Newly mastered from Trevor Watt's original tapes. The complete recordings of the original Splinters lineup, including for the first time, the entire legendary 100 Club show and the previously unheard Grass Roots concert. The latter is believed to be the final recording of drummer Phil Seamen who died two weeks after this performance. Fully authorised.
If you are looking for a story which captures the mood of Great Britain in the early 1970s then what follows cannot be bettered. Indeed, all the folk memory leitmotifs of this period are contained within its sprawling narrative; polarised politics and protest; economic instability and wage concerns; unemployment; a very public tussle between old and new values; the forging of promising new alliances that, come the dawn, never quite delivered what they aimed to, their collective ideals crashing against the flinty realism of personal ambition, circumstantial change and individual discontent.
Then there is the cast list; a mix of moderates, mediators and extremists, all struggling to make sense of an arena in which uncertainty, novelty and hubris rub shoulder to shoulder. They even look the part, their riot of sideburns, outrageous hair, chocolate brown shirts, tank tops and leather jackets a reminder that, as far as sartorial fashion went, the 1970s was an all-time low for men of all ages. And if that were not enough, into this heady mix you can add the BBC, a rich source of anecdote and allegation that has become synonymous with the double-standards of the age, yielding both comedy gold dust and questionable personal mores in equal measure. Simon Spillett - May 2021
1. The 100 Club: Phase 1
2. The 100 Club: Phase 2
3. The 100 Club: Phase 3
4. The 100 Club: Phase 4
5. The 100 Club: Phase 5
6. The 100 Club: Phase 6
7. The 100 Club: Phase 7
8. The 100 Club: Phase 8
9. The 100 Club: Encore
10. Grass Roots: Phase 1
11. Grass Roots: Phase 2
12. Grass Roots: Phase 3
13. Grass Roots: Phase 4
14. Grass Roots: Phase 5
15. Grass Roots: Phase 6
Tracks 1-9 recorded live at The 100 Club, London, on 22nd May 1972
Tracks 10-16 recorded at the Grass Roots club, London, on 12th September 1972
Phil Seamen - drums (left channel)
John Stevens - drums (right channel)
Tubby Hayes - tenor sax, flute
Trevor Watts - alto sax
Kenny Wheeler - trumpet, flugelhorn
Stan Tracey - piano (tracks 1-5, 10-16)
Jeff Clyne - bass
Recorded by Trevor Watts
Photography by Jak Kilby
Tape transfer by Matt Parker
Liner notes by Simon Spillett
Executive Producer John Thurlow
Produced and mastered by Matt Parker for Jazz In Britain Ltd.
© Jazz In Britain Ltd. 2021
