March 05, 2018

The reasons why this Archive folds up now.


Dear TEB's fans and listeners, this is the last post I write for this Archive.
When in 2009 I had the idea to start this, my main intention was to contribute to re-write the story of the band, looking for documents and making new interviews about its obscure legendary short career.

Today, after 8 years (Ghettoraga started in November 2009), we have articles and books published, rare studio & new music recorded (thanks to Gonzo), a huge amount of photos, ads, posters, original documents of/about the band - de facto a brand new story written about the Third Ear Band, instead articles where journalists write the same old few commonplaces about it (one of the strongest that upset me is that  TEB was a "progressive" band "born in Canterbury"...).

But dear TEB passionate listeners let me tell you now the reasons why I've decided to finish with this Archive.
Even if I've written books and articles mainly about old musicians/groups (Syd Barrett, Nick Drake, Tim Buckley, Captain Beefheart, Pink Floyd...), most of them unfortunately dead very young, I've been always firmly against nostalgia. For myself, that was powerful psico/socio/political stories to tell, just that.

 

Nostalgia is one of the most disgusting traits of the global cultural mainstream market, most of the so-called 'new music' products are actually old, bringing us to a far past of the previous Century.
Global commemorative campaigns  try to persuade us to buy 'new products' of Beatles, David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Fabrizio De Andrè... in name of that glorious past when the music was "more autentic", "real", "honest" and "not compromised"... (of course, all bullshit!)
Scarce few chances for the contemporary creative artists to be known in this world!

 

Promoting a celebration of the 50 years of Sgt Pepper's or Rolling Stones' "Their Satanic Majesties Request" is a very safe market, you know, better than promote a young unknown new band or a new kind of sounds.
Everywhere I hear people tells that there's no anymore that kind of "old great music", alluding to that sound that is only in our memories, in that dangerous, slick, patetic Mental Land of Nostalgia. The main psicological reason of it is that we are becoming older and older and mental laziness retires us in that old order of reassuring things.



Of course, the reality is very different because men's creativity is still there: there's so much new music around (and this Archive has testified it many times) that a mentally sane man might forget the old '60's-'70's-'80's-90's music and listen just this.



So I suddenly realized that the risk is to be just one of the many islands of Nostalgia in the Internet for old fans (people who now are 60-70 years old), a thing that I didn't want to be when I had the idea to launch this Archive.

I just wanted to tribute the memory (and the art) of two great artists I'm proud to have known - Glen Sweeney and Paul Minns; nothing more and nothing less.
 

I confess also I had high expectations about fans interested into writing things about this Magic Esoteric Band, but through these 8 years very few was the real contributes and sometimes I asked myself how many fans (maybe music journalists?) had taken informations and documents totally free here without write a word of contribution (an hello, a critic, something else...).

Even if I didn't need it, I feel all of this very sad and miserable now.

So please sorry for this my decision, anyway it's been great to do all this and meet (virtually) many good people around the World to share the fascinating, wonderful epic of the Third Ear Band!
God luck to everyone and... carry on!
Yours
Luca Chino Ferrari 


PS: I wish to thank these very friendly persons: Carolyn Looker, Mary Haynes, Dave Tomlin, Steve Pank, Martin Cook, Sean Beredin, Mirco Delfino, Spirito Bono, Francesco Paladino, Alessandro Monti and all the musicians/artists who helped me with this Archive!  

In loving memory of Paul Buckmaster (1946-2017). 


PS2: I will ad here the new coming book about Glen and the Thirds, still on editing by Martin Cook... 

Ps3: Anyway you can follow me on my brand new Italian/English Web site (with blog) at https://chino6339.wixsite.com/gelatoaicorvi

no©2018 Luca Chino Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)