Veteran Rocker Alvin Lee Performs On Own Terms

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Alvin Lee with Nine Below Zero and God's Dog, tomorrow, 9 p.m., The Detour Tavern, 221 Main Ave. S., Renton. $16.50. 226-0908. -----------------------------------------------------------------

Those who have known Alvin Lee for any length of time probably first heard and saw him with his band Ten Years After in the film "Woodstock." He was the man with the peace sign-plastered guitar playing a finger-melting version of "I'm Heading Home" and being rewarded at the end with a huge watermelon someone rolled on stage.

Lee was recently reminded of another film he was featured in around the same period and he began to laugh.

"Oh "Groupies?" Yeah, I remember that. We had this film crew following us around for ages, shooting all this stuff, but they were paying a lot more attention to the groupies than us. I asked 'em what the film was for and they told me a music documentary called "Rock '70." But I knew they weren't really there for the music and when it came out, I was right."

One thing the forgotten film showed, besides backstage antics, was more of Lee's dexterity, including the use of a drumstick to pound his guitar.

"Yeah," he said, "I still do the drumsticks. It's fun."

The early 70s meant big changes for Alvin Lee. His parents were were jazz and blues fans who encouraged his interest in the guitar as a child. By 13 he formed his first band. He began Ten Years After in 1966 and two years later it was the top club act in London. Lee was known not only for his love of blues and early rockers like Chuck Berry, but for his amazing speed as well.

But with Woodstock and the resulting fame came bigger venues, bigger gigs and it started to sour for the guitarist.

"When it got to the arena stage I didn't really enjoy it, to be honest," Lee continued by phone from southern California. "The music was floundering in the huge places, there was no atmosphere and you got no feedback from the audience. I couldn't see anyone. At the height of the so-called famous Ten Years After I was a very unhappy boy."

Lee did 28 tours in five years and recorded scores of albums. He retired Ten Years After in 1976, although it reared its head for one last gasp in 1988. Now he plays mainly clubs and small theaters.

"Those are really the best gigs I've done, where there's about a thousand people and you're right close to them. You get some real energy out of those . . . that's how you tell if things are working. You can't tell anything in an ice hockey arena."

Lee has also continued to record. His newest release, "I Hear You Rockin'," is a dozen tracks of classic style rock and blues, mostly penned by Lee. Along for the ride on two tracks is Lee's old friend George Harrison, whose slide guitar work is instantly and pleasantly identifiable.

"Yeah, you can really tell it's him," said Lee, "he really is a good slide player. We've known each other since 1973 when I recorded one of his songs "So Sad" and he played on it. I've played on some of his albums as well and we've jammed a lot over the years. But he really is modest and prefers to remain anonymous."

These days Lee mostly tours Europe, this is his first U.S. tour since 1989. And he now lives in Barcelona.

Lee says he " always wanted to be a musician, a working musician, not a rock star, and it's still what I do. It's really all I know how to do. The only hard bit is the traveling. I sometimes say we play for nothing, we get paid for the traveling."