Mike Heron

Mike Heron, together with Robin Williamson and Clive Palmer, was a founder member of Edinburgh’s Incredible String Band. Formed in 1965, they soon broke from the folk club beginnings they shared with Bert Jansch and Billy Connolly to pioneer an eclectic, ‘world music’ approach. This led to such Witchseason albums as ‘5000 Spirits or The Layers of the Onion’ and ‘The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter’ which propelled them into the Top 5 of the British charts behind the Beatles, Cream and the Rolling Stones. In total, they produced over 14 seminal albums and appeared at the famous Woodstock Festival in 1969. Since the break-up of the ISB in 1974, Mike has continued to write songs in epic quantities (many re-released recently on the Glen Row Tapes CD) and has fronted a variety of bands, most recently his Incredible Acoustic Band. In the late 1990s he, Robin and Clive reformed the Incredible String Band for several years. Mike's solo album 'Where the Mystics Swim' revealed a songwriter forever pushing the boundaries, but retaining his originality, creativity and musical integrity. In 2006 he was commissioned to write music for John Burnside's poem 'Song For Irena' as part of a poetry/music project entitled Ballads Of The Book at Glasgow’s Celtic Connections. More recently he was invited to play at Syd Barrett's tribute in London, a testament to the groundbreaking role Mike has played in the British music scene over four decades.