The Archive.


Mike Heron and 
 Robin Williamson
were the core of the Incredible String Band,  Clive Palmer also was included in the original line-up but he departed after the first album.  Originally from Scotland, the pair moved South in the middle 60s and began to build a national reputation as a innovative force in music , based on their totally unique sound, which was partly created by using  instruments from many different cultures , but mainly due to their fantastic ability to create memorable -often eccentric - tunes and lyrics that were in turns fey, mystical , comic and stark .
The band were a delight to see live, often there would be much audience participation -in the form of getting thirty or more people on-stage ringing bells and creating sounds which the band would then orchestrate. Their strange costumes and charming personalities did much to create an other worldly effect , at times one could almost believe that these were minstrels from the middle ages -until you spotted Rose playing the electric bass. Robin Williamson would go on to become a master storyteller capable of holding the attention of a whole opera house with his fantastic tales, such as that of The Poor Fisherman and the Gruagach of Tricks, which lasted 30 minutes or more, but this was to come later, in 1968 , at the time of the Sunbury Festival they had just released The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter , which is probably one of their best ever discs , and they were playing lengthy numbers like A Very Cellular Song live on-stage - and in my opinion, this was their most potent era.
 Incredible String Band set list June 1968  Fillmore.
 
Instrumental
Waltz of the New Moon.
You Get Brighter. 
A Very Cellular Song.
October Song. 
Bells. 		 Man In The Hat. 
See All The People. 
Swift As The Wind. 
Krishna's Song. 
Instrumental.
Duck's On A Pond. 
Puppies.
Chinese White. 
Maya.
Its safe to assume that they probably played a number of these songs at Sunbury in August.

In addition to Mike and Robin , in 1968 the String band also contained
Likki and Rose

Likki did the background vocals and sang on numbers such as Cosmic Boy ( although this came a few years later) and a very sweet and fragile voice she had too. Rose played bass and whilst not exactly in the league of Bootsie Collins , she held the band together nicely. Both girls were very much an integral part of the band , Likky more or less until the ISB'S demise in the mid 70s.Likki disappeared in the 80s when in the states and is possibly dead. Rose left earlier and is now, or was until recently a local dignitary on her council and attends garden parties , opens flower shows and wears big hats. Times change.
Mike and Robin got together again in 1998 and played a few shows and there have been some shows with Clive Palmer , but all have separate careers as musicians and I doubt if any reunion would be permanent.
 

 

Some of the best ISB links on the net 

If you visit these you will link through to most sites of interest, but if you want your link placed here mail me and I will add it pronto. 

Go here to see page two of the photogallery- many thanks to Arturo Larranaga for letting me use his ISB pics. 
 
 
 

If you have any ISB photos you would like to contribute, scan em and post hither. 

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My first ever Incredible String Band concert