{"id":362,"date":"2019-09-13T09:56:25","date_gmt":"2019-09-13T08:56:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/?p=362"},"modified":"2019-09-13T10:05:47","modified_gmt":"2019-09-13T09:05:47","slug":"music-that-matters-to-me-the-incredible-string-band-by-dave-espin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/2019\/09\/13\/music-that-matters-to-me-the-incredible-string-band-by-dave-espin\/","title":{"rendered":"MUSIC THAT MATTERS TO ME; the Incredible String Band by Dave Espin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A STRANGE THOUGHT JUST CROSSED MY MIND<\/strong> by Dave Espin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Norm (left) interviews Dave at Crescent Community Radio<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Norm asked me to put together some personal reminiscences of a band we both admire greatly, I agreed with trepidation.  Partly because I didn\u2019t want to let him down and partly because I hadn\u2019t done anything like this before but mainly because the band in question is hard to define.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Music is multifaceted.  I know it leaves some people completely cold; they just don\u2019t get it \u2013 but for others it is everything<\/em>, it consumes every emotion.  It\u2019s important<\/em> to me but is not all-consuming.  On a scale of 1-10 (indifferent to all-consuming), I would rate myself at around 7 or 8.  I remember thinking, when I was about 18, if I were to lose one of my senses, I hoped it wouldn\u2019t be my hearing.  If given the choice, I would rather surrender a leg than my hearing, simply because it would deprive me of listening to music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s\nquite difficult to define my musical taste and I have about 20,000 songs on my\nMP3 player and they span a wide range of genres.  Norm is a poet and hears the music but wants\nto know what the songs mean; he studies the lyrics and becomes excited when a\nsongwriter delivers a clever line.  I am\nvirtually the opposite; I can sing all the words to a song but generally don\u2019t\ncare, or try to understand, what they mean \u2013 with the occasional\nexception.  There one or two songwriters\nwhose music and words come together in perfect symmetry for me.  They are usually storytellers who, in the\nmain, choose subjects other than simply love and relationships.  I\u2019m thinking here of Ian Anderson (of Jethro\nTull), Al Stewart and Bob Dylan but there are others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No,\nfor me, I listen to the musical<\/em>\ncomposition and enjoy differing arrangements, instrumentation, song\ndevelopment, syncopation, time signatures (for example, when Jethro Tull\u2019s\nrecord label, Chrysalis, asked Ian Anderson to write a hit record in 1969, I\ndon\u2019t think they expected a flute-based piece in the unusual 5\/4 time, but Living In The Past<\/em> still spent 14 weeks\nin the UK charts and reached a high of no.3!  For those who understand me, there\u2019s one song\nTull play which has alternating bars of 7\/8 and 9\/8 time).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However,\nthis article is NOT going to delve into the possible complexities of music\nbecause, like driving a car, anyone can enjoy it without all that technical\nstuff \u2013 and I don\u2019t do that myself, I just like music that has a lot of\nvariation that I can sink my ears into!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\ndon\u2019t like pretentious reviews so I will do my best to keep this simple.  The best put-down I have ever heard was by Benjamin Disraeli, who described his rival William\nGladstone, as \u201cinebriated with the exuberance of his own verbosity.\u201d<\/em>  Whilst preparing for this article, I found\nsome astonishing verbiage being used to define our chosen artists: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Independent,<\/em> 11 August 2000:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cbucolic whimsy and metaphysical ruminations\u201d \u201cmythopoeic\nlanguage and presented with a musical ecumenism\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The Guardian,\n25 September 2003: <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c<\/em>versatility in musical idiom\u201d and\n\u201cthe contrapuntal intricacies\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Critics seem to want to show off their own\nabilities rather than those of the artists (does he mean me? Editor) or do they\nuse this language in everyday conversations with their friends? Maybe someone\nhad been looking out for songs that are mythopoeic, with contrapuntal\nintricacies, in which case, they\u2019d have found it at last.  My question is, \u201cYes, that\u2019s all very well,\nbut did you like it?  If so, tell me why?<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So\nNorm and I come together in our love for this band from two different\ndirections.  I principally like the tunes\nand he likes the words, which is often the case with friends and their\nchoices.  We don\u2019t agree on many things\nbut we know what we like.  The fact that\nthe subject of this piece is so utterly unique makes it all the more remarkable\nthat they had, and still have, such a massive and loyal following, but are\nlargely unknown to the wider public is quite amazing\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Music\nmay be described as noises of differing pitch, made to a rhythm in the form of\na melody; the Oxford English Dictionary defines a song as \u2018a short poem or other set of words set\nto music or meant to be sung<\/em>\u2019 \u2013 so there\u2019s plenty of scope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nknow what I don\u2019t<\/em> like as well, and\nthere\u2019s plenty of it.  Actually, there\u2019re\nquite a lot that I don\u2019t like; jazz tops the list, but I\u2019m not a fan of country\n& western (sorry, Norm)<\/em>, drum &\nbass or rap either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone\nis different and it\u2019s good that we have the variety and diversity of musical and\nother artistic types.  Of the many art\nforms, only music really moves<\/em> me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before\nI reveal who Norm asked me to write a little about, please allow me to provide\nsome context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nis really a love story that, fifty years on, holds as strong today as\never.  I fell in love with the music of this\nunique band when I sixteen-going-on-seventeen, and I can\u2019t imagine my life\nwithout it.  I turn cold if I contemplate\nhow things would have been so different if I hadn\u2019t happened to see the\ntelevision show \u2018Once More With Felix<\/em>\u2019 in early 1968, but more\nof that a little later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So\nhow were my personal musical preferences actually shaped?  How far have they developed over the years or\nhave I been stuck in a musical time warp? \nWell\u2026 yes and no, I\u2019d say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like\nanything that has substance and deep meaning, the more I learn, the more I discover\nthere is to learn.  I continue to hear\nexciting music from new artists, but there are a handful of artists who I first\nheard as a young man, that I return to time and again, like the aforementioned\nJethro Tull.  Despite some chart success\nin the early seventies, they\u2019ve never sought to be in the \u2018mainstream\u2019 but instead\nhave preferred to explore different styles of progressive, folk and historical\nrock and I\u2019ve have enjoyed that journey with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was fortunate that my teen\nyears coincided with the swinging sixties, the<\/em>\ngolden age.  British bands took the world<\/em> by\nstorm.  There was an energy to life and we\nbecame aware that we were witnessing the beginning of a new age, a period of\nmassive change.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

However, I was raised in the forgotten Roman City of Lincoln, parts of\nwhich still look the same today as they did 300 years ago!  Lincoln\nis the only place in the world<\/em>\nthat houses original copies of both the 1215 Magna Carta<\/em><\/strong> (one\nof just four surviving copies) and the 1217 Charter of the Forest<\/em><\/strong>\n(one of only two) \u2013 in the Castle \u2013 who knew? \nI bet many current residents of the city don\u2019t know it even now!  The\ncathedral is one of the world\u2019s finest buildings, but remains one of this\ncountry\u2019s best kept secrets (yet the American film producer, Ron Howard, chose\nto film large sections of The Da Vinci Code<\/em> in an around it).<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This\nanonymity meant that the Lincoln I grew up in was a very remote outpost on the\nroad to nowhere.  The ancient Romans linked\nit with London and Edinburgh (via Ermine Street) and Bath (via the Fosse Way)\nbut our modern road builders seem to have purposely avoided it.  Until a university campus was built in the\nearly 90s, it was a decaying backwater that was largely ignored by touring\nbands.  This meant that, in my day, we\nhad to rely on TV and radio for our entertainment (which anyone of a certain\nage, will know was extremely limited!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By age 16\u00be I was in the sixth form\nat a school just outside Lincoln.  The\nBeatles were at their peak, having inspired an entire generation with their\nmusic and their fashions.  The crooners\nand balladeers of the 40s and 50s were gone. \nBands now wrote their own songs and played guitars with amplifiers!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luckily, we had pocket-sized\ntransistor radios and had a never-ending diet of fantastic 2\u00bd minute-songs\nthanks to pirate radio stations.  The\nRolling Stones, Kinks, Who, Manfred Mann, Status Quo, Merseybeats and Freddie\nand the Dreamers exploded over the airwaves – and who could forget Dave Dee,\nDozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich?  Pick of\nthe Pops<\/em> on Sunday afternoons and Top of the Pops<\/em> on Thursday\nevenings!  Juke Box Jury<\/em> at\nteatime on Saturdays, plus Ready Steady Go!<\/em> \u2013 hosted by Lincoln\u2019s own\nKeith Fordyce (we didn\u2019t have too many famous folk from Lincolnshire after Lord\nTennyson and Sir Isaac Newton \u2013 until Margaret Thatcher of course).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Could pop music get any better than this?<\/em>  Well no,\nactually\u2026 future generations will claim their era was best but, for overall\nimpact combined with the quality of the songs, the 60s easily tops the\nlot.  Yeah, the New Romantics were OK and\nI didn\u2019t dislike Punk, but come on\u2026 we had Herman\u2019s Hermits, the Hollies, the Searchers,\nthe Tremeloes, Cat Stevens, the Swinging Blue Jeans, the Zombies, the Equals,\nMarmalade, Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas, and literally dozens more!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But,\nlet\u2019s just wind back a little to my pre-teen years.  My mum wanted me to learn to play the piano.  Every Saturday morning for a year or two, I\nreluctantly went to see Mrs Arden, who got me practicing finger scales and playing\ntwee pieces such as Greensleeves for\nBeginners<\/em>.  It never captured my\nimagination; I wanted to be outside playing football in the street with my\nmates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However,\na musical seed or two must have been sown inside my head because, at age 15, I\nchose classical music as one of my GCE \u2018O\u2019 Level options.  It was the first time our school had ever run\nthis two-year examination course and I was one of just nine pupils who elected\nto take it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nmay have given up playing the piano but I could read music and the classes were\na pleasant diversion from the traditional (and for me, boring) subjects such as\nEnglish, Science, Geography and History that we were obliged to study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With\nthe exception of music, my only other interest was Maths, so I was especially happy\nthat one of the three composers, whose lives and music we were to study in\ndetail, was Johann Sebastian Bach.  Much\nof his work feels mathematical in structure to me.  The others, by way of contrast, were Edward\nElgar and Robert Schumann.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\naddition to learning music theory and the instruments of the orchestra, the\ncurriculum required us to study one major work from each of the chosen\ncomposers; these were The Italian\nConcerto<\/em> (Bach), Enigma Variations<\/em>\n(Elgar) and the song cycle Dichterliebe<\/em>\n(Schumann).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nwas a complete contrast to the pop music I listened to at home, but it was fun\nto go on school trips to the Royal Festival Hall (London) and to actually see\nthe different musicians in the orchestra and zone in on the many individual\ninstruments during different passages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\ncouldn\u2019t afford to buy singles or long-playing vinyl records in my early-mid\nteens, but I saved up enough cash by doing a paper round to buy a reel-to-reel\ntape recorder.  My dad and I went into\ntown on the morning of the 1966 FA Cup Final (Everton 3; Sheffield Wednesday 2)<\/em> and I purchased an Ultra 4-track\nstereo tape recorder.  With this I could record\nall the songs I liked off the radio and I listened to everything I possibly could.  Being a 4-track unit, I could record songs in\n2-track mode and replay them backwards<\/em>.  Two tracks I particularly liked giving this\ntreatment were The Beatles\u2019 Yellow Submarine and the Kinks\u2019 Autumn Almanac.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\nhad a music-sharing culture at school so, when anyone brought in a new LP, we\nwould play it in the sixth-form common room and, those of us with tape recorders\nwho liked it enough would take it home to make a copy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My\ninterest for British pop extended to include some of the better American\nattempts to match what was happening on this side of the pond.  Motown was exciting and I enjoyed a lot of West\nCoast music (such as the Beach Boys, Harper\u2019s Bizarre, Association, Love).  What a\ntime to be alive!<\/em>  And there will never\nbe another quite like it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\nlisten to music differently these days.  If\nyou bought an album (a long-player, or LP), you would usually listen to it all\nthe way through, in the order the tracks had been recorded.  By doing this, I found that some songs were slow-burners<\/em>.  They may not have fired my interest\nimmediately but, with regular plays, would grow on me.  Where that happened, I usually went looking\nfor more.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If\nI hadn\u2019t taped literally hundreds (probably thousands) of songs, I wouldn\u2019t\nhave anything like as broad a taste in music. \nVirtually all my favourites have since been released on CD (or released\nonline), so I\u2019ve actually purchased all the music that used to thrill me and\nhave ultimately paid back the artists whose music I \u2018pirated\u2019 in my youth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nowadays,\nmost music is streamed and many people buy just a single song or possibly two,\nrather than the whole album.  Also, in \u2018shuffle\u2019\nmode, listeners don\u2019t usually immerse themselves in one artist\u2019s sound and\nstyle in the same way that we  used to do.  Some will argue this provides greater diversity,\nbut I disagree.  I freely acknowledge\nthat there are arguably more artists creating a wider range of innovative music\ntoday than in the 60s and 70s, but do they get similar (universal) exposure?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nthe 60s, traditional radio and TV producers were taken totally by surprise by\nthe pop music boom.  By and large, they\ndidn\u2019t understand it, so they had a tendency to play anything<\/em> and everything<\/em>,\nbecause it seemed like the sort of thing the young people liked.  This gave pioneers like John Peel the opportunity\nto introduce new bands (such as Tyrannosaurus\nRex<\/em> and Tull<\/em>) to a wider audience\nthan they might receive today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spring 1968<\/strong> \u2013 the discovery<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My\nabove-mentioned 50-year love affair begins \u2013 and can be traced back to an\nextremely unlikely source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sitting\nin their lounge with my girlfriend\u2019s family one evening in the Spring of \u201868, we watched the BBC Twoshow Once More with Felix<\/em>.  American-born, British-based folk singer Julie\nFelix had risen to fame in 1966 as the resident singer on the BBC\u2019s\nThe Frost Report<\/em> and was given her own prime-time series in December 1967.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of her guests that evening was Shirley Abicair who, in\nthe mid-to late 1950s, had presented Children’s\nHour<\/em> and, as we only had the one TV channel (BBC), every child in Britain knew\nthis Australian singer \/ presenter, not least because she played a zither<\/em> (a stringed instrument that\u2019s a\nbit like a harp crossed with a guitar but with 30 to 40 strings).  However by \u201968, she\u2019d disappeared from our\nscreens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was quite a surprise that she\u2019d been invited on the show,\nbut she sang a pretty little song about a hedgehog which I hadn\u2019t heard before.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Something about the song, its rhythm and lyrics, piqued my\ninterest, \u201c\u2026Oh, you know all the words,\nand you sung all the notes, but you never quite learned the song, she sang\u2026\u201d<\/em>\nand I wanted to know where it came from. \nBut, without anything like Google back then, I simply forgot about it \u2013\nuntil about a month later\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One\nday, my good friend, Simon Gray, brought in an album into school that I\u2019d seen\nin the record racks but didn\u2019t know anything about.  It had a particularly distinctive, unusual\n(for the day) and striking psychedelic sleeve cover.  Several people had borrowed but no-one was\nreally raving about it after their initial hearing, so I was slow to ask to borrow\nit.  I remember Simon was somewhat\nreticent to let me take it.  He knew I\u2019d\nstudied classical music and may have thought I wouldn\u2019t like it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The Incredible String Band on stage<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately,\nhe relented and I took home The 5000\nSpirits Or The Layers Of The Onion<\/em> by the Incredible String Band<\/strong>, featuring multi-instrumentalists and song\nwriters, Robin Williamson and Mike Heron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On\nthe 8-mile bus journey home that afternoon, I examined the iconic sleeve and became\nexcited to see a song on side two called The\nHedgehog Song<\/em>.  It couldn\u2019t be, could\nit?  I\u2019d never heard of a song about a\nhedgehog before.  What were the chances?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\nsoon as I got home, I put the LP on the record player (a Dansette<\/em>, of course) and lowered the needle onto Track Two of Side\nTwo and\u2026 behold!  It was the same song!<\/em>  3\nminutes and 25 seconds of pure joy!!  I\nreplayed it several times before I set up my tape recorder to copy the whole\nalbum.  Because I liked it so much, I started\nthe recording with The Hedgehog Song<\/em>,\nthen copied the whole album in its entirety before finishing with The Hedgehog Song<\/em> again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What a good job I did!<\/em>  This wasn\u2019t like any<\/em> music I\u2019d heard before.  It\nwas a million miles from Bach, Elgar or Cliff Richard!  There weren\u2019t any 2-minute pop tunes.  To my \u2018traditionally trained\u2019 ears, much of\nit sounded discordant and the voices sounded like wailing Banshees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However,\nI still really liked The Hedgehog Song and thanks to my brilliant foresight in\nrecording it before the rest of the album, the tape always started with the\nsong I\u2019d heard Shirley Abicair sing just a few weeks earlier.  With the exception of The Hedgehog Song, the\nsounds jarred against everything I had experienced and felt (and enjoyed) about\nmusic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having\nstarted the tape, I\u2019d let it run into the rest of the album and I gradually\nbecame familiar with, then attracted by, the other songs that had initially\nbeen so alien to me; plus there were two extra copies of the song about a funny\nlittle Hedgehog that comes running up to me, and it starts up to sing me this\nsong<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gradually\nthough, I became accustomed to the strange sounds from unusual instruments I\u2019d\nnever heard before.  For instance, the\nsecond track on my tape (track one of the album) was another Mike Heron song, Chinese White<\/em> which has a powerful\nviolin accompaniment that took some getting used to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before\nlong, the ever-changing melodies, unusual time signatures and songs that didn\u2019t\nrhyme or have a regular meter began to make sense.  These magicians had somehow moulded all of\nthese disparate elements so cleverly. \nWhat I initially found to grate on my ears actually worked!  Very well!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At\nfirst, I found Mike\u2019s songs (like Painting\nBox<\/em>, Little Cloud<\/em>, You Know What You Could Be<\/em>) more\naccessible than Robin Williamson\u2019s.  Before\nlong though, I grew to appreciate and enjoy the entire album, particularly\nRobin\u2019s First Girl I Loved<\/em> by which is\nfantastic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two female vocalists, Licorice McKechnie and Rose Simpson (Robin\u2019s\nand Mike\u2019s girlfriends) provided traditional bass guitar and organ, but their most\nsignificant impact was their high-pitched, almost childlike, backing vocals.  Could it have been a coincidence that, after\nJohn Lennon and Paul McCartney saw the String Band at the Albert Hall, Yoko Ono\nwas invited to sing on the Beatles\u2019 The\nContinuing Story of Bungalow Bill<\/em> some eight months later?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where\ncould I find more of this magical and mysterious music?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately,\nthe Mike and Robin were prolific songwriters and ISB routinely released two\nalbums a year.  The Hangman\u2019s Beautiful Daughter<\/em> was released in March 1968, just\nas I was discovering the band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some\nnotable references:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robert\nPlant of Led Zeppelin told a music magazine that, \u201cSome\nof the best times I\u2019ve ever had was being backstage at a String Band concert\u201d and\nnamed Nightfall<\/em> from Hangman\u2019s<\/em> amongst his top 10 favourite\nsongs.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has subsequently admitted that he and Jimmy Page bought a\ncopy of that album and \u201csimply followed the instructions,\u201d saying, “The one\nthing we always wanted to do in Led Zeppelin was to finish off the show with\nthe String Band’s A Very Cellular Song<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul McCartney declared it to be one of the records of the\nyear and Mick Jagger asked them to sign them to his new record label \u2013 and there\u2019s\nmore than a passing nod on the psychedelic cover and songs of the Stones\u2019 Their Satanic Majesties Request<\/em> album to The 5,000 Spirits<\/em> (I believe the 5000 Spirits<\/em> sleeve was created by a couple of designers from The\nBeatles\u2019 Apple Corp<\/em> \u2013 for which they\nclearly used more of the colours in their Painting\nBox<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cream\u2019s lyric-writer Pete Brown said, when he heard Hangman’s<\/em>,\n“That’s what the Rolling Stones have been trying to do.” (Melody Maker<\/em>, 16 March\n1968<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For good measure, Bob Dylan apparently said he thought\nRobin\u2019s October Song<\/em> was \u2018quite good\u2019\n(he\u2019s always had a way with words; it\u2019s easy to see why he won the Nobel Prize!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nNovember 1967, when the Beatles released the 2-LP set White Album<\/em>, the String Band released their own double album, Wee Tam and The Big Huge.<\/em>  And what masterpieces they both were and\nstill are!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\nnow, I was well-attuned to the wailing voice of Robin Williamson and I loved his\nsongs, particularly, Job\u2019s Tears;<\/em> The Half-Remarkable Question;<\/em> Maya;<\/em> Ducks On A Pond;<\/em> and The\nCircle is Unbroken<\/em>.  Of course, Mike\ngave us some special tracks too: Log\nCabin Home In The Sky<\/em>; Cousin\nCaterpillar<\/em> and Air<\/em> to name but\nthree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7th<\/sup> October\n1970<\/strong>\n– <\/strong>My first live String Band concert<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since big acts didn\u2019t visit Lincoln, I had to travel some 50+\nmiles to Sheffield City Hall to see my favourite band with my girlfriend (later\nmy wife) although I can\u2019t claim that she was as excited as me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mike, Robin, Licorice and Rose opened the show with a song\nthey performed a capella<\/em> which I\nthought was extremely impressive.  Obviously\nthey must have warmed-up offstage, but it was still amazingly brave to begin a\nconcert like this.  I didn\u2019t know the\nsong and I\u2019m still not sure what it was.  It wasn\u2019t Sleepers\nAwake!<\/em> from the 1969 Changing Horses<\/em>\nalbum.  Their only other a capella<\/em> song I\u2019m aware of is Bright Morning Stars<\/em> (from Across The Airwaves: BBC Radio Recordings\n1969-1974<\/em>, released in 2007). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, with the passage of time and a fading memory, I can\u2019t\nsay whether or not that was the opener from 1970.  If not, then I feel robbed, because there\u2019s an\nISB song I haven\u2019t got!!  I know, I call myself a fan\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around this time, I bought their first album which had been\nreleased in 1966.  It was imaginatively\ntitled The Incredible String Band<\/em>.  There was a third band member, banjo-player Clive\nPalmer, who contributed a banjo solo plus the song Empty Pocket Blues<\/em>.  To this\nday, this is one of my all-time favourites albums and it provides so much\nquality music.  Among them is the first\nsong Robin ever wrote October Song<\/em> in\n1965, which has become an absolute classic for fans.  My favourite song is Robin\u2019s Womankind<\/em> but I remember singing the\ncomical Smoke Shovelling Song<\/em> quite a\nlot in those days (although my rendition would clear a burning building faster\nthan any fire alarm!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only time I have seen another band attempt an ISB song\nlive was in Lincoln Cathedral in 1972. \nThe main act was the Scunthorpe medieval-rock(?) trio Amazing Blondel<\/em> whose best-known song is\nCelestial Light<\/em> which was written for\nLincoln Cathedral.  They were supported\nby a sadly now unknown folk duo, who did their best to sing Robin Williamson\u2019s October Song<\/em> and in so doing, proved\nwhat a remarkable (and difficult to perform) song it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Considering how long bands take to make albums nowadays, it\u2019s\namazing to learn they completed this their first album in just a day and a half\n(for which producer Joe Boyd paid them \u00a350 each)!  They recorded the U<\/em> double album (1971) in 48 hours too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, soon after the recording Clive upped sticks and travelled overland to Afghanistan and India and never appeared on any su<\/p>\n\n\n\n

24th July 1971<\/strong> – A concert of \u2018Contemporary and Traditional Folk\nMusic\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having\nbemoaned that big acts never came to Lincoln, this was to change when a concert\nof \u2018Contemporary and Traditional Folk\nMusic\u2019<\/em> was staged at Tupholme, near Bardney (a small village about 13\nmiles to the east of Lincoln).  This was just\n9 miles from my home!!  Something like\n60,000 people arrived from all over the UK and as far afield as Australia and\nNew Zealand.  For \u00a32 per ticket, we sat\nin a field in the summer sunshine and marvelled that such an impressive cast of\nworld famous musicians had pitched up in our backyard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ralph\nMcTell was on stage as my fianc\u00e9e and I walked through the gates just after\nnoon.  He wanted to know if we\u2019d seen the old man outside the Seaman\u2019s\nMission<\/em> and wanted to take us by the\nhand and lead us<\/em> through the streets\nof London?<\/em>  Yes please!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nwasn\u2019t a folk music aficionado and only went to see my favourite band, but the\nrest of the stellar cast (Buffy Sainte Marie, Dion, Tim Hardin, Dave\nSwarbrick and Martin Carthy, Sandy Denny, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee,\nPentangle, Steeleye Span, The Byrds and James Taylor) showed me what I had been\nmissing.  I had already heard some stuff\nfrom Pentangle and Steeleye Span who, like ISB and Fairport Convention, were\nblazing a trail for UK contemporary folk<\/em>.  The Byrds were famous of course, and broke\n\u2018the rules\u2019 by playing electric guitars. \nTopping the bill was James Taylor, who sent us all home happy to know\nthat we had a friend.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Somehow\nwe had managed to join up with one of our friends, Phil Hollis* and his mate\nAndy \u2013 how did we do that in a field containing tens of thousands of people\nwithout mobile phones?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*After\nmost of my school friends had gone off to universities, I didn\u2019t know and couldn\u2019t\npersuade anyone to become a fan of the Incredibles (none of my work colleagues\nhad heard of them but Phil was a big fan of Melanie Safka, which nearly<\/em> counts – and we drove to\nManchester the following year to see one of her rare UK concerts).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nvaguely knew Andy, because he was a goalkeeper (of sorts) for a team in the\nsame Sunday League (7th<\/sup>) division as me \u2013 I think I\u2019d scored against\nhim in every game we played.  However, it\ntranspired that not only had he heard of the String Band but he\u2019d bought one of\ntheir singles (Painting Box <\/em>c\/w No Sleep Blues<\/em>)\u2026 Mate!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just\nbefore 5 in the afternoon, Andy and I made our way through the crowds ,who were\nchillin\u2019 on grass, to get nearer to the stage to better see our heroes.  I hadn\u2019t realised just how big the String\nBand was, so I was totally unprepared for the response they were to\nreceive.  I still remember the\nintroducer\u2019s exact words, \u201cFor those of you who have come here today to see the\nIncredible String Band, here they are,\u201d at which point around 30,000 people\njumped to their feet and cheered wildly and enthusiastically.  It was the first standing ovation of the day\nand the loudest, which only the closing appearances by James Taylor and,\npossibly, The Byrds came anywhere near to equalling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nString Band opened with Robin\u2019s Dear Old\nBattlefield<\/em> followed by Mike\u2019s You\nGet Brighter<\/em>.  Then Robin regaled us\nwith a tale about Ted\u2026 they\u2019d lived together for a time at a cottage in Wales,\nwhere the local farmer kept pigs.  Ted\nwas described as a huge boar, with testicles the size of footballs, who became\nthe inspiration for their next song, Big\nTed<\/em>.  They finished their set with\ntwo more songs from Robin, The Circle Is Unbroken<\/em>\nand Adam And Eve<\/em>, after which Andy\nand I made our way back to our original place near the edge of the crowd (close\nto the primitive toilets).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

28th<\/sup> September 1971<\/strong> – my next ISB concert<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three\nmonths later, Lyn and I were to see the String Band again \u2013 this time in\nLiverpool.  I persuaded some relatives from\nthe Wirral to put us up for a week in September and we made the 145 mile\njourney to Wallasey on my Lambretta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During\nthat week, we saw American band Seatrain<\/em>\nperform the final concert of their European tour at the Liverpool Stadium.  They were totally overwhelmed by the\nreception to their performance.  Supposedly\non the bill to support Traffic<\/em>, they\nso completely outperformed the chart-toppers that the UK headliners were booed\noff!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\nfew days later, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall was the venue for the ISB concert.  Robin announced they had only just flown in\nfrom America and were so jet-lagged, they hadn\u2019t even had time for a\nsound-check.  This meant there was delays\nbetween songs whilst they tuned their instruments.  Overall, it wasn\u2019t an especially impressive\nperformance.  I didn\u2019t know this at the\ntime but, in retrospect, this may have been evidence of the growing tensions\nbetween Robin and Mike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rose\nhad left the band earlier in the year, to be replaced on bass guitar and vocals\nby Malcolm Le Maistre, from the Stone Monkey dance troupe.  At first, I felt he had been recruited to add\ncome theatrical elements to the act and I viewed him essentially as a dancer who\ncould sing, rather than a musician. \nHowever, to his immense credit, he adapted quickly and composed some\ntruly excellent songs (my favourite being Sailor\nand the Dancer<\/em> from Earthspan<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mike\nperformed a new song, accompanied by a bass player, whom Mike introduced as\nStan Lee, the band\u2019s roadie (actual name, Stan Schnier).  That song has never been released on disc\n(yet)!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During\n1971, ISB released the U<\/em> double album\nand Liquid Acrobat As Regards The Air<\/em>, both of which include some\nclassic String Band music.  U was created\nto be part of a theatrical performance, including dance, but not being a dance\nfan, it was the music that I absolutely loved. \nIt encapsulated everything ISB represented.  There were surprises, innovations, humour and\nfantastic songs.  Robin\u2019s Queen of Love<\/em> is as good as anything he\nhas written, and Mike\u2019s 15-minute Rainbow<\/em>\nis epic.  I\u2019ve read that Robot Blues\ninspired Matt Groening (The Simpsons)<\/em>\nto create the animated sitcom, Futurama<\/em>\nbut that may just be fake news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Red Hair<\/em> (from Liquid Acrobat<\/em>) is one of my all-time\nfavourite songs and I still find it amazing that Mike could devise a verse\ndevoid of rhyme but to do it so naturally, \u2018He could look through all of his books and not find a\nline that would do, to tell of changes she had made in him just by being\nthere.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Output\ndwindled to just a single studio album per year, with Earthspan<\/em> (1972),\nNo Ruinous Feud,<\/em> Island (1973) and, finally, Hard Rope and\nSilken Twine<\/em> (1974).  The songs were\nmore rock-based and where the song-writing on albums up to this time had been\nfairly evenly shared between Mike and Robin, these albums had more material\nfrom Mike.  The magic was beginning to\nlose some of its shine, although it retained its air of uniqueness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Earthspan,<\/em> two\nsongs in particular stand out: Antoine<\/em>\nand Seagull<\/em>; the album also displayed\nthe quality of Malcolm\u2019s writing, with the three songs: My Father Was a Lighthouse Keeper<\/em>, The Actor<\/em> and Sailor and the\nDancer<\/em>.  Whilst I didn\u2019t know of the\nfriction between the two principals, was Robin starting to fall out of love\nwith the whole project and the direction Mike was taking it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No Ruinous Feud<\/em>\nwas the first album to disappoint me slightly. \nIt was the first release first album after the departure\nof Licorice, who was replaced by Gerard Dott, an Edinburgh-based jazz\nmusician.  There are a few nuggets worthy\nof mention, not least another composition from Malcolm, At the Lighthouse Dance<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were so many line-up changes from one album to the\nnext during this period.  Musically, they\nwere almost unrecognisable as a folk-based group and were turning into a rock\nband.  I was more than happy to ride\nalong on their journey of development.  They\ncould hardly have been described as mainstream although I know that many\ndie-hard folkies thought of it more as mutation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nthink I only saw the String Band play live once more, at Sheffield City Hall, before\nthey split in 1974.  It did come as a\nshock to me and I was sad that I wouldn\u2019t be able to hear any new ISB music.  However, I had a good body of material to\nkeep me happy, which it certainly has done over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robin\nand Mike each released solo projects.  I\nthought Mike\u2019s first two albums were excellent, Smiling Men with Bad\nReputations <\/em>(1971) and Mike Heron’s Reputation<\/em> (1975).  They were rock-based and Smiling Men<\/em>\nfeatured an amazing collection of backing musicians, which illustrates the\nrespect in which he was held in \u2018the business\u2019; they included: John Cale (Bass,\nGuitar, Vocals, Harmonium, Piano, Viola), Gerry Conway (Drums), Dr. Strangely\nStrange (Backing Vocals), Ronnie Lane (Bass), Malcolm Le Maistre (Clarinet),\nDave Mattacks (Drums), Keith Moon (Drums), Simon Nicol, (Guitar), Dave\nPegg (Bass), Rose Simpson (Bass), Richard Thompson (Guitar), Pete\nTownshend (Guitar).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

19th<\/sup> August 2000<\/strong> \u2013 concert at\nBloomsbury Theatre, London<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nwas travelling home by train, from a business meeting in London in October\n1997, when I happened to glance across the aisle and saw a guy a couple of rows\nahead reading a music paper.  As he\nturned the pages, I noticed an article about half-way down the page headed\nsomething like, \u2018Robin and Mike roll back the years.\u2019  What??!! \nRobin and Mike?  Who else could it\nbe?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\nsoon as the chap put the paper down, I dived out of my seat and asked him if I could\nhave a quick look, please?  Amazing!  They\u2019d recently performed together in a\nconcert on 4th October at the Bloomsbury\nTheatre in London.  They hadn\u2019t performed\nas the ISB but, who cares?  Mmmm, could\nthey be reforming, I wondered?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After\nthis, I kept my eye open for any news of a possible repeat performance and was\nrewarded when I discovered they were to perform at the Bloomsbury Theatre again\nin 2000.  I was quick off the mark and\ninstantly booked my ticket.  I got a\nsecond row seat and I then bought a British Rail Saturday Saver ticket (or\nwhatever it was called) which included one night in a hotel.  I found one on the list that was within\nwalking distance of the theatre and I was all set. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nband was a little rusty and perhaps a little under-rehearsed but no-one cared,\nthe audience were in raptures.  Robin and\nMike were joined onstage by Clive Palmer, Lawson Dando and Bina Williamson\n(Robin\u2019s wife) and they treated us to a range of music that literally nobody\nelse could provide.  Robin displayed his\nversatility by playing what appeared to be quite a complex harp tune.  After they performed Air<\/em> (from Wee Tam<\/em>), Robin\ncommented that it was, in his opinion, one of the best songs Mike had ever\nwritten, which I felt was little patronising \u2013 what about all the others?  And would they have been as successful individually\nas they had been together?  I rather\nthink not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

22nd<\/sup>\nDecember 2002<\/strong> <\/strong>\u2013 the\nArchbishop of Canterbury<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A newspaper\nsub-headline caught my eye.  It announced\nthat Dr Rowan Williams, the newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, had\nchosen an obscure song about a Hedgehog amongst his eight pieces of music for BBC\nRadio 4’s Desert Island Discs<\/em>\nprogramme, with which he had fallen in love during his university days.  Naturally, I had to tune.  Whilst his other selections predictably included\nsolemn, classical pieces from Bach, Mozart and Vaughn Williams, he explained\nthat he\u2019d found that the String Band\u2019s poetry and musical intricacies resonated with him in a way that others\ndidn\u2019t.  He later wrote the Foreword for\nthe 2003 BeGlad Anthology<\/em> (which\nmapped the career of the band between 1965 \u2013 1974) in which he said, \u201cFor those of us\nwho fell in love with the ISB, there was a feeling of breathing the air of a\nvery expansive imagination indeed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

27th<\/sup> September\n2003<\/strong>\n<\/strong>\u2013 concert at the Lowry Theatre, Salford Quay<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mike\nkept performing the old songs for a little longer, but with Robin no longer\nwanting to be involved ISB reformed and changed the name slightly to incrediblestringband2003<\/em><\/strong>, <\/em>which\ncomprised Mike Heron, Clive Palmer,\nLawson Dando and Fluff (Claire) Smith<\/em> and occasional guests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norm had\nnot followed the band quite as closely as I had over the years but he took\nlittle persuasion to join me at this concert. \nWe stopped for a pizza in an Italian restaurant opposite the theatre\nand, about 20 minutes before the concert was about to begin, Mike Heron walked\nin!  He was presumably booking a table\nafter the concert ended but it was a little surprising to see him doing this\nhimself!  Doesn\u2019t he have a gofer?  Shouldn\u2019t he be psyching himself up for the\nimminent concert?  Apparently not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Actually,\nI thought this relaxed attitude came across in the performance (not in a bad\nway).  It was as if some friends had come\ntogether to reminisce and play some songs for other friends who felt privileged\nto be there.  We were transported back\nthirty-five years or so, and whatever aches and pains we had each acquired in\nthose years fell away for the next two hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was\npleased to see that the show was being filmed \u2013 if only there was more good\nquality material available from the band\u2019s early days.  There\u2019re quite a few YouTube videos on the\n\u2018net, including one from 1968 when the band guested on Once More with Felix<\/em> (a few short weeks after Shirley\nAbicair) to nicely complete the circle. \nA DVD and double CD were subsequently released under the title, Everything\u2019s Fine<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mike\nrecounted one tale of his \u2018wild\u2019 younger days in the sixties when he\n\u2018experimented\u2019 with drugs.  He told us\nthat he \u2018dropped some acid\u2019 one lunchtime and went back to work in the\nafternoon in the accountant\u2019s office where he worked!  I can\u2019t imagine how he made any accounts\nbalance that day!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

18th<\/sup> October 2003<\/strong> <\/strong>\u2013 recording at Real World Studios, Box, Wiltshire<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d\nbeen on the subscriber list for Robin\u2019s Pig\u2019s Whisker record label for a couple\nof years, when I received notification in early 2003 of a \u2018live\u2019 album to be\nrecorded in front of a small and very limited audience in Peter Gabriel’s Real\nWorld studio in Wiltshire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For\njust \u00a365, lucky ticket-holders could see the incrediblestringband2003<\/em><\/strong> perform \u2018as\nlive\u2019 as they put down the tracks for an album of classic ISB songs.  The aim was to stay as faithful as possible\nto the original recordings but they would, naturally, be different.  As an added bonus, as if anyone needed further\nencouragement, attendees would receive a Special Edition of the CD with their\nname printed on the sleeve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My\ncheque was despatched post haste, and I awaited in hope and anticipation to\nhear if I would be one of just 108 fortunate people who would attend this\nunique event.  Wow!  Fingers crossed, toes crossed, legs crossed,\neyes crossed, everything was crossed\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nhave no idea how many application were sent in, but I was one of the lucky\nones.  On the day (a Saturday), I rose\nearly and drove our pretty clapped-out Vauxhall Astra the 175 miles to Box,\nnear Chippenham.  Fortunately, the\ntraffic was light, so I arrived safely and was one of the first five people to pull\ninto the grounds of Peter Gabriel\u2019s home, on which a recording studio and been\nbuilt on the side.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consequently,\nI was one of the first through the door when it opened, and I selfishly grabbed\na seat in the middle of the front row, next to the centre aisle.  A raised stage (about two feet high) was so\nclose, I could lean forward and touch it (it was just too far to rest my legs\non, but that would have been disrespectful anyway).  Directly in front of me was Mike; Lawson\nDando was just to my right; Clive was on the left of the stage; Fluff was\nbetween him and Mike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\nwere given instructions to remain quiet during the recordings and to suppress any\ncoughs or sneezes to the end \u2013 or else! \nIn addition, we were asked to restrain our enthusiasm and not to applaud\nimmediately at the end of a song because they wanted to have a \u2018clean\u2019 master\ncopy on which to work.  One of the band\nwould signal after about ten seconds when we could clap, so the applause would\nbe recorded separately and the engineers could add it later.  No problem. \nAnything you say.  How happy I am\nto be here.  Thank you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inevitably,\nwhen told not to cough or sneeze during a pressured situation, the urge to do\nso becomes unbearable and urgent.  I\u2019m\nsure everyone held their breath for the first recording.  The band were extremely relaxed considering\nthey were making an album (I\u2019m not sure the engineers were quite so laid back\nthough.  After all, they have reputations\nto uphold).  If the band wanted to\nengender an atmosphere of a live performance, they also aimed for perfection\nand were almost<\/em> faultless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On\none occasion, after they just completed a section of A Very Cellular Song<\/em>*, Lawson ran to the record decks at the back\nof the room, saying he wasn\u2019t happy with a something (as if anyone else spotted\nit).  The track was called up onscreen to\nfind the error in a particularly intricate keyboard passage, then he went back\nto the stage and replayed about two seconds from the middle of the song.  The engineer signalled he\u2019d got it and\neveryone moved on.  Easy peasy\u2026 if you\u2019re Lawson Dando!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*A\nVery Cellular Song is essentially a number of different songs \u2018stitched\u2019\ntogether (hence the name, I guess) and they were each recorded separately (and\nnot necessarily in order).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\nvery nice buffet lunch was provided, with a glass of wine, during which we were\nable to mingle and chat with the band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nwas explained to us that some tracks had been laid down (or part-recorded) the\nday before, but there were minor elements that needed tidying up or extra\ninstrumentation added.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\nsaw at close hand how talented both Lawson and Fluff were as they played\ndifferent instruments and contributed to the vocals.  Clive\u2019s banjo was much in evidence and he led\nthe vocals on Empty Pocket Blues<\/em> and\nRobin\u2019s Ducks On A Pond<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mike\nor Lawson would call out what they would play next.  If they weren\u2019t going to play the whole song\nin one take (such as Cellular Song<\/em>,\nthey would state where the next natural break would be (based on the time\nsignature, change of instruments or some other time), either by saying, \u2018from\nthe part where the cello comes in\u2019 or using the lyric.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One\nof these break points came in Cellular\nSong <\/em>between the verse ending, \u2018\u2026And who would hide behind your chair and steal your\ncrystallized ginger?<\/em> and the next\nwhich begins, \u2018Nebulous nearnesses cry to me\u2026\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore\nMike announced the next piece would be the section up to \u2018Nebulous nearnesses\u2019<\/em>.  They subsequently\nrecorded the section beginning with \u2018Nebulous\nnearnesses\u2019<\/em> and ending with \u2018There’s\nabsolutely no strife, living the timeless life\u2019<\/em> (i.e. just before \u2018Black hair, brown hair feather and scale\u2026\u2019)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nebulous Nearnesses <\/em>was\ncalled out so many times, that it became the name of the completed album.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout\nthe session, there was a strange-looking object at the back of the stage in the\nshape of a head, made of black foam, on a stick!  What voodoo was this?  We eventually found out when it was brought\nto the front of the stage and all the musicians (including a couple of guests)\nstood around it to sing the ending of Cellular\nSong<\/em>, which is from the Bahamian folk song\n“Bid You Goodnight<\/em>.”  OK then, it wasn\u2019t a head on a stick, but an\nomni-directional microphone on a stand. \nThe things you learn\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nwould love to do this again but don\u2019t expect it will ever happen.  Great credit has to be given to the sound\nengineers to allow a bunch of old fogies to invade their precious studio and\npotentially interfere with their efforts for perfect sound reproduction, which\nmust be hard enough as it is.  I don\u2019t\nthink anyone coughed on the recordings but, if they did, no doubt those guys\nheard it and obliterate any such extraneous noises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\nfew months later, my Special Edition CD arrived \u2013 with my name on the sleeve \u2013\nand it contained a bonus track, Maker of\nIslands<\/em>, which is not on the general release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

20th<\/sup> April\n2004<\/strong>\n<\/strong>\u2013 concert at the Central Station, Wrexham<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norm and I took in another concert by incrediblestringband2003,<\/em> this time in Wrexham, during their UK tour\nfollowing the release of Nebulous\nNearnesses<\/em>.  They mainly covered\nthe songs from the album and I could think back to my special day when I saw\nthem making it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The band continued to tour with different line-ups until 2006\nwhen they disbanded forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

19th<\/sup> Jul 2009<\/strong> <\/strong>\u2013 concert at the Barbican,\nLondon<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Producer Joe Boyd has done a good job in recent\nyears of keeping alive much of the music from artists he discovered and\npromoted back in the sixties.  I went\nwith my daughter, Lisa, to Birmingham Symphony Hall on 14th<\/sup> May 2016\nto see Way To Blue<\/em>: The Songs of Nick Drake (where the ISB got a mention).<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

In\n2008, he put on two concerts at the Barbican. \nOn Saturday (18th<\/sup>) An\nAll Star Fairport Convention<\/em>, followed the following night by Very Cellular Songs: The Music of the\nIncredible String Band<\/em>.  On this\noccasion, I drove to London with Adam (my only son who would come with me!!) \u2013\nhe was mightily impressed with the venue, if not the music!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many\nof the same guest artists performed at both concerts, most notably Richard\nThompson.  As had happened with the 2003\nincarnation of the band, Robin\nWilliamson refused to appear “because he doesn’t want to look back.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amongst\nThompson\u2019s contributions, he performed Robin’s October Song<\/em>, and was joined by his daughter Kami for Painting\nBox.  In addition to Mike and Clive\nPalmer, we saw Danny\nThompson, Robyn Hitchcock, Alasdair Roberts, Trembling\nBells, Green Gartside (of Scritti Politti), Dr Strangely Strange & more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nhighlight for me was Cold February by Trembling Bells, with  drummer Alex Neilson taking lead vocals.  It\u2019s a pity they never recorded this version\n(there\u2019s a YouTube clip of them performing the song with Lavinia Blackwall on\nlead vocals but, sadly, it doesn\u2019t come near to the version at the Barbican)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miscellany<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Billy\nConnolly was a big String Band fan from their earliest days in the folk clubs of Glasgow, when he described them\nas “hairy, exotic and interesting!” \nI recall him singing Mike\u2019s Log\nCabin Home In The Sky<\/em> during his 1996 World\nTour Of Australia<\/em> series, where he sang live in the outback and played an\nautoharp<\/li>
  2. In\nMarch 2018, I was speaking with a client (for whom I was helping to arrange\nsome legal documents) and we needed to send some paperwork to his son who lives\nin Milngavie (pronounced \u2018Mul-guye\u2019) which is in\nEast Dunbartonshire, north of Glasgow.  I\nsaid to him that I had heard of the town because my favourite band had lived\nthere for several years.  He asked who\nthat was, and when I said, the Incredible String Band, he told me he had played\non stage with them back in the sixties!!<\/li>
  3. I don\u2019t know of any link with the String Band and Scottish indie\nband Travis<\/em>, but the latter released\nan album in 2001 named The Invisible Band<\/em>,\nfor which the album cover is very<\/em>\nsimilar to that of ISB\u2019s Changing Horses<\/em>.  Coincidence?<\/li>
  4. Robin\nWilliamson played a number of concerts with John Renbourn (formerly of Pentangle<\/em>) in the nineties and they\nreleased an album, Wheel Of Fortune<\/em> in 1995. \nIn a song introduction, Renbourn said they\u2019d discussed how best to\ndescribe their collaboration and had come up with \u2018The Impenetrable\nString Tangle\u2019<\/li>
  5. Quote\nfrom Robin Williamson, “You just tried to make sense of things,\ny’know?” Williamson says of those songs (ISB).  “I did a few sessions with Van Morrison,\nwhom I would describe as not a naturally calm individual, but who writes music\nabout calmness and peace; so maybe people write things that they need in their\nlives.  What I needed in my life was some\ndegree of insight, so I tried to write songs about what my quest for\nunderstanding was.  It was very important\nto me at the time and still is.\u201d (Independent, 11 August 2000)<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    There\nhas quite simply never been anyone<\/em>\nlike the Incredible String Band before or since.  They made \u2018World Music\u2019 long before the term\nwas coined.  The instruments they are\ncredited as using include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Robin\nWilliamson<\/strong>:\nguitars, sitar, oud, flute, gimbri, sarangi, chahanai, whistle, bass, violin,\npiano, organ, percussion<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Mike\nHeron<\/strong>:\nguitar, sitar, organ, dulcimer, harpsichord, recorder, harmonica, percussion<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Andrew\nDarlington described them as totally uncategorisable and I can\u2019t disagree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The number of world-famous artists who have been mesmerised\nby them is \u2018incredible\u2019, yet Joe Boyd says they enjoy the \u201chighest\nratio of past success to current anonymity<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Others\nhave called them otherworldly,\ntwee, whimsical, intense, mystical and\nmythical, folk moving to rock.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I\nfind it difficult to describe them to someone new because they are truly\nunique, and that is an extremely rare thing to find in a world of music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I\njust know that I feel very smug knowing that I was in on it when I could so\neasily have missed them altogether.  “I know all the words and\nyou sung all the notes, but I never quite learned the song!”  Thanks, Shirley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Dave\u2019s Desert Island Discs*<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    *<\/sup><\/em>For\nthose unfamiliar with it, Desert Island Discs has been running in BBC Radio\nsince 1942.  Each week a celebrity, referred to as a ‘castaway’, nominates eight\nrecords, a book and a luxury item that they would take if they were obliged to\nlive on a desert island<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If\nit was good enough for the Arch of Cant, it\u2019s good enough for me (but will it be good enough for Norm\nWarwick?)<\/em>\u2026  I guess that choosing\njust 8 discs to take to a desert island would be nigh on impossible for any\nmusic lover.  I already have close to\n20,000 songs on my MP3 player so I probably need to cheat a little.  If I can assume that the island technology\nstill uses vinyl discs, there are 2 sides aren\u2019t there?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So,\nif I can imagine that I can choose eight different artists, I could image that\nthey each released a single with an A and B side that perfectly matches my\nchoice.  That gives me two songs per\nartist, which I could just about tolerate. \nThat in itself, helps reduce the total from which I might select,\nbecause there are hundreds of artists from whom I would be tempted to include \u2018one<\/em> song for life\u2019.  Even then, there are dozens I might have\npicked two from, for example, Beatles, David Bowie, Donovan, Nick Drake,\nGenesis (and\/or Phil Collins \/ Peter Gabriel), Elton John, Kinks, Love, Cat\nStevens, Who, et al<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    On\nanother day, I may make different choices, but these are some of my most\nfavourite artists and songs of all time. \nBetween them they have produced well over a thousand songs, so even this\nset is a massive compromise, but I submit it for the approval or otherwise of\nour author:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    \n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n Artist<\/strong>\n <\/td>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n First Pick<\/strong> (A Side)<\/strong>\n <\/td>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n Additional\n Pick<\/strong> (B Side)<\/strong>\n  \n <\/td><\/tr>
    \n Incredible\n String Band<\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n <\/td>\n Womankind\n <\/td>\n Red\n Hair\n <\/td><\/tr>
    \n Jethro Tull<\/strong>\n <\/td>\n Wond\u2019ring\n Aloud\n <\/td>\n Baker\n Street Muse\n  \n <\/td><\/tr>
    \n Sandy Denny<\/strong>\n <\/td>\n Fotheringay\n (Fairport Convention)<\/em>\n  \n <\/td>\n Late\n November\n <\/td><\/tr>
    \n Kate Bush<\/strong>\n <\/td>\n The\n Kick Inside\n <\/td>\n Cloudbusting\n (Live \n <\/em>\n Hammersmith\n Apollo)<\/em>\n  \n <\/td><\/tr>
    \n Steve\n Harley  &Cockney Rebel<\/strong>\n <\/td>\n Sebastian\n <\/td>\n The\n Best Years of Our Lives\n  \n <\/td><\/tr>
    \n John Otway\n & Wild Willy Barrett<\/strong>\n  <\/strong>\n <\/td>\n Josephine\n <\/td>\n Geneva\n <\/td><\/tr>
    \n Al Stewart<\/strong>\n <\/td>\n Clifton\n In The Rain\n <\/td>\n Soho\n (Needless To Say)\n  \n <\/td><\/tr>
    \n Bob Dylan<\/strong>\n <\/td>\n Hurricane\n <\/td>\n Tangled\n Up In Blue\n <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n

    A Strange Thought Just Crossed My Mind<\/em><\/strong> is the opening line from the song, Good As Gone<\/em> (Williamson<\/strong>)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    A STRANGE THOUGHT JUST CROSSED MY MIND by Dave Espin When Norm asked me to put together some personal reminiscences of a band we both admire greatly, I agreed with trepidation.  Partly because I didn\u2019t want to let him down and partly because I hadn\u2019t done anything like this before but mainly because the band […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}