The Incredible String Band

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The Incredible String Band
The Incredible String Band (1970)
The Incredible String Band (1970)
General information
origin Glasgow , Scotland
Genre (s) Folk
founding 1965, 1997
resolution 1974, 2006
Founding members
Robin Williamson
Singing, guitar, sitar , organ
Mike Heron
Singing, banjo , guitar
 Clive Palmer (until 1966)
Last occupation
Vocals, guitar, mandolin, drums, percussion
 Robin Williamson
Singing, guitar, sitar, organ
 Mike Heron
singing
 Malcolm Le Maistre
former members
Singing, banjo, guitar
 Clive Palmer (until 1966)
Vocals, drums
 Licorice McKechnie (1968–1971)
Vocals, bass , violin
Rose Simpson (1968-1971)

The Incredible String Band , or ISB for short, is a British folk music band from Glasgow .

history

The group was founded by Robin Williamson, Mike Heron and Clive Palmer in Glasgow in 1965. All three were then young Scottish folk musicians. Clive Palmer left the group after the first album and later formed Clive's Original Band and The Famous Jug Band .

Their first appearances were in the Glasgow Incredible Folk Club , owned by Clive Palmer. Part of their band name and a large part of their musical tradition came from this: The folk movement in the British Isles was at its peak at this point. Her debut album The Incredible String Band (still sparsely orchestrated) fits into the British folk music of the 1960s. They got a record deal with the then American folklore label Elektra Records . Joe Boyd became its producer and remained so for the next few albums.

From their second record onwards, Heron and Williamson mixed music styles that had never been connected before: English folk music met Indian melodies, African sounds mixed with traditional blues . On top of that, they often accompanied their texts, which were difficult to understand anyway, with unusual instrumentation and stylistic inconsistencies; not always to the delight of folk fans of the time. Licorice McKechnie and Rose Simpson acted as background singers from 1968: McKechnie with vocals and drums, Simpson with vocals, bass and violin.

At that time, the American flower power movement had reached Europe. The ISB was able to benefit greatly from this, and so it released several albums with imaginative, mystical stories, accompanied by layers of sound from exotic instruments and often childlike (Heron) or drug-influenced (Williamson) chants. The highlight and masterpiece of this style is the LP The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter , released in 1968, with extravagant titles such as Koeeoaddi There and Waltz of the New Moon . In 1969 the band took part in the Woodstock Festival but was largely ignored.

Her rock pantomime U , created in 1970, was performed with guest musicians and actors on tours in America and Europe.

From 1971 onwards, Heron and Williamson released solo albums. McKechnie and Simpson left the band, Malcolm Le Maistre came on as a singer. The band's earlier success, which was strongly tied to the hippie movement, did not materialize in the changed social climate of the 1970s, so that the band disbanded in 1974 after a few less successful albums.

Williamson went to the USA to continue the music business, Heron stayed in Scotland and released a few records. Simpson became mayor of Aberystwyth in 1994 , McKechnie's whereabouts are unknown.

1997 there was a reunion for two concerts together with Robin's wife Bina Williamson and Lawson Dando, as well as from 1999 isolated concerts with Clive Palmer. The concert on August 17 and 18, 2000 at the Bloomsbury Theater London was partially released on CD. Clive Palmer died in November 2014 at the age of 71.

Discography

Albums

  • 1966: The Incredible String Band ( Elektra Records ) with Clive Palmer
  • 1967: 5000 Spirits Or The Layers Of The Onion (Elektra Records)
  • 1968: The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter (Elektra Records)
  • 1968: Wee Tam (WEA International Inc)
  • 1968: The Big Huge (WEA International Inc)
  • 1968: Wee Tam & The Big Huge (Elektra Records)
  • 1969: Changing Horses (Elektra Records)
  • 1970: I Looked Up (Elektra Records)
  • 1970: U (Elektra Records)
  • 1970: Be Glad for the Song Has No Ending (Iceland)
  • 1971: Liquid Acrobat As Regards the Air (Iceland)
  • 1972: Earthspan (Iceland)
  • 1973: No Ruinous Feud (Iceland)
  • 1974: Hard Rope & Silken Twine (Iceland)
  • 1976: Seasons They Change (Iceland)
  • 1971: Relics of the ISB (Elektra Records)
  • 1997: The Chelsea Sessions 1967 (Mooncrest)
  • 1997: Live In Concert (BBC Radio 1 1971/72) (Strange Fruit)
  • 1997: On Air (BBC Recordings 1970) (Strange Fruit)
  • 1998: Bloomsbury 1997 (Pig's Whisker Music)
  • 1998: First Girl I Loved (Mooncrest)
  • 2001: Bloomsbury 2000 (Pig's Whisker Music)
  • 2004: Everything's Fine (Secred Records Ltd)
  • 2005: Nebulous Nearnesses (Quadrant Records)
  • 2005: The Circle Is Unbroken: Live And Studio 1967-1972 (Castle Music)
  • 2007: Across The Airwaves (BBC Broadcast Recordings 1969–1974) (Hux)
  • 2008: Tricks Of The Senses (Hux)
  • 2011: Live At The Filmore 1968 (Hux)

literature

  • Siegfried Schmidt-Joos, Barry Graves: Rock Lexicon . Reinbek 1973
  • Christian Graf, Burghard Rausch: Rockmusik Lexikon . Frankfurt 1996
  • Jonathan Buckley, Mark Ellingham: Rock Rough Guide . Stuttgart / Weimar 1998

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituary in The Wire