Sixty years of The Incredible String Band
- Jan 3
- 2 min read
May the long-time sun shine upon you / all love surround you.’
Finally this month I’ve been getting in touch with my inner hippy by delving into some old recordings of the influential 1960s band The Incredible String Band (ISB).
I’ve been a fan of this eclectic, highly idiosyncratic group since I was a teenager and was introduced to them by a friend and fellow music-lover (ie, the poor chap leant me his records and still hasn’t got them back).
To me, ISB symbolises all that is most alluring about 1960’s counterculture, with their distinctive embrace of musical traditions from all over the world, esoteric leanings, exotic instruments, bizarre wardrobes, and colourful, theatrical performances that sometimes featured poems, surreal sketches and dancers. ‘There is something occult and mysterious and unexplained about The Incredible String Band.’ Lilian Roxon mused back in the day, ‘as if it were conjured out of nowhere with a magic spell, and perhaps it was...’
So who were The Incredible String Band? Formed in 1965 (although Wikipedia says ‘66, most sources place them a year earlier), they were a British psychedelic folk band formed by Clive Palmer, Robin Williamson and Mike Heron in Edinburgh, starting in the city’s folk clubs.
With a distinct whiff of wizardry, hippy paisley and theatrics about them, the band were nonetheless serious musicians and went on to be one of the most influential groups of the period, beloved by some of the decade’s most illustrious stars. (Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Marianne Faithful, and the Rolling Stones all were said to be fans). Meanwhile, the comedian Billy Connelly, who apparently got to know them when they played the folk clubs of Glasgow, described them as ‘hairy, exotic and interesting’
Maybe, for me, the band is a haunting echo of those long-ago children’s programmes that we Generation X-ers were weaned on, in the early 70s. The Magic Roundabout, The Herb Garden, Bagpuss, Mr Benn, Camerbewick Green and Trumptom all carried the unmistakable imprint of our parents’ 60;s generation – you could still smell the patchouli and incense in the air, with their psychedelic, trippy undertones, folk music and gentle, whimsical philosophies. The Incredible String Band, with their songs about paintboxes, hedgehogs and minotaurs, perhaps cast me back to those seemingly more innocent times.
In the words of Marianne Faithful, who sadly passed away last month, ‘The Incredible String Band is part of my life – and part of a very happy time. Mick Jagger and I liked them very much. In that period, whenever it was… 1967 and 1968… that was the first time I heard anybody sound like that, so charming and so full of art. I really thought they made “The 5,000 Spirits of the Layers of the Onion” just for me. I love those songs – they bring back all those memories, tripping with my lover and having a wonderful time.’
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