Clive Palmer - Biography
By Nick Castro
Clive Palmer is a British folk banjo player and singer, born in North London, who has been performing for over 50 years. He was a founding member of the Incredible String Band, even coining their name along with C.O.B.'s and Famous Jug Band's. His influence on modern folk music has been enormous. His style is firmly rooted in early jazz, ragtime, minstrelsy, vaudeville and bluegrass with a touch of middle eastern travel. He is one of the last and longest living members of the early beatnik-turned-hippy folk scene of the early 60's, which included Wizz Jones, yet, like Jones, is not a hippie himself. Palmer is more of a folk purist than a songwriter usually choosing to do interpretations of traditional tunes.
In the late 50's Palmer began busking with Jones at age 16 but had already been playing for a few years in jazz bands. He was a prodigy on the banjo and a master by the time he moved to Edinburgh in 1962 at the young age of 19. Right away he was spending time with Robin Williamson, Bert Jansch and Hamish Imlach. Palmer and Williamson began playing as a duo mainly doing traditional scottish songs in an old timey style. It was around this time that Palmer decided to open the Incredible Folk Club in the fifth floor of an old building that only had a tiny elevator and no stairs. Police later shut it down for fire violations but for the short year it existed it was a stage to not only performers like Jones, Imlach, Williamson, Jansch and Palmer but it was also home to many happenings of the time and strange sets of people. It was wildly successful while in business and is where American producer Joe Boyd first saw Palmer and Williamson perform as a duo. This was before he was heading up Elektra's UK division. Later he returned in search of the duo, once he attained his new job, and found them as three. Palmer and Williamson had felt the need to fill out their sound with a strummer. Though originally not chosen from his audition, but later called back after the first choice did not work out, Mike Heron became the third member of what Clive would call the Incredible String Band. They were meant to be a sort of house band at the Incredible Folk Club and were sometimes billed as Clive's Incredible String Band. Boyd offered them a record deal with Elektra as the Incredible String Band and they recorded their first album The Incredible String Band (1966 - Elektra). By the time the record was recorded Palmer was having less of a role in the group as they moved from the old style of playing and started to concentrate on original material, some say upon Boyd's insistence. Palmer took his share of the proceeds from the record and quickly left for Afghanistan and India. The Incredible String Band broke up temporarily before Heron and Williamson reunited to continue what would become a hugely important group of the era.
Palmer's journey took him east for a short while as he soaked up the culture and the music. Upon his return he was invited to rejoin what had become a very popular duo but he declined deciding instead to record an album of banjo tunes which would not see daylight until 2006 when it would be released as Banjoland (2006 - Sunbeam). It is an incredible collection of tunes but due to it's singular vision and choice of material it was not readily accessible to the masses.
In 1968 Palmer moved to Cornwall and worked as a woodworker all the while working on material for the Famous Jug Band who released an album called Sunshine Possibilities (1969 - Liberty) and then another called Chameleon (1970 - Liberty). Famous Jug Band became a sort of group of musicians' musicians. They had moderate success otherwise with the albums but soon disbanded. Palmer would forge on and start C.O.B., which is said to either mean Clive's Own Band or Clive's Original Band. They released Spirit of Love (1970 - CBS), which was produced by Ralph McTell, and Moyshe Mcstiff & Tartan Lancers of the Sacred Heart (1972 - Polydor Folk Mill).
C.O.B. would soon disband and Palmer wouldn't record another record until 1978 when he would record Just Me (1978 - Autogram). He then moved to Brittany and didn't appear live much until the 90's when he reunited with Williamson and Heron. He has since released an album of new material both solo, All Roads Lead to Land (2004 - Communion), and with the Famous Jug Band, Oh For Summer (2006 - Beat Goes On). Palmer can still be seen touring with the Incredible String Band and sometimes as a dup with new Incredible String Band member, Lawson Dando.