String Driven Thing are a Scottish folk rock band,[1] formed in Glasgow in 1967 and led by married couple Chris and Pauline Adams, with the electric violin of Graham Smith.
The group moved to London in 1972 and Chris Adams began to steer the band towards the electric folk-rock genre where his songwriting abilities, which often feature hard-bitten and bitter observations capturing the harsher side of life, would be seen to better effect.
By 1972, he had recruited classically trained violinist Graham Smith and guitarist Colin Wilson on bass, but soon afterwards Mannion left, citing musical differences.
Adams then secured a deal with Tony Stratton Smith's Charisma label[3] and another eponymous album came out, produced by Shel Talmy at London's IBC Studios, with the songs "Circus", "Jack Diamond" and "Easy To Be Free" among the standout tracks.
With Smith's high octane violin and Pauline Adams' distinctive lispy vocals, the band toured the UK and Europe with Charisma stablemates Lindisfarne and Genesis.
String Driven Thing put out a number of singles on the Charisma label, some of which are not on any of the vinyl albums but appear as bonus tracks on Ozit Records CDs.
Colin Wilson went on to put out a solo folk album called Cloudburst on the Tabitha label which is also hard to find and has recently been reissued.
[citation needed] In October that year, they opened for Lou Reed, after which drummer Colin Fairley left the band and Charisma withdrew their support.
As 2012 was the 40th anniversary of String Driven Thing's signing to Charisma and touring with Genesis, the band did some English gigs with Graham Smith and Pauline Adams.