I went to the Rolling Stones Free Hyde Park Festival in Summer of 1969 to honour Brian Jones (an original member of the Stones) who sadly died shortly beforehand. Someone at the festival had presence of mind to film a short excerpt and here it is – Third Ear Band – Hyde Park 1969 – YouTube

The Stones performance was amazing, of course, but what amazed me equally was Third Ear Band set. Whilst sitting on the grass waiting for king Crimson to come on stage (for their first ever live performance) we heard what sounded like people tuning their violins and other instruments – but it sounded really good. After about 5 minutes of Third Ear Band I caught on to what they were doing – acoustic improvisation accompanied by Glen Sweeney playing the tabla.

At the time I had no idea who this band was as I had never heard of them before, but I liked them on first hearing – playing tracks from their first album – Alchemy.

Full Album here – Third Ear Band – Alchemy (1969)