"The Scene". Rab Wilkie's memories from the past (part two)...

Here's the second part of Rab's memories about "The Scene", his meeting with Glen, Carolyn, Dave Tomlin, Barry Pilcher, the experience of "Albion" magazine and some little memories about the "MacBeth" recording sessions...
The part one is at http://ghettoraga.blogspot.it/2015/05/the-scene-rab-wilkies-memories-from.html.
Pictures of this second part are taken from the original issue # 1 of "Albion" magazine (May 1968). 

"'The scene' was all about - as it still is - where the most potent and transformative forces of Art come from; how these forces are accessed and let loose upon the world to work their magic.
This is a big subject: sources of inspiration. In the past (B.C., Before Computers & the Web), books and the printed word were key, but by the middle of the 20th century the media of vinyl records & radio had become more important - almost as important as discourse, conversation and banding together, e/g for alchemical experiments. And big cities are usually the magnet and social crucible for this.. especially during a crucial stage in history. When the vibrations are really intense and cover the whole spectrum, acoustically, visually, and mentally; when they easily become scalar or prophetic. A wish-path into the future is laid out for all to see and follow - if they have (third) ears to hear and (third) eyes to see.

What were the various sources of inspiration to the band back then, and how did they work for each of its members? For me it was a flood of influences, but some details stand out. 

Late summer 1967:
Glen had begun to use a tom-tom: for an AmerIndian beat.
Carolyn played cello: a touch of Western classical.
Clive had a sitar: India.
Barry, unbridled, was loud & chaotic on sax: "New Music".
Dave had played trumpet, but that was before I arrived; and the oboist had not shown up yet.
Some or all of them had played with Dave when his group
was known as the Sun Trolley. 

There were musicians everywhere, wandering the streets, dropping in, instruments in hand or tucked under-arm; ready for any jam or happening. (The poets made do with pad & pencil; artists preferred black india ink).

 
One day I dropped in on Steve and noticed a thick book lying by the window. Its author was Ramakrishna, written in India a few decades earlier. I opened it and read that the world would hit some kind of climactic enlightenment around Christmas 1967.
"Wow! That's only a few months from now," I remarked.
Steve had to turn the volume down on the latest Beatles record to hear me. ("Sergeant Pepper"). 

Steve's inspiration was William Blake, hence the name of his magazine: Albion. The cover art says it all, updating the vision and rolling it out into the future. Steve was exulted, David Loxley, an artist with Hapshash & the Coloured Coat, had completed his work for the cover. I'm not sure how much of it was Steve's own ideas, but Albion is shown in the throes of impending revelations &/or devastation. A leering Dragon bends toward a naked young female -- the White Goddess or every-maiden - lying supine and apparently asleep in a rose bush with two flying saucers hovering in the sky above them. And here and there, at the edges and within bushes, are sigils and symbols as clues for further study: Tolkien runes, the Glastonbury Zodiac, a magical seal, pentacle, and what seems to be a diagram of a human iris, used  diagnostically in iridology. The Holy Grail is central, above the main figures and below the banner title, ALBION.

The back cover is simpler: a Tarot card in the centre with one of four figures at each corner: the Four Living Beasts of Ezekiel's vision. Except that the traditonal Bull has become a rampant Unicorn. The central figure is the sky-dancer of The World, the last card in the Major Arcanum, signifying completion of the Work and cosmic conciousness.
The Angel, upper left, is the source of music. S/he is blowing a trumpet; a lyre nearby. Perhaps this is Gabriel, divine herald of realisations.
(Steve might have played a horn at one time (?) but philosophy, social action, and literature were his stronger suits, I suspect). 

These are timeless elements. The revelation and the music are still unfolding, evolving. Disclosure keeps happening, and every 'happening' is a revelation - in the 1960s sense of an unplanned, free, and spontaneous event. A jam. Beyond the Matrix. And at the best of times, Transcendental.
The way up, however, might begin with - or sometimes loop downward into - e/g "MacBeth". The movie in which a band of anonymous musicians in the balcony, a pair of legs dangling down into space, strums & drums forth a trance comment on skullduggery unfolding below.
I didn't see the movie until some years after I'd visited the band at the recording studio as they were recording the soundtrack for "MacBeth" (May 1971). I was en route to India via Spain and stopped in London for just a few days. They were busy and immersed in the process, so I didn't stay long, perhaps an hour or so. Scenes from the movie were shown on screen, and they were going through a couple of scenes, recording and re-recording each scene until they were satisfied with the take. It was a bit eery with an occasional chuckle. Dim inside and a bright day outside. Glen summoned up a Polanskyish version of Scottish ghosts. He had a darkly wry sense of humour.
 

The only on-stage moment I recall with the band, when I was present, was at the Covent Garden market. Other sessions were jams at somebody's flat, usually Glen's & Carolyn's. And just before meeting Glen, at Clive's place in Earl's Court. He had recently acquired a sitar. But earlier still, in Toronto, I'd played a bit of sax with Barry and listened to his jams with local musicians.

I haven't been in touch with anyone for a long time. Clive and I exchanged some emails about 15 years ago. But if anyone's interested, here I am - in Ontario. It'd be great to hear from them. The only stuff I have from that period can be found on the internet, like "Albion" (an original copy was for sale on E-Bay recently, for something like $350!)".

no©2015 Luca Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)    

"The Scene". Rab Wilkie's memories from the past (part one)...

After a first contact by mail, I asked Rab if he could tell something about his meeting with our Holy Band.

Even if with some wrong memories (for example, Dave Tomlin never played a trumpet or a tambourine...), this is a very interesting personal recollection of the climax lived in the end of Sixties/beginning of Seventies. A precious little contribution to the Third Ear Band's story... 

"Hi Luca,

What a pleasant surprise to hear from you! (One never knows what to expect when leaving a message on the internet). I'm not sure I can help you much more with 3rd Band info, but I'll add a few things here, just in case they're

of interest. (I'm more a writer than a talker).

I met the band around August 1967. I was age 21. And hung out with them for several months until April 1968. In May 1971, on a flying visit, I popped in to see them during a recording session for MacBeth. That's about it, as far as in-person interactions go with the main members of the band. But it was a big scene overall, with all sorts of people, artists & musicians, coming & going, and things going on.

I first made the connection to this scene in Toronto, Canada, in 1965 when I roomed in a house in the Yorkville Village area - Toronto's hip version of the East Village in Manhattan. Barry Pilcher was staying in the same house.
He had recently arrived from London where he had played sax with the Hydrogen Jukebox & Dave Tomlin, also with Glen and others. 

 

The following summer I lined up a job for him as a forest ranger on a fire lookout tower in northern Ontario. We each manned a tower (May-September) in the same area, about 20 miles apart; and would chat by radio-phone some evenings. (One night he was almost struck by an incoming meteorite).
That autumn he returned to London, and I flew over to visit relatives in Plymouth, Devon.

In January 1967 I moved to London and met up with Barry again. He was the only person I knew in the city at that time. But a couple of months later I decided to become a monk and spent six months in a Thai Buddhist monastic centre near Richmond. I moved back into the hub of things in mid August where I reconnected with Barry and some of his musician friends, including Glen, Carolyn, and Clive Kingsley who was playing guitar with the band. Barry played sax with them. 

This was just before they decided to call themselves the Third Ear Band, and the band itself had not quite formed. Various musicians came and went, and Barry & Clive apparently did not quite fit. Glen of course was the mainstay, with Carolyn. (Barry & Clive eventually went off to do their own things. Clive ended up in small coastal village in Cornwall; Barry got married and moved to Ireland but continued to play gigs here & there).

On one occasion I joined the Third Ear on stage at a venue in Covent Garden at a "happening". The only instrument I owned then was a bagpipe chanter, so that's what I played. The other attraction was a dance troop, Exploding Galaxy. (My main instrument was alto sax, but it was a while before I could afford even to rent one.. and then I left, returning to Toronto). 

Pilcher and Glen in 1991

So, aside from the meeting at Glen's & Carolyn's flat - which I described previously in my first message to you - where the idea of a name for the band was discussed and more or less decided, I can't say that my influence or interplay amounted to much. And with so many people & things always happening, on the periphery, I'm not surprised that to Glen & Carolyn I've become a forgotten footnote. But at the time, amidst the chaos, they helped many of us - including myself - stay focused. They were always very open and friendly, sharing their enthusiasm and experience with the scene; and

music was at the heart of it.
"The scene" of course involved much more than music, and I became more involved with the literary & mystical side of it. With crazy poets & publishers of the "Underground press". I was involved with Steve Pank and Muz Murray as they planned to start a "mystical scene magazine". The result was two different magazines, Muz with "Gandalf''s Garden" and Steve with "Albion".
I co-edited Albion with Steve, but it did not survive beyond the first issue. (I left a month before it hit the streets).

Meanwhile, poets such as Neil Oram & Harry Fainlight were roaming around Notting Hill and Westbourne Park doing poetry, Ginsberg parachuting in to dance and bop balloons at Chalk Farm, etc; and John Michell was re-writing "The View Over Atlantis" after his first manuscript had gone up in flames. (There had been a fire in his flat when he was out).

But at least we managed to publish in "Albion" John's Caxton Hall talk on Stonehenge & Flying Saucers.

John has been in a slump about the fire. When Barry and I dropped in at a friend's flat on Westbourne Park Grove one Saturday morning in November, John was there, staring into space, sitting on the floor, his back against the wall. It was chilly and the room was unheated... no shillings left for the gas meter. But he seemed not to notice even though coatless.

One of the women offered him a hot mug of tea, which he absently took with a slight nod of his head, and held tightly, warming his hands.

It was a long time before he took his first sip. The mood was morose.
Everyone seemed sluggish. Then Dave Tomlin rattled a tambourine, drums were revealed, and from my pocket I pulled out my chanter.

A moment later, the whole crew had formed a procession and were heading out the door towards Portobello Market, Dave in the lead like the Pied Piper of Hamelin. (Except I had the pipe and he was Tambourine Man).
As we were about to march into the open-air market, a horse in front of us bolted, scared by our loud Janissarian arrival. But disaster was narrowly averted as Dave rushed forward and grabbed the horses reins, calming him almost instantly. (Scientology had worked for Dave. His presence of mind was legendary).
But that wake-up incident pretty well ended our event. It was time to get on with the day and the 'happeners' scattered, going our separate ways.

Barry and I headed back towards Notting Hill Gate.

"Where's John?" I asked. "Did he come with us to the Market?"

Barry was silent, thoughtful. His eyes skewed upward as if looking for a bird in the clouds...". 

(end of part one - to be continued) 

no©2015 Luca Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)   

Glen Sweeney talks about the TEB music on "Zigzag" # 4 (August 1969).

As we have seen, "Zigzag" magazine has often dedicated pages to the Third Ear Band. Below you can read an old article published on August 1969 with a rare reconstruction of the band's origins written by Glen Sweeney. Not a typical interview, or a review, or an article about music, but two pages with a writing by Sweeney himself!

Here he writes about his past in the jazz scene, the fundamental meeting with Dave Tomlin, the brief experience with the Hydrogen Jukebox and the idea to form the TEB. At the beginning, as we know well, they played "electric raga" with Clive Kingsley on guitar, then the instruments was stolen and the TEB became acoustic...
Apart these known historical references, very interesting is the evidence of Glen's clear counsciousness about the kind of music to play: 
"... Our numbers we refer to as ragas, though they are obviously not, and the alchemical thing, though it may seem to be, is not in the way we use it, a fantasy. The alchemists, far from just trying to make gold from other things, had this idea of doing the same experiment over and over for years, and somewhere, something would change. And we do this in music, and sometimes weird things happen".

Note in the same issue also an Harvest ad for "Alchemy" (& Edgar Brouthon Band's "Wasa Wasa") based on a picture of Stonehenge...

 

Beatchapter - 49 Sebert Road, Forest Gate - London UK E70NJ
ph.: 020 85194590     e-mail: sales@beatchapter.com 

no©2014 Luca Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)  

"A perfectly ordinary 15-guinea violoncello". The Brian Meredith interview (part one).

Finally, as promised, here's the first part of an exclusive interview with one of the most mysterious men behind the Third Ear Band story: cellist Brian Meredith.
Now 69 and living in Southern California (USA), he's been so kind as to contact me through this Archive just to share his memories about the past, the very beginning of the Third Ear Band... The meeting with Sweeney and Minns, his playing for 16 months with the band (though apparently no recordings exist!), the relations with Clive Kingsley and his loud electric guitar... Another big mystery revealed!

Brian Meredith nowdays.

What do you recall about your first meeting with Glen Sweeney?

"I first met Glen in 1962. Glen Sweeney and Carolyn Looker and I all had jobs at Liberty of London, which is an old upscale department store where celebrities like to shop.
Glen helped the salespeople in the furniture department move their things around. Beautiful Carolyn worked in the beauty department. She sold makeup or nylons, I forget which. I was an art school dropout at the time who was selling suitcases in Liberty's luggage department.

The day Glen and I first talked music, I was excited to have been showing some cases to the American jazz pianist Erroll Garner. He had asked me to show him a steamer trunk and I'd hurried downstairs to blow the dust off the only one we had in storage.

I doubt Glen and I even knew each other's names. To me, he was just some hip-looking little dude I'd seen lurking about in Liberty's basement. But to get that one great steamer trunk upstairs, I asked Glen if he'd please help.
Well, during the huffing and puffing that followed, I seem to remember our chat rapidly shifting from Erroll Garner to Lennie Tristano and on to Cecil Taylor. Maybe Glen even name-dropped Sun Ra. Glen was big on Sun Ra.

The legendary Sun Ra.

 

Glen definitely let me know he was actually a professional drummer with an R&B band. Well, two nights a week he was. I remember because, being very much an amateur, I was impressed. I told Glen I played a bit of piano and cello in a 'free jazz' quartet. Well, weekends I did.

Anyway, Luca, here's where we must bid farewell to the late great Erroll Garner's special guest appearance in my answer to your interview question. No, he didn't buy that big trunk from me that day, but he did help Glen and I get acquainted.

After that, I began seeing Glen and Carolyn as a couple around town. Carolyn's sister, as it so happened, had begun dating a pal I used to hang out with named Geoff Wood. Geoff was the multi-instrumentalist leader of that amateur jazz group I was a part of back in '62. I'm pleased to be able to add that he has remained a good friend to this day". 

When did you join Geoff Wood's group?

 
"Well, it was more like we joined each other. I mean we were just four teenaged friends who each played an instrument or two. We simply hoped that playing them together as well as we could might make something akin to jazz come out. And sometimes it did. 

Brian Meredith (left) and Geoff Wood (right) in 1962.

By the way, the rest of us saw Geoff as our best player, so we made him our leader in case we needed one someday. I'm thinking this was 1959...".

Was the jazz you played based on 'hard bop' style? Tell me more...

"'Hard bop' made a big impact on us. For example, We'd been fans of The Jazz Couriers in the late 1950s. Tubby Hayes and Ronnie Scott moulded that U.K. band in the hard bop style that Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers had put their stamp on in the U.S.
By the time our own group started getting together, John Coltrane, Jimmy Giuffre, Steve Lacy and Eric Dolphy were all key figures whose styles had excited us.
Then again, the four of us all loved the 'chamber jazz' groups that Chico Hamilton formed in the '50s. He had Fred Katz at first on cello, then Nate Gershman. They really interested me.
And we quickly became immersed in Gunther Schuller's 'third stream' music with the Modern Jazz Quartet.The MJQ had always been wonderful, but this was introducing quite a new twist.
Right around the turn of that '50s decade, along came Ornette Coleman with his 'free jazz' recordings. And, a split-second later, Joe Harriott in the U.K. was showing us the brand new direction he wanted to take. I'm talking about his 'free form' jazz recordings. They were superb, I thought. Still do.

Not more than a year or so later, you'd have found The Geoff Wood Quartet absorbing Bud Shank's collaboration with Ravi Shankar. It seemed like there was simply no stopping jazz at all! That was a tremendous period, and we kept lapping it up. It all influenced us". 

The Geoff Wood Quartet in 1960: Geoff Wood (alto sax, flute, piano), Oliver Chadwick (clarinet, basset horn), Dave Lawrence (drums, percussion), Brian Meredith (cello, piano, glockenspiel).

Where are you playing in these photos of that quartet? Are you on some boat? 
  

"We were playing aboard a motorised houseboat on the Norfolk Broads that we had rented that summer. We lived on it for a week and played every day. That's another delightful memory, Luca.
We had created our very own little jazz cruise. We'd had ourselves a sunny holiday that was all about making music and lazily chugging our way around some pretty waterways. Geoff Wood and I were talking just recently about what a pleasure that experience had been".

Did The Geoff Wood Quartet perform anywhere?
 

"Yes, we did perform anywhere... anywhere there wouldn't be an audience to disturb us. Look, we were very realistic amateurs, Luca. None of us were Mingus or Monk. None of us were Coltrane or Elvin Jones. No, we were just keen teens trying to hear ourselves make a kind of music now and then that, even when it is made by geniuses, scares a lot of people away.
Seriously, whether people would have described us as making music or making a racket, we just wanted somewhere to make it. So we'd very often exploit the acoustics in my parents' kitchen. I still can't quite believe how my folks could have been quite so forgiving.
Sometimes before sunset, though, we'd meet up and carry a few instruments with us into a thickly wooded area near where we all lived. Then we'd split up and stroll off among the trees, moving just far enough away to be out of sight of each other. Apart from bird calls, we'd be surrounded by silence. And then we'd begin to play. 

The late Oliver Chadwick (in phone box) goofing around with Brian Meredith in 1960.

All these years later, Luca, I get a tingle just recalling those sessions. Being really responsive to the music flowing from one another's instruments is such a rich experience under any circumstances. However, being 'in the moment' musically while being a part of that kind of natural environment was always special.
Anyway, enough about this. After a few short years of musical get-togethers, we all relocated and became involved in careers or romances or... well, whatever else that was waiting for us. Let's move on, Luca".

Returning to our main story... what about Paul Minns? When did you first meet Paul?

"Paul Minns and I first knew each other in the 1950s. We were both pupils at the City of London School, which was still located on Victoria Embankment in those days.

Paul and I weren’t classmates, but we were around the same age and had somehow discovered we were both Miles Davis fans. Every now and then we'd find each other in the schoolyard or lunchroom just long enough to natter about whatever jazz had grabbed us since we'd last talked.
Paul was more scholarly than I was. I know I came to associate him mostly with classical music and being very serious about everything. He would be off playing oboe with the school orchestra, I remember, while I'd be sitting in the lectures of the school's jazz society".  

A very rare picture of Brian and Glen Sweeney (behind) playing on stage in 1967. He tells: "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".

  
So when did you all start playing music together?

"That wasn't until the spring of 1967. Paul and Glen and I all met up one day in Notting Hill, which is where we all rented bed-sitting rooms, and Glen explained that he was thinking of forming a new group.
He said he was curious how the three of us might sound playing with a guitarist from Earls Court that they both knew. I realise now that the three of them already knew how they might sound playing together. This was all about auditioning me.

None of us were working just then, so Glen just went ahead and booked us some time in a rehearsal space a day or two later. I showed up with my cello, and, along with Carolyn, Glen was there on drums, Paul on oboe, and Clive Kingsley on electric guitar.

I don't recall if Glen just played hand drums during that first session or if he used some part or all of a kit. I do remember that an hour or two later, when we were packing up our instruments, there was quite a lot of satisfaction being expressed. We all felt we might be at the start of something that could work.

Then, before we had any club dates or Carolyn had come up with the name for our group or any of that, we made sure we got together and played regularly. We did that for probably close to three months. I was always surprised at how efficient Glen was at finding rehearsal spaces that cost us little or nothing during that period".  

Who composed the first tracks of the band? Was it Clive Kingsley, as he stated recently during an interview with me, or was it a collective effort?

"Well, Luca, here’s what I think. Without Glen or Paul being around any longer to perhaps take issue with what Clive, rightly or wrongly, believes, I think I’ll leave this one alone. I know that I personally stake no claim whatsoever to any of the tracks the group ever recorded, nor any of the compositions they continued to play after I left the group,

Clive Kingsley in 2009.

In case it might be of interest, however, here's how I remember our music most often coming into being.

We'd find a theme and then just work it and work it. Pretty much any time we reapproached a piece that was becoming part of our repertoire we'd be trying to refine its shape or perhaps soften or sharpen its mood. Sometimes these pieces were based on nothing more than a fragment of melody or a brief riff, yet we found they were enough for us to take as a motif we could improvise over. And let me get some praise into print here for those hand drums of Glen’s that underscored everything. Glen’s beat never faltered.

Anyway, in the course of developing what I’ve just been describing, one or other of us would give these musical pieces names. I shall leave this subject on that note".

Who was leading the band in the earliest days?

"Glen was always the leader, and from an organisational point of view I wouldn't have wanted it otherwise. He was a hipster and he was a hustler. He made the contacts, got us the gigs, got stuff done. We looked to him in those areas. Glen was both the man with the vision and 'the man with the plan'. It would have been nice if he’d shared that vision and that plan with the rest of us, but you can’t have everything. What hustler is ever really open with you? But I digress.

Another way I might answer your question about leadership is like this. Some drummers who become group leaders always provide that particular musical voice that characterises any bands they lead. The drummer Chico Hamilton, who passed away just months ago, springs to mind as that kind of leader. But for me, in the case of our group, no matter what the rest of us were contributing musically, the essential voice of TEB was Paul's.

Paul Minns live on stage in 1970.

The sound of Paul's oboe was so distinctive. It was wholly, unarguably pure. So I felt from the start that if audiences were going to be responsive to what what we were doing, Paul would be the primary reason. Solely in that sense, Paul was almost leading us by default. But perhaps I’m just muddying my answer here, because I don’t want to give the impression Paul ever directed us. He didn’t. Though in retrospect, perhaps he should have.

There were times we all sounded like we desperately needed a leader of any description. In fact, to my ears, and probably to too many audiences, we too often sounded like crap".

What kind of cello did you have?

"My cello was a perfectly ordinary violoncello that I'd bought at a provincial musical instrument store. I still remember exactly how much money I had to save up as a schoolboy to buy it. It cost 15 guineas.
But you're probably asking about my cello's 'electrification' or electronic add-ons. In that regard, I give a lot of credit to Glen Sweeney. It was Glen’s prompting that got me to see how I might transform the cello's sound at all. I'd only been around acoustic instruments previously, so I was a complete dummy.

Here's what happened. Once the four of us began playing gigs, Glen quickly became concerned about the loudness of Clive Kingsley’s electric guitar-playing. Part of what was bothering him, he said, was how Clive kept drowning out my bowed passages. As a counter measure, Glen hooked me up with a contact microphone to try out. Wow! I'd adhere the mic to the body of my cello at the start of each performance and, arco or pizzicato, it was now hear this! That was a major change for me right there.

So then I began wondering what other possibilities needed to be explored. Glen was kind of nudging me to get curious, and I was taking the hint.
I started checking out the new guitar accessories that were showing up in the Charing Cross Road music stores. I certainly don't recall anything anymore about what amp or pre-amp configuration I ended up with on stage. I couldn’t even tell you now how many effects pedals I may have experimented with.

But I do remember how precious to me my phaser and fuzz box became. I absolutely do remember those little sweethearts. They enabled me to introduce sounds on the cello unlike anything else being heard. Sure, at times they let me get away with murder, but oh boy, I loved it!".

(end of part one)

no©2014 Luca Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first) 

Finally also first TEB cellist BRIAN MEREDITH has emerged from the fogs of time!

A new Great Miracle of the Web for all the Third Ear Band's fans around the world: disclosing his obscure and quite legendary identity, just today Brian Meredith has posted this few words on that old file I wrote on August 2012 titled "Who knows Brian Meredith?" (http://ghettoraga.blogspot.it/2012/08/who-knows-brian-meredith.html ):

Brian Meredith and Glen Sweeney on stage for one of the first TEB show in 1967!

"Call off the hunt, Luca! I am Brian Meredith, one of the four founders of TEB, the cellist Clive Kingsley 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'm 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".

Brian Meredith today.

Another very interesting post by him is included on another file of this Archive after a Carolyn Looker interview at http://ghettoraga.blogspot.it/2012/04/at-last-proper-interview-with-carolyn.html

So we'll have a long interview with Brian soon to discover other obscure things from the Third Ear Band past!  

Keep in touch!

no©2013 Luca Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)     

At last a proper interview with CAROLYN LOOKER, Glen Sweeney missus and TEB former!!!

I know Carolyn from the half of the Eighties and I've tried to interview her many times but with scarce results.

She's a very kind woman and she cooperated very well to my book on the band in 1995-1996, writing a two-pages of memories for a projected but never realised tribute CD and helping me to clear some obscure  things (the original name of the band, the cultural sources...) for this archive... but I couldn't ever have a proper interview with her.

In the Summer 2010 at her home in London Hammersmith I recorded around one hour of questions & answers, but when I went back to Italy I discovered the tape couldn't work, thus no interview...

So, because she has no computers/e-mails, some months ago I've sent her some questions by letter and now we've got her answers through our common friend Steve Pank. 

Another chance to know some old facts on the Thirds...

Carolyn Looker, London 2010.

When/where you met Glen for the first time?

"Both Glen and I was working at Liberty's in Regent Street. Glen was doing modern furniture display. He had his drumkit in the storeroom where he would hide and practice his drumming (!) which at the time was modern jazz...".

Where Glen was from?

"Glen's family lived in Croydon, about ten miles south of the Thames".

Which was your interests at that time?

"Sartre, Kerouack and the Beat Generation, Zen Buddhism, Jazz, Occult".

Had you involved in the cultural scene of those days?

"Yes, I was reading beat poetry to avantgarde jazz to a very small audience in pub gigs".

Have you some memories of the beginning with the Giant Sun Trolley?

"Many happenings at UFO with Sun Trolley! A dog howling to Dave's sax. Total 15 minutes of silence from the two, then a spaced out kid tried to bang on Glen's drum. Glen hit him with D stick - said it was Zen - kid remained  far from that".

How Glen met Dave?

"Dave was advertising for drummer. Glen (auditioned) in Free School that was a cellar where Dave was squatting with a poet called Macavity. Glen was told to take the drum sound from here to there. Dave said making directions. Glen being good with fantasy managed to do so and got the gig!".

Which was the mood at UFO?

"Memories but not clear. It was all like a scene from a Fellini movie".

And what's about the music Sun Trolley played?

"Very avantgarde: used happenings on stage, i.e. electric scissors cutting clothes off a dancer (at the 14th Technicolor Dream)...".

How TEB started to play at the Drury Lane's Arts Lab? 

"Jim Haynes loved TEB, said they gave him orgasms. They play Arts Lab on a regular basis. A room painted black, incense burning and audience on floor cushions".

What's about the legendary levitation of St. Pancras' station? Is it all true?

"Yes, us and John Peel sat outside ohming... Hard work but it lifted a few inches (we were on acid)...".

What kind of music the first electric TEB line-up played? Do you remember some particular tunes played?

"I remember Clive [Kingsley]'s "Ronson Riff", a marvelous thing he did sliding his ciggy lighter along his guitar".

Do you remember something about the instruments stolen after a concert that induced the new TEB acoustic line-up?

"Instruments were left in van overnight, gone in the morning. Never found out who took them. Of course they weren't insured!".

Carolyn with her cat Leonardo (London 2010).

How John Peel was involved at the "Alchemy"'s recording sessions?

"A friend of Glen's took us around to Peel's flat. I remember us all discussing the existence of fairies".

Can you tell me something about that wonderful album cover?

"Glen was very much into Alchemy, the illustration was in a book he had".

Any memories on the second album recording sessions?

"Sorry, we were all stoned. Glen would suggest a feel or a vision for each track and the guys played it".

Is it true EMI engineers left the studio during the sessions?

"I don't think the engineers liked or understood the music, so mixing they weren't into".

And what do you think about EMI? Why they gave up the band?

"EMI were fine. I think the contract ran out".

Do you remember the gig TEB played with Bernard Parmegiani in London? Can you tell me something about it?

"Parmegiani concert was at Festival Hall. It didn't work too well in my opinion. TEB's music was organic, the French were music concrete, it didn't got".

How did it go with Polanski?

"Lots of memories of Polanski. He and Glen were the same height, so got on really well. Recordings were made improvising the pieces of the film which were projected in the recording studio".

Which is your opinion about Blackhill? Do you think the agency was really involved into the TEB music?

"Blackhill never really understood the music, if they had been more supportive made more of film music. I.e. Polanski and Kubrick admiring TEB and involved them more in the arts as in Pink Floyd. Steered the right way the band could have been big".

One of the most obscure period of your (Glen and you) life is when you lived on a boat in a river during the Seventies...

"We had an idyllic Summer on the boat. Glen was writing poetry, I was painting. Hard work because the mooring wasn't residential we had to collect our water and calor gas about 1/2 mile away. We retired to a friend's flat in the Winter as the river flooded all the time. Infact one huge flood, the Ark, our boat, flooded over into the field and settled there when the floods ended. We lived that way chocked up in the middle of a field for an year. The council complained and at great expense we hired a crane to put us back in the water".

Which was the feelings of Glen about music just before I met him in your Sheperd's Bush flat? Why at the beginning he was so suspicious of me?

"Before meeting you I think Glen had decided to retire from the music scene.  I was envolved in managing a prop hire company and we figured it Glen's turn to take a rest. Glen suspicious of you? I think he was suspicious of most people's intentions till proved otherwise!".

Some TEB fans are interested to know if Glen was involved in black magic...

"Glen was very interested in esoteric, also in black magic, but did not practice it".

And what's about TEB's relation with Druids?

"Steve Pank can tell you more about the Druid meetings and the Glastonbury Tor concert. As he is now a fully fledged Druid and Dave Loxley the Head Druid who created the celtic border of "Alchemy"".

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