December 05, 2009

Rarities of the National Balkan Ensemble (a.k.a. TEB) and the Third Ear Band in the Web!



A bootleg TEB compilation is now available in the Web through a very interesting blog titled “Time Has Told Me” (from a Nick Drake’s song). It proposes:

- three tracks recorded by the National Balkan Ensemble, a band Sweeney and Minns formed just before TEB in 1968 to record some tracks for English television probably with Ron Geesin (last year I have recalled it in my Web site http://www.lucaferrari.net and soon I will post here an English translation of it…);

- two tracks by Third Ear Band taken from a “Top Gear” (the famous BBC radio programme conducted by John Peel) performance on July 27th, 1969 (strangely it’s  been lost a third track – “Ghetto Raga” - recorded that day…);

- one TEB track taken from the well-known live in the studio “Beat Club” German TV programme (the unrealized “Hyde Park Raga”), circulating on the Web as a video;

- three TEB tracks from “Sound of ‘70” radio programme conducted by John Peel on January 17th, 1971 (for a detailed description see my post about “The Dragon Wakes” projected record…).


Here is the track-list:
1. "Cosmic Trip"
2. "Jason's Trip"
3. "Devil Weed"
4. "Hyde Park Raga"
5. "Druid"
6. "Hyde Park Raga"
7. "Water"
8. "Eternity in D"
9. "Druid (One)"

The good quality of the sound, expecially for the radio recordings, make this download a real must for any TEB fan. It’s a real shame that EMI (and BBC) never had the idea to produce an official compilation of all the radio recordings (with the apparently lost “Top Gear” radio session on January 25th, 1972, produced by John Muir, where a ‘strange’ TEB line-up with Denim Bridges, Simon House, Michael Merchant and Peter Pavli recorded just two tracks – “Air” and “I The Key” from “Magus”…).

[Note: because in 2012 the original links was expired, I've uploaded the tracks on the Archive in the free download tracks section: so go back at the home page and scroll on the right culumn]


no©2009 Luca Ferrari

updated on January 4th, 2013

6 comments:

  1. The "Sounds of the 70s" tracks (7, 8 and 9) are clearly introduced by John Peel, God rest his soul, and not by Bob Harris. I'd recognise Peelie's voice anywhere! Great stuff - does anybody have any more?

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  2. Yes, I was wrong about "Sound of 70's"... I'll correct the line...
    I've got two or three unrealized TEB tracks, but I can't post them because copyright's problems (I have an agreement with Carolyn, Sweeney'wife...). So, sorry...
    Luca

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  3. Add Sweeney & Minns to the Jan 72 line-up; I heard this one years ago...

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  4. I've got the Ghetto Raga from the July 69 session - in 2 parts. If you want it mail me at sean@sedayne.co.uk

    ReplyDelete
  5. Cover by:

    http://rockrarecollectionfetish.blogspot.com/

    ciao...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hey Sean, could you upload the BBC Ghetto Raga to Rapidshare or somewhere? And do you still have the track 'The Sea' used in this video?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UglnfqXuhJg

    If so, please treat us all! Love, Fran

    ReplyDelete