Psychedelic survival
Muse, Odalisque, Handmaiden
A Girl’s Life In The Incredible String Band
Rose Simpson
Strange Attractor Press 2021
Pb, 264pp, £17.50, ISBN 9781907222672
The Incredible String Band’s short career, 1966-1971, saw the release of eight albums and a unique performance legacy. Combining the exemplary musicianship of Mike Heron and Robin Williamson, music hall histrionics and outlandish theatre, the band embodied the sound and look of British hippie culture. Rose Simpson’s frank account of her life in the band may disappoint readers seeing lost opportunities in the “flower power” past; any nostalgia is tempered by the reality of touring and her role as housekeeper to Heron and Williamson’s psychedelic lifestyle. Her commitment to the band remains, however, profoundly endearing and it seems the early days were full of joy, yet she pulls no punches in discussing the alienation she experienced as their countercultural status grew. This is very much a memoir that reads as a survival manual.
Encountering the band in 1967, Simpson soon abandons her student life at York University becoming enamoured with the romance of mystical questing and the psychedelic lifestyle on offer. Her early days with ISB see her carried along in the wake of Heron as they embark on communal life in Wales and Scotland and venture into the kaleidoscopic world of groovy London under the tutelage of their manager, the unrepentantly hip Joe Boyd. As Heron and Williamson’s
