Quote:
Originally Posted by slipkid
Wow snoot, that's a great picture! So that's the last concert with Spencer playing with FM.
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Actually it's from the summer of 1970, not long after Kiln House was recorded, and not the winter tour you're thinking of which came early in the following year. I recall a lot of new stuff was introduced, as much of it was unfamiliar to me -- I don't think the album had even made it to the stores shelves yet. Danny anchored everything nicely with his guitar, supplemented by Christy on the keyboards. Mick and John were rock solid as usual. Jeremy, as always, was the most dynamic on stage, plus the most comfortable in front of the mic. He could also turn to those familiar Elmore James and Elvis style ditties as augments. Outside of showcasing their new material, they also did a handful of blues numbers, some of which got pretty spirited. Jeremy, Danny & Christy as a front line really could put on a good show.
Jump forward a half year or so, with Peter back in the fold. My recollection - largely diminished now - was that it basically amounted to a lot of loose knit riffing based around new or familiar themes - some Kiln House stuff, I'd Rather Go Blind was still in there, an instrumental rip of Oh Well near the end IIRC, plus a few others now lost to me. Some psychedelic and blues numbers were thrown in for good measure. I suspect a portion of the jam material may have been tapped from the instrumental preps Green and Kirwan had been working on the previous year but never recorded. The really extended jamming I believe came later on during that tour. That was more a precursor of sorts to that first solo project PG cranked out later in the year. Danny was doing most of the lead stuff early on, Peter backing him as best he could on the KH material with which he was still unfamiliar. It was patch job, little more!
I don't believe any concert set was cast in stone though, not once Green replaced Spencer. Unfortunately I don't think things worked out so well as time went on. From what I gather, the band eventually got bored, basically just started going through the motions. There's no way they could have been happy with their situation in general, especially losing Jeremy like they did, or with Peter's return under those circumstances, to include all that endless, cosmic riffing. There was a lot of pointless meandering in those jams by that late date, I don't know what else to say, it was weird. Maybe it would have been more rewarding depending on how stoned you were!
Then again, maybe some nights it was better than others, depending on what went down. The touring leg involving PG lasted for almost 6 weeks. That's a lot of time for things to evolve - or devolve.
By the time it was over Bob Welch was on the scene, just in time to kick off the European summer tour.