For once, I found the hidden theme, after completing the grid. It’s centred around one of Puck’s passions. Thanks Puck. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
The INCREDIBLE STRING BAND was formed by CLIVE PALMER and ROBIN WILLIAMSON. The DUO added MIKE HERON as the 3rd member. ROSE Simpson was Mike’s girlfriend. Among their songs was WOMANKIND. And there are other songs of theirs, October Song, The Tree and Smoke Shovelling Song, and an album On Air, incorporated into the clues. And there may be other references I haven’t managed to find.
Across
9 Honest villain seen circling minute 6-foot stage? (5)
IMAGO : IAGO(villainous character in Shakespeare’s Othello with a deceptive reputation of being honest) containing(seen circling) M(abbrev. for “minute”, the time period).
Defn: The last stage in the metamorphosis of an insect (a 6-legged/footed creature).
10 Mischief-maker close at hand (9)
IMPENDING : IMP(a mischievous child) + ENDING(close;the finish).
11 Given glossy coat, tailless llama needed to be replaced (9)
ENAMELLED : Anagram of(… to be replaced) [“llama needed” minus their respective last letters(tailless …) ].
12, 4 Singers that tweet about Prince as former actor (5,8)
ROBIN WILLIAMS : ROBINS(songbirds that tweet, but not on Twitter) containing(about) WILLIAM(Prince of England).
Defn: The late actor.
13 Some guts shown by couple meeting a bad end earlier (7)
DUODENA : DUO(a couple;a pair) plus(meeting) [ A placed after(… earlier) anagram of(bad) END].
Defn: Plural of “duodenum”, the first part of the small intestine.
15 Sold out through saying: “If it can go wrong, it will” (4,3)
SOD’S LAW : Anagram of(… out) SOLD contained in(through) SAW(a saying;an adage).
Defn: Saying that’s also attributed to Murphy.
17 Indian chief, 100, with very bad back (5)
CLIVE : C(Roman numeral for 100) plus(with) reversal of(… back) EVIL(very bad).
Defn: Robert, Commander-in-Chief of British India.
18 Number not good for offspring (3)
SON : “song”(a musical number) minus(not) “g”(abbrev. for”good”).
20 Slovenly Scotswoman needed to get cleaner? “Maybe Someday” covers that (5)
BESOM : Hidden in(… covers that) “Maybe Someday“. And double defn. 1st: A derogatory Scottish word for “woman”; and 2nd: A broom of bundled twigs.
22 His opera briefly involved fruit (7)
ROSEHIP : Anagram of(… involved) “His opera” minus its last letter(briefly).
25 Two articles about underwear in sacred text (7)
AVESTAN : A,AN(2 articles in grammar) containing(about) VEST(an undershirt).l
Defn: The language in which the Avesta, the sacred text of the Zoroastrian religion, is written.
26 Flying fish eater, one whose lover regularly swam north (5)
HERON : HERO(the Greek mythological priestess whose lover, Leander, regularly swam across the Hellespont Strait to be with her) + N(abbrev. for “north”).
Defn: A flying and fish-eating bird.
27 Light colour for soot? (9)
LAMPBLACK : LAMP(a source of light) + BLACK(the darkest colour).
30 Feel inferior? That’s stupid (9)
SENSELESS : SENSE(to feel) + LESS(inferior;lower in, say, importance or degree).
31 One taking snap of beatnik only (5)
NIKON : Hidden in(of) “beatnik only“.
Answer: A brand of Japanese cameras to snap pictures with.
Down
1 Male musician’s first appearance on radio (4)
MIKE : The 1st letter of(…’s first) “musician” in the phonetic alphabet;appearance on radio.
Defn: A masculine proper noun.
2 Son of Scots playing on air? That’s dandy! (8)
MACARONI : MAC(Gaelic for “son of”, hence used as a prefix in some Scottish names) + anagram of(playing) ON AIR.
Defn: One who is excessively concerned with fashion and elegance, in 18C Britain.
3 Male holding very large pipe starts to hum October Song etc (4)
HOSE : Double wordplay. 1st: HE(a male pronoun) containing(holding) OS(abbrev. for “outsize”;very large); and 2nd: The respective 1st letters of(starts to) “hum October Song etc“.
4 See 12
5 Flat point between fringes of Smoke Shovelling suit (6)
SPADES : [ PAD(a flat;an apartment) + E(abbrev. for “east”, a compass point) ] contained in(between) the respective 1st letters of(fringes of)”Smoke Shovelling”.
Defn: … in a deck of playing cards, and also implements for shoveling.
6 King Charles not to be taken outside? Preposterous! (10)
INCREDIBLE : CR(abbrev. for “Charles Rex”;King Charles) contained in(… outside) INEDIBLE(not to be taken;eaten).
7 Drum one doctor found in short story (6)
TIMBAL : [ I(Roman numeral for “one”) + MB(abbrev. for “Medicinae Baccalaureus”;Bachelor of Medicine, a doctor’s degree) ] contained in(found in) “tale”(a story) minus its last letter(short …).
Defn: A kettledrum.
8 Opposed to a mother’s ruin (4)
AGIN : A + GIN(“mother’s ruin”, from 18C England, when the alcoholic beverage was cheap and mostly drunk by women, to their and their families’ ruin).
Defn: …;against.
13 Ornamentation of French horn by Debussy? (5)
DECOR : DE(French for “of”) + COR(what Debussy, the French composer, would call the horn).
14 Like 12, passed as fair (4-6)
EVEN-HANDED : EVEN(like numbers 2, 4, …., 12, ….) + HANDED(passed to someone or something else).
16 Female from Western state (5)
WOMAN : W(abbrev. for”Western”) + OMAN(a Middle-Eastern state).
19 Submarines torpedoed? U-boat’s heading away — close call! (4,4)
NEAR MISS : Anagram of(… torpedoed) “Submarines” minus the respective 1st letters of(…’s heading away) “U-boat“.
21 Delays before second cashier takes dodgy bet (8)
SETBACKS : S(abbrev. for “second”, the time period) placed after(before ….) SACK(to cashier;to fire) containing(takes) anagram of(dodgy) BET.
23 Musician’s essential for group of Arabs? (6)
STRING : Double defn: 1st: An essential part of a string musician’s instrument; and 2nd: The collective noun for a group of things, such as Arabian horses, belonging to a single owner.
24 Rock group circuit’s rising golfer (6)
PALMER : Reversal of(…’s rising, in a down clue) [ REM(American rock band) + LAP(a circuit;a complete round) ].
Answer: Arnold, champion golfer, now retired.
26 Messy mix in middle of The Tree (4)
HASH : The central letter of(middle of) “The” + ASH(a genus of trees).
28 Musician ultimately in wrong group (4)
BAND : The last letter of(… ultimately) “Musician” contained in(in) BAD(wrong).
29 Caring daughter supports relatives (4)
KIND : D(abbrev. for “daughter”) placed below(supports, in a down clue) KIN(relatives).
Thanks to Puck and scchua. I enjoyed this musical referenced puzzle, relishing REM, IKE and STING among some other references that contributed to the solve.
But I am ashamed to say that despite my own passion for music, I actually missed the thematic depth that scchua has found regarding The Incredible String Band. Bravo, scchua, and very clever, Puck!
Another red face involves 2d, MACARONI, which I could not see for the life of me. Only consolation is solving the rest. So near yet so far!
Still, this engaged me totally. Very grateful for the blog which took it to a whole new level.
Thanks scchua- I wondered if Ike(Turner) could=musician(he was no slouch even if he wasnt exactly a top bloke.
My remaining CD is The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter which I still like.(only Heron and Williamson on that)
I of course did not spot the theme, (though I know someone who did) but I did find myself stopping to relish the ingenuity of the clues after writing the answers in. Well done scchua, and thanks so much Puck.
Nice puzzle. I missed the theme – thankfully – not my cup of tea at all. Less Puckish than usual but still quite a few good Puckisms. 17a, 6d and 18d I ticked – prolly could have ticked others.
Top left hand corner kind of beat me – 9a I could see clearly but Iago a villain – fine – but pretending to be honest and then not being is hardly unique to him – so I don’t really buy “honest villain” – hey = how often do I quibble – hardly ever – OK.
1d – I’ll pay on that – that’s fair – actually that’s what I would have writtne in but I couldn’t justify the parsing.
Anyway – overall a fun solve – always look forward to a Puckster – or should that be Pucker?
Many thanks both.
No quiz today?
OK – I just asked Mr Google. Iago gets referred to as “honest Iago” in the play. I suppose that justifies it – kind of – if you assume knowledge of Shakespeare-we’re-all-assumed-to-have-done-at-school is still fair game these days.
On the basis that Araucaria might have written a clue like that I’ll withdraw the quibble.
Sorry, JollySwagman, occupied otherwise, preparing for long overseas trip.
A sign of the times that modern pop music is right-on-OK in a crossword but that Shakespeare is regarded as bordering on the obscure. Whatever gallery we setters are expected to play to, it isn’t the one at The Globe, clearly.
I did enjoy this one – but then again I almost always do enjoy this setter’s puzzles. Nothing too obscure and some gentle clueing. I might have seen INCREDIBLE STRING BAND if I’d known to look for it, but the rest of the references were always going to be beyond me. But as we keep saying, you didn’t really have to know about the ghost theme to solve the puzzle. The golfing legend PALMER was my first one in, natch.
Thanks to Puck and bon voyage to scchua.
Thanks Puck and scchua
Given the era of the ISB, I think 26D can be added to the list of theme clues.
Thanks, scchua.
There’s usually something going on in Puck’s puzzles and I thought there were some rather odd answers and bits of wordplay in this, so it seemed worth a google.
‘Maybe someday’ and ‘October Song’ seemed to ring a distant bell as song titles and I was delighted to find that they were and thus stumbled on the band and its members – so cleverly done. I smiled at ROBIN WILLIAMS’ little wiggle – shades of the curled-up aardvark . 😉
Lots of ticks but I particularly enjoyed IMAGO, HERON, ENAMELLED and BESOM
A highly entertaining, witty puzzle – many thanks to Puck for a great start to what’s going to be a long day/night.
Thanks Puck & scchua.
I did Google Clive Williamson but nothing of note popped up, so of course missed the theme entirely.
Nice clues though.
I enjoyed solving this puzzle, even though I had never heard of The INCREDIBLE STRING BAND, and managed to fully parse PALMER since we have had the rock band REM in a crossword fairly recently – “rapid eye movement” is easy to remember.
Thank you Puck, I really liked IMAGO, ENAMELLED, SOD’S LAW, BESOM, MACARONI and HERON, and thank you scchua for a great blog – have a good trip.
I could not parse 1d (still do not get it – I thought it might be M+Ike Turner but was not sure at all about this one), 14d, 21d (I did not know that SACK = to cashier or to fire), 23d (I thought it might have to do with horses, but still did not parse this one).
Also I did not get the theme at all, never having heard of that string band, but it did not make any difference to my solving of the puzzle anyway.
New words for me were LAMP BLACK & AVESTAN.
Thanks Puck and scchua.
NB Good luck with the Brexit poll – I hope the financial markets will settle after today – it has been quite up and down lately 🙁
michelle @ 13
M (Musician’s first) is MIKE in the NATO phonetic alphabet, ie used on the radio when spelling out a word or callsign. And it’s also a male name, so the definition is simply MALE (a definition by example, if you will).
hth
I was amused by Pasquale’s comment @7 re ‘modern pop music’ – concerning a half-century old band who were hardly on the poppier end of the spectrum! Still, with the aid of scchua’s incredible strong blog, I can see where the Smoke Shovelling in 5d comes from, I thought it was just the setter trying too hard for a surface. Arnold PALMER flourished around the same time.
Alas though I missed the theme, bringing to an end my recent theme-spotting run. What a shame.
MIKE was last in – it ‘felt’ right, but I couldn’t quite convince myself.
I should have looked up Smoke Shovelling instead of being annoyed by the surface. Clever Puck. Still not sure, however, that I like fringes as first letters. I think this has come up before but surely fringes are, if anywhere, on the bottom or all the way round. Very enjoyable. Thanks Puck and scchua
Re 15 — yes, I usually call them ‘ageing rockers’!
“I’m the original discriminating buffalo man”
Thanks Puck and scchua, and also Pasquale for dropping by. I enjoyed this, and solved it without knowing anything about the Incredible String Band other than its name. But I did know “Honest Iago”, from school and regular visits to the RSC in Stratford, so I think that is completely fair clueing.
One question about 3dn – I thought definitions were not allowed to appear in the middle of the clue?
Sitting here with fingers crossed (ballot papers were “crossed” earlier – two proxies and my own vote). My part of North London is overwhelmingly Remain. Let’s hope the bookies are right.
Marienkaefer @19 — the definition in 2d is “dandy” at the very end of the clue. cf “Yankee Doodle Dandy” who “stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni,” whatever that means. You’d think I’d know — as a Connecticut Yankee it’s my state song. (Every state officially has one and mostly nobody knows what they are.)
Thanks, scchua, bon voyage.
Enjoyed this generally – usually do with this fellow, but failed to spot the theme as there was nothing to trigger it for me personally. (Not a criticism, just not my thing).
Not sure how to read a sentence like, “Flat point between fringes of Smoke Shovelling Suit”. Makes no English sense to me but perhaps it’s related to the theme in some way.
Failed to parse MIKE and baulked at honest Iago but now see it as acceptable.
All in all, a quality offering from the mischief maker.
Nice week, all.
Valentine @20 – 3dn (hose) was the one I was asking about. Sorry if that wasn’t clear. I knew the rhyme and the macaroni reference. It’s the second dandy in as many days – yesterday we had Oscar Wilde.
Marienkaefer @19 I think perhaps Valentine referred to the wrong clue.
For me 3d is two clues in one; the first has the def at the end and the second has it at the beginning. Does that make sense to you?
Should have twigged the theme as this was in my pop music era (my knowledge of pop after the 70’s is virtually zilch).
William @ 23 – yes, it does, thanks.
Yes – I got 2d that way – just floating out as a vague association with the song Yankee Doodle Dandy – but I now see that “macaroni” means precisely “dandy” – just as scchua has stated in the blog.
@M #19 – the clue has three components all of which suggest the answer – in this instance the middle one is the nearest thing to a so-called definition. I say so-called because what we commonly call definitons are not definitions at all ; animal is not the definition of horse. In their books Barnard uses the term logical key – Time Moorey uses the term proxy – those terms are more indicative.
I can remember Araucaria (the greatest setter of all time obviously) doing (only occasionally) clues with two wordplays and no “definition”. We all got to the answer.
It sounds as though you have a rule-book. Throw it away and use your brain – I’m sure you have a good one.
Ageing rockers??? R.E.M. are hardly ageing – not from where I’m sitting at least – and ISB were hardly rockers.
So – Shakespeare clues it is – here’s one of mine – it’s a triple – but to make it easy the two “definitions” are at either end:
Ruler eventually raged about – it was Bedlam (5)
Easy peasy really – schoolboy stuff – pushover for RSC regulars. If you google the whole clue in quotes you’ll find the answer – and the whole puzzle.
Another TdeF from Puck…great use of *old* music theme, which I wish I had seen…the theme,that is.
William @23 As a relative newcomer to cryptics, being able to rely on the definition being at one or other end of the clue is a beacon I have relied on through the mists of my incomprehsion! So I was most put out by this exception (although to be fair the tha answer was obvious once I got the across O and E).
Please tell me this should not really happen 🙂
JollySwagman @ 26 – I don’t have a rule book: I just thought it was one of the conventions of cryptic setting. I can see exactly how this meets the convention, as many &lit clues do. And I realise that the “definition” can be as (in)definite as the setter likes.
When people tell me they are not “clever” enough to do a cryptic crossword (I set one a couple of times a year for the church fair) I tell them they don’t need to be clever, and indeed sometimes being clever prevents you from seeing how the cryptic clue works.
I’ve done a few Shakespeare clues. I am sure all the permutations have been used before. “Shakespearian – first smitten, then bitten” (9) was one.
Benpointer @28 Always pleased to welcome a newcomer. Sorry to say, however, that I can’t really put your mind at rest.
I’m rather with JollySwagman @26 on this. There aren’t really any rules that you can say are cast in concrete. I fall back on the excellent definition someone once provided which was that “a crossword is an intriguing duel between setter and solver which the latter should be destined ultimately to win”.
What that means for me is that if you get to the answer by parsing, intuition or just hunch – that’s fair enough, so don’t get too hung up over ‘rules’.
@BP #28. Your observation (def at one end or the other) is correct – that is the case for the vast majority of clues – but it is not an immutable rule – more a general observation.
It’s also normally the case that a clue takes you to the answer in two different ways – but that’s not always the case. With cryptic definitions there is only one – it just has to pop out – from a single reading. In this case there are three ways to the answer. Agree the most straightforward one is buried in the middle – but that’s the sort of trick you expect from Puck.
Some setters (Arachne quite often does this) run clues with four or more ways to the answer – usually just single word “synonyms” – but four nonetheless.
It’s that sort of variation that forces the solver to keep an open mind and helps to make the game more fun. If all clues were solvable by applying a few predictable rules it would be rather dull.
Thanks to scchua for the excellent blog, and to others for your comments.
I set this puzzle for the 50th anniversary of the band’s eponymous first album, which was first released on a seemingly unknown date in June 1966. So it didn’t have to appear on Referendum Day, that was just where it ended up in the scheduling.
And yes, they were and are one of my favourite all-time bands, of their time and yet in some ways timeless. It is said that they were the first ‘world music’ band, before the term was even invented. And they influenced members of the Beatles, Stones and Led Zeppelin, amongst others. They’re worth checking out if you’re not already familiar with them, but certainly not to everyone’s taste.
Given many won’t even have heard of them, I thought a ghost theme would be the best approach.
Thanks to Puck and scchua. I did not know the Scottish “besom” or AVESTAN or the gin-rum connection for AGIN and needed help understanding MIKE but I did manage to finish. As to Iago, the association with “honest” permeates the play and reaches a climax in the final scene when at the height of his blindness to the truth Othello responds to Emilia: “My friend, thy husband, honest, honest Iago.”
If you’re wondering what to do with the rest of Referendum Day, you could try solving this one on the Guardian blog.
Many thanks Puck for dropping by.
8dn reminds me of one of my favourite clues: “Flask of mother’s ruin” (7).
Thanks to Puck and scchua.
I last listened to the first ISB album a couple of weeks ago, so I spotted the theme straightaway. That helped a lot with the solving.
Good to have a reason to smile this referendum day
I thought I was getting better at spotting themes but I completely missed this. HERON wouldn’t have given such trouble if I had. I gave up on ISB quite early on: far too twee for me. Give me Ike Turner any day!I wondered if he was the “Ike” in one down. It seemed unlikely but it was the best I could do. Thanks for the correct parsing for that.
A much better crossword than I first thought.
Thanks Puck.
Ha! I’m kicking myself that I didn’t spot the theme, since I’ve been an ISB fan since ‘way back, have all the CDs (and, before that, vinyls), play their stuff probably more than any other non-classical music, etc. I might just about have made the connection had there been a LICORICE clue, but it was not to be.
@2copmus
Licorice was on Hangman alongside Mike and Robin.
Thanks Puck for dropping by. And to others, thanks for the wishes for my upcoming trip. Lots of things to settle beforehand for the next 3 and a half weeks or so. Am leaving Monday night, so I’ll be squeezing in a Quiptic till then.
Also kicking myself for not spotting the ghost theme. Pathetic! I’m definitely an ISB fan. Lovely puzzle – many thanks to Puck and scchua.
Marienkaefer @35 Ha-ha Thermos! What a beauty.
Thanks Puck and scchua
Very clever, both of you! I was a bit unlucky with the theme. “The Big Huge” is one of my favourite albums ever, but it wasn’t referenced, and I didn’t like the other ISB albums I tried (back in the 60s and early 70s, of course!)
Robin Williamson has done some good stuff more recently.
Re AGIN again, I just finished doing a delightful Pasquale puzzle from December 2010 (25206) that includes “Gin in thermos, maybe” (7,4), but, thanks to today, now I know “mother’s ruin.”
Got after a bad start – one of my first few was LAMBEG for 7d which made sense at the time. Fortunately SODS LAW couldn’t be anything else. Not too difficult by Puck standards – I just had no time for a lunch break today. Saw the theme quite late, they were a bit before my time but I do have a few albums, and it helped with the last couple in the SW corner.
Thanks to manehi and scchua
Sorry Puck! Not sure how manehi slipped into that last sentence…
Sorry to differ, but I’d say these clues DO follow accepted rules, albeit with some flappy definitions and wordplay here and there to make it ‘more Guardian’. The format’s unmistakably normal for crosswords, I think, and there’s no silliness. Plus, triple or quadruple definitions aren’t uncommon in, let’s say, Times puzzles, which are thought of as applying rules quite stringently, it’s not a big deal or a new-fangled thing.
So intuition and hunch weren’t really needed, I found, for this puzzle. Thank you to the setter and to the blogger.
Can someone help? I still don’t get 1D. Ike = Appearance on radio? Meaning a personage heard on the radio who may or may not be Ike Turner? Surely I’ve missed something.
I suspected the theme but when the Wikipedia entry on the Incredible String Band didn’t even mention Smoke Shovelling (whatever that could be), I didn’t pursue it any further.
And I don’t know if it was just a coincidence but today is the anniversary of the Battle of Plassey in which Robert Clive led the British troops to victory.
BleuDot (have you moved to France?)
In radio communication, using the NATO alphabet, MIKE would stand for M, “musician’s first”.
P.S. I cheated on this one!
BleuDot @ 47
see my comment @ 14
hth
Sorry, Simon – missed yours 🙂
muffin @ 50
Fret not…heated, or at least warm, something-or-other
After finishing this crossword, we looked at each other saying ‘really good, not too hard but certainly not a walkover either’.
But how on earth could I have missed the ghost theme?
I say ‘I’ because my PinC is not into any kind of ‘popular’ music.
In the early seventies I had two LPs by the Incredible String Band, ‘Relics’ (a compilation) and ‘Wee Tam’ (which I now have on CD coupled with ‘The Big Huge’).
On ‘Wee Tam’ there is a dreamy song called ‘Air’ which I liked very much.
I was pleasantly surprised that the song was used in the movie ‘Taking Off’, a semi documentary from 1971 by Milos Forman in which parents tried to find out why their children walked away from home, why they tried drugs and why they were so keen on it.
‘Air’ filled the cinema in a scene in which these parents were really enjoying marijuana or the like.
It was also the moment that I, a non-smoker, all at once understood what this song was all about.
‘Breathing, all creatures are
Brighter than that brightest star
You are by far
You come right inside of me, close as you can be
You kiss my blood and my blood kiss me’.
My best friend Peter is allergic to the band (a) because his then girlfriend adored them, and (b) because he doesn’t like the flowery powery thing, adults singing about ‘Ducks on a Pond’.
Yes, if one wants to write a crossword celebrating the 50th anniversary of something like The Incredible String Band’s first LP then a ghost theme seems wholly appropriate.
While I see what Pasquale @7 means, I do not agree.
“A sign of the times that modern pop music is right-on-OK in a crossword but that Shakespeare is regarded as bordering on the obscure”?
I will not argue about either ‘modern’ or ‘pop music’ but I even think it’s the other way round.
Many solvers and certainly the regulars here do appreciate Shakespeare more than they do Adele, to name one.
My impression is that they love cricket more than that they appreciate football.
As to the crossword itself, MIKE (1d) was our last one in, unparsed (so many thanks to scchua).
3d could have stopped after ‘pipe’ but it didn’t.
While solving I found this OTT (it reminded me of Philistine) but now I see why Puck did it.
Really enjoyable crossword!
Sorry to disagree with the crowd. Though the clever uses of ISB references were indeed praiseworthy, I look forward to a bit of difficulty with a Thursday puzzle; sadly, this was fully solved and parsed in about ten minutes.
Perhaps it’s just me suffering from Neverendum blues?
Thanks both.
Simon S @ 14
thanks for the info.
For some reason in my part of the world, the preference in the NATO alphabet is for MONDO = M
I am so used to spelling out my name over the phone as MONDO INDIA CHARLIE HOTEL ECHO LONDON ETC
so MIKE = M just did not click
Thanks for the pointer to the double-edged blog bonus: very clever and quite tricky to tease out.
Thanks, Puck, for a delightful reminder of that very special LP by the Incredible String Band with Clive Palmer. I noticed Maybe Someday with capitals, then October Song, then Smoke Shovelling and The Tree and thought “everything’s fine right now, I do believe it’s easy – you don’t even have to try”.
Black day, black night, very late to post about this puzzle. But I really want to say that a very clever puzzle was spoilt by 5 down in which S-S are clearly NOT the “fringes” of Smoke Shoveling! It’s not as if the surface made a great deal of sense anyway. Does the crossword editor actually try and do the crossword before oking it?
Thanks scchua and Puck.
AVESTAN and LAMPBLACK were new to me so thanks for that.
I too got 2dn from Yankee Doodle so thanks for the extra explanation.
I’m another who hasn’t before heard of the Incredible String Band. Given their provenance I’ll check them out.
Thanks Puck and scchua
A fun puzzle from Puck, until I came to 1d which held me up a number of elapsed days. It was the first time that I have been able to identify an obscure theme in order to get the grilled finished. Suspecting that it had to be MIKE and noticing a couple of words that could be sunames, I started to google. Eventually the combination of WILLIAMSON and PALMER brought up the reference to the INCREDIBLE STRING BAND” where the theme was revealed – MIKE HERON confirmed 1d. Still didn’t twig to the radio code until coming here though !!
MACARONI was a new direct definition for a dandy for me.