Dyan Birch - vocals; Frank Collins - vocals; Mel Collins - flute, saxophone; Tim Hinkley - keyboards; Neil Hubbard - guitar; Alvin Lee - guitar, vocals; Paddy McHugh - vocals; Alan Spenner - bass; Ian Wallace - drums
With only two tracks ("Let's Get Back" and "Right by My Side"), this is really not a performance, but rather, an introduction to the musical entourage that Alvin Lee took around the world shortly after leaving his trademark band, Ten Years After.
These recordings came from shows recorded at New York's Academy of Music (the home of the original Alan Freed/rock 'n' roll shows from the 1950s), and were taken from Lee's first solo US tour in 1975. Lee had done an astounding 28 US tours in only seven years with his previous group, TYA, and he had exploded on movie screens everywhere as part of the Woodstock documentary, so American audiences were very familiar with Lee and his music.
Although TYA had seen enormous success as a live act and, to a lesser degree, as a studio band, Lee had stayed with the group probably longer than he should have. Having been pigeon-holed into the bass-guitar-drums-organ instrumentation, and playing mostly 12-bar blues progressions, he became musically bored.
Lee departed the group in early 1974, and after releasing country-rock album On the Road to Freedom with gospel singer Mylon LeFevre and a bevy of top-notch guest musicians, he put together Alvin Lee and Company. They did their first show at London's Rainbow Theater in 1974 on a dare, but the gig turned out so well that Lee released it as double-LP In Flight. The band, which included former Humble Pie keyboardist Tim Hinkley and ex-members of Joe Cocker's Grease Band, would remain Lee's touring and recording band for several years after these tracks were cut in Manhattan.
Lee did a number of solo albums since he made these recordings. TYA's most recent Alvin Lee-sponsored reunion spanned many festivals and continents and lasted from 1997-2000. Both Ten Years After and the Alvin Lee Band continue to tour and record separately.