Another musical post from Jack – –
Back around 1964 my old singing partner Barbara Dickson and I shared the stage a few times with a couple of guys called ‘Robin and Clive’ (Robin Williamson and Clive Palmer). They played regularly in a club in Edinburgh – Robin singing Irish and Scottish songs and playing guitar, while Clive played banjo and sang Appalachian songs and blues. They were at the forefront of things and very, very good!
They were so good that they were signed up to make a recording. So they decided to recruit a third person and give themselves a collective name. The third member was selected after auditions were held – unheard of then in the world of folk music! The successful applicant was Mike Heron, whose previous experience was in rock groups – he had played at the notorious ‘Snakepit’ near my hometown. The name they chose was ‘The Incredible String Band.’
Their first album was a big hit and created a stir outside of the folk world. There are reports that the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were influenced by them, and there’s another report that Bob Dylan said that Robin’s ‘October Song’ was “quite good” (maybe Robin didn’t know that that means very good in America).
But Clive wasn’t happy with the group’s direction, so he headed off on the ‘hippie trail’ to India and beyond.
Time to prepare for more prestigious gigs and more records. Robin and Mike recruited their girlfriends, Licorice McKechnie (yes, that was her name) and Rose Simpson. They quickly learned to play various instruments proficiently, and the band became a foursome.
The next thing was being booked for Woodstock, which didn’t go too well – – –
But they continued to tour and played many big concerts at famous venues.
I’m a big fan and always have been from their very earliest days – here they are, and it was hard to pick just one, but it has to be this: The Incredible String Band: “This Moment”
Next week, more from Jack
