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beGLAD: An Incredible String Band
Compendium

Edited by Adrian Whittaker

(Helter Skelter Publishing, Ł16.99, 448pp.)

Compendium-type volumes produced by fan clubs or fanzines are often scrappily produced, dismally sycophantic affairs that shed little useful light on their subjects; beGLAD: An Incredible String Band Compendium (Helter Skelter Publishing, Ł16.99, 448pp.), edited by Adrian Whittaker, a Dalston resident, no less, is an honourable exception.

Comprised of painstakingly assembled articles culled from the ISB magazine of the title, the book follows the extraordinarily influential band from its first gigs in Edinburgh with Clive Palmer, through the rich vein of superlative recordings of the Joe Boyd period, their communal-living experiments in Wales and Scotland and their conversion to Scientology, to their subsequent demise.

Not that any of this is that simple: the book's great strength is in its unflinching engagement with nuance and detail, so that no stone (including the iron one, or the one beneath the wall) is left unturned, even if (as with 'misguided' moments, such as the dance-drama U or the odd incorporation of Gerard Dott into the post-Scientology ISB) the result is less than happy happy happy all the time time time.

As usual (see elsewhere in the Books section for a review of his own memoir), Joe Boyd sums up the ISB's appeal most perceptively: he talks of their 'unashamed idealism', of their 'playing a kind of world music fusion two decades before anyone heard the phrase', 'their effortless drawing together of Scots folk music, Appalachian fiddle tunes, Middle Eastern and Balkan music and a twisted kind of psychedelic folk music'; such a broad, deep view, however, is tellingly complemented throughout this fascinating book by a series of surprisingly frank, but passionately committed first-hand eye-witness accounts from unashamed fans of the band of key events in ISB lore.

There are also in-depth interviews with the likes of Rose Simpson, Malcolm Le Maistre et al. as well as with Mike Heron and Robin Williamson, and the result is a totally absorbing read that not only tells the most curious fan everything he or she could reasonably wish to know about the ISB, but also (most importantly) draws the reader, courtesy of mouth-watering descriptions of the music contained in them, irresistibly back to the classic albums: 5000 Spirits, The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter and Wee Tam and the Big Huge.