Just after the end of the TEB Italian
experience, ended with the recordings of “Brain Waves” (CD – Materiali Sonori,
1993), there have been a lot of CDs around that ‘disordered’ group’s catalogue
with unrealized and edit recordings, demos and live tapes.
It has been Glen
Sweeney, leader of the Thirds, that disappointed by relation with Materiali
Sonori tried to sell last official recordings to other English labels (as Voiceprint
and Blueprint): thus we have some CDs with an amateurish packaging,
often kitsch, with scarce liner notes, incomplete and imprecise, that
disoriented fans and journalists playing with ambiguity and just apparent mystery
of sources.
Now I try here a sort of “philological”
reconstruction, hoping to make the things more clear.
RADIO SESSION (CD – Voiceprint VPR017CD, UK 1994)
1.
“Raga La Luna”
2.
“Spirits”
Although notes attribute these two tracks(just 21 minutes) to the unlikely Glen Sweeney (percussion), Mick Carter
(guitar), Paul Minns (oboe) e Ursula Smith (violin) line-up, this could be a 1988 recording, done by the TEB-reunion line-up with Sweeney, Minns, Carter and Allen Samuel. Enough to compare "Live Ghosts" or "Necromanthicus" with these tracks... Mick Carter (8-12-2009): "I don't remember Ursula playing with Paul Minns. While she was in the band it was Lyn on soprano (but I don't remember the recording at all...)".
On “Radio Session” booklet included,
infact, there’s no place and date of recordings, but it’s presumable they are rehearsals recorded in London before or after the first Italian tour.
LIVE (CD –
Voiceprint VP157 CD, UK 1996)
1. “Hymn to the
Sphynx” 2. “Sun Ra Raga” 3. “Third
Ear Raga” 4.”Live Ghosts” 5. “Pyramid Song” 6. “Egyptian Book of the Dead”.
Reissued in a second
time as the second CD (live) of “HYMN TO THE SPHYNX” (2CD – Mooncrest
Records CRESTDCD 067 Z, UK 2001) compilation, this CD is the live set recorded
by the last TEB’s line-up (Sweeney, Carter, Dobson and Black) on November 24th,
1989 in
Gorizia (Italy), during “All Frontiers” festival. It was the third TEB’s
Italian tour.
Compiling the track-list
for the CD, Sweeney, as usual, changed the tracks titles of two songs: “Hymn to
the Sphynx” is actually “Reading the Runes”, “Pyramid Song” is “Behind the
Pyramids”.
From that concert,
“Third Ear Raga” had already been included as a bonus track on the CD version
of official “Magic Music”(Materiali Sonori MASO CD9 0016. , ITA 1990), while “Live Ghosts” in a
compilation titled “All Frontiers” (Materiali Sonori MASO CD 90026, ITA, 1991).
“Solstice Song”, instead,
just in the middle of concert, is been inexplicably omitted from this edition…
MAGIC MUSIC (CD –
Blueprint BP 257CD, UK 1997)
1. ”Gog and Magog”
2. “Flight of the Coven” 3.”Dance of the Elves” 4. “Atlantic Rising” 5.
“Midnight on Mars”.
This record, with same title of the original Materiali Sonori second
output published in 1990 as MASO CD 90016, proposes actually an excerpt of
“Brain Waves” (!), record produced by Materiali Sonori in 1990, even if with
re-played and re-arranged versions.
Here again, Sweeney shuffles
the cards, changing titles and track-list: “Gog and Magog” is “Midnight Drums”;
“Flight of the Coven” is “Sirocco Song”; “Dances of Elves” is “Psychedelic
Trance Dance”; “Atlantis Rising”, instead, is “Dances with Dolphnis”, while
“Midnight on Mars” is “Spell of the Voodoo”.
Omitted, but it
doesn’t understand why, “Water into Wine”, sang by Dobson, and “Alchemical
Raga”.
Even if Blueprint tries to convince the
buyer explaining on their catalogue that the record is not the same that
Materiali Sonori published in 1990, the game is easily discovered: enough to
have two good ears…
This “Magic Music” would be been reissued
later on the first “HYMN TO THE SPHYNX”
(2CD – Mooncrest Records CRESTDCD 067 Z, UK 2001) CD.
SONGS FROM HYDROGEN JUKEBOX (CD – Blueprint BP283CD, UK 1998)
1. “Kingdom of the Brave” 2. “Life is an Art” 3. “Chrysalis the Man” 4.
“Abracadabra” 5. “Behind the Pyramids” 6. “Prophecies” 7. “Dances with
Dolphins” 8. “Water into Wine” 9. “To Be Continued”.
A partial reissue of “PROPHECIES”,published by
Materiali Sonori (MASO CD 90018) in 1991as
Hydrogen Jukebox,
Sweeney/Carter project launched in 1978 with different musicians (Brian
Diprose e Jim Hayes) and kind of music.
From the original MASO edition are taken
just six tracks (omitted “Voidoid City” and “Shoe Suede Blues”), while three
tracks (“Behind the Pyramids”, “Dances with Dolphins” e “Water into Wine”) are from
the other Italian production (the first one from “Magic Music”, the other two
from “Brain Waves”…): all in all just a mere hybrid, an incongruous anthology,
very bad…
Various Artists - "MATERIALI SONORI"(CD –
Olis Music OM 0021, ITA 1998)
1.
“Midnight Drums”
A compilation with
MASO’s various artists, included to the Italian
magazine “Olis”: TEB is here with “Midnight Drums”, taken from the original
“Brain Waves”.
ABELARD AND HELOISE (CD –
Blueprint BP 310CD, UK 1999)
"Abelard & Heloise" I-VI.
This is an
unauthorized reissue of the CD included to my book “Necromancers of the Drifting West” (Stampa Alternativa Sonic Book
SB5), published in 1997.
Later, this reissue
is been included also in the double “HYMN
TO THE SPHYNX” (2CD – Mooncrest Records CRESTDCD 067 Z, UK 2001).
The beautiful recording was played by
Sweeney, Minns, Smith e Coff in the Summer 1970 as a soundtrack for the homonymous
German television screenplay (directed by Fuchs and produced by Morse):
producer Morse had seen the band playing at the Jim Haynes’ London Arts Lab in
Notting Hill. This music is been an incredible, magical discover due to Paul
Minns (the reels have been forgotten in a corner of his attic), one of my
favourite TEB production ever!
MUSIC FROM MACBETH(CD –
Blueprint BP 312CD, 1999)
1. “Overture” 2. “Beach”
3. “Lady Macbeth” 4. “Inverness” 5. “Banquet”
6. “Dagger and death” 7. “At the well/Prince’s escape/Coronation/Come sealing
night/Court Dance”. Another not authorized reissue of the TEB EMI third album recorded in
1972 for the Roman Polanski’s film soundtrack. This great record, for many
years out of catalogue, had been reissued in 1990 by English label Beat Goes On
(BGO CD61).
Various Artists – HARVEST
FESTIVAL ( 5 CDs – EMI-Harvest 7243 5 21198 2 0, UK
1999)
1. “Stone Circle”.
Wonderful 5CD compilation made to celebrate the EMI-Harvest catalogue:
Third Ear Band is included here with an edit version of “Stone Circle” (from “ALCHEMY”, 1969), a
short interview with Glen Sweeney and some well-known photos and posters.
Various Artists – GUIDE TO INTELLIGENT MUSIC Vol. 2 (CD – Materiali Sonori MASO 642932,
ITA 2001)
1. “Dance with Dolphins”.
Second volume of “intelligent music” from
the MASO catalogue. TEB is included here with an edit version (from “Brain
Waves”, 1993) of “Dances with Dolphins”.
HYMN TO THE SPHYNX (2CD –
Mooncrest Records CRESTDCD 067 Z, UK 2001)
Disc One (Studio)
1. “Gog and Magog” 2. “Flight of the
Coven” 3. “Dance of the Elves” 4. “Atlantic Rising” 5. “Midnight on Mars” 6.
“Abelard and Heloise” (part I-VI).
First five tracks taken from the Blueprint “MAGIC MUSIC” (CD – Blueprint BP 257CD, UK 1997). Track n. 6 is the
soundtrack “ABELARD AND HELOISE”,
taken from my book on the group (“Necromancers of the Drifting West”, published
by Stampa Alternativa Sonic Book SB5 in 1997), already reissued in England
on CD by Blueprint (as Blueprint BP 310CD, 1999).
Disc Two (Live)
1. “Hymn to the
Sphynx” 2. “Sun Ra Raga” 3. “Third
Ear Raga” 4. “Live Ghosts” 5. “Pyramid Song” 6. “Egyptian Book of the Dead”.
This disc is the
reissue of “LIVE” (CD – Voiceprint VP157
CD, UK 1996), recorded by the last TEB line-up (Sweeney, Carter, Dobson e
Black) in Gorizia on November 24th, 1989 during the third Italian
tour.
A double just
useless CD, for collectors only…
RAGA LIVE(2LPs –
Turning Point TPM-02216, ITA 2002)
1. “Hymn to the
Sphynx” 2. “Sun Ra Raga” 3. “Third
Ear Raga” 4. “Live Ghosts” 5. “Pyramid Song” 6. “Egyptian Book of the Dead”.
A double vinyl record (180 gr.) based on Voiceprint CD “LIVE” (see above), published in England
on 1996 and then included also in the 2CD “HYMN TO THE SPHYNX” (2001).
Imagination at the power! – as one would tell…
Various Artists - ARTSCHOOL DANCING
(CD – EMI-Harvest 756225, UK 2002)
1. “Druid One”.
A new Harvest compilation with 17 tracks played by label artists. Between Syd
Barrett, Barclay James Harvest, Move and Kevin Ayers, also the Third Ear Band
with the edit version of “Druid One”, from “ALCHEMY”
(1969).
THE MAGUS(CD –
Algel Air SJPCD 173, UK 2004)
1. “I The Key” 2.
“Cosmic Wheel” 3. “The Hierophant” 4. “The Magus” 5. “New Horizon” 6. “The Phoenix” 7. “Kozmik
Wheel”.
It’s the fourth “lost” album of the band, recorded at the London Island
Studios in the end of 1972 by an electric line-up included, with Sweeney on
drums and Minns on oboe and hammond, also Simon House (violin, piano and
effects), Mike Marchant (guitar and vocal – he wrote the majority of the lyrics inspired by
Tarots), Dave Tomlin (bass) and Ron Kort, producer/sound engineer (on the record he played also percussion
and piano): just Kort (fate wanted he died before the album was published…)
found the lost reel and managed to produce the record. On the album Dave Tomlinwrote and sung "New Horizon"; 'Pheonix' is a poem written and recited by the same Tomlin, that played also flute on this track only.
As I wrote in “Necromancers of the Drifting West” (Stampa Alternativa,
1967), the new TEB line-up had been formed around March (Sweeney reveled it
during an interview with “Melody Maker”) and had signed a record deal with
Island Records on November, thanks to Peter Jenner. As Paul Minns told me in
1996, anyway, the record, whose tracklist on the contract had the title “Tenth Dimensional Landscape” but
not “The Phoenix” e “Kozmik Wheel” (?), “was disasterously recorded and
rejected” by the record company.
Finally I like
remember that on January 25th, 1972 – according to the Web site dedicated to
John Peel and his great “Peel Sessions” (see at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/alt/johnpeel/keepitpeel/index.shtml), an improbable
line-up with Denim Bridges (guitar), Simon House (violin), Michael Marchant
(guitar and vocals) and Peter Pavli (bass) – but without Sweeney and Minns
(!!!) – would have recorded live in the London T1 two tracks – “Air” and (at
that time) unrealized “I the Key” (later on “THE MAGUS”). Recording transmitted
by BBC Radio One on February 11th, 1972...
"The Magus" is
anyway an important document more about historical aspects than musical (very
interesting the CD booklet), just anomalous if compared with band's standard
production.
This CD is been
published also in a vinyl format by Italian Akarma as AK312 LP.
ALCHEMY. ELEMENTS (2CD –
Gott discs GOTTCD010, UK 2004)
Disc One: Alchemy
1. “Mosaic” 2. “Ghetto Raga” 3. “Druid
One” 4. “Stone Circle”
5. “Egyptian Book of the Dead” 6. “Area Three” 7. “Dragon Lines” 8. “Lark
Rise”.
Disc Two: Elements
1. “Air” 2. “Earth”
3. “Fire” 4. “Water”.
Remastered
reissue of the first two wonderful records. The first rendition of them in England was
issued by Drop Out Records (Drop Out DO 1999, 1989) and Beat Goes On (as BGO
CD89, 1990). Very good the CD booklet edited by Chris Blackford, partially
available in the Web from 2001 (see
http://www.btinternet.com/-rubberneck/thirdear.html).
Good old Voiceprint, always careful to make sure that their releases receive the care and attention one would use while shovelling shit from one place to another.
The most appealing point is the connection between TEB and the esoteric side of underground (High Tide in primis, but also Rustic Hinge, Magic Muscle etc.) How much recordings can be survived from that area? Ie, all the Hazchem records are strangely ritual/mystical, long improvisations, but also the last 90s ethinic records Draken Theaker-oriented of High Tide. Pavli, Hill &C aren't well served by internet. Remain a strange connection, a hole in the puzzle...
It's not Ursula Smith on the Radio Session - more likely Alan Samuel from the same Alchemical Studio session that provided Necromanticus on the Live Ghosts CD.
The word is that all the unauthorised Voiceprint TEB editions were done with Sweeney's blessing & encouragement - hence the covers are all by his wife (Radio Sessions notwithstanding).
Right about the connections, Vic, it's an interesting thing to investigate... About Ursula playing on "Radio Sessions", my informations wa different... but I'll try to ask Mick, that was deeply involved in all the recordings... Thanks anyway to all of you for the opinions. Luca
Sorry - Sweeney's wife Carolyn Looker did all of the Voiceprint Third Ear cover designs.
If you compare Samuel's playing on Live Ghosts to the Radio Session it becomes a little clearer - and quite unlike Ursula's amazing playing on New Forecasts! We can but dream of what Ursula and Minns would have sounded like at this point in time!
About Ursula on Radio Sessions, I was wrong, of couse. I didn't read my old book where the things was already clear... Ursula and Minns could play absolute great music, I think! I know very well that was Glen and Carolyn to sell the records to Voiceprint, I'd written it very clearly, I think... I remember well that period, because Glen asked my opinion and I was not agreed with him, of course! I don't know how much they could have gotten from that materials, but I suspect that they could get much more from Maso... Even so, I was against the idea to ruin their great catalogue just for a question of moneys... The result is now the paradox to have many records from the last period (not always so good) and very few from their best period...
I could listen to Minns forever! I think the Radio Sessions / Necromanticus / Live Ghosts music has a very special charm which is only partly let down by Samuel's tentative violin, but that's not to criticise him over much - stepping into Richard Coff's shoes was never going to be easy & he does a more than adequate job. Ursula Smith's violin playing on New Forecasts is something else altogether thugh - just a shame, as I say, that Minns wasn't around to respond to it, though Lyn Dobson is more than capable.
Talking about Richard Coff - do you have the tracks he composed & recorded for Bernie Taupin's 1971 LP 'Taupin'? I'd love to hear those!
The tracklist on the release is wrong, as evident by the introductions by Glenn Sweeney. I tried to work it out out, and was left with Reading The Runes as track 1, however that isn't Reading The Runes is it?
1 Reading The Runes --- ???? 2 Druid 3 Hyde Park Raga 4 Third Ear Raga 5 Egyptian Book Of The Dead 6 Spirits (Aka Live Ghosts) 7 Lark Rise
Yes, you're just partially right, because actually this is the correct track-list:
1. More Mosaic 2. Druid 3.Hyde Park Raga
but
4. Egyptian Book of the Dead 5. Third Ear Raga 6. Spirits (aka Live Ghiosts) 7. Lark Rise
I don't remember how Gonzo can have change the things but this is the original sequence. I listen all the original tape again and this is the right track-list... Frankly, I don't remember how can be happenend this, but surely I was wrong to send them the title "Reading the Runes"for the first track... then it's clear by Glen's words the second track is "Druid"... Anyway, thanks for this warning... as I can see, errors are more easy than one can imagine...
I also have another disc in my archive, which I downloaded from this site a few years ago, also listed as at Tuxedo, but it's different from Spirits. Is that in fact the Bergamo gig?
1. Intro 1:53 2. Spirits 1 4:44 3. Egyptian Book of the Dead 10:12 4. Spirits 2 6:27 5. Third Ear Raga 8:32 6. Live Ghosts 10:26 7. Witches Dance 2:58
Yes, it's probably from the Sala Piatti gig in Bergamo, the line-up was that. I don't think you have downloaded this directly from here, more easily it was an outer link now not working anymore... Wasn't it?
"Someone else who posted here said they've learntmore about TEB in a fewhours here than in 30 years. I'd agree with that except inmy case it would be 44 years. An excellent archive for TEB fans and historians of the era. Thank you!" RACHAEL TYRELL
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Third Ear Band 1969: Paul Minns, Glen Sweeney and Richard Coff (photo: Ray Stevenson).
Luca Chino Ferrari (b. 1963) is an Italian music writer. Since 1985 he has written and translated books about folk and rock musicians as Third Ear Band, Robyn Hitchcock, Captain Beefheart, Tim Buckley, Nick Drake, Syd Barrett & the Pink Floyd for the main Italian publishers. He met Syd Barrett in 1986 and did contribute to the reunion of the Third Ear Band during the '80s. His latest book, published in 2020 for English ReR November Books, is a biography about the esoteric group Third Ear Band. He runs a personal Web site (in Italian/English) at https://chino6339.wixsite.com/gelatoaicorvi
TEB recording at Abbey Road Sudios in February 1971
Click on the picture to watch the video!
"Third Ear Band music is a reflection of the universe as magic play illusion simply because it could not possibly be anything else. Words cannot describe this ecstatic dance of sound, or explain the alchemical repetiton seeking and sometimes finding archetypal formes, elements and rhythms...".
(Glen Sweeney on "Alchemy", Harvest Records 1969)
Paul Buckmaster at Hyde Park (June 7th, 1969).
Total Pageviews
"ALCHEMY"
"Alchemy" (Harvest 1969)
Third Ear Band live at Hyde Park (June 7th,1969)
Click on the picture to watch the video!
Read "Necromancers of the drifting West"!!!
A book on the Third Ear Band edited by Luca Ferrari (published by Stampa Alternativa, Rome 1997). WITH THE FIRST ORIGINAL VERSION OF "ABELARD & HELOISE" SOUNDTRACK!
Third Ear Band at the Roundhouse (London, May 30th 1969).
As alike or unlike as blades of grass or clouds...
"The music is the music of the Druids, released from the unconscious by the alchemical process, orgasmic in its otherness, religious in its oneness communicating beauty and magic via abstract sounds whilst playing without ego enables the musicians to reach a trance-like stage, a "high" in which the music produces itself. Each piece is as alike or unalike as blades of grass or clouds".
(From the 1969 Isle of Wight concert programme)
TEB - "THE LOST BROADCASTS" DVD (Gonzo Multimedia, UK 2011)
Richard Coff at Isle of Wight Festival, August 1969 (photo: Barry Plummer).
Pseudo-mystical...
“The trouble is that you can't be mystical without being called pseudo-mystical, and it's the fault of our previous education. I'm at Glastonbury most of the time, but we're all completely honest about it. We'll even use it honestly to make money, because the ancient Egyptians who were into it all said that you had to be rich because only then can you resist temptation”.
(Glen Sweeney to Richard Williams, “Melody Maker” June 1970)
"Macbeth" by Roman Polanski (Playboy Production, UK 1971)
“I've always felt that music should be pure. If you have lyrics, you are preaching in a way. Somehow words are a block to communication. It's almost impossible for me to explain exactly how I feel about this, that's why I'm a musician. The only way to really understand what I mean, is to firstly listen to a pop group and then listen to us, and then I hope you will know what we're trying to say."
(Glen Sweeney to Muz Murray, 1969)
A Third Ear Band tribute
Roberto Musci - "Mosaic. A tribute to Third Ear Band" (CD - Gonzo Multimedia HST411, 2016)
TEB 1971: Sweeney, Minns, Bridges and Buckmaster (photo: Blackhill Enterprises).
NOTES FROM OVERGROUND
“No announcements, numbers lasting 15 to 20 minutes, art form or con?
This might be valid criticism of (A) Thunderstorm (B) a cricket (C) Third Ear Band.
Their approach to music is different because there is no duality, no conflict between the natural element of chance and the human element of control, did the moon ask to be reflected in the water? If it wasn’t for the trees would the wind know when it was blowing? Paul Minns says there are some very beautiful forests in Hyde Park, trying to put titles to music is rather like trying to answer the question where does my hand when it becomes my fist”.
(From the Al Stewart-Third Ear Band 1970 tour programme)
TEB 1970: Sweeney, Minns, Coff & Smith (photo: Blackhill Enterprises).
"The Centipede was happy, quite, until a Toad in fun said: "Pray, which leg goes after which?". This worked his mind to such a pitch, he lay distracted in a ditch considering how to run". (Third Ear Band, 1970)
TEB at Isle of Wight Festival, August 1969 (photo: Barry Plummer).
"Music from Macbeth" (Harvest 1972)
Third Ear Band - "Experiences" (Harvest 1976)
WEIRD SCENES
“We'd rather people called us a pop group. We do ragas, that aren't really ragas at all, and unless we get a turned on promoter, we get into some weird scenes. At Norwich once, when the promoter saw the audience sitting down and closing their eyes to our music, he accused us of putting them to sleep! Complete paranoia. So I imagine we wouldn't do too well on the Pop Proms”.
(Glen Sweeney interviewed by Chris Welch - “Melody Maker” July 12th, 1969)
Third Ear Band - "Fleance" (Odeon 1972) Japan single edition
Third Ear Band - "Live Ghosts" (Materiali Sonori 1988)
VERY MUCH UNDERGROUND
“It's just a question of advertising. We've stayed very much Underground - no photos - and I think this was necessary so people wouldn't put us in a bag. We'd rather the just came up and heard us without ANY preconceived ideas. I suppose it is a bit shattering to see violins and cellos”.
(Glen Sweeney interviewed by Chris Welch - “Melody Maker” July 12th, 1969)
Third Ear Band at a Druids ceremony in Glastonbury Tor (April 15th, 1970).
OTHER TEB RELEASES/APPEARANCES
"Picnic. A breath of fresh air" (2LPs - Harvest SHSS 1/2, UK 1970) various Harvest artists anthology
"Harvest Heritage. 20 Great" (LP - Harvest , UK 1977) various Harvest artists anthology
"The Harvest Story Vol. 1" (LP - Harvest EG 260097 1, UK 1984) various Harvest artists anthology
"All frontiers" (CD - Materiali Sonori MASO CD 90026, ITA 1991) various artists live compilation
"Sonora 2/91" (CD - Materiali Sonori, ITA 1991) various Materiali Sonori artists compilation
"Radio Session" (CD - Voiceprint VPR017, UK 1994) live album
"Materiali Sonori" (CD - Olis OM 0021, ITA 1996) various Materiali Sonori artists compilation
"Live" (CD - Voiceprint VP157CD, UK 1996) live album
Third Ear Band - "New Forecasts from the Third Ear Almanac" (ADN Records 1989)
90% improvisation...
"I'd say ninety per cent of our music is improvisation. It's not really Indian music, although we use a drone instead of the usual bass line riffs. The music draws from everywhere.
"I think our appeal is that audiences can draw their own thing from us. We make no announcements and none of the numbers have titles. People in colleges we play come up after and say they can get fantastic images in their mind when they listen. We can offer a complete dream. The old Celtic bards used to have the same ability".
(Glen Sweeney interviewed by Chris Welch - “Melody Maker” July 12th, 1969)
“Third Ear Band’s new album “Magic Music” isabout music as pure vibrations, as such it can be linked with colour because colour is vibration. It can even be linked to the music ofthe spheres which states that the vibrations of the planets can be heard with the third ear (silence). The free ragas that we play are modal, each note can be heard as a sound-colour that produces its own mood.Our rhythms come from all overthe world, and we use these ideasand many others to try to make a new world music”.
(Glen Sweeney, notes on the “Magic Music” inner cover, 1990)
SOLOS DISCOGRAPHIES
- GLEN SWEENEY -
Various Artists - "The greetings compact vol. 2" (CD - Materiali Sonori, 1990)
Rolling Stones - "Sticky fingers" (LP/CD - Rolling Stones Records, 1971)
Carly Simon - "Hotcakes" (LP/CD - Elektra, 1974)
Elton John - "Single man" (LP/CD - Rocket, 1978)
- NEIL BLACK (selection) -
UB40 - "Present Arms" (LP/CD - DEP, 1981)
Joan Armatrading - ""Track Record" (LP/CD - A&M, 1983)
Third Ear Band 1969: Minns, Sweeney and Coff at the Kensal Green Cemetery of London (photo: Ray Stevenson).
Third Ear Band - "Brain Waves" (Materiali Sonori 1993)
Eight drunk rugby players
"We once had eight drunk rugby players yelling dirty songs at us. We played quieter and quieter. In the end they seemed ashamed and shut up. But I still don't think they dug the music!".
(Glen Sweeney interviewed by Chris Welch - “Melody Maker” July 12th, 1969)
Third Ear Band, Vinci 1989: Allen, Sweeney, Dobson and Carter (photo: Lucia Baldini).
QUOTATIONS, COVERS, REMIXES, MANIPULATIONS OF THIRD EAR BAND MUSIC
Stone Breath - "A silver thread weave the seasons" (2CDs - Hand/Eye, USA 2008). A 'cover' of "Fleance".
Marco Lucchi - "Baby a" (ITA 1982). A composition with a sampler of "Stone Circle".
Radio Noisz Ensemble - "Yniverze" (CD - Garden of Delights 1982/2009). A 'folky' quotation of "Water".
Fabio Zuffanti - "Third Ear Band demixed" (CD-r - Spirals Records, ITA 2000). The four elements electronically manipulated.
Algarnas Tradgard - "Delayed" (CD - Silence Records, UK 2001). A quotations of "Water" recorded in 1973-1974 (!).
Lady Husk & The Good Ship Neotropic - "A monstrous psychedelic bubble exploding in your mind" (file MP3 - The New Worck, NL 2007). A remake of "No title" (?!).
I Monster - "The Art of Chill vol. 6 - Mixed by I Monster" (2CDs Platipus, UK 2009). A remix of "Fleance".
Vibes and Stuff - guest mix Coby Sey (MP3 - UK, 2010). A remix of "Water".
AA.VV. - "The Fruits de Mer Annual for 2011" (2x7" - Fruits de Mer Records, UK 2011). A cover of "Fleance" by the HI-Fiction Science.
Good old Voiceprint, always careful to make sure that their releases receive the care and attention one would use while shovelling shit from one place to another.
ReplyDeleteThe most appealing point is the connection between TEB and the esoteric side of underground (High Tide in primis, but also Rustic Hinge, Magic Muscle etc.) How much recordings can be survived from that area? Ie, all the Hazchem records are strangely ritual/mystical, long improvisations, but also the last 90s ethinic records Draken Theaker-oriented of High Tide. Pavli, Hill &C aren't well served by internet. Remain a strange connection, a hole in the puzzle...
ReplyDeleteregards vic
regards vic
It's not Ursula Smith on the Radio Session - more likely Alan Samuel from the same Alchemical Studio session that provided Necromanticus on the Live Ghosts CD.
ReplyDeleteThe word is that all the unauthorised Voiceprint TEB editions were done with Sweeney's blessing & encouragement - hence the covers are all by his wife (Radio Sessions notwithstanding).
Right about the connections, Vic, it's an interesting thing to investigate...
ReplyDeleteAbout Ursula playing on "Radio Sessions", my informations wa different... but I'll try to ask Mick, that was deeply involved in all the recordings...
Thanks anyway to all of you for the opinions.
Luca
Sorry - Sweeney's wife Carolyn Looker did all of the Voiceprint Third Ear cover designs.
ReplyDeleteIf you compare Samuel's playing on Live Ghosts to the Radio Session it becomes a little clearer - and quite unlike Ursula's amazing playing on New Forecasts! We can but dream of what Ursula and Minns would have sounded like at this point in time!
That was me (Sedayne) above by the way.
About Ursula on Radio Sessions, I was wrong, of couse. I didn't read my old book where the things was already clear... Ursula and Minns could play absolute great music, I think!
ReplyDeleteI know very well that was Glen and Carolyn to sell the records to Voiceprint, I'd written it very clearly, I think... I remember well that period, because Glen asked my opinion and I was not agreed with him, of course!
I don't know how much they could have gotten from that materials, but I suspect that they could get much more from Maso... Even so, I was against the idea to ruin their great catalogue just for a question of moneys... The result is now the paradox to have many records from the last period (not always so good) and very few from their best period...
I could listen to Minns forever! I think the Radio Sessions / Necromanticus / Live Ghosts music has a very special charm which is only partly let down by Samuel's tentative violin, but that's not to criticise him over much - stepping into Richard Coff's shoes was never going to be easy & he does a more than adequate job. Ursula Smith's violin playing on New Forecasts is something else altogether thugh - just a shame, as I say, that Minns wasn't around to respond to it, though Lyn Dobson is more than capable.
ReplyDeleteTalking about Richard Coff - do you have the tracks he composed & recorded for Bernie Taupin's 1971 LP 'Taupin'? I'd love to hear those!
No, Sedayne, I havent got the tracks composed/recorded by Coff for Taupin... and I'd love to listem them too!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.discogs.com/Third-Ear-Band-Spirits/release/11204285
ReplyDeleteThe tracklist on the release is wrong, as evident by the introductions by Glenn Sweeney.
I tried to work it out out, and was left with Reading The Runes as track 1, however that isn't Reading The Runes is it?
1 Reading The Runes --- ????
2 Druid
3 Hyde Park Raga
4 Third Ear Raga
5 Egyptian Book Of The Dead
6 Spirits (Aka Live Ghosts)
7 Lark Rise
Yes, you're just partially right, because actually this is the correct track-list:
Delete1. More Mosaic
2. Druid
3.Hyde Park Raga
but
4. Egyptian Book of the Dead
5. Third Ear Raga
6. Spirits (aka Live Ghiosts)
7. Lark Rise
I don't remember how Gonzo can have change the things but this is the original sequence. I listen all the original tape again and this is the right track-list... Frankly, I don't remember how can be happenend this, but surely I was wrong to send them the title "Reading the Runes"for the first track... then it's clear by Glen's words the second track is "Druid"...
Anyway, thanks for this warning... as I can see, errors are more easy than one can imagine...
I also have another disc in my archive, which I downloaded from this site a few years ago, also listed as at Tuxedo, but it's different from Spirits. Is that in fact the Bergamo gig?
ReplyDelete1. Intro 1:53
2. Spirits 1 4:44
3. Egyptian Book of the Dead 10:12
4. Spirits 2 6:27
5. Third Ear Raga 8:32
6. Live Ghosts 10:26
7. Witches Dance 2:58
Glen Sweeney: percussion
Ursula Smith: violin
Lyn Dobson: sax, flute
Mick Carter: electric guitar
Yes, it's probably from the Sala Piatti gig in Bergamo, the line-up was that. I don't think you have downloaded this directly from here, more easily it was an outer link now not working anymore... Wasn't it?
Delete