After Tea "After Tea" a.k.a. "Jointhouse Blues" 1970***

I've always been meaning to get an album by Tee Set or its splinter group After Tea, as they are by far the most famous rock groups of my adopted homeland Delft. A medieval town with picturesque small houses, bridges and canals, it has been famous since the 16th century for its fine porcelaine and more recently for hosting the country's biggest Technical University. Famous Delftenaren include (besides myself)... let me think. Well, I guess I'll have to give first place to William the First Prince of Orange, even though he -like me- wasn't born here. He is considered  the father of the country, for having led the Low Countries' war of Independence and for being the progenitor of the Dutch Royal House. He was assasinated inside his residence The Prinsenhof, currently a museum. The bulletholes are still in display. Apparently he was the first famous person to be assasinated with a handgun, which makes him the founder of a popular club that includes Abraham Lincoln, Robert Kennedy, Franz Ferdinand (the Austrian Archiduke, not the band), Mahatma Gandhi, John Lennon and many politicians and kings. He's buried in the city's New Kerk together with most of his royal descendents. In the same crypt, close to William's son Prince Maurits, lies a man who had been imprisoned by him. The learned scholar Hugo Grotius may have laid the foundations for maritime and international law but he is more famous for escaping prison hidden in a bookchest. The other church -the one with the leaning tower- hosts less noble, yet equally famous, Delftenaars: the great painter Johannes Vermeer (you know, the one who painted Scarlet Johanson) and the scientist Antony van Leeuwenhoek, who is considered the father of microbiology. The man had the bright idea to look at canal water under a microscope lens. Needless to say he never drank a drop of it since: beer and only beer! I hope you like history lessons as much as I do, otherwise this whole paragraph must have been pretty boring for you. If you'd rather read about Delft's record stores, I have another relevant post.

Tee Set may not have been as famous as the abovementoned Delftenaars but they were pretty successful in their time. Unfortunately their soft pop style isn't too interesting for me, and neither is the music initially made by After Tea, which formed in 1967 by former Tee Set members including English expat Ray Fenwick. They also had some success with their sunny flower pop singles, but by 1969 Fenwick had returned to the UK to replace Stevie Winwood in The Spencer Davis Group, while group leader Hans van Eijck had returned to Tee Set. That left bassist/singer Polle Eduard to head the new line-up, consisting also of German organist Ulli Grün, guitarist Ferry Lever and drummer Ilja Gort. This band incarnation was a different beast altogether: more heavy and progressive, they made this experimental LP before disbanding. It sold badly and because of that eventually became a collector's item. It opens with a John Mayall/Savoy Brown- style blues rocker "Jointhouse Blues" featuring downhome blues harp and gritty vocals. "You've Got To Move Me" is harder, the interaction of organ and heavy wah-wah guitar similar to a bluesier Uriah Heep. "I'm Here" is a more wistful acoustic piece, setting the scene for "Someday" and "Let's Come All Together". Both remind me of Free, probably because of Polle's vocals. 

so that's what you do after tea!

The former sports a great organ solo, while the latter puts Ferry Lever's guitar upfront. He is also the star of side 2, a 25-minute long jam called "Trial/Punishment/The End". It has some powerful drumming and Zeppelin-ish guitar solos. Some people can never get enough of those. They're mostly male, over 50, have beards and long hair, and wear classic rock band T-shirts. Personally, I find it a bit too long. Maybe I'll like it better after a few years. My version of the album ends here, just like the original LP did. An official reissue by the Pseudonym label adds bonus tracks from contemporary singles which are supposedly quite nice. Get that one if you can. After the -softer sounding- singles also failed to get noticed the band went their separate ways. Ilja Gort, for example, became a wine maker in France. Apparently he produces the popular Franco-Dutch La Tulipe wines, which prompted me to dig them out of their cupboard and introduce them to their maker's older creation. Prost!

**** for Jointhouse Blues 

*** for You've Got To Move Me, I'm Here, Someday, Let's Come All Together

** for Trial, Punishment, The End