If you were in London, you might have woken up on the morning of 7 January with memories of the previous night’s concert at the Royal Albert Hall, the first UK appearance of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
CSNY were riding high; the first album CSN, released in 1969, had just past the $1million sales mark, earning them a gold album, and they’d just recorded Deja Vu for release later in 1970. Expectations were high; the RAH gig was sold out.
Paul McCartney and Donovan were in the audience, and the boys sparked up a big one backstage to settle their nerves. The band had been well hyped as ‘The American Beatles’, which they patently were not. They were joined by Gregory Reeves on bass (who may, or may not, have been as young as 15 at the time) and Dallas Taylor on drums.
The show exists as a poor-quality audience recording, rough extracts of which can be heard here. According to David Browne of Rolling Stone, CSNY ‘enchanted’ the London audience. Richard Green in New Musical Express pronounced it a ‘Super Concert!’ The irrascible, often irritating, Chris Welch in Melody Maker, was less impressed, declaring it verged ‘dangerously into the realms of tedium’, although he praised Neil Young as ‘an exceptional talent with superb compositions and the only voice of distinction.’ Arse.
Here’s CSNY from shortly afterwards.
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