The connection with Nottingham and Mansfield is that for over a year or so from 1966 to 1967 The Jaybirds were the backing band to The Ivy League. The Jaybirds went on to become Ten Years After. Alvin Lee, Leo Lyons and Ric Lee of The Jaybirds and Mike O’Neill (keyboard player. Chick Churchill had yet to join the group) recorded for the BBC in March 1966. Not the wild blues of The Jaybirds but nevertheless an early recording experience for the lads. Hear it here.

The Ivy League was formed in August 1964 by three session singers John Carter (born John Nicholas Shakespeare : born in Small Heath, Birmingham: 20 October 1942), Ken Lewis (born Kenneth Alan James Hawker in Small Heath, Birmingham: 3 December 1940 – 2 August 2015) and Perry Ford (born Brian Joseph Pugh in Lincoln, 30 December 1933 – 29 April 1999).
John and Ken had been previous members of Carter-Lewis and the Southerners, who now carry some cult status as they had many musicians pass through their ranks with subsequent credentials like Jimmy Page, Jon Lord and Clem Cattini who also drummed for The Ivy League.
They established a three part harmony style with an extensive vocal range and with a series of UK hits, they made only a slight impact in the states, they toured and recorded with many line ups through the sixties. When Carter and Lewis formed The Flowerpot Men in 1967 the band continued with ever changing line ups into the seventies and beyond.

More about The Southerners here
and more about The Ivy League here

Our part of the story starts in January 1966 when The Jaybirds were the stage band for an adaptation of Alan Sillitoes book “Saturday Night, Sunday Morning” set for the stage and performed in the west end of London. The band were Alvin Lee: Guitar, Leo Lyons:Bass and Ric Lee: Drums. The job payed well but it hadn’t been the success it was hoped for and after only two months the last night was announced as Saturday 5th March 1966. As luck would have it, Ozzie Newman, a showbiz agent of some repute, had seen The Jaybirds performance on the Benny Green TV show just prior to this and asked them to become the backing band for The Ivy League. It was maybe not the job the lads were expecting but they went to the audition and impressed the three current vocalists who were Ken Lewis, Perry Ford and former Kestrel Tony Burrows. Although John Carter had left the band he was in the audience to give an ear to the precedings. They negotiated a very healthy fee, which allowed them to continue living in London and avoid returning to Notts which would have been a backward step for a group now pushing forward with ever growing speed.

Almost immediatley, they were recording several radio sessions with The Ivy League.
“Wednesday 9th March we recorded Music through Midnight in Studio Two at BBC Broadcasting House, Regent Street, London. On Friday March 11th, a spot for Swing Into Summer was recorded in BBC’s Studio Four, Maida Vale, London, and Thursday 17th March we did Saturday Swings in Maida ValeTwo.”
“On Monday 21st March we made an appearence on the television show Action at Associated Television’s Elstree Studio’s”
“Later that week, Wednesday 23rd March, I (Ric Lee) did a session at Southern Music in Denmark Street.”

Gigs and recording sessions were plentiful and the lads were enjoying the London life mixing with suth luminaries as David Frost. An early gig saw them at Lincoln City FC with DDDBMT, The Baron Knights (famous for spoofs) and The Kinks. Another tour had them billed with American stars The Walker Brothers who used The Mike Cotton Sound as their backing band. The package shows The Ivy League were billed on, meant you would only play 3 or 4 songs in your set but this was all a good learning curve for The Jaybirds as well as all the recording sessions they were doing for Brian Matthew on the BBC and for record releases by The Ivy League. A session for a record the Jaybirds was on, was “Willow Tree / One Day”, recorded in Pye studio’s which only reached the lower end of the charts.

In truth The Ivy League were waining and there hits days were behind them. A recording session Ric Lee took part in was for the demo of “Peek-A-Boo”, the follow up hit to “Winchester Cathedral” by John Carter and Geoff Stephens under the title of The New Vaudeville Band. Another time had him working with Clem Cattini in Pye studio’s with the follow up hit to “Lets go to San Francisco” by The Flowerpot Men called “A Walk In The Sky”. Another time both Ric Lee and Leo Lyons were asked by Geoff Stephens (co writer of “It’s not unusual” & Delilah”) to record a demo needed for the Eurovision song contest. Another single released by The Ivy League during this tenure was the Beach Boys sounding “My World fell down” written by John Carter and Geoff Stephens. Not a hit but a well liked song covered by Impact in New York, Dutch group The Buffoons, a Spanish version by Los Yetis called Todo Acabo and a Gary Usher produced masterpiece by Sagittarius which became better known by its inclusion on the now famous “Nuggetts” psychedelic compilation from 1972.

The keyboard job with the Ivy League was, originally, taken by Mike O’Neill. Chick Churchill (future TYA keyboardist) who had played with Nottingham band The Sons of Adam locally and in Germany was not yet a member of the group although he was employed as their roadie. In time he would eventually get occasional keyboard slots before claiming the position for himself in the summer.
London in 1966 really was where it was all happening and the lads met and crossed paths with the old guard like John Carter and Clem Cattini but also the up and coming new blood like Aynsley Dunbar but a lot of their time was spent on the road particularly in the North East of England on the Bailey circuit (the night club chain) and the cabaret scene in general with all the high jinks and near scrapes the rock and roll life style offered. By early 1967 the gigs with The Ivy League were becoming less and less and they managed to get a few gigs as The Jaybirds here and there but it wasn’t enough and Ric Lee for one had to find a job and sell his record collection to keep afloat. The Ivy League job fizzled out around February 1967 and it was a few months before another chance meeting would propel The Jaybirds forwards again.

The two singles The Jaybirds featured are
Willow Tree / One Day (Piccadilly 7N 35326) – June 1966 UK#50
My World Fell Down / When You’re Young (Piccadilly 7N 35348) – October 1966
although I’m not sure what their input was on My World Fell Down.