Chester, the place where a rebirth of the ISB took place. The crowd left smiling, smiling even more than Mike after a magnificent performance that drew almost entirely on the first five albums (counting, I think, Wee Tam and the Big Huge as two albums). As Mike said in introduction, this was going to be an unashamed Incredible String Band evening - and so it proved!

This new line up is excellent and, what's more, its a band, working together with good arrangements and obviously enjoying themselves much more than was the case during, say, the last tour. They managed to reproduce not just the songs (and surprisingly given the absence of one Mr Williamson, the voices), but also the atmosphere of the best of the concerts of the 1968-71 period (a bold claim, but true).

The new member of the band, Fluff, is a very accomplished musician and her vocals add to the already fine harmonies of the other three. She contributed to the vintage ISB practice of having a large variety of instruments picked up played and discarded during a song - greater variety than I've seen (or heard) in many a long year. A classic of this was Water Song which was mind-bogglingly beautiful! This included a string instrument (obviously brand new) played by Lawson but whose name Clive did not know. Others can list the instruments but they were many and varied.

I'm not going to go through the play list but must comment on the difference between the way this band approached the songs which had also been played by the band on the last tour. This time there was enthusiasm, fun, bounce, oomph! and not just a sense of going through the notes in roughly the correct order. The arrangements were excellent, including some very new ones - for example This Moment, and A Very Cellular Song was great followed by a rousing Black Jack Davy as an encore. The time zipped past and the end came far too soon. (Personal favourites - Cousin Caterpillar, Ducks on a Pond (Clive on lead vocals - just great!), Painting Box.

There was something here for everyone who enjoyed the early ISB. For me, sitting in the front row with the band less than 6 feet away, it was like having them playing for me in my living room - perhaps one day!

Have no doubt, those who were not there missed something really magnificent (that honestly is the only word for it) and I only hope that we're all still here long enough to enjoy this many times more.

I could write lots more, but it would all be in the same vein. I'll pass it on to others and respond with other thoughts as they send some back to me. At the moment (yes this moment), I'm still sharing the grin that Glynn and I shared last night! I think this is what we've all been waiting for since the famous Edinburgh reunion...anyone got a spare ticket for Iceland (or want their bags carrying?)

All the best (and it really was)

Alistair McCulloch

Compiled by Martin Payne from mailing list contributions by Alistair McCulloch, Glyn Williams