I don't know what the purpose of the towel was in Alvin's case, but two possible explanations I've seen with other guitarists:

I've seen a towel on an amp get pulled down and caught on a curled cord

I know of one guitarist that didn't like the curled cord stretched so straight from input to guitar that used a towel to add a slight weight to the cord half way between guitar and input

Other than that, haven't a clue

@PGM

I have nothing against Joe. He was an unknown player asked to join a band of established and respected musicians - anyone would have said yes. But you're right that he has shown no humility or grace towards Alvin. I once read that he said anyone could play Alvin's licks, and that was the last thing I chose to read about/by him. It ****** me off then, but after all this time, I'm just over it.

I don't much care anymore what TYAN does or what they call themselves. They have now been together longer than Alvin led TYA, so it is what it is. No hard feelings. Leo is one of the all time great bass players, and I'm glad he and Ric and Chick are still out there working. But what their band is not and never will be is the original Ten Years After. Without Alvin, they are a different band, and that band can never be as great as they were with him.

Go girl, you have said it all Toni ! thanks pw

Well said Toni, i completely agree with you.I don't want to compare Joe with Alvin,because there's nothing to compare.TYAN can play in my neighbour's home,i definitely will not go.

PGM you posted the JOE G tread on the wrong website . This Alvin s website where we dicuss Alvin Lee s music.
Please post all about Joe G and Co on the Ten - Years - After . Com
Bit insulting reading about Joe here on Alvins site.
Remember the Last 13 years Alvin Lee made wonderfull music with Pete Pritchard on Bass and Richard Newman on drums.

Pieter, in fairness, this is an old thread from February brought back to the top by Robin - not PGM (who, by the way, was on our side about Joe).

Gosh, Toni, you took
the words right out of my mouth. Exactly, word for word.

Sorry to all for the misunderstanding.

I understand. But After Alvin passed away i am maby oversensative by posts wich not concern Alvin and aspecially post wich belong on to the other TYAN .com ., site keep popping up on Alvin s site.

As soon as people post on those treads they wil service on top.
I hope both this one and Leo s will dissapear soon.
Sorry for being so protective and oversensative.

We all grieve in different ways, dear Pieter. I find lately that it helps my own grief to talk about other topics here in a free-flow some of the time, and even to engage in some humor, as some of us always used to do. For days, at first, though, I felt too sad even to post.

I just hope we can all try to be more understanding of each other's differences. It's not easy to be perfect, especially when grieving. I don't even know how to write something worth posting here in a detached or restrained manner-- I'm a passionate person, and feel passionate about Alvin. That, and sometimes the desire to entertain and amuse, form the space that I've come from in dozens or hundreds of posts here. If I step outside of that, I'll never make any mistakes here, but I will be somewhat uptight about tripping up, and I won't connect with the right free-flow Muses, so my posts may not be particularly distinctive. The creative process is a complicated thing sometimes. Suddenly I feel depressed. If I may say so.

OK, I think I'm snapping out of my sudden funk now, for whatever that's worth. Anecdotal till the end, that's me! ;-) What I'm trying to say is that making sure this board includes and respects *all* Alvin's fans may not just be about everyone miraculously managing to maintain perfect posting behavior every moment, or never writing anything that anyone could possibly ever find fault with-- if indeed such behavior or such writing could even exist. It might also mean engaging in a greater degree of laissez-faire, maybe developing more tolerance and understanding for others with quite different personalities, views, interests, and communication styles, not all of which we're going to click with personally. Do we really all have to be or behave the same? If we aren't and don't, especially if we make any interaction mistakes, it may be for a whole host of complicated reasons, not necessarily meaning coming from a position of lack of respect for others.

We're already expressing ourselves through a medium in which we can't hear someone's tone of voice or see his or her facial expressions. That's kind of a big deal sometimes, as millions of people on the Internet have learned in an assortment of sometimes uncomfortable or hurtful cyber-situations. What's the solution? I think at least some of it has to be becoming more philosophical and expansive about the many ways in which others may not be as we are, or think, speak, and write as we do-- which also means being more forgiving, if not in the moment, then at the end of the day.