It would have been contrary to the spirit of the group to try to confect some sort of official, tidied up, biography. Instead, we chose to ask a few key witnesses from different national and cultural backgrounds - people who had played with the band, written about it, organised or attended its concerts - to set down their personal impressions and experiences; to give some feeling for the way Cassiber had been received in its own time, at least so far as that was possible some twenty-five or thirty years later