master gen. CD-R
Sound quality: 4 (out of 6)/vg++
5. I FOUND A LOVE *
* Mitch Ryder solo spot
West, Bruce & Laing had completed their only European tour with a show at the Leeds University on April 26, 1973; the band then obviously recorded their second album “Whatever Turns You On” and were booked to tour the US in July 1973 and early August for backing the release. However, Jack Bruce was said to have fallen seriously ill before the tour commenced - which IMO is no wonder regarding that frantic schedule.
However, Lez & Corky decided to continue their musical relationship and fulfill the commitments that were already booked for West, Bruce & Laing before their break-up.
West recruited Tom Robb on bass ex of Holy Smoke, a band fronted by Mylon Lefevre whom Lez had contributed slide guitar to for his 1972 album “Over The Influence”. On 2nd guitar, 17 year-old fellow New Yorker Peter Baron was added, plus Mitch Ryder on (occasional) vocals. The whole thing went by the very apt name of “Leslie West’s Wild West Show” though they played a lot of shows still being announced as West, Bruce and Laing.
It seems Ryder (who had a pretty hard time at that point) played support to The Wild West Show and contributed vocals to the headliner’s set; Lez obviously returned services; there is a recording of Mitch Ryder’s encore number “You Gotta Tell Her” from August 6, 1973, at the Schaefer Music Festival in NYC’s Central Park which clearly features Lez West on a - long and searing – guitar solo. That was perhaps the last or one of the last Wild West shows as the quasi-reformed Mountain already embarked on their Japanese tour just about two weeks later.
Mitch Ryder once stated in an interview that the Wild West Show were a great band but their management fluffed it completely so they couldn’t but break after their tour and without any recordings. At least, on the long run the break-up made way for the late 1973 Mountain reunion.
The set list here is very interesting, with a batch of noz less than four WB&L numbers (which sure was only fair to the audiences most of which surely were expecting to see that band), plus Lez’ Brit tribute of Free’s “Fire & Water” (their only known redition, and a stunner is it, too), The Who’s “Summertime Blues”, and “Jenny, Jenny” which Fleetwood Mac had done on the 1969/1970 tour. The set shows Lez always had more than a soft spot for British rockers as numerous cover versions on his subsequent solo albums would confirm.
This show is one only of two known to be circulating recordings of this band - the other is a much shorter set from their July 12 show at the Toronto Varsity Stadium in support of Humble Pie (though not being mentioned on the ticket).
The band just smoked and you can clearly hear how enthused the Detroit audience responded. Lez was really taken by that as he told them: “You are FANTASTIC! You should be up here, and we should be out there”!
Leslie West – guitar & vocals
Peter Baron – guitar
Mitch Ryder – vocals
Tom Robb – bass
Corky Laing – drums