August 01, 2012

Who knows Brian Meredith?


Sometimes an obscure name from the past emerges on TEB's biography: Brian Meredith.  
Who was/is him?

In the past weeks I've asked my TEB-related friends (Dave Tomlin & Steve Pank) but none knows about him...
Steve wrote a laconic: "I don't remember a cellist with that name..."; Dave told me sardonically: "No, never heard of him. He maybe an alien".
Then, provoked by Steve, Carolyn Looker has got a sort of flash of inspiration saying she remembers him playing with the band in the early days, at Middle Earth.

This is confirmed by Clive Kingsley, the original TEB electric guitarist, that in exclusive old interview of this archive (read at http://ghettoraga.blogspot.it/2010/01/electric-raga-guitarist-interview-with.html) told me: "Glen also found someone to play cello, a chap called Graham (I don't remember his last name). He wasn't really a musician, but was quite keen! He was also rather nervous playing for people, but picked up the idea of being a bit like an Indian tampura quite well. 

A recent shot of Clive Kingsley.
We played a lot of gigs Middle Earth, UFO Club. Many other small clubs and a couple of concerts. There were people around with a lot of jealousy of the band and as well as of myself...
I think Paul Minns did play quite a lot better later one when he just had a violin to duet with. I went to see them in concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on one occasion about a year after I had left. I don't know what circumstances why he left the band, but did hear about 5-10 years ago that he had committed suicide. Graham, the original cello player, left when I think his cello went along with my guitar and amplifier".

Surfin' on the Net I've discovered a site of an English musician called John Green (http://www.skylinesongs.com/music_journey.htm), he played in some bands with various players.
In 1973 he formed Sugarcane and such Brian Meredith played drums with him. He remembers about that days: "I desperately need to make music again so I place an ad in the local paper to find players, and Tony Lloyd responds. He has a similar guitar playing style to mine, is keen to get a band together and we get on well together. We find a bass player, Bob Sharp, and a drummer, Brian Meredith, and we start practicing and gigging".

He has put this b/w photo of the band in the site:

Bob Sharpe, Tony Lloyd, Brian Meredith and John Green in 1974.

Brian Meredith is the guy with the white jacket. John writes about him: "A very competent, metronomic drummer, Brian joined when I put Sugarcane together in late 1973. Although a superb natural player I don't think he was as addicted to this band thing as the rest of us. He left abruptly in Spring 1974 when he met a girl at a gig, fell in love, and got married, all in a short space of time. The rest of Sugarcane weren't invited".  

Contacted John Green for having other infos, he was direct about this Brian: "Sorry, no. Brian played drums, not the cello".
But are we sure he played drums even in the early gigs with Sweeney? 
Does anyone know something more?

no©2012 Luca Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first) 

3 comments:

  1. Hi Luca, did you try to show this post and the picture to Clike Kingsley? He seems to remember well about this early TEB's cellist...
    All the best
    Mirco

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  2. You're right, Mirco. I've updated the file including the memories of Clive about that Graham (Brian)... Soon I'll contact him sending the photo... The point is that none knows where Meredith is, it would be great to have a contact with him, just to get his memories about the time...

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  3. Call off the hunt, Luca! I am Brian Meredith, one of the four founders of TEB, the cellist Clive Kinsley thought may have been named Graham. BTW, I tracked down and called Clive a few years ago after somebody drew my attention to his misrememberances. I stayed with the group for its first 16 months before moving to live overseas (first to Sydney, then to New York). These days, I'm a 69-year old living in Southern California, and have had my attention drawn to this "Who Is Brian Meredith?" topic by someone who saw me acknowledging the passing of 94-year old master cellist (and founding member of the original Chico Hamilton Quintet) Fred Katz. I'll be happy to continue this conversation, Luca, and to help clear away the fog I becoming aware has gathered around Third Ear Band's origins. But right now, I shall attempt to add a photo to this comment. I have today posted a pic online that shows Glen and myself on stage. Carolyn Looker may recall that, once she had designed, cut and sewn all our band uniforms, Glen picked one of our first 1967 club appearances to have a photographer take a whole bunch of pictures of us from various angles. This was one of those shots. Here we go, Luca: http://imgur.com/5NdH3S1

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