Issue 1

The Incredible String Band - A Beginning

Let's begin at the beginning: Robin Williamson and Michael Heron are The Incredible String Band. What makes them incredible? alas, what makes them a band? The Incredibles were born out of Clive Palmers Incredible Folk club in Glasgow, in 1965. The band then consisted of Robin and Clive, who, as a duo, became one of Scotland's most popular folk groups. That year, Mike joined the group, adding his own talent as a songwriter to Robin's, as well as his skill with the guiat, sitar and harmonica. Among them, the ISB accounts for an oud, flute, pennywhistle, gimbri, mandolin, violin, banjo, tamboura, organ, finger cymbals, harp, dulcimer - and a bucket of water.

Originally, their repertoire consisted of Uncle Dave Mason songs, and jugband tunes, Slowly, original material began seeping in until the balance reversed, and the "new material" was put down on their first Elektra disc in June 1966. Shortly after the release of the album, two members of the group, Robin and Clive, split for Morocco and Afghanistan respectively. Upon Robin's return, he and Mike resumed singing as a duo - which is how it has been ever since - making their first appearance outside their native Scotland in November 1966 with Judy Collins and Tom Paxton at Albert Hall in London.

The name The Incredible String Band, evokes, nothing so much as 1930s fiddle-and-banjo music, with none of the sure-fire mythology and glamour of contemporary rock or engaged folk. And there are only two people - what kind of a band is that?

The mixture of styles seems impossible to believe: pop, folk (both English and American), rock, blues, calypso, children's songs and Far Eastern music are there in all of their splendor without pretentiousness - and not one at a time but all together. Somehow, Williamson and Heron, like Bob Dylan in "John Wesley Harding" have captured the secret of achieving genuine complexity through a seeming simplicity. Their songs retain the magic, innocence, and radiance of technically brilliant and gifted children who have had no formal training and to whom the world is brand new and full of wonder. They know no rule; their sophistication is innate; they can do anything, mix anything, to gain results and, because they are such naturals, their work will have unity not so much through any academic forumalism as through a burning personal vision of the way things are.

Mike Heron and Robin Williamson look like minisingers or minsters - like they belong to the strange assortment of instruments they play. Often, they are accompanied by two girls, who dance while they sing.

It's difficult to get Mike and Robin to talk about themselves, as they are so caught up in timelessness, they refuse to be pinioned by today's remarks. They take exception to their love of grass and water - flowing water - simple natural elements which they return to the world through the magical transformation of their music,

"Magical," "incredible" - elusive descriptions perhaps. All the better to get you to listen first hand to the wealth of beauty, whimsy and aura of fantasy the Incredible String Band creates.

-Pinched from the first Incredible String Band songbook

Be Glad for the Song has no Ending

Editor: Andy Roberts

Cover scrollwork and illustration: Allan Frewin

Calligraphy: Helen

Issue one, Autumn 1992, 'Be Glad......' is a twice yearly publication devoted to the Incredible String Band and related musics, present and hopefully, future. Copyright for all articles us help by the author and we'd probably be quite happy to let anyone use or quote from any of them but do ask first.

Contents

Title Author Page
Why's wherefore's & worries Andy Roberts 4
Latest ISB & related news Various 7
Robin Williamson Interview Raymond Greenoaken 8
Liquid Acrobat - Retrospective Jim Spiggot 11
The reviewers reviewed Henry Borisbrick 14
Mike Heron - Diamond of Dreams Andy Darlington 15
Early days yet lads! Various 18
Establishing the Canon Paul Bryant 20
Glint at the Kindling - CD Review Andy Roberts 24
Clive Palmer - ISB Original Garhame Hood 25
Dr Strangely Strange on CD Andy Roberts 28
Vishangro Penwern 29
Under the covers Grahame Hood 30
Did I write that?! William A. Murray 31
U Turn: Or........... Paul Bryant 32

The discerning reader will also find various bits and pieces of useful information scatterted in and amongst the above pieces

'Be Glad' will be published twice yearly at approximately six-monthly intervals. We welcome submssion of articles, artwork, photographs, concert and album reviews, news, views comments and feedback and general correspondence. If you want a particular letter to be printed please say so and we will try to get a letters page going.

'Be Glad...' would not exist at all without the help of the following people: Stephen Roberts, Grahame Hood, Allan Frewin, Steven Balmires, Paul Bryant, Helen, Andy Darlington, and Mark Anstey of Blue Note Productions. All these people have freely given their time, knowledge and support to the project. A big thanks to them. I hope it's what you though!

Subscription details

This issue cost £3.00 including p&p and the reproduction String Band handbill. It might sound a lot but it just about, all things taken into consideration, might break even. I'm sticking my neck out now and saying the new issue (due May 1993) will cost the same. If you want a copy I suggest you order now as I am thinking of making them al limited issues with no reprint. Cheques or p.o.'s for £3.00 and make payable to Andy Roberts should be sent to 84 Elland Road, Brighouse, West Yorkshire, HD6 2QR. I'm always pleased to speak or write to fellow ISB-ophiles and can therefore also be reached by 'phone on (0484) 721993, and there's an answer phone if I'm not there. Hope you all enjoy it......

Printed by U.R.C Printing, Park United Reformed Church, Francis Stret, Halifax. HX1 5JY. (0422 345422 FAX. (0422 381025)

Why's, wherefores... and worries

Or: It's my first String Band Fanzine, honest officer

Why? Why an Incredible String Band publication after all this time? Does the world really need a magazine devoted to what many people consider to be outmoded hippie music? Well, Why not? and Because! are the answers which spring readily to mind. Part of it is personal, I first got in to the String Band in 1973 and over the years they have been one of my few musical tastes which hasn't diminished or vanished completely. Quite the reverse in fact and lately the availability of the CD re-issues , replacing scratched vinyl, prompted me to search out information on the band, finding that besides the news clippings from the music press, which are hard to come by, there was little written anywhere. Fanzines and music biographies of most other major music forces exist and you can read about the life and works of everyone from Kevin Ayers to Led Zeppelin but the Incredible String Band remain like an iceberg, with most of the information hidden from view. So, hence 'Be Glad...'

How, and just how exactly what, can you write about the Incredible String Band? Writing about music is rather like dancing about film and unless you're the late, great Lester Bangs it can easily sound sycophantic or pseudish. But anyway we're going to have to have a go and see what comes out. The writers have already amply demonstrated their deep affection for the String Band, and are fans in the true sense of the word. Even Paul Bryant's piece, which attracted criticism from those who saw it prior to publication, is a valid point of view written by a devoted and involved fan.

But the music? Even in the late '60s, when strange music was the norm and weirdness expected, writers were confused as to how to pigeonhole the String Band. 'Once again - is it folk?' headlined a 1968 article by Melody Maker's Karl Dallas in which he tried to dissect their appeal priority to what must have been their first american tour Dallas summed up by writing:

"America is about to get something of a surprise. Having tried with electric rock and all manner of psychedelic tricks to create a music which expresses what is going on in Haight Ashbury and the minds of all its young people, among them these two Scots arrive like missionaries, to explain to them what it is all about."

The best psychedelic music (if that's how you see the ISB) is simple, uncluttered but s-t-r-a-n-g-e and the String Band hit the mark there and in that, together with their spontaneity and creativity, lies the heart of their continued attraction.

And let's face it, when you were young the ISB were the band you could be into for maximum credibility, listening to them set you apart from everyone else, made you different from the massed ranks of pop and 'progressive' music fans. If your mum heard you listening to something like Can, Faust, Pink Floyd or some of the more, ahem, 'loud' bands such as Black Sabbath she would surely know you were bound straight for hell and a drug habit of national debt inducing proportions.

On the other hand, if she heard you listening to the String Band she'd be completely fooled. Nice boys, lovely voices and choruses you could sing along to. She'd pass by your bedroom and continue with the hoovering. But what she's miss would be the haunting lyrics telling of the plain oddness of life, and the love songs that you could relate to 'cos they weren't all "ooh baby I've got the hots for you". They were tunes that sounded simple, folky even, but which embedded themselves in your cerebreal cortex and became a part of your life, the general air of out and out s-t-r-a-n-g-e-n-e-s-s that pervaded much of their (especially earlier) recordings being an acquired taste, but one which when acquired couldn't be satisfied.

Moroccan clay drums, Gimbri, Oud, chahahai - what? This was all before even the idea of 'world music' of course. Back in the 1960's there was no Andy Kershaw show, no 'WOMAD' festivals and you couldn't just pop down to Virgin Records for the latest Carter Family retrospective or whatever. You made your own amusement then and Robin and Mike virtually invented the notion of world music - but took it one step further and integrated it with their own musical styles, experiences, personal and group mythologies. This stuff was no mere world music - pastiche or even genuine imitation - it was new world music and the new world was that of the late sixties cultural revolution. And for that the String Band produced acoustic music for mind and body.

The String Band's music wasn't something you had on in the background at parties (ever tried playing something like 'Creation' while attempting a serious discussion?', and that probably accounts why people either loved it or hated it. It was music you had to sit down and listen to, every note and every word. True, it often didn't make much sense and that was the joy of it, you and your friends could draw your own interpretation and meaning from the lyric and..... well I'm sure you know what I mean.

There are however problems inherent in writing about a band and their music. How not to offend anybody. That's one. And the mention of the dreaded word 'bootlegs'; that's another. Well the 'Be Glad...' editorial position on these things is whie we're here to write hagiographic material (look it up!). If people have opinions about some aspect of the String Band's work then we will have no compunction in printing those opinions. If people have given quotes in interviews (which are afer all for the sole purpose of being transcribed and printed) nthen we have no qualms about usin those also. The very last thing I want for 'Be Glad...' to exist purely to slavishly praise the String Band's work. Robin and Mike created a body of work which was influenced by their lives, beliefs and experiences and it should be open to constructive criticism in the way that ant other body of written work is.

For instance (and at the risk of sounding posey) you wouldn't write about Coleridge's poetry without reflecting on the the fact that he liked long distance walking, the Lake District and opium. Lives affect work and although we will try wherever possible to concentrate on the music, it has to be said that you cannot entirely segregate the personal lives and beliefs of a group of musicians totally from the music they create; and a case in point here is obviously Robin's personal interest in Celtic mythology and his current body of recorded and performed work. Personally I don't believe that you can entirely segregate the personal lives and beliefs of a group of musicians totally from the music they create. And nor should you, if the music of the last three decades years is to be taken as seriously as literature or classical music.

Whilst the String Band haven't attracted bootlegs in the same fashion as Neil Young, Dylan and the Dead have, there are a number of audience and radio tapes in circulation. There is no point denying or trying to cover this fact up. They exist. People listen to them and exchange them. And derive enormous satisfaction from doing so. It doesn't deprive Robin and Mike of royalties and in fact only bring more interest in their music and work. In some cases the existence of bootleg tapes is positively beneficial - for the new 'In Concert' album for instance wouldn't exist in its present form if it had not been for a bootlegger who supplied a DAT copy of the BBC quarter inch master tape. Providing no one makes any profit from these tapes they can only enhance the String Band's reputation and give those people who never saw them live a hint of what the experience could be.

Scientology seems to be another problem area. But even a cursory reading of the mountain of music press cuttings available on the band demonstrates an overwhelming fascination with their interest in Scientology, blaming said interest on everything from the perceived weaknesses of the post -'Wee Tam' albums to their eventual break up in 1974. Many fans I have spoken to and corresponded with also seem to think that. That's their right, their problem even. People have always had to have some 'Aunt Sally' for their prejudices and beliefs, but in truth there were many, many more factors which changed the ISB more than Scientology. However, it undeniably affected their music in that (at least) it was what was responsible for their survival in the cut throat world of music which was littered with the wastage of people who died, burnt out creatively or didn't make it in so many other ways.

As Robin himself says in a 1989 issue of the Scientology magazine 'Celebrity',

"Without being melodramatic I can honestly say that I owe my continued creativity and ability to function as an artist to Scientology".

And note what Mike Heron says in the Paul Bryant article.

So the doubters and detractors would do well to think about that when listening to such masterpieces as 'Five Denials on Merlins Grave'. Like the bootleg tapes Scientology is a fact of the String Band's existence and instead of shying away from daring to mention it I would far rather attempt to get a definitive ISB/Scientology interview and lay its ghost to rest forever. But it is a religious belief and due respect must be shown when dealing with such things.

So what does 'Be Glad...' hope to do? Well, if we get past issue one (!), I'd like the magazine to act as a running archive for the Incredible String Band, to be a focus for information, Opinions, experiences and in fact anything which will lead to a full and complete history of the band. One day perhaps someone will use the information in it for a definitive biography of the ISB. In practice and if possible this means interviews with former band members and other connected people, publishing photographs, reviewing re-issues and doing features on them, in short pretty much the same as any other music 'zine does.

Additionally I would like to cover musics connected with the String Band. Clive Palmer and his various ventures and ../Other Artists/Dr Strangely Strange spring immediately to mind and there are quite a few others. And the music which influenced the String Band's in the first place ought not to be forgotten either. I welcome suggestions and ideas from readers on what should and shouldn't be included in the pages of future reissues.

And so to now. The String Band re-issue revival aside both of them are still recording and performing. Williamson tours the U.K. with alarming regularity, featuring his own brand of 'new traditional' music, following in the footsteps of a long line of bards and storytellers communicating atmosphere and information through the medium of stories and music. Heron is still writing for other people and has a band which plays occasionally. I've had the pleasure of hearing a studio tape of the latest material which is unmistakably Mike Heron. Look out for one song in particular called 'Jack of Hearts'. And there are other things afoot which will be of interest to Incredible String Band fans and these will be revealed in due course.

If you have any information on any aspect of the Incredible String Band's career I'd certainly like to hear from you; press cuttings, original photographs, posters, handbills, videos, reminiscences, 'rare recordings'... in fact anything whatsoever at all. This benefits us all. Hitherto scarce or unknown information gets to be shared amongst readers and also stuff turns up which is useful for re-issues.

So, here we are, we exist and our continued existence depends on you. If you might know anyone who might subscribe or a record shop which might sell the magazine let me know. Hopefully in future issues the production and appearance of the magazine will improve and I'd be interested in hearing from anyone with ideas on that score.

The String Band influenced a whole generation in a lasting way. Never again can a String Band fan look at a pig without thinking of 'Big Ted', think about the idea of Biblical creation without humming 'Adam and Eve' or have a sleepless night without musing on 'No Sleep Blues'. The list is endless and admit it, you're hooked aren't you, still, even after all these years. If you are a newcomer to the ISB's music the time is just right, the music and the information is all coming together at once and.......well, I could go on but it's time to stop now and see what others have to say.

One final thing. The Incredible String Band turned the universe into a multiverse and music has never been quite the same since Enjoy it and be glad, for the song really does have no ending.

Free

The shiny piece of paper which dropped in your cornflakes as you opened 'Be Glad' was not in fact an offer from Time Life trying to get you to subscribe to a ten volume set titles 'The Pyramids Are Good - This is Why'. It was in fact your free facsimile Incredible String Band concert handbill. This particularly fab item was originally done to advertise the Brighton Dome gig, 8th November 1969, and is a fantastic piece of artwork by Nigel Weymouth. Something to frame and put on your wall. I don't know any details about the setlist but if it was half as good as the flier suggests well....

There were (apparently) a great many exquisitely produced String Band concert handbills and fliers over the years and I hope to include such an item in each issue. So if any of you out there have any more tasty morsels I could use please let me know.

Wants

I have a duplicate original program for the 'U' performance. Eight pages with colour cover, photo of ISB and cast in centrefold, song list and all relevant details. A period piece and most sought-after. I am interested in exchanging this item for any similar sort of ISB memorabilia.

Also I have a duplicate ISB concert program, white with poems by Robin and Mike, a photo and piece by Joe Boyd. And the 'Wee Tam' program, A4 sized, 'pan' on the front, poems by Robin, band photograph and 'some stories'. All amazing stuff, in good condition, Open to all exchange offers. Write to Andy at the editorial address.

News and Rumours of News

Where to start? Well, stimulated by the success of the String band re-issues Mike Heron put together an acoustic band earlier this year consisting of two acoustic guitars, fretless bass and percussion. They have done a few gigs so far and are hoping to record an album next year using producer Hugh Murphy.

Robin Williamson returns to the USA in December, after gigging consistently here over the summer, and will not be touring here again until next June. One of his last gigs will be in Edinburgh where he is playing a benefit concert in aid of the Holy Island Project and I quote from the flyer,

"Holy Island, off the west coast of the Scottish mainland in the Firth of Clyde, is at present being redeveloped as a place of all faiths and cultures in the light of its long spiritual heritage in the Celtic and Christian traditions". The gig is at the St. Bridges Centre, 10 Orwell Terrace, Edinburgh, (031 346 1405). Tickets are £6.