Incredible String Band

The Incredible String Band
The Incredible String Band (1970)
Background information
Origin	Edinburgh, Scotland
Genres	Psychedelic folk progressive folk electric folk
Years active	1966–1974, 1999–2006
Labels	Elektra, Island
Past members	Mike Heron Robin Williamson Clive Palmer Licorice McKechnie Rose Simpson Malcolm Le Maistre Stan Schnier Jack Ingram Gerard Dott Graham Forbes John Gilston Lawson Dando Bina Williamson Claire Smith

The Incredible String Band (sometimes abbreviated as ISB) were a psychedelic folk band formed in Scotland in 1966. The band built a considerable following, especially within the British counterculture, before splitting up in 1974. The group's members are musical pioneers in psychedelic folk and, by integrating a wide variety of traditional music forms and instruments, in the development of world music. The group reformed in 1999 and continued to perform with changing lineups until 2006.

In 1963, acoustic musicians Robin Williamson and Clive Palmer began performing together as a traditional folk duo in Edinburgh, particularly at a weekly club run by Archie Fisher in the Crown Bar which also regularly featured Bert Jansch. There they were seen in August 1965 by Joe Boyd, then working as a talent scout for the influential folk-based label Elektra Records. Later in the year, the duo decided to fill out their sound by adding a third member, initially to play rhythm guitar. After an audition, local rock musician Mike Heron won the slot. The trio took the name "the Incredible String Band". Early in 1966 Palmer began running an all-night folk club, Clive's Incredible Folk Club, on the fourth floor of a building in Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow, where they became the house band. When Boyd returned in his new role as head of Elektra's London office, he signed them up for an album, beating off a rival bid from Transatlantic Records.

They recorded their first album, entitled The Incredible String Band, at the Sound Techniques studio in London in May 1966. It was released in Britain and the United States and consisted mostly of self-penned material in solo, duo and trio formats, showcasing their playing on a variety of instruments. It won the title of "Folk Album of the Year" in Melody Maker's annual poll, and in a 1968 Sing Out! magazine interview Bob Dylan praised the album's "October Song" as one of his favourite songs of that period, stating it was "quite good".