Bloomsbury on CD

Back Again in Bloomsbury

The Incredible String Band 17 August 2000

After the debacle of the Edinburgh reunion, I was somewhat worried about what would lie in store. As a result I only bought a ticket for the first day of the two-night stint. Well, I was to be so cynical. the Bloomsbury Theatre is a marvellous venue as shown at the October 1997 gig and already the evening was better than Edinburgh and that was before the band had even appeared. 

The personnel were the same but, otherwise, this was not the same band that struggled through the chill of Edinburgh. Everything was so much more together. Mike was part of the band, played keyboards and harmonica but no guitar. Clive Palmer added 12-string guitar to banjo and Northumbrian pipes. Lawson Dando on piano and Bina Williamson fitted in well, adding to the mix. Robin Williamson limited himself to guitar, violin, whistle and mandolin. 

The choice of material was pleasantly surprising. With the exception of Mike's Painting Box and the encore, the selections had not generally been played by Robin or Mike solo or during the 1997 reunion. 5000 Spirits was well represented with Chinese White opening the show to be followed by Ducks on a Pond. Clearly the criticism from December had been taken on board and we were due for an evening of String favourites, but the ones they didn't usually play. So no room for First Girl I Loved, Maya, 1968 or Log Cabin Home in the Sky, all of which had been played over the 26 years since the band split. Nevertheless, there was room for some other tracks including Robin's Dylan Thomas song and Ivan Pawle's Strings of the Earth and Air. 

A particular highlight of the evening and the final song of the first half was Mike's This Moment from I Looked Up. This brought a wide smile to every face I could see. Lawson Dando's contribution was noteworthy in the second half opener Waltz of the New Moon. Clive Palmer had only been present on the first album and missed out on the String Band's later success. However, he became more integrated by taking many of the guitar parts while Mike was on keyboard and harmonica. When it came to Air from The Wee Tam, it was Clive that took the lead vocals.

There was a return to the 1960s, not not that song, but towards the end of the evening, Robin invited ten members of the audience on to the stage to play bells and whistles for his monologue of the Smoke Shovelling Song. 

The second encore was one of the high points of the evening. Williamson returned alone to announce that the band had no more songs prepared. He played October Song for us and it sounded better than ever and certainly even better than the original version. What a way to finish.

The second night at the Bloomsbury should be even better. Only wish I was there!

Tracks played included:

• Chinese White

• Ducks on a Pond

• Painting Box

• The Eyes of Fate

• Air

• Waltz of the New Moon

• This Moment

• You Know What You Could Be

• Maker of Islands

• Empty Pocket Blues

• You've Been a Friend to Me

• October Song

Martin Payne

The Guardian Unlimited

Music for communes

Incredible String Band Bloomsbury Theatre, London ***

Adam Sweeting

Saturday August 19, 2000

One of the last releases from the Incredible String Band before they fizzled out in 1974 was called No Ruinous Feud. That must have been wishful thinking, because it has taken founder members Robin Williamson and Mike Heron nearly 30 years to pull the band back together.

Anybody unfamiliar with the group's mystique and mythology would have been bewildered by this performance. With the beaming, bearded Williamson acting as a benign master of ceremonies, the new-look five-piece Incredibles pottered erratically around the hinterlands of their back catalogue, like a group of people waking slowly from a deep, enchanted sleep. One thing they had clearly forgotten about was rehearsing, since they made up lumps of this set as they went along, and none too successfully either. Bina, Williamson's wife, had to keep rummaging in her handbag for the band's set list.

Still, it is rather refreshing to witness a performance of such shambling ineptitude (with the honourable exception of Lawson Dando's keyboards). It floated past on such a powerful tide of nostalgic good vibes that it barely mattered what they played or how they played it. At the end of the 60s, the String Band's menu of wispy hippy mysticism and nimble folk-based musicianship won them a quasi-religious following, which is obviously only waiting to be reawakened.

To the unbeliever, much of the material is ripe for ridicule, with its elfin lyrics about magic Christmas trees, painting boxes, ducks on the pond and how each moment is different. However, while Mike Heron's voice seems to have vanished altogether and banjo player Clive Palmer has been stricken with lumbago, Williamson himself offered glimpses of the breadth of his repertoire. He included In My Craft or Sudden Art, with words by Dylan Thomas, prodded the ensemble through Strings in the Earth and Air (lyrics by James Joyce), and made a reasonable stab at some sprightly Scottish folk instrumentals, with Palmer wheezing gamely on the Northumbrian pipes.

For the Smoke Shovelling Song, Williamson invited volunteers on stage to blow whistles and ring bells. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the entire audience has now gone to live on a commune in Wales.