Dr. Strangely Strange are an Irish

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...

folk group Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has bee ...

, formed in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

in 1967 by Tim Booth (born 6 September 1943,

County Kildare County Kildare () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It is named after the town of Kildare. Kildare County Council is the Local gove ...

, Ireland), vocals and guitar, and Ivan Pawle (born 17 August 1943, England), bass and keyboards.

Career

After playing an initial 1967 Trinity College gig with guitarist Humphrey Weightman, and some 1968 gigs with keyboard player/vocalist Brian Trench, Booth and Pawle teamed up with multi-instrumentalist Tim Goulding (born 15 May 1945, Hatch Street,

), vocals, recorder and keyboards, at that time an aspiring painter. Goulding and Pawle were living and rehearsing in a Lower Mount Street house rented by Goulding's girlfriend, "Orphan Annie" Mohan, which its tenants nicknamed "The Orphanage". Tim Booth later lived in a second Orphanage in Sandymount, Dublin. The two Orphanages became a springboard for a new generation of Irish rock, helping launch the careers of

Thin Lizzy Thin Lizzy are an Irish rock band formed in Dublin in 1969. The band initially consisted of bass guitarist, lead vocalist and principal songwriter Phil Lynott, drummer Brian Downey, guitarist Eric Bell and organist Eric Wrixon although Wr ...

Phil Lynott Philip Parris Lynott (, ; 20 August 1949 – 4 January 1986) was an Irish musician, songwriter, and poet. He was the co-founder, lead vocalist, bassist, and primary songwriter for the hard rock band Thin Lizzy. He was known for his distinctive ...

Gary Moore Robert William Gary Moore (4 April 19526 February 2011) was a Northern Irish musician. Over the course of his career, he played in various groups and performed a range of music including blues, blues rock, hard rock, Heavy metal music, heavy ...

and others. Percussionist/vocalist Caroline "Linus" Greville joined the band for two brief periods in 1968 and 1969.

often sat in on live shows in this time as well, before he joined

Skid Row A skid row, also called skid road, is an impoverished area, typically urban, in English-speaking North America whose inhabitants are mostly poor people " on the skids". This specifically refers to people who are poor or homeless, considered disre ...

, augmenting the band on various instruments. After signing with the

Incredible String Band Incredible may refer to: Music Albums * ''Incredible'' (Clique Girlz album) or the title song, 2008 * ''Incredible'' (Gary Puckett & The Union Gap album), 1968 * ''Incredible'' (Ilse DeLange album), 2008 * ''Incredible'' (Mary Mary album) or ...

's producer and manager

Joe Boyd Joe Boyd (born August 5, 1942) is an American record producer and writer. He formerly owned Hannibal Records. Boyd has worked with Pink Floyd, Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny who was in Fairport Convention, Richard Thompson, Nick Drake, The ...

, Dr Strangely Strange debuted in 1969 with ''Kip of the Serenes''. The album was produced by Boyd. Later in the year Pawle guested on the Incredible String Band's '' Changing Horses'' album. Linus was asked to leave to cut down on touring costs at the end of 1969, after some early recording sessions for the next LP. The band became popular on the UK college circuit, playing support slots the length and breadth of the UK. Their second album, ''Heavy Petting'', was released in September 1970 and included

Dave Mattacks David James Mattacks (born 13 March 1948) is an English rock and folk drummer, best known for his work with British folk rock band Fairport Convention. Fairport Convention He replaced Martin Lamble, who had died on 12 May 1969 in a road ac ...

on drums and a returning

on lead guitar. In summer 1970, at a Burton-on-Trent concert, they enlisted drummer Neil Hopwood. Goulding left at the start of 1971 to briefly study Buddhism at Samye Ling monastery and then work on his painting career. Pawle and Booth teamed with

Gay Woods Gay Woods (18 September 1948) is an Irish singer. She was one of the original members of Steeleye Span. Early years Gabriel Corcoran was born in Dublin, a neighbour of her future husband Terry Woods. Her elder brothers shared Woods' love of ...

and

Terry Woods Terence Woods (born 4 December 1947) is an Irish folk musician, songwriter/singer and multi-instrumentalist. He is known for his membership in such folk and folk- rock groups as the Pogues, Steeleye Span, Sweeney's Men, the Bucks, Dr. St ...

for a six-week European tour, but Dr Strangely Strange began falling apart. The group disbanded in May 1971, after playing a concert with

Al Stewart Alastair Ian Stewart (born 5 September 1945) is a British singer-songwriter and folk-rock musician who rose to prominence as part of the British folk revival in the 1960s and 1970s. He developed a unique style of combining folk-rock songs wi ...

at London's

Drury Lane Theatre The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London, England. The building faces Catherine Street (earlier named Bridges or Brydges Street) and backs onto Dru ...

. Booth and Pawle felt the combination was not working, and there were tensions in the band. The Woods explained: "We said that if the Strangelies hadn't gotten it together during the time we were on the Continent then we would leave, because six weeks of gigging should pull a band tighter. Unfortunately, instead of getting together, they were getting looser".

Reunions, reissues, and later releases

Tim Booth, Ivan Pawle, and Tim Goulding reunited in 1972 for an Irish tour. Tim Booth led a new lineup through 1973. Booth, Goulding, and Ivan Pawle reconvened again in the early 1980s, joined by fiddle/mandolin player Joe Thoma. The four piece lineup of Booth, Goulding, Pawle, and Thoma has remained the core lineup of the band to the present day, although only performing intermittently. In October 1994, the band played at the Griffin Hotel in Leeds as part of an Incredible String Band convention weekend. The band reformed to record a third album in 1996.

guested again. In 2005, the group performed an acoustic gig in a cabbage patch as part of a wake for Annie Christmas, of the "Orphanage" house on Sandymount, Dublin, where the band used to live. On 16 June 2007, the band regrouped for a Bloomsday concert at London’s

12 Bar Club The 12 Bar Club was a music venue in London that opened in 1994 on Denmark Street – known as Britain's "Tin Pan Alley" – just off Charing Cross Road and close to Soho. Some of the most famous musicians and groups to play at the 12 ...

to mark the launch of the archive collection ''Halcyon Days''. This was followed by a special homecoming gig in the Sugar Club on Leeson Street, Dublin, Ireland on 1 March 2008. In February 2009, Hux Records reissued ''Kip of the Serenes'' as a Collectors' Edition with four bonus tracks. On 19 July 2009, the band participated in the Witchseason Weekender (featuring artists from Joe Boyd's Witchseason Productions company) at The Barbican, London. They performed a free concert on the foyer stage and then participated in the full Sunday evening concert entitled ''The Music of the Incredible String Band''. October 2011 saw the Hux re-release of ''Heavy Petting'', marked by a launch gig at London’s Jazz Café. A book about the band’s heyday, ''Dr Strangely Strange – Fitting Pieces To The Jigsaw'' (Adrian Whittaker) was published in 2019, with extensive contributions from Pawle, Booth and Goulding. In October 2022, American label, Think Like A Key Records, released the ''Radio Sessions'' album, compiled from

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

, and Danish radio broadcasts from 1970 & 1971. The CD edition includes a 1970 rehearsal track with

from the ''Heavy Petting'' sessions.

Later events

Outside the band, Tim Goulding has become a successful artist & painter, Tim Booth became a graphic designer and made animated films, while Ivan Pawle ran a laundrette. Humphrey Weightman moved to England and became a graphic designer. Neil Hopwood went on to join the

Sutherland Brothers The Sutherland Brothers (Gavin and Iain Sutherland) were a Scottish folk and soft rock duo. From 1973 to 1978, they performed with rock band Quiver, and recorded and toured as Sutherland Brothers & Quiver. Under this combined moniker, the gr ...

Band, and then R. Cajun And The Zydeco Bros.

and

returned to performing as

The Woods Band The Woods Band was an Irish folk-rock band formed in 1970 by husband and wife team Gay & Terry Woods, shortly after their departure from Steeleye Span, before evolving into Gay & Terry Woods. In 2001, Terry Woods formed a new band and named ...

, then continuing on as Gay & Terry Woods. Gay later co-founded

Auto Da Fé Auto may refer to: Vehicles * An automobile, or car * An autonomous car, a self-driving car * An auto rickshaw Mechanisms * Short for automatic * An automaton * An automatic transmission Media * Auto (art), a form of Portuguese dramatic play * ...

while Terry joined

The Pogues The Pogues are an English Celtic punk band founded in King's Cross, London, in 1982, by Shane MacGowan, Spider Stacy and Jem Finer. Originally named Pogue Mahone—an anglicisation of the Irish language, Irish phrase :wikt:póg mo thóin, ''p� ...

. Friend of the band

joined

, and then achieved considerable success as a solo artist before dying from a heart attack on 6 February 2011 (aged 58).

Discography

* ''Kip of the Serenes'' (

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in Jamaica by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in 1959, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another ...

, July 1969) (reissued with bonus tracks 2009,

Hux Records Hux Records is a British record label based in England, which was launched in 1998. They specialise in releasing old material, especially in unreleased BBC recordings such as John Peel Sessions and BBC Radio 1 concerts. Hux has gained a repu ...

) * ''Heavy Petting'' (

Vertigo Records Vertigo Records is a British record company. It was a subsidiary of the Philips/Phonogram record label, launched in 1969 to specialise in progressive rock and other non-mainstream musical styles. Today, it is operated by Universal Music Group#B ...

, 1970) (reissued with bonus tracks 2011,

) * ''Alternative Medicine'' ( Big Beat Records, 1997) * ''Halcyon Days'' (

, 2007) * ''Radio Sessions'' (Think Like A Key Records, 2022) * ''Anti-Inflammatory'' (Think Like A Key Records, 2025)

References

External links

Discography at Discogs.com

Adrian Whittaker's Dr. Strangely Strange Page

{{Authority control Irish folk musical groups Musical groups established in 1967 Musical groups from Dublin (city) Psychedelic folk groups Island Records artists Vertigo Records artists 1967 establishments in Ireland 1960s in Irish music 1970s in Irish music