BIRKENHEAD’S Future Yard venue will take a trip back to the ‘Summer of Love’ this week when it welcomes one of the 1960s’ most revered bands for a three-night residency.
The psychedelic icons, who feature original guitarist Johnny Echols in their line-up, will be celebrating the 55th anniversary of their seminal album, Forever Changes, with the band performing the 1967 release in full on Saturday, June 25.
On Thursday, June 23, at the same venue, they will perform their debut self-titled album and Friday, June 24 will see a performance of sophomore album Da Capo.
Love, who were originally founded in Los Angeles by Arthur Lee in 1965, will then tour the UK finishing with three shows in London.
Joining Johnny on stage is Baby Lemonade who, from 1993 until Arthur’s death in 2006, performed as his band and became an essential part of the renaissance of Love’s music. This iteration of Love saw many sell-out tours, as well as back-to-back Glastonbury performances and an appearance on Later with Jools Holland.
Johnny and Arthur were childhood friends whose families both moved from Memphis to Los Angeles. As teenagers they teamed up to form the groups, Arthur Lee & The LAG’S and the American Four before they formed Love. The classic Love line-up featuring Johnny disbanded in 1968 but he reunited with Arthur in 2005 to perform with the band once more.
Sadly, Arthur passed away in 2006 after a battle with leukaemia.
Chris Torpey, co-director of Future Yard, said: “To say that we’re overjoyed about welcoming Johnny Echols and The Love Band to Future Yard would be something of an understatement!
“It’s something we’ve been massively excited about since we first started having conversations with the team, especially as we didn’t think Johnny and the band would tour in the UK again.”
The Saturday performance of Forever Changes is now completely sold out, as are the three-night residency tickets. Tickets for the Thursday performance of Love and the Friday performance of Da Capo are still on sale. Johnny Echols will also be appearing at an ‘in conversation and signing’ event on Saturday afternoon.
n For info go to futureyard.org
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