Incredible String Band
The Incredible String Band were (and are) a Scottish acoustic band who way back in the 1960s built a popular following among the British counter culture.
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Story
They were formed in 1965 by Scottish folkies Robin Williamson, Mike Heron and Clive Palmer. They recorded their eponymous debut album in 1966, an earnest affair although they showed their interest in exotic instrumentation, as they played a wide variety of traditional and ancient British instruments. Although Clive Palmer immediately decamped for the Trail to Afghanistan. Mike and Robin recorded The 5000 Skins Or the Layers of the Onion, an audaciously eclectic mix of bookish folk music, hippy love songs and Dylan-ish rants. They soon became the-name-to-drop-in-interviews for luminaries such as Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan. The band's next project was a quixotic multi-media spectacular at the Royal Albert Hall which highlighted the fact that they were never destined to make much money out of things. They played at Woodstock in 1969 and lasted another 5 years, producing more great music, after which tension between the songwriters became unbearable and they split up.
In 1997, Robin Williamson and Mike Heron got back together for two concerts. This was followed by a full reunion of the original three members plus Robin's wife Bina and Lawson Dando in 1999. This incarnation continues to play together regularly around the United Kingdom and internationally.
Cultural placement
Those who believe in a cultural crossover between a particular axis of British hippie culture and an older, more spiritual idea of Britain have increasingly come to see the ISB as the focus of this unexpected crossover. This began in 1994 when Rose Simpson, a former member of the band, became mayor of Aberystwyth, and reached a new level in the autumn of 2003 when the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, wrote a foreword for a complete anthology of the band's lyrics, describing them as "holy" (he had previously chosen the ISB track "The Hedgehog's Song" as his only piece of popular music when he appeared on Desert Island Discs). Some have seen this as proof of the late Ian MacDonald's claim that "much that appeared to be profane in Sixties youth culture was quite the opposite".
Limited discography (LPs)
- The Incredible String Band (1966)
- The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion (1967)
- The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter (1968)
- Wee Tam/The Big Huge (1968)
- Changing Horses (1969)
- I Looked Up (1970)
- U (1970)
- Be Glad For The Song Has Ended (1970)
- Relics
- Liquid Acrobat as Regards the Sky (1971)
- Earthspan (1972)
- No Ruinous Feud (1973)
- Hard Rope and Silken Twine (1974)
- Seasons They Change (1976)
External links
Official site for the band. Includes news, tour dates, photographs, reviews, and press coverage. (http://www.incrediblestringband.com/)
A detailed listing of Incredible String Band resources on the Web (http://www.robotwisdom.com/jorn/isb.html)
Be Glad for the Song Has no Ending (http://www.makingtime.co.uk/beglad/index1.htm)
Categories: Scottish musical groups