Saxophonist Barry Edgar Pilcher passed away.

Unfortunately, another musician linked to the glorious history of the Third Ear Band has recently passed away: saxophonist Barry Edgar Pilcher, who had played with Glen Sweeney in the Hydrogen Jukebox in the spring and summer of 1967 and, many years later (1991), in one of the Third Ear Band’s final incarnations, passed away last September at the age of 83.

Mail artist Chuck Webb shared the news on his Facebook page, writing:

"We learned with great sadness that mail art friend Barry Edgar Pilcher recently passed away. Included are a few extracts from my two-volume book in progress, MAIL ART CRACKERJACKS:

Pilcher, Barry Edgar England b.1943 d.2026 File 1010

Barry Pilcher, Jazz saxophonist, beat poet, and mail artist, was born in South East London on June 10, 1943. He created many home-recorded tapes, which he began selling in small music magazines in the mid-1970s.

In the 1980s, he and his wife, Eve Pilcher, hosted many mail art visitors, including CrackerJack Kid in 1988 and, in 1989, Shozo Shimamoto, Ryosuke Cohen, Dennis Banks, and many others in the important mail art project “Sacred Run for Peace & Life.”

Barry Pilcher was a composer and improviser who performed on concert flute, clarinet, soprano sax, tenor sax, and didgeridoo. His home-taped productions of spoken-word poetry, beat, and jazz in the early 1970s are legendary.

For twenty years, Pilcher and his poet wife, Eve, were the sole permanent inhabitants of the tiny island of Inishfree off the coast of County Donegal in Ireland. The natural elements of nature inspired him, and when playing his saxophone on his island beach, Pilcher declared, “I’m playing a symphony to the shells today.”

In recent years, Barry Pilcher lived in Essex, England, and was writing a book about his life at Raven Cottage. He wrote and published scores of small poetry booklets, and his work appears in numerous small press magazines in the United Kingdom and the United States."

 

 Elektric TEB poster by Glen Sweeney (1991)

 

This archive has written about Barry on a few occasions:

 

https://ghettoraga.blogspot.com/2015/05/lost-found-news-about-barry-pilcher.html

https://ghettoraga.blogspot.com/2010/11/elektric-third-ear-band-raga-of-wind.html

https://ghettoraga.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-scene-rab-wilkies-memories-from.html

https://ghettoraga.blogspot.com/2010/06/glen-sweeney-interviewed-himself-in.html

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