'All this world is but a play...' by Peter Leyland
'All this world is but a play... Alan, an old friend from Liverpool who featured in a piece I wrote for AuthorsElectric in 2023, took this photograph at The Queen Elizabeth Hall in September this year. Yet when I asked more recent acquaintances, do you remember The Incredible String Band ? I was met with blank looks, and I found that nobody did remember them much at all. I think that on reflection they were a musical phenomenon which happened in the late sixties, appearing as if from nowhere, making a few cherished albums, and then disappearing like shooting stars, their force all spent. Or was it? At the Celebration of the Incredible String Band last month, I met up with Alan at the performance and we sat together afterwards discussing the concert and old times. I then thought I would put together my own retrospective of what they meant to me at the time and in some respects still do today. I’ll start with Alan’s comments about the 'Celebration' w...