ye get.”

This kindred spirit kindly dropped us off in the city centre before looking for a parking space but when we we turned into Sauchiehall Street we were met by what only be described as a seething mass of humanity with a queue from Clydesdale, four deep on the pavement, snaking all the way round to Hope Street then into Renfrew Street.

The Famous Apollo Queue

We trudged gloomily in search of the end of the queue when an almighty scuffle broke out amongst those in line. Police were soon on the scene, manhandling everyone in the vicinity, the outcome being Angus, Nicky and myself being pushed into the queue by the said officers.

This episode of police-enforced queue jumping led to us gaining a foothold at least 100 yards further up the line from where we should have been and raised our expectations of a successful outcome to the trip. Every cloud and all that.

We then heard that, on police advice, the ticket desk was to open at 9am and it wasn’t long before we were slowly shuffling round with the Holy Grail of Clydesdale Electrical within our distant sights.

Then, disaster struck.

A rumour began circulating (allegedly by the police) that the tickets were almost sold out, panic set in and an almighty crush developed as the four-deep queue grew to six or seven-deep, with people desperate to move forward in what was now beginning to look like a forlorn quest of seeing Townshend, Daltrey and co in the flesh.

By this time, the three of us, along with many others were pushed up tight against the plate glass window of Graftons, a ladies clothes shop.

As the crush increased, there was no means of escape and the window began to creak with the weight of bodies trapped against it.

The scene of the incident but in gentler times!

Before long the inevitable sound of breaking glass became apparent as the window gave way and I found myself lying on the floor amongst the Graftons mannequins with deadly looking shards of glass raining down on my head.

The cops again appeared, hauling bodies out of the carnage and I recall one senior office shouting “get this dealt wi’, we don’t want another Ibrox”, a poignant nod to the Ibrox disaster which had claimed 66 lives earlier that year.

I was lucky… I only suffered a few minor scratches, as did Nicky but Angus wasn’t so fortunate. When we found him he was lying on the pavement with blood pouring from a wound in the back of his neck.

By this time a fleet of ambulances had arrived, and we hauled him over to the nearest one before we were all bundled in and carted off to the Royal Infirmary.

Glasgow’s Royal Infirmary – in all its Gothic glory

Now, on, say, a Friday or Saturday night, the emergency department of Glasgow’s Royal Infirmary is not a place for the faint hearted as the hard-pressed medics deal with the never-ending stream of drunken casualties but Sunday mornings? -that was time for the doctors and nurses to relax a bit and review the events of an eventful night shift over a well-earned coffee and a bacon roll.

Not this time. Their peace was shattered by the sight of several dozen blood-soaked rock fans coming through the doors for treatment. I actually felt quite embarrassed taking up a space in the waiting area with my puny little scratches while the guy beside me, a hippy dude called Stevie, held his kaftan tightly against his head to stem the blood from the area where an almighty shard of glass was embedded.

Stevie addressed the situation with the classic black humour for which Glaswegians are famed, uttering a line which has has stayed in my psyche until this day – “I feel like I’m a packed lunch for a fuckin’ vampire.”

After several hours in casualty, Angus emerged with an impressive row of stitches in his neck and the three of us went home ticketless.

I did get to see The Who twice in the years that followed, firstly at Charlton Athletic Football Ground (The Valley) in 1974 and again at Celtic Park in 1976.

Moon & Harvey on the same bill? – Madness!

The Charlton gig, which I attended with my mate Mike Rooney from Temple, was an all-day event and featured a stellar supporting cast of Humble Pie, Lou Reed, Bad Company, Lindisfarne, Maggie Bell (who took great delight in informing the 60,000 crowd that Scotland had just beaten England 2-0 at Hampden) and Montrose.

The last-named band had been called in as last-minute replacements for The Sweet who had been scheduled to open the show but were forced to pull out after singer Brian Connolly had his head kicked in by some neds after a gig the previous night.

The show had its high points and low points. One of the high points was, when sitting in the blistering sunshine on the terracing steps, the bra-less girl beside me graciously decided to whip off her t-shirt and remain topless throughout Humble Pie’s set. That vision always returns to my mind when I dust off the cover of the Pie’s epic double album Eat It which was around at the time.

One of the highlights of the day…

The low point was the fact that The Who were 40 minutes late in taking the stage and it was inevitable that the show would continue beyond its 10pm curfew.

As the last train to Glasgow would be departing Euston Station at 11pm Mike and I made the reluctant decision to leave the gig early and, after negotiating the complex route across the capital from Charlton, we managed to jump on the train with seconds to spare.

In hindsight, it proved to be smart move. Had we stayed for the encores and missed the train, the alternative would have been to spend the night in that particular corner of hell known as the Euston concourse.

Reflecting on stories which have emerged since then regarding young lads who were in similar situations, who knows, it could well have been our lifeless, severed body parts which were found stashed in the dark recesses of Dennis Nilsen’s freezer.

In the words of Bob Dylan – ‘a simple twist of fate.’

My Top 5 Who songs

  1. Squeeze Box
  2. Won’t Get Fooled Again
  3. I Can’t Explain
  4. 5:15
  5. Baba O’Reilly