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Quintessence were formed in April 1969 by Raja Ram in Ladbroke Grove, Notting Hill. They played a hybrid of jazz, progressive rock and Indian Music. The original line-up included Shiva Jones (voice, keys, percussion), Raja Ram (flutes, percussion), Sambhu Baba (bass, guitar), Maha Dev (guitar), Allan Mostert (guitar), and Jake Milton (drums, percussion). Quintessence were tagged a 'spiritual' band and were playing new age rock before the term was born. Although their evangelism in retrospect might seem to be a bit over the top, the music retains its beauty created by some highly individual souls. They rehearsed in All Saints Hall which was a converted church near Portobello Road, and recorded 3 albums for Island Records between 1969 and 1971. two further albums were recorded in 1972 for RCA. The 'Self' entitled first of these was their best with studio material on side one, and the band playing live at Exeter University December 11, 1971 on side two. Their live set was usually mostly improvised as they avoided playing the same riff twice or going into a routine thing. Not unlike the Grateful Dead, they did a lot of collective jamming with an intention to trance out their colourful audiences by a forceful combination of the chanting of mantras with the Krishna flute lines and the lyrical guitar soloing. Often the local Hare Krishna disciples would provide an extra percussion section to the already steamy proceedings. Quintessence had their household guru in Swami Ambikananda who, with his clairvoyant talents and psychic abilities, was known to blow people's minds constantly. They built a reputation on solid club work and were deemed London's Underground Sensation in 1970. Besides appearing at the first two Glastonbury Festivals (then called 'Faires'), in 1970/71, they also were invited to play the Montreux Jazz Festival at a time when jazz was still being played there.The occasion was the Gala de la Rose d'Or and the gig was filmed for Swiss TV. At their peak they sold out the Royal Albert Hall twice.

Although QUINTESSENCE played many hundred concerts and festivals all over Europe, they never made it to the United States. A concert at New York's Carnegie Hall was alredy lined up in early 1972, they didn't make it for various reasons.

For a collection of stills from their festival appearances at KRALINGEN 1970 and GLASTONBURY FAYRE 1971,

click HERE:

Raja Ram and Shiva in 1969

QUINTESSENCE at All Saints Church Hall, London, 1969 (Film)
(Excerpt from the film "Getting It Straight In Notting Hill Gate" from 1970)

Watch it on YoutubeHERE.

All Saints Church Hall, London, 1969

     Shiva and the Quintessence!

   First single ad                          

Quintessence 1970

Quintessence at the first Glastonbury Festival 1970:

The second Quintessence album:

                Be This Dedicated To Our Lord Jesus: QUINTESSENCE 1970

                   Swami Sri Ambikananda

                  1971 Poster and Lyceum flyer

Quintessence 1971

 GLASTONBURY PYRAMID STAGE 1971

QUINTESSENCE ON STAGE AT GLASTONBURY 1971

MORE QUINTESSENCE AT GLASTONBURY 1971 PICTURES, click HERE

Watch the Youtube video sequence from the film here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YaKHFQEPD0

Quintessence late 1971

SWEET JESUS/YOU NEVER STAY THE SAME (different mix to album track on SELF). Single 1971

Quintessence 1972 after moving from Island to RCA

Ad in Rolling Stone (June 1972) for Self

Quintessence Indweller line-up 1972/73: Sambhu, Raja Ram, Allan, Jake

Quintessence 1977: Raja Ram, Jake Milton, Sita Devi, Sambhu

Read an interview with Raja Ram from June 1977, when the band was still playing as Quintessence with the above line-up. The Italian reporter wanted to know what had become of that sweet group called Quintessence with the intention of writing a sort of requiem, now that they were being swept away by Punk Rock. If you understand Italian, read it all in Re Nudo, mamma mia!

KALA at the Marquee, March 25 1973 

Shiva and Maha Dev left in spring 1972 to form the short-lived outfit Kala. Management wanted Shiv to go from serious singer to glitter star, stuff a banana down his trousers and join the glam rock hierarchy. Shiv refused, of course, and Bradley Records together with ATV Records senior management broke the band up and took the equipment and van back. So Kala quickly folded. Although bereft of some sense of purpose and direction, Quintessence, in 1975, teamed up with German brothers Rolf (synths, vocals) and Klaus Fichter (drums) who were keen to revive the band in Germany as Quintessence II, and The New Quintessence Band. It didn't work out at all and, back in England, Quintessence became victims of the changing times but played on into the eighties, then slowly drifted into limbo.

Ad in Melody Maker 1975

Shiva (whose mother knew him by the name of Phil) being an original blues singer from Australia with a number one blues hit single back in 1967, continued well into the eighties with rockmusic, until he discovered the didgeridoo back in his native country. After being shown how to use the ancient aboriginal instrument he started developping a method using the didgeridoo for healing and meditation purposes. He has released his new music of a deeply sublime quality on his own. The singing, especially on his album 'Sunrise' is better than ever and you can chant along. There is also some Quintessence material in a new mould. The words for 'Sunrise' were written by Stanley Barr who was manager of the band and a poet contributing words for many Quintessence songs. Shiv's rendering here is dedicated to the remembrance of the late, great Stan.

The album's cover painting 'All-Seeing-Eye' is by Gopal Das who designed some covers for Quintessence in the 70s.

Phil's recording for the Intuitive Sound Label was made in February, 2000 in Atlanta and is called 'Samadhi', featuring a number of fine musicians.There is less didgeridoo here with more diverse ethnical moods and even a rave track called Rama Rave! The'Samadhi' Raga is dedicated to Ramakrishna and a line of Swamis from Vivekananda to Yogananda to Ambikananda and includes a new vocal version of 'Self'. Phil tours extensively through the US doing his interactive workshops called The Yoga of Breath and Sound using the Australian Didgeridoo.

www.philjonesmusic.com

In 2003 and 2005, together with Swiss musician Ralph Beauvert, Phil recorded the SHIVA SHAKTI and SHIVA'S QUINTESSENCE albums. Both albums were released by U.K. labels without much marketing, ripping off the musicians completely. These people do NOT follow ethical  concepts and should be boycotted, or still better, ignored. All our future musical endeavours, and there are going to be some, we shall market ourselves over the website, in this way retaining all the rights and hopefully earning some money to refinance further projects.

Swami Ambikananda (1934-1997)

If you can provide further material, please get in touch by email.

Click the OM

Quintessence 1972

The Maha Dev page:

The Allan Mostert page:

The John Barham Interview (2009):

In 2010, Karma brought Shiva back to England to perform with Maha Dev's Quintessence at the 40th Glastonbury Festival.

In a short BBC interview  Shiv,  Maha Dev and Jake remembered how very different the first festival was in 1970:

Shiv,  Maha Dev and Jake at Glastonbury 2010 (BBC 4)

In 1970 there was a lot of hugging, kissing and love-making....

...and everybody was stoned out of their heads...

It's all a bit different today, although still amazing!

Jake relating how he helped with the scaffolding of the original Pyramid stage. He did not perform with Dave's band this year.

Shiva on stage with Maha Dev's Quintessence at Glastonbury 2010

Allan Mostert returns  to the stage

Allan Mostert and his wife Moni are living in Spain since 2006

On August 20, 2010 Allan and Moni  played a rare concert of world music at the Teatro Casa De La Musica  in Carboneras De Guadazaón, Spain. A veritable multi-instrumentalist, besides various guitars and Sitar, Allan also played dobro, oud, lute,flute, sax and violin. Moni gave support on keyboards and tampoura. Their repertoire encompassed Indian ragas, music from Africa and Andalucia, flamenco, jazz and blues, as well as electronic and ambient sounds.

See 4 videos of the performance on Youtube here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fugyndg73eg

Raga Puriya Dhanashri (Hindustani classical music)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2T3UAjpgCE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rbKpRrsOeo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2k3PHHYjQM

   

Quintessence at Hyde Park 1969

A real gem has appeared on Youtube: Quintessence  playing at the last of the Hyde Park concerts on September 20, 1969. also on the bill were Al Stewart, Soft Machine , the Deviants, and Edgar Broughton Band. This is a 15-minute clip with pretty good sound and bootleg quality visuals but rather enjoyable on the whole. Allan shines in particular with a never-ending guitar solo so typical of the time. This is actually the earliest live sound/visuals of the band around. Videotaped by Jack Moore and Videoheads.

Quintessence playing at the last of the Hyde Park concerts in 1969 - notice Stanley Barr in front of the stage in picture 3

Have a look and enjoy it yourself here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5MUVV3LihY

Quintessence at Heiliggeist-Kirche Heidelberg 1972