"This sort of seat-of-the-pants indulgence would never fit the corporate cosiness of today’s major festivals": Ten Years After showcase the solos on Woodstock 1969

Ten Years After: Woodstock 1969 cover art.

After monsoon-like rain temporarily stopped Woodstock’s final day, Country Joe’s Fish Cheer/I-Feel-Like-I’m-FixingTo-Die Rag had primed the crowd nicely when Ten Years After commenced their 60-minute set at 8.15pm. Although Jimi Hendrix is routinely cited as the Woodstock movie’s defining moment, at the time it was Ten Years After’s frenetic rampage through I’m Going Home, which precipitated the London blues band’s US breakthrough. 

Previously, only buyers of 2009’s 38-CD Woodstock mega-box would have possessed the five tracks Ten Years After played before the balls-out closer that started life on 1968’s UK-conquering live album Undead. Restored and remixed for vinyl (with a tie-dye pressed Indie store exclusive), it’s interesting to hear the band ignoring recently released third album Stonedhenge, mainly with epic workouts around 1967’s debut album.