Mike Heron

Biography

Mike Heron (born James Michael Heron, 27 December 1942, Edinburgh) is a Scottish singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, best known for his work in the The Incredible String Band in the 1960s and 1970s. Heron began by playing in R&B and pop bands in Edinburgh, including The Saracens. In late 1965 he successfully auditioned to join a new trio, The Incredible String Band, with Robin Williamson and Clive Palmer. While with ISB, Heron released a solo recording, Smiling Men with Bad Reputatio...

Mike Heron (born James Michael Heron, 27 December 1942, Edinburgh) is a Scottish singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, best known for his work in the The Incredible String Band in the 1960s and 1970s.

Heron began by playing in R&B and pop bands in Edinburgh, including The Saracens. In late 1965 he successfully auditioned to join a new trio, The Incredible String Band, with Robin Williamson and Clive Palmer.

While with ISB, Heron released a solo recording, Smiling Men with Bad Reputations, released in 1971. This took eclecticism to a new extreme, blending rock, folk and world music into an atmospheric whole. Contributing musicians included Pete Townshend, Keith Moon, Duncan Browne and Ronnie Lane (as "Tommy & The Bijoux"!), John Cale, Richard Thompson, Dave Mattacks, Simon Nicol, Dave Pegg, Dudu Pukwana, Elton John, and Steve Winwood.

After the ISB broke up in 1974, Heron formed his own band, Mike Heron's Reputation, with three other members of the final "electric" ISB line-up - Graham Forbes, John Gilston, and Malcolm Le Maistre. Later known simply as Heron, the band recorded and toured until 1977.

In 1977/78, while still living in the Glen Row cottage near Innerleithen which had been the Incredible String Band's home and headquarters, Heron recorded songs which were eventually issued as The Glen Row Tapes. In 1979, he released a solo album on Casablanca Records, but then withdrew from performance for several years. In the 1990s he re-emerged with a new group, Mike Heron's Incredible Acoustic Band, and released the album Where The Mystics Swim.

In 1997 he reunited with Williamson for some concerts, and from 1999 to 2006 performed occasionally with a reformed version of the Incredible String Band.

He has also recorded a song with his daughter Georgia Seddon, based on a poem by John Burnside, for the Ballads of the Book album released in March 2007.

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