"How I got the third ear". Memories from Finland.

TEB fan Mauri Kankaanpää gives us some memories closely related to the Third Ear Band...

"1st of December 1973 was a remarkable day for a 17 years young man. On that day, exactly 50 years ago,  the mailman gave me a ticket to pick a box of records from the local post office. I can’t remember the content of the box as wholly, or if there even was more than one LP, but that very one is still in my shelf, from the band I got into in previous summer. 

 

Easy to guess the name of the band. The LP I bought first was the one known as Elements. It really changed my musical world. At that time, I was also interested in esoteric things, theosophy etc. so the music fitted to my taste like glove in the hand. How did I find this world? First step was taken on a Fool’s day the previous year. I was able to visit our capital Helsinki and a large record shop there. I had saved lots of money to buy three records, one of them was Pink Floyd’s "Meddle" (I still have the copy). 

 

 

The record itself was extremely important to my music taste which was turning to progressive rock, but also the inner bag, ”the Harvest shopping list”. Following summer I bought Roy Harper’s "Flat Baroque and Berserk," starting my long lasting fandom to him and a week later my first Third Ear Band record, "Elements" - just by the name of the band, the cover of the LP and the typography on it. So it’s 51 years and 4 months now when I gave Glen & C. my other ear lobe, after which they took the whole ear, then the second on the other side of my head and finally they gave me a third one to start hearing.
Back to the date mentioned in the beginning. The album was "Alchemy". More of the magical music, thank you very much. 

One thing where vinyl beats cd is the cover size. Of course, vinyls need space if you have a lot of them, but the information and the emotional aspect of handling the cover, it’s almost like shaking hands with the artist. You get closer to them. 

 
So, I was 17, and I was living in Western Finland in the middle of an agrarian flat, known earlier as the bottom of the sea which now, after the ice age, is rising 5 mm in a year. Pop music was extremely rare on the radio. There were two channels, one for serious music and things like that, the other was for common people, almost funny ones. But please remember that people between 12-20 didn’t really exist for radio management, it was still in the ice age. And then there were minorities with their occult hobbies.

Again, I was handling the cover you know now. Turning it front and back, open and close, reading the text as much as my English did bend to it, more or less hypnotized from the music. Then there was the photo, with a monument where the players were hiding or just stepping out. Oh how far they are! Wish could visit that place! For a 17 years old person such a thing was like a flight to the moon. England is so far, three times around the world and only rich people here could afford to fly - and then they go to Mallorca... And if I ever get to England I surely will get lost. And where is that monument, if it is a grave there must be a graveyard, or thousands of them! Not for me! A desperate case.

But the years will roll. Inevitably. We are in 2019 in this story, now. Thanks to the internet and Wikipedia, sources and sites I found the name of the graveyard and got the name of the monument. I had found England earlier and the City of London in it, too.
London is an interesting town with all the layers the history had left there. I was travelling with my now ex-lady and had spent a couple of days in the town enjoying its arts and taps. After leaving the town, the metro rattled in a narrow gap through sleepy suburbs like in some Ghibli movies. Old dirty cables were hanging on the sides like lianas in the jungle. The car was almost empty. Now I was sure it will happen. 

 

Kensal Green cemetery is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries in London (I've seen two of them now). And what a relief, the grave was quite easy to find, thanks to the officer of the cemetery and the map she gave. The very moon of this story is the grave of Charles Spencer Ricketts (1788–1867). 

We landed at the cemetery on the 16th of September, at last. I felt excited when starting to walk the paths of the place. And finally, there it was!

 

 

The grave was smaller than I expected but it stood out of the area in its pale colour and strong decorations. Looked like it was ready to take a walk. Unfortunately I forgot to say something immortal like... “this is one small step for mankind but one giant leap for man”, but just something like “siälä se on!” (there it is! in Finnish) directed to my partner. 

However, it was unbelievable that it had been waiting for me all this time!"

 

Mauri Kankaanpää

 

Other stuff in this archive about the Kensal Green cemetery:

https://ghettoraga.blogspot.com/2017/06/ray-stevensons-memories-on-kensal-green.html

https://ghettoraga.blogspot.com/2010/01/teb-first-photo-session-by-ray_30.html

https://ghettoraga.blogspot.com/2017/08/original-contacts-from-first-1969-teb.html
 

no©2023 LucaChinoFerrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)

Born in Canterbury...? Where the Third Ear Band actually was from...

One of the more die-hard fakes about the TEB circulating on the Web and on some magazines/books is that the Our Band was born in Canterbury.

Actually the TEB was from Ladbroke Grove, North-West London.

There, Glen Sweeney moved his first steps, and there the band got the very first regular gigs in places as the Ladbroke Hotel or at the Safari Tent Caribbean store (207, Westbourne Park Road) where they played "cosmic ragas".

Their photo session for the "Alchemy" cover (read here, here and here) was at the nearby Kensall Green cemetery and at Portobello Glen knew Carolyn where they had a daily job. 

An interesting piece about the cultural turmoil of that area is Nigel Cross' essay published by "Ptolemaic Terrascope" in 2006 (read here).

You can watch below other old pictures of Ladbroke Grove area taken in 1965-1970, more or less the period when Glen Sweeney lived and played there...

 no©2017 Luca Chino Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)  

Original contacts from the first 1969 TEB photo session taken by Ray Stevenson.

Here below you can watch the really precious original two contacts of the very first TEB photo session taken by Ray Stevenson at London Kensell Green cemetery presumably in the Spring 1969.

As documented elsewhere on this Archive (read here here and here) Glen Sweeney, Paul Minns and Richard Coff (with Carolyn Looker) was photographed at the cemetery for selecting some takes to put on "Alchemy" cover: only one photo was chosen later for the album and few other takes was published through the years on magazines, books and Internet...

no©2017 Luca Chino Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)   

Ray Stevenson's memories on Kensal Green cemetery TEB's photo session.

Ray Stevenson is a sort of obscure cult hero for many of us. It was him who took the first proper photo session of the Third Ear Band at Kensal Green cemetery (read at http://ghettoraga.blogspot.it/2010/01/teb-first-photo-session-by-ray_30.html), then obscure icons in popular music; years later (1976), after having photographed rock legends as Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, David Bowie, The Who, Fairport Convention..., he 'discovered' the Sex Pistols before they become "The Sex Pistols" and took some now historical pictures of them.

Having tried for many years to find him through the Web (http://www.raystevenson.co.uk/ his official Web site), few days ago, very surprisingly, he replied me and we had the brief conversation you can read below. He conscious that "as they say "if you can remember the 60's, you weren't there!", and this seems to be true for me"...

How old was you in 1969 when you shot the session with the TEB at Kensal Green cemetery? 

"I was 20 in 1969". 

When/how/where you met the band for the first time?

"I can't remember our first meeting. Glen, Carolyn and I would be at the same clubs [one of them was Les Cousins] and events and we gradually got to know each other."

Maybe at Les Cousins? They played there some gigs regurarly with Davy Graham...
"They played Cousins??? I really have no recollection of that, and I was there most nights. A visitor once looked at my Album collection and commented "You've got 3 of every genre!" I would say that they were the best of each genre... Bert Jansch, Fairport Convention, Hendrix, Stones, Pink Floyd, Peer Gynt Suite, My Fair Lady Soundtrack, Burundi Drummers, Gregorian Chant, Segovia, but it is Roy Harper that I am still returning to, but in digital form."

Who decided and contacted you to ask you to take the photos for the band?  

"I don't remember getting a commission for the session, most likely would be a random meeting and being asked 'Do you want to do a session?' That was how thing were back then."

Why was chosen just the Kensal Green cemetery? Did yoy recall something about that event? (when there was the session? which kind of camera you used for it?...)

"Kensal Green Cemetery was the bands decision. Probably because Hyde Park was featureless, there were very few suitable locations. Back then I had a Nikon-F and a Nikkormat, with 28mm and 135mm lenses, more importantly TRI-X Pan film."

Had you involved into the artwork of the "Alchemy" cover? 

"I had no involvement in the artwork of the Alchemy cover, but was delighted with the end product."

Later you took some photos of the band at the Isle of Wight festival (August 1969): do you remember anything about it? 

"Isle of Wight... So many bands, so many people, so many friends, so many years ago, I can't remember anything significant."

What happened to the photographs you took? Why some agencies (i.e. Rex Features) put on sale just some pictures (read at http://ghettoraga.blogspot.it/2017/05/found-four-never-seen-before-pictures.html)? Have you still got that old picture? Are you selling them?
"I still have (very nearly) all of my negatives from 1966 onward, my agency Rex/Shutterstock are digital, and have scans of my more useable images." 

Have you met the band later? 
"The last time I saw Glen and Carolyn was in Portobello Road, they had sailed their little boat from England, through the French canals, then sunk when they got to the Mediteranian. Very sad."

no©2017 Luca Chino Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)   

Found four never seen before pictures of the TEB!

These below are four never seen before shots of the band taken by Ray Stevenson - two at the London Kensal Green cemetery, where there was one of the first photo sessions for the "Alchemy"'s cover, and two on stage at the Isle of Wight festival (August 1969).

Now these b/w pictures are on sale at Rex Web site (go here).

 

As we know (read on this Archive at http://ghettoraga.blogspot.it/2010/01/teb-first-photo-session-by-ray_30.html), also Carolyn Looker (Glen's missus) was involved at the Kensal Green session: you can see her arm just behind the tomb...!
Other pictures of the band at the Isle of Wight festival was taken by Barry Plummer (read here), Derek Halsall and Karen Francis (read here).

no©2017 Luca Chino Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)   

TEB first photo session by Ray Stevenson.

Ray Stevenson, probably the main photographer of the Third Ear Band in the Sixties, got a complete photo session of the group at Kensal Green Cemetery of London (see at http://www.kensalgreencemetery.com/index.html), one of the oldest cemetery in the world (first funeral made in 1883), placed in North London, near Harrow Road.

The session, kept sometimes in 1969, was managed to obtain  some photos for "Alchemy" cover, the first album.

Stevenson got some b/w and colour shots of Sweeney, Coff, Minns and Carolyn (Glen's partner) around tombs and small paths.

Finally, the photo selected for the inner cover had taken at the monument of Spencer Ricketts (1788-1867), "a naval commander who had served under Nelson and married an heiress, as "an atrociously rich Gothic shrine'. . ." (from the cemetery Web site). 

The monument (see here two beautiful photos taken by Jacqueline Banerjee in 2007), characterized by "a raised sarcophagus, decorated with shields, is enclosed by eight red Peterhead granite colonnettes and rests on stubby colonnettes of green Cornish serpentine;

the canopy sports cusped arches, gargoyles, crockets and finials galore"(quoted as above).

As journalist Chris Blackford  writes on 2004 "Alchemy" CD booklet, the shot for the cover it's a real group trademark, with Sweeney, Minns and Coff "pouring out from under the cusped arches", and "that mysterious arm reaching for the abandoned violin".

The shot printed on the original cover.

A different shot from the session.

Another shot from (with a well visible Carolyn)  was published on "I.T." n. 63 (29-08-1969)

Because that "mysterious arm" was her's, I  have asked Carolyn the meaning of it, but she doesn't remember anything about. So, no particular meanings or deep  mistery in it... "Just happened", she said me candidly, and the arm was captured in the shot...

Some years later, Ray Stevenson would be become famous as one of the best Sex Pistols photographers. From the beginning of his career at London Cousins Club, on 1966, he made books and exhibitions (read at http://www.raystevenson.co.uk/). 

He stated on November 2009: "In 1966 I was working in a professional darkroom when I heard Buffy St. Marie on the radio singing “Until it's Time For You to Go.” Something in the song and her voice made me want to meet/photograph her. My youthful naivete allowed me to make phone-calls resulting in me getting invited to her press reception and to her gigs. It was all so easy.I liked those folk people and started going to the Marquee Club on folk-night where I met Sandy Denny who introduced me to many other musicians and Cousins Folk Club. I in turn made Fairport Convention aware of Sandy! In 1969 I wound up sharing a house with Sandy and her husband.

All my best pictures are of people that I really liked, either musically or personally. You can easily tell from my books of contact sheets who it was I didn't like" (words taken from http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=185398013543).

no©2010 Luca Ferrari

(updated on August 7th, 2011)