The Incredible String Band (sometimes abbreviated as ISB) were a Scottish psychedelic folk band formed by Clive Palmer, Robin Williamson, and Mike Heron in Edinburgh in 1966. Following Palmer's early departure, Williamson and Heron continued as a duo and were eventually augmented by other musicians such as Licorice McKechnie, Rose Simpson, and Malcolm Le Maistre. The band split up in 1974. They reformed in 1999 and continued to perform with changing lineups until 2006.
The band built a considerable following in the British 1960s counterculture, notably with their albums The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion (1967), The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter (1968), and Wee Tam and the Big Huge (1968). They became pioneers in psychedelic folk and, through integrating a wide variety of traditional music forms and instruments, in the development of world music.
History
Formation as a trio: 1965–66
In 1963, acoustic musicians Robin Williamson and Clive Palmer began performing together as a traditional folk duo in Edinburgh, particularly at a weekly club run by Archie Fisher in the Crown Bar, which also regularly featured Bert Jansch. There they were seen in August 1965 by Joe Boyd, then working as a talent scout for the influential folk-based label Elektra Records. Later in the year, the duo decided to fill out their sound by adding a third member, initially to play rhythm guitar. After an audition, local rock musician Mike Heron won the slot. The trio took the name "the Incredible String Band". Early in 1966, Palmer began running an all-night folk club, Clive's Incredible Folk Club, on the fourth floor of a building in Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow, where they became the house band. When Boyd returned in his new role as head of Elektra's London office, he signed them up for an album, beating off a rival bid from Transatlantic Records.
They recorded their first album, entitled The Incredible String Band, at the Sound Techniques studio in London in May 1966.
The trio broke up after recording the album. In early 1967, they performed regularly at London clubs, including Les Cousins. Joe Boyd became the group's manager as well as producer and secured a place for them at the Newport Folk Festival, on a bill with Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen.
The duo were always credited as separate writers, maintaining their individual creative identities, rather than working as a writing partnership. Boyd wrote, "Mike and Robin were Clive's friends rather than each other's. Without him as a buffer, they developed a robust dislike for one another. Fortunately, the quality and quantity of their songwriting was roughly equal. Neither would agree to the inclusion of a new song by the other unless he could impose himself on it by arranging the instruments and working out all the harmonies."
The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter and Wee Tam and the Big Huge: 1968
1968 was the band's annus mirabilis with the release of their two most-celebrated albums, The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter and the double LP Wee Tam and the Big Huge (issued as two separate albums in the US). A departure from the band's previous albums, the set relied heavily on a more layered production, with imaginative use of the then new multitrack recording techniques. described how he was inadvertently responsible for their "conversion" when he introduced the band to Simons, who, having become a Scientologist, persuaded them to enrol in his absence. The band's support for Scientology over the next few years was controversial among some fans and seemed to coincide with what many saw as the beginning of a decline in the quality of their work. In an interview with Oz magazine in 1969, the band spoke enthusiastically of their involvement with it, although the question of its effect on their later albums has provoked much discussion ever since.
Their November 1968 album Wee Tam and the Big Huge, recorded before the US trip, was musically less experimental and lush than Hangman's but conceptually even more avant-garde, a full-on engagement with the themes of mythology, religion, awareness and identity. Williamson's otherworldly songs and vision dominate the album, though Heron's more grounded tracks are also among his best, and the contrast between the two perspectives gives the record its uniquely dynamic interplay between a sensual experience of life and a quest for metaphysical meaning. The record was released as a double album and also simultaneously as two separate LPs, a strategy which lessened its impact on the charts. It was on this album that Mike Heron's then-girlfriend, Rose Simpson, began contributing musically to the band in the studio, with both she and Licorice McKechnie providing backing vocals, organ, guitar and percussion among other instruments. Despite her initially rudimentary skills, Simpson swiftly became a proficient bass guitarist, and some of McKechnie's songs were recorded by the band. In August, they were slotted to play on Friday when all the folk-oriented and acoustic acts were expected to perform. However, the band refused to perform in the pouring rain, so stage manager John Morris rescheduled their performance for the following day. Their open slot was taken by Melanie, whose showing inspired her song, "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)". The following day, 16 August 1969, at approximately 6:30 p.m., the band played in between the Keef Hartley Band and Canned Heat. The crowd was not anticipating the band's performance on a day that featured mainly hard rock acts. For that reason, the group was generally disfavoured and, perhaps more importantly, were not included in the filming of the festival. Over the Labor Day weekend in 1969, they appeared at the Texas International Pop Festival, in Lewisville, Texas. In November, they released the album Changing Horses, which was generally seen as a disappointment after their earlier work. Williamson claimed that, as both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones saw them play before Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Their Satanic Majesties Request were recorded, the ISB were an influence on those albums.
Legacy
In 1994, former member Rose Simpson became Mayoress of Aberystwyth. In 2003, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, who had previously chosen "The Hedgehog's Song" when he appeared on Desert Island Discs, wrote a foreword for a full-length book about the band, describing them as "holy".
Personnel
Members
- Mike Heron (1965–1974, 1999–2006)
- Robin Williamson (1965–1974, 1999–2003)
- Clive Palmer (1965–1966, 1999–2006; died 2014)
- Christina "Licorice" McKechnie (1968–1972)
- Rose Simpson (1968–1971)
- Malcolm Le Maistre (1971–1974)
- Stan Schnier (1972–1974)
- Jack Ingram (1972–1974)
- Gerard Dott (1972–1973)
- Graham Forbes (1973–1974)
- John Gilston (1974)
- Lawson Dando (1999–2006)
- Bina Williamson (1999–2003)
- Claire "Fluff" Smith (2003–2006)
Lineups
{| class="toccolours" border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" style="float:width:375px; margin:0 0 1em 1em; border-collapse:collapse; border:1px solid #e2e2e2; width:99%;"
|-
! style="vertical-align:top; background:#e7ebee; width:25%;"| 1965–1966
! style="vertical-align:top; background:#e7ebee; width:25%;"| 1966–1968
! style="vertical-align:top; background:#e7ebee; width:25%;"| 1968–1971
! style="vertical-align:top; background:#e7ebee; width:25%;"| 1971–1972
|-
| valign=top |
- Mike Heron
- Clive Palmer
- Robin Williamson
| valign=top |
- Mike Heron
- Robin Williamson
| valign=top |
- Mike Heron
- Robin Williamson
- Licorice McKechnie
- Rose Simpson
| valign=top |
- Mike Heron
- Robin Williamson
- Licorice McKechnie
- Malcolm Le Maistre
|-
! style="vertical-align:top; background:#e7ebee; width:25%;"| 1972–1973
! style="vertical-align:top; background:#e7ebee; width:25%;"| 1973–1974
! style="vertical-align:top; background:#e7ebee; width:25%;"| 1974
! style="vertical-align:top; background:#e7ebee; width:25%;"| 1974–1999
|-
| valign=top |
- Mike Heron
- Robin Williamson
- Malcolm Le Maistre
- Gerard Dott
- Jack Ingram
- Stan Schnier
| valign=top |
- Mike Heron
- Robin Williamson
- Malcolm Le Maistre
- Jack Ingram
- Stan Schnier
- Graham Forbes
| valign=top |
- Mike Heron
- Robin Williamson
- Malcolm Le Maistre
- Stan Schnier
- Graham Forbes
- John Gilston
| valign=top |
Disbanded
|-
! style="vertical-align:top; background:#e7ebee; width:25%;"| 1999–2003
! style="vertical-align:top; background:#e7ebee; width:25%;"| 2003–2006
|-
| valign=top |
- Mike Heron
- Robin Williamson
- Clive Palmer
- Lawson Dando
- Bina Williamson
| valign=top |
- Mike Heron
- Clive Palmer
- Lawson Dando
- Claire Smith
|}
Discography
Albums
Studio albums
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|-
! rowspan="2"| Release date
! rowspan="2"| Album
! colspan="2"| Chart positions
! rowspan="2"| Label
|- style="font-size:smaller;"
! width="120"| UK Albums Chart
! width="120"| Billboard 200
|-
| June 1966
| align="left"| The Incredible String Band
| 34 (in 1968)
| -
| rowspan="7"| Elektra
|-
| July 1967
| align="left"| The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion
| 25
| –
|-
| March 1968
| align="left"| The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter
| 5
| 161
|-
| November 1968
| align="left"| Wee Tam and the Big Huge
| –
| 174 (Wee Tam)<br> 180 (The Big Huge)
|-
| November 1969
| align="left"| Changing Horses
| 30
| 166
|-
| April 1970
| align="left"| I Looked Up
| 30
| 196
|-
| October 1970
| align="left"| U
| 34
| 183
|-
| March 1971
| align="left"| Be Glad for the Song Has No Ending
| –
| –
| rowspan="5"| Island
|-
| October 1971
| align="left"| Liquid Acrobat as Regards the Air
| 46
| 189
|-
| October 1972
| align="left"| Earthspan
| –
| –
|-
| February 1973
| align="left"| No Ruinous Feud
| –
| –
|-
| March 1974
| align="left"| Hard Rope & Silken Twine
| –
| –
|-
|}
Live albums
- BBC Radio 1 Live on Air (October 1991)
- BBC Radio 1 Live in Concert (November 1992)
- First Girl I Loved: Live in Canada 1972 (Trojan Records, 2001)
- Nebulous Nearnesses (2004)
- Across The Airwaves: BBC Radio Recordings 1969-74 (2007) 1967)
- "Painting Box" / "No Sleep Blues" (Elektra EKSN 45028, March 1968)
- "Big Ted" / "All Writ Down" (Elektra EKSN 45074, October 1969)
- "This Moment" / "Black Jack Davy" (Elektra 2101 003, April 1970)
- "Black Jack David" / "Moon Hang Low" (Island WIP 6145, November 1972)
- "At the Lighthouse Dance" / "Jigs" (Island WIP 6158, February 1973)