I am convinced that there is a really good book to be written about those years between 73 and 76 ish. A "Please Kill Me" from the horse's mouth job. I watched the Harlech TV Man documentary the other day which centred on Welsh Connection and their farewell shows at the Roundhouse. It's as much another world as "The London Nobody Knows" or "Randall and Hopkirk". Worth doing before too many people peg it.
BTW spot-on re Van Halen. Many of the more gifted plank spankers I went to school with switched allegiances from W.Ash and Lizzy and Blackmore to EVH almost overnight. Can't beat that first album and the Sabbath tour boots.