Ten Years After Splits With a Promise to Return
Ten Years After 's current lineup is splitting. Co-founding drummer Ric Lee and keyboardist Chick Churchill began touring with vocalist and guitarist Marcus Bonfanti and bass player Colin Hodgkinson in 2014, just after the death of classic-era frontman Alvin Lee .
"The time spent through the decade together has been very rewarding," Ten Years After said in an official statement , "and throughout it, the members formed a bond of mutual respect for one another as musicians and a great social bond, outside of their term playing together. They had a superb relationship working and traveling together."
This announcement arrived just days after Ten Years After performed at the Lahnstein Blues Festival. They'll finish other scheduled shows in Germany before reorganizing.
Top 10 Ten Years After Songs
"For the future, Ric Lee is already working to form a Ten Years After lineup with new members to continue the good work set up by Chick, Marcus, Colin and himself," according to the official statement. "Ric plans to have the new band up and running early in 2025 and an album to be released in the spring."
Ten Years After's signature appearance at Woodstock transformed their third album, Ssssh , into a breakthrough Top 10 U.S. hit. But the group's complete Woodstock performance wasn't released in its entirety until the one-CD, two-LP set Woodstock 1969 arrived earlier this year.
Joe Gooch initially took over for Alvin Lee in 2003 and remained until Bonfanti's arrival. Lee died in March 2013 at age 68 after surgical complications. Hodgkinson replaced co-founding bassist Leo Lyons.
