October 12, 2024

My new book on SYD BARRETT out now.

 

 

A new book of mine on Syd Barrett has been in the shops for a few months now. It is called "Scritto sui Rovi" (Written on the Brambles).
After Syd's death on 7 July 2006 and all that followed (estate auction, sale of the house, an attempt to normalise his figure by means of the website run by his nephew Ian, Rob Chapman's biography/textbook and the recent TV movie ‘Have you got it yet?‘, a book on the alleged Asperger's syndrome...) I felt it my moral duty to take up my long-standing thesis on the fate of the English musician: Syd consciously withdrew from the rock scene because he was uninterested in becoming yet another music biz star and ‘society of the spectacle’ (see Guy Debord).


If you are interested in this alternative interpretative trajectory, you can buy the book (this time written only in Italian) either directly from my publisher Zona (at: https://editricezona.it/), in bookshops or on online sales portals.

 

 no©2024 LucaChinoFerrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)

September 28, 2024

"Not tied into a more coherent narrative history": a 2021 specious review about TEB book/CD by Richie Unterberger.

 
A December 2021 review by Richie Unterberger found by chance on the web at the page
http://www.richieunterberger.com/wordpress/2021/12/
offers me an opportunity to reflect on my idea of musical biography.



Unterberger writes: 
 
"Third Ear Band, The Dragon Wakes (ReR/NOVEMBeR Books). Subtitled “the legendary unreleased album” and lasting a little less than half an hour, this was issued only as a CD bound into the book Glen Sweeney’s Book of Alchemies: The Life and Times of the Third Ear Band, 1967-1973. The Third Ear Band had a sizable underground following in the UK during that time, though they weren’t exactly rock, and more like an instrumental trance music group blending elements of classical and world music, with some jazz-influenced improvisation. Their instrumentation was rather far afield from rock as well, with hand percussion, cello, violin, and oboe. Their recordings will never get more than a niche audience, involving as they do a lot of repetition than many will find wearying.

This disc’s subtitle is a little misleading: a third album titled The Dragon Wakes was announced in Melody Maker in August 1970, but the band did a number of unreleased recordings in late 1970 and early 1971 that might have been considered for such an LP, not just the six previously unissued ones that are on this CD. Other unreleased studio recordings from the era are on the three-CD expanded edition of their second album, 1970’s Third Ear Band, if you’re keeping track.

Small-print details aside, I find this more accessible than most of the Third Ear Band material I’ve heard. It’s still entirely instrumental and based around repetitive riffs likely meant to induce trance-like states, but the riffs are a bit catchier, though not as memorably digestible as those of actual early space rock outfits like Pink Floyd. The use of electric guitar on some tracks, though seen by some fans and critics as a dilution of their purer original sound, adds some welcome texture. For these reasons, overall it’s more likely to be appreciated by lovers of psychedelic/early progressive rock than much of their official output from the time.

The book it accompanies, however, isn’t so hot. It’s a kind of disjointed collection of interviews with and memories by band members and associates that doesn’t coalesce into a coherent history, or an especially interesting one if you’re not familiar with much of their background. A detailed timeline and discography at the end help put the pieces together, but it’s unfortunate the ingredients weren’t tied into a more standard, coherent narrative history."
 

The controversial elements of this review, which could be taken as paradigmatic of the subculture with which rock journalism has always operated, are more than one, which I summarize below:

1- from a strictly journalistic point of view, it is really amateurish to review a CD attached to a book without mentioning the author of the book, especially if, as Unterberger does, he is given detailed criticism. In Western countries it has to do with the classic rule of the five Ws (where/when/who/what/why). An article, whatever it may be, cannot be said to be correct if it is not based on all the five Ws. It also attends, as is evident, to the ethics of the journalist;

2- the reviewer disputes the subtitle of the CD, claiming it is misleading because it would not be the band's “legendary third record,” but as I explained in detail in the accompanying booklet, also based on the testimony of Danny Bridges who donated the original recordings to me, that is exactly what it is. Unterberger, who seems not to have read the booklet, speciously disputes the assertion, maliciously suggesting that the publisher wanted to play on a title to lure the reader. Not only that, by never citing me as the author/editor of the book and CD booklet delegitimizes my credibility as a researcher...;

3- as for the comment on the book, in the final paragraph of the review, apart from the omission of me as an author I find laughable and simplistic the criticism that the book is a disunited collection of interviews and materials. I can understand the frustration of not being faced with a classic biography, to which rock readers and journalism are accustomed, but for my part I believe more in the value of documentation than in the questionable, subjective opinions of an author. History is built first and foremost from sources, from documentary materials, and there is no such thing as a definitive biography, as authors and editors have always been going on about.
 
Do you want recent proof? 
 
When Patrick Humphries' biography of Nick Drake, launched precisely as the “definitive” one, was released by Bloomsbury in 1997, it was rightly thought to be so, so thorough and documented did it appear. A few years later (2014) an extraordinary volume entitled “Remembered for a While,” subtitled “The Authorized Companion To The Music Of Nick Drake,” was published by Little, Brown & Company. It had been edited directly by Drake's sister, Gabrielle, and collected documents, photographs, and letters from her brother's family archive.
This year, when it was legitimate to think that everything possible had been written about Drake, Richard Morton Jack published for John Murray Press his biography on him "The Life," however once again cast as "definitive."
 
What need was there, one might think?

This example among many demonstrates in my opinion one thing Unterberger has not yet realized: that there is an abysmal difference between documents and the interpretation of them. Which makes legitimate all biographies written and to be written about Drake (or the Third Ear Band...), based on in-depth study of existing sources.

My book on the Third Ear Band collects all the interviews published on this Archive (which Unterberger is careful not to cite...) over the years; programmatic manifestos; poems; Sweeney's writings; detailed discography; chronology... a jumble of objective and non-objective sources that can serve anyone to construct their own biography of the band.

This structure of the book, which I wanted and which the publisher has intelligently supported, is also a reaction to the deterrent logic of the author's authority dispensing his knowledge to the reader, offering arbitrary, subjective reconstructions, logical and temporal connections as if they were objective. Hence the desire, even at the cost of being pedantic, to report different recollections of the same historical event (e.g., that of the theft of the instruments).

This also has to do with the chronic passivity of the reader who expects a definitive biography that cannot exist, because every existence, no matter how thoroughly reconstructed, is fatally elusive, impregnable.

With all due respect to music journalists like Unterberger.

no©2024 LucaChinoFerrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)

September 18, 2024

A TEB press release distributed by Dutch EMI-Harvest in 1969.

Here's the press release circulating in the first half of  1969 for promoting TEB's music, just before Paul Buckmaster left and Ursula Smith joined the band.

Quite interestingly, the text is based on Glen Sweeney's manifesto written in 1968.


no©2024 LucaChinoFerrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)

August 27, 2024

The Al Stewart and Third Ear Band's 1970 tour programme.

 
 
Among the Third Ear Band memorabilia in my archive, this tour program has a special place because it was given to me years ago by Steve Pank, the band's first manager (and driver). As 'lived-in' as it is, when I leaf through it for me it is always a pleasure to look at.

It is interesting to note the band's introductory note with the famous motto “art form or con?” devised by Blackhill and the comments to the individual tracks in the set. These include the apparently unreleased Druid 11(almost ironic, since we know Druid and Druid One exist in the repertoire) and Labyrinth, with that laconic “Find the end.”
 
Truly jarring the iconography and writing of the Band and the following promos for Al Stewart, 'authentic star' of the tour. Can you imagine what Paul Minns might have thought of this unlikely encounter?
 
The tour, almost certainly the longest ever undertaken by the Third Ear Band, began on January 3, 1970, at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall and touched 16 English cities from the south to the north of England, ending on February 27 with an appearance at the Dome in Brighton.
 






no©2024 LucaChinoFerrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)

August 17, 2024

Remembering Glen Sweeney: 19 years ago, the farewell ceremony.


Glen in Greece in the '70's. (photo: C. Looker)
 
19 years ago today, on August 17, 2005, after five years in the Royal Star & Garter Home in Richmond (London), GLEN SWEENEY went into the Duat.

As Carolyn kindly wrote me on a postcard two weeks later, on 3 September, "(...) It was a beautiful ceremony rather than a conventional funeral, Steve Pank read from the "Egyptian Book of the Dead" and tracks from "Alchemy" were played, incense was burning, Glen was in a raffia coffin with sunflowers on top. Everyone said what a wonderful experience it was and some were reminded of being at an early Third Ear Band concert. I'm sure Glen would have approved."

Glen smoking pipe at the Isle Of Wight festival, August 26, 1990.  (photo: C. Looker) 

Months later Steve sent me the full text he read at the ceremony, which I recently found in my archive. In agreement with Carolyn, I like now to share it in memory of Glen (to commemorate him as you read, light an incense and put on your favorite track of "Alchemy"):

The names of the Gods of the Great Company:

1. Ra Harmakhis, the Great God in his boat.
2. Temu.
3. Shu.
4. Tefnut.
5. Keb.
6. Nut, the Lady of Heaven.
7. Isis.
8. Nephthys.
9. Horus, the Great God.
10. Hathor, Lady of Amentet.
11. Hu.
12. Sa.

The Prayer of the Osiris Spirit Soul Glen Sweeney.

My heart, my mother; my heart, my mother! My heart Whereby l came into being! May naught stand up to oppose me at my judgment, may there be no opposition to me in the presence of the Tchatchau Chiefs. May there be no parting of thee from me in the presence of him that keepeth the Balance. The God Khnemu who knitteth together and strengtheneth my limbs. Thou art my KA, which dwelleth in my body.

Mayest thou come forth into the place of happiness whither we go and may no lies be spoken against me in the presence of the God. Let the Listener god be favourable unto us, and let there be joy of heart at the weighing of Words.

Let not that which is false be uttered against me before the Great God, the Lord of Amentet. Verily, how great shalt thou be when thou risest up in Triumph.

The speech of Thoth, The judge of right and truth, of the great company of the Gods who are in the presence of Osiris saith:
Hear ye this judgment. The heart of the osiris Glen Sweeney has been in very truth been weighed, and his Heart-soul hath borne testimony on his behalf. His heart hath been found right by the trial in the Great Balance. There hath not been found any wickedness in him; he has not wasted (or stolen) the offerings which have been made in the temples; he hath not committed any evil act; and he hath not set his mouth in motion with words of evil whilst he was upon earth.

The speech of the Dweller in the Embalment Chamber (Anubis).

Pay good heed, O righteous Judge to the balance, and support the testimony thereof. Turn thy face to the weighing in the balance the heart of the osiris Glen Sweeney, whose word is truth, his heart in the seat of truth in the presence of the Great God.

The speech of the Gods.
 
The Great Company of the Gods say to Thoth who dwelleth in Khemenu,That which cometh forth from thy mouth shall be declared true.

The Osiris the spirit soul Glen Sweeney whose word is true is holy and righteous. He has not committed any sin and he has done no evil against us. The devourer Ammit shall not be permitted to prevail over him.

Meat offerings and admittance into the presence of the god Osiris shall be granted unto him, together with an abiding habitation in the Field of Offerings (Sekhet-hetepet), as unto the Followers of Horus.

The speech of Horus to Osiris in introducing the spirit of Glen Sweeney to him.

Horus, the son of Isis, saith: I have come to thee, O Un-Nefer, and I have brought unto thee the osiris Glen Sweeney. His heart is righteous, and it hath come forth from the Balance.

It hath not sinned against any god or any goddess. Thoth hath Weighed it according to the decree pronounced unto him by the Company of the Gods, and it is most true and righteous. Grant thou that cakes and ale may be offered unto him, and let him appear in the presence of the god Osiris, and let him be liken to the Followers of Horus for ever and ever.

The speech of spirit soul Glen Sweeney, who saith:

Behold. I am in thy presence, O Lord of Amentet. There is no sin in my body. I have not spoken that which is not true knowingly, nor have I done anything with as false heart.

Grant thou that l may be like unto those favoured ones who are in thy following, and that I may be an Osiris, greatly favoured of the Beautiful God, and beloved of the Lord of the Two Lands (Pharaoh of Egypt), I who am a veritable royal scribe who loveth thee, the osiris Glen Sweeney whose word is true before the God Osiris.
 
Amen. 
 
Glen playing at the Cambodian Embassy, London August 1987. (photo: C. Looker)

After the ceremony, Glen was cremated and Carolyn took the ashes to her flat. When I told her this year I intended to celebrate Glen, in June 2024 she wrote me: "He always believed (I think I do too) that the body is just a shell and when we die its our spirit/soul that is important. So over the years I've thought of many places for them but somehow couldn't do it. Now I think maybe the right time though so l'm thinking of discreetly setting them free in the streets of Soho near Ronnie Scotts and Soho Square. Alternative would be a druid monument on the south downs but far more complicated to get to... and very isolated lonely. I will let you know the day. Linda Kattan will share the experience with me..."
 
On August 13th, Carolyn made her choice...
 
"Dear Luca, today I scattered Glens ashes in the wild flower gardens at Poets Corner in Richmond park. Its a beautiful place encouraging nature, butterflies, bees etc... I hope the photos can be of interest. The ashes were so heavy l had to put them in a shopping trolley! No way l could have discreetly distributed them in Soho! Anyway this place is far more suitable."
 
So she sent me the following photos, which I now like to share with you.  
Ciao Glen!  
I love you!
 


 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 


 

"The bench "Reasons to be cheerful" you may recognise... it was a memory for Ian Dury. Actually, he and Glen knew each other..." (Carolyn Looker)

 no©2024 LucaChinoFerrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)

August 12, 2024

A good review on the Third Ear Band record released by M.I.G. Music.

 

 

A very good review about the record is on the  Web at the link https://rythmes-croises.org/third-ear-band-back-to-1970/                                                                    

Rythmes Croises is a French webzine devoted to alternative and avant-garde music,  often interested to the Third Ear Band.

no©2024 LucaChinoFerrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)

July 01, 2024

The last years of Glen Sweeney's life.

Before he "pacefully died" (Carolyn Looker's words) on 17 August, 2005, Glen Sweeney lived his last years at the Royal Star & Garter Home in Richmond (London), a place founded in 1916 "devoted to the care of disabled sailors and soldiers". As we know, Glen was an airman of the RAF and he was involved in WWII as a fighter in Egypt, where it seems he had been fascinated by the view of pyramids.(1)

After two heart attacks and a stroke, in Spring 1999 Carolyn admitted Glen to the very expensive Garter Home where he lived until his death and where I got to visit him in 2004. In his single room, in bed, he listened mainly to Indian music, as one would expect. 

What follows is the House's official flyer outlining the services and activities also followed by Glen.

 



Notes

(1) Manager Andrew King's amusing recollection, published by "Uncut" magazine in 2019 (#261, February 2019), concerning the possibility that Glen defected after parachuting into the swimming pool of an Egyptian bourgeois home, where he was to be host until the end of the war, has never been confirmed by Carolyn or others, and appears to be one of Glen's many mythomaniacal tales.

no©2024 LucaChinoFerrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)

June 26, 2024

A CD edition of Essen Festival is scheduled for the Autumn.

Bernd Ramien, A&R catalog and marketing manager of M.I.G. Music, wrote me that a CD edition of the live gig at Essen Festival is planned for the Autumn. In fact, this limited vinyl edition was thought for the TEB collectors and vinyl lovers.

Updates on the M.I.G. Music web site at  http://www.mig-music.de/en/ or https://www.facebook.com/migmusic.de/

no©2024 LucaChinoFerrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)

June 23, 2024

Found by accident the original 1989 live recording of TEB's gig at Teatro Impavidi!

Some weeks ago I was with my friend musician and filmaker Francesco Paolo Paladino at his home chatting and planning new mad adventures for the future, when I asked him to check his TEB collection in his fabulous chamber of sounds. My intention was to mock him because I was sure he didn't have much of the band...


Incredibly enough, I had the surprise to found, between many CDs and some few cassettes, also the original tape recorded at Teatro Impavidi (Sarzana, Italy) on January 11th, 1989 from which, few months later the gig, I  released a 200 copies limited edition cassette only for the fans!

Titled "New Age Music", this was quite a great surprise because I had totally forgot it. Checking the tape, inside the poor photocopied cover there is my old visiting card with two simple indications written on it: 

limited edition: 200 copies

copy number: 002

The thing even more strange is that I have no copies in my personal archive... but the really amazing surprise is that this is the full concert with ALL the tracks played that evening and not simply the edition released by ADN in 1990 as "New Forecasts from the Third Ear Almanac" and later reissued by Gonzo Multimedia (as HST312CD, 2015). 

The tape shows also the right sequence with the original titles selected by Sweeney and then partially changed for the A.D.N. tape:

1. "More Mosaic"

2. "Egyptian Book Of The Dead"

3. "Third Ear Raga"

4. "Ghosts" (a.k.a. Live Ghosts)

5. "Lark Rise"

6. "The Sun Trolley Raga" (a.k.a.Witches Dance)

I can only guess that ADN decided to reduce the recording for technical reasons (the lenght of the tape at that time related to a standard LP), and it's a pity that we couldn't listen to the full set with the rare Dave Tomlin's "Lark Rise".

Maybe a new edition in the future?

no©2024 LucaChinoFerrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)

May 17, 2024

My liner notes for the recording at Essen Festival.


"Despite not being at least initially among the scheduled groups (in fact, the band’s name does not appear on the poster or the official program for the event), Third Ear Band played at the Zweites Essener Pop & Blues Festival on April 24, 1970. 

The evening’s packed program included, among others, The Flock, Ekseption, Rhinocerous, The Groundhogs, It’s A Beautiful Day, and the still-unknown Black Sabbath, who had recently debuted their self-titled album. 

Coming to Essen (Germany), Third Ear Band stayed overnight at the Rheinischer Hof hotel at Edwig Strass 11 (four band members, manager Steve Pank, and two sound engineers), and on the evening of the 24th, between 9 and 10 p.m., they played their set on the main stage. 
On that first evening, in the long afternoon that began at 4 p.m. with bands taking turns on two stages, the Groundhogs had played just before them, and the Oscar Benton Band would play after them. The first of the festival’s two days ended at 2 a.m. with a performance by The Flock. 

Other times, one would say, considering the sad homogenisation of today. Times when progressive, blues rock, hard rock and folk music could be played in the same festival. 

It was thanks to an enlightened young man, Konrad Mallison, who in 1969 had emptied the intuition to invent the most famous alternative music festival ever held in Germany, only after attending the Bath Festival of Blues the year before, while on holiday in England. 


The 49 minutes of Third Ear Band’s live set, recorded by NDR TV, ending with what appears to be the tuning of the instruments, suggests that the length of the gig was longer and that at least one or two tunes are missing from the roll call. But the extraordinariness of this find, the quality of the sound, and the choice of music performed, make this set worthy of going down in history among the few other great bargains available in the catalogue (e.g., along with the wonderful concert filmed by French TV on May 28, 1970 and available on the Web) in one of the most interesting phases of the band’s history. 
In fact, the concert in Essen, played by the quartet line-up with Sweeney on hand drums, Minns on oboe, Coff on violin and Smith on cello, falls just a few weeks before the release of the second album, known among fans as “Elements” despite being titled simply “Third Ear Band” (released in June 1970), and the recording, also in Germany (on July 2 and 3), of the stunning soundtrack for NDR TV animation short movie “Aebelard” by film maker George Morse with overexposed psychedelic illustrations by painter Herbert Fuchs. 

Entitled “Abelard & Heloise,” it is one of Third Ear Band’s most significant works, which remained unpublished for almost thirty years (it only come out in 1997 with my first book on the band) and which would have deserved to be released even then. 

Of these two excellent works, in Essen the band premiered shortened versions of “Earth” and “Water” and one of the six-part soundtrack, the third, featuring a beautiful oboe theme by Paul Minns. It’s interesting to catch the group just during the Abbey Road recordings (held in a few sessions in April and May 1970) at a stage when these tracks still seem to be in progress: “Water,” whose earliest recordings dated months before, was here reprised in a version with a minor key and it is very short compared to the one later released, limited to a repetition of the main theme without the improvised studio variations. 

Even more surprising is the performance of “Earth,” only 3:00, much shorter than the album recording, with Ursula Smith engaged in pizzicato and Coff playing his violin with a plectrum. In between the two novelties and the excerpt from “Aebelard,” in Essen the band offered old “Alchemy”’s warhorses they had been playing for over a year in concert such as “Druid One,” with an unexpected vocal intro, “Ghetto Raga,” “Mosaic,” and “Area Three” (but without John Peel’s Jews Harp!), showing a incredibly brilliant interplay: the structure of the compositions, whether raga scales or free improvisation, is based on Sweeney’s hypnotic rhythms (however, not always precise) and Smith’s cello, with predominantly a rhythmic function, on which Minns’ oboe and Coff’’s violin phrasing are grafted – now rigorous, in chasing each other on the raga scales, now erratic, unpredictable. 

The final effect, caught in its slow, mesmerising unraveling, also renders the atmosphere of the festivals of these years, with a participating and attentive audience, eager to hear the music even when, between tunes, the musicians indulge in tuning their instruments or simply catching their breath. 

From this concert, filmed by German TV, only the performance of “Earth” has been circulating on the web for a few years now, and is part of a DVD documenting the festival (titled “Pop & Blues Festival 1969-1970,” it was not officially released in USA by RareRock DVDs)."  


Tracklist

Side A: 1. Water 03:50 2. Abelard & Heloise (Part 3) 06:08 3. Mosaic 05:41 4. Area Three 07:58 

Side B: 1. Druid One 05:47 2. Ghetto Raga 07:50 3. Earth 03:11 total: 40:25 min.
 
 
no©2024 LucaChinoFerrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)

May 13, 2024

M.I.G. Music scheduled the TEB live album at Essen Festival for 31 May 2024.

The announced LP/CD TEB  live recording of Essen Festival (1970), titled "Druid One", will pubblish by M.I.G. on May 31th, 2024. 

The news is on line now at M.I.G. web site at http://www.mig-music.de/en/mig-music/


no©2024 LucaChinoFerrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)

April 03, 2024

The wonderful 1970 Third Ear Band live concert soon out for M.I.G. Music - an update.

The fantastic unreleased 40 minutes live gig played by the Third Ear Band at the Essen festival in June 1970 will be released soon by M.I.G. Music in two different formats: a vinyl record limited edition and a CD standard edition (with a booklet edited by me including a short story of the event).

The album is engineered by  Manfred-Joachim Kaiser and mastered by Johannes Scheibenreif. The cover is a wonderful colorful drawing by Anna Vavatsis and based on this frame taken from a short video of the gig:


These are other frames taken from that great live event:


For further infos and updates go to the M.I.G. web site at http://www.mig-music.de/en/mig-music/

 no©2024 LucaChinoFerrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)

April 02, 2024

An obscure collaboration by Ursula Smith in 1969 with a disappeared band...

As you can read on this short article below, published in Wishaw Press and Advertiser on September, 19, 1969, that year Ursula Smith played cello in an obscure album recorded by a disappeared band called Lever; a band consisting of John Roy, Stuart McIntosh and Tom Morgan.

I asked Ursula and her husband Steve Pank to share with Ghettoraga Archive their memories about this unknown minor event in Third Ear Band story, but it seems they don't recall anything...

What happened to the Lever? What about that first album? Anyone has info or memories about?

 

no©2024 LucaChinoFerrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)

February 10, 2024

A 1970 Third Ear Band's unrealised live recording found in Germany!

Dear TEB aficionados, lovers of fine antiques, 

I was contacted a few days ago by Made In Germany (M.I.G. Music), a German label specializing in reissues and discoveries of 60s and 70s albums and recordings (http://www.mig-music.de/en/), to collaborate in the production of an extraordinary new live album by the Third Ear Band!

As announced months ago (read HERE), this is a recording of the performance that the band (in the quartet line-up: Sweeney, Minns, Smith and Coff) played on April 24, 1970 at the Essen festival, recorded and broadcasted by German radio. I am working  to analyze the seven tracks, partly taken from "Alchemy", partly from the upcoming "Elements" album, with some brilliant surprises.

An extraordinary new chapter in the band's history is therefore expected in the coming months. I am sure that it will amaze and captivate you as in the past. 

Keep in touch!

no©2024 LucaChinoFerrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)

December 18, 2023

An old article on a gig of the Al Stewart-Third Ear Band tour.

An old article from the "Evening Sentinel" published on January, 27th 1970 presents the gig TEB played at Stoke-on-Trent on Friday 30th, 1970.

Journalist Mick Wormald wrote a short very good portrait of the Band, stating that 

"their inspiration comes from the Indian raga form, and their style is a hypnotic droning music that can be listened to carefully, or just allowed to lilt around one's head."


no©2023 LucaChinoFerrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)

December 01, 2023

"How I got the third ear". Memories from Finland.


TEB fan Mauri
Kankaanpää gives us some memories closely related to the Third Ear Band...

"1st of December 1973 was a remarkable day for a 17 years young man. On that day, exactly 50 years ago,  the mailman gave me a ticket to pick a box of records from the local post office. I can’t remember the content of the box as wholly, or if there even was more than one LP, but that very one is still in my shelf, from the band I got into in previous summer. 
 

Easy to guess the name of the band. The LP I bought first was the one known as Elements. It really changed my musical world. At that time, I was also interested in esoteric things, theosophy etc. so the music fitted to my taste like glove in the hand. How did I find this world? First step was taken on a Fool’s day the previous year. I was able to visit our capital Helsinki and a large record shop there. I had saved lots of money to buy three records, one of them was Pink Floyd’s "Meddle" (I still have the copy). 
 
 
The record itself was extremely important to my music taste which was turning to progressive rock, but also the inner bag, ”the Harvest shopping list”. Following summer I bought Roy Harper’s "Flat Baroque and Berserk," starting my long lasting fandom to him and a week later my first Third Ear Band record, "Elements" - just by the name of the band, the cover of the LP and the typography on it. So it’s 51 years and 4 months now when I gave Glen & C. my other ear lobe, after which they took the whole ear, then the second on the other side of my head and finally they gave me a third one to start hearing.
Back to the date mentioned in the beginning. The album was "Alchemy". More of the magical music, thank you very much. 
One thing where vinyl beats cd is the cover size. Of course, vinyls need space if you have a lot of them, but the information and the emotional aspect of handling the cover, it’s almost like shaking hands with the artist. You get closer to them. 
 
So, I was 17, and I was living in Western Finland in the middle of an agrarian flat, known earlier as the bottom of the sea which now, after the ice age, is rising 5 mm in a year. Pop music was extremely rare on the radio. There were two channels, one for serious music and things like that, the other was for common people, almost funny ones. But please remember that people between 12-20 didn’t really exist for radio management, it was still in the ice age. And then there were minorities with their occult hobbies.

Again, I was handling the cover you know now. Turning it front and back, open and close, reading the text as much as my English did bend to it, more or less hypnotized from the music. Then there was the photo, with a monument where the players were hiding or just stepping out. Oh how far they are! Wish could visit that place! For a 17 years old person such a thing was like a flight to the moon. England is so far, three times around the world and only rich people here could afford to fly - and then they go to Mallorca... And if I ever get to England I surely will get lost. And where is that monument, if it is a grave there must be a graveyard, or thousands of them! Not for me! A desperate case.

But the years will roll. Inevitably. We are in 2019 in this story, now. Thanks to the internet and Wikipedia, sources and sites I found the name of the graveyard and got the name of the monument. I had found England earlier and the City of London in it, too.
London is an interesting town with all the layers the history had left there. I was travelling with my now ex-lady and had spent a couple of days in the town enjoying its arts and taps. After leaving the town, the metro rattled in a narrow gap through sleepy suburbs like in some Ghibli movies. Old dirty cables were hanging on the sides like lianas in the jungle. The car was almost empty. Now I was sure it will happen. 
 

Kensal Green cemetery is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries in London (I've seen two of them now). And what a relief, the grave was quite easy to find, thanks to the officer of the cemetery and the map she gave. The very moon of this story is the grave of Charles Spencer Ricketts (1788–1867). 
We landed at the cemetery on the 16th of September, at last. I felt excited when starting to walk the paths of the place. And finally, there it was!
 
 
The grave was smaller than I expected but it stood out of the area in its pale colour and strong decorations. Looked like it was ready to take a walk. Unfortunately I forgot to say something immortal like... “this is one small step for mankind but one giant leap for man”, but just something like “siälä se on!” (there it is! in Finnish) directed to my partner. 
However, it was unbelievable that it had been waiting for me all this time!"
 
Mauri Kankaanpää
 



Other stuff in this archive about the Kensal Green cemetery:

https://ghettoraga.blogspot.com/2017/06/ray-stevensons-memories-on-kensal-green.html

https://ghettoraga.blogspot.com/2010/01/teb-first-photo-session-by-ray_30.html

https://ghettoraga.blogspot.com/2017/08/original-contacts-from-first-1969-teb.html
 

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