Third Ear Band were a British musical group formed in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

during the mid-1960s. Their line-up initially consisted of violin, cello, oboe and percussion. Most of their performances were instrumental and partly improvised. Their records for the

Harvest Harvesting is the process of collecting plants, animals, or fish (as well as fungi) as food, especially the process of gathering mature crops, and "the harvest" also refers to the collected crops. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulses fo ...

label, ''Alchemy'' and ''Third Ear Band'', achieved some popularity, after which they found some success creating soundtrack music for films.

History

Dave Tomlin, who had initiated free-form jazz sessions at the

London Free School The London Free School (LFS) was founded on 8 March 1966, principally by John Hopkins (political activist), John "Hoppy" Hopkins and Rhaune Laslett. Description The London Free School was a community action adult education project inspired b ...

, began similar sessions at the

UFO Club The UFO Club ( ') was a short-lived UK underground, British counter-culture nightclub in London in the 1960s. The club was established by Joe Boyd and John Hopkins (political activist), John "Hoppy" Hopkins. It featured light shows, poetry r ...

by assembling members of the audience, usually at 4am, into a free-form group playing for the, by then, exhausted dancers. The drummer, Glen Sweeney, was sometimes so carried away he had to be told that the rest of the group had finished. They became known as The Giant Sun Trolley. Members came from The Giant Sun Trolley and The People Band to create an improvised music drawing on Eastern

raga A raga ( ; , ; ) is a melodic framework for improvisation in Indian classical music akin to a musical mode, melodic mode. It is central to classical Indian music. Each raga consists of an array of melodic structures with musical motifs; and, fro ...

forms, European

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...

and

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

influences. They recorded their first session in 1968 for Ron Geesin, which was released under the pseudonym of The National-Balkan Ensemble on one side of a Standard Music Library disc. Their first album, ''Alchemy'', was released on the

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

label in 1969, and featured

John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), better known as John Peel, was an English radio presenter and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original disc jockeys on BBC Radio 1, broadcasting regularly from ...

, the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at nightclubs or music fes ...

who did much to publicise the group, playing

Jew's harp The Jew's harp, also known as jaw harp, juice harp, or mouth harp, is a lamellophone instrument, consisting of a flexible metal or bamboo tongue or reed attached to a frame. Despite the colloquial name, the Jew's harp most likely originated in ...

on one track. This was followed by an eponymous second album containing four tracks, "Air", "Earth", "Fire" and "Water", which reached wider attention due to the inclusion of one track on the Harvest sampler album '' Picnic – A Breath of Fresh Air''. They recorded two

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

s, the first in 1970 for an animated film by Herbert Fuchs of ''Abelard and Heloise'' (which first saw release as part of Luca Ferrari's ''Necromancers of the Drifting West'' Sonic Book in 1997) and then in 1971 for

Roman Polanski Raymond Roman Thierry Polański (; born 18 August 1933) is a Polish and French filmmaker and actor. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Roman Polanski, numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, three Britis ...

's film of ''

Macbeth ''The Tragedy of Macbeth'', often shortened to ''Macbeth'' (), is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, estimated to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the physically violent and damaging psychological effects of political ambiti ...

''. After various later incarnations and albums they finally disbanded in 1993, owing to leader and percussionist Glen Sweeney's ongoing health problems. They also appeared in the

Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for over six decades, they are one of the most popular, influential, and enduring bands of the Album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the band pione ...

Free Concert at Hyde Park on 5 July 1969, and played at the

Isle of Wight Festival The Isle of Wight Festival is a British music festival which takes place annually in Newport, Isle of Wight, Newport on the Isle of Wight, England. It was originally a Counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture event held from 1968 to 1970. Th ...

the next month.

Collective band members

*Glen 'Zen' Sweeney:

hand drum A hand drum is any type of drum that is typically played with the bare hand rather than a stick, mallet, hammer, or other type of beater. Types The following descriptions allude to traditional versions of the drums. Modern synthetic versions ar ...

s, wind chimes,

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

*Paul Minns:

oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double-reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common type of oboe, the soprano oboe pitched in C, ...

, recorder *Brian Meredith:

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

, electrically modified cello *Clive Kingsley:

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

*Richard Coff: lead

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

*Benjamin Cartland:

viola The viola ( , () ) is a string instrument of the violin family, and is usually bowed when played. Violas are slightly larger than violins, and have a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the ...

*Mel Davis:

, slide pipes *Ursula Smith:

Paul Buckmaster Paul John Buckmaster (13 June 1946 – 7 November 2017) was a British cellist, arranger, conductor and composer, with a career spanning five decades. He is best known for his orchestral collaborations with David Bowie, Shawn Phillips, Elton Joh ...

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

* Simon House:

, VCS3 *Denim Bridges:

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

s *Neville Nixon:

* Dave Tomlin:

on "Alchemy" *Mike Marchant:

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

*Allan Samuel:

* Neil Black:

, midi violin *Mick Carter:

* Lyn Dobson:

soprano saxophone The soprano saxophone is a small, high-pitched member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented in the 1840s by Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax. Built in B♭ an octave above the tenor saxophone (or rarely, slightly small ...

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

jaw harp The Jew's harp, also known as jaw harp, juice harp, or mouth harp, is a lamellophone instrument, consisting of a flexible metal or bamboo tongue or Reed (mouthpiece), reed attached to a frame. Despite the colloquial name, the Jew's harp most like ...

on "Alchemy" * Keith Chegwin:

on " Music from Macbeth" *

Morgan Fisher Stephen Morgan Fisher (born 1 January 1950) is an English keyboard player and composer, and is most known as a member of Mott the Hoople in the early 1970s. However, his career has covered a wide range of musical activities, and he is still ac ...

: keyboards, VCS3 for a short time '72/'73

Discography

Studio albums

*''

Alchemy Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...

'' (1969) *'' Third Ear Band'' (a.k.a. ''Elements'') (1970) *'' Abelard and Heloise'' (1970) *'' Music from Macbeth'' (soundtrack to ''

'',

's film adaptation of

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

's '' The Tragedy of Macbeth'') (1972) *''The Magus'' (1972 - released in 2005 - first release was 1991 under the title ''Prophecies'') *''Live Ghosts'' (1988) *''Magic Music'' aka ''New Age Magical Music'' (1990) *''Brain Waves'' (1993) *''Necromancers of the Drifting West'' (1997) (Geesin session, BBC tracks & outtakes)

Mini-album

*''Radio Sessions'' (1988)

Live

*''New Forecasts from the Third Ear Almanach'' (1989) *''Live'' (1999) *''Exorcisms'' (2016) *''Spirits'' (Live at Circolo Tuxedo, Italy, 1989) (2017)

Compilations

*''The National-Balkan Ensemble'' (1968) *''Experiences'' (1976) *''Songs From The Hydrogen Jukebox'' (1998) *''Hymn to the Sphynx'' (2001) *''Elements 1970-1971'' with many previously unreleased tracks (2018)

References

External links

Third Ear Band: Alchemy & Improv
– by Chris Blackford

�� page with audio link & vintage images * *
GHETTO RAGA
– The Third Ear Band's Official Archive by Luca Ferrari * {{Authority control English rock music groups British world music groups Harvest Records artists Musical groups established in the 1960s Freak scene musicians Rock music groups from London