tag:www.lindisfarne.co.uk,2005:/blogs/articles-the-lindisfarne-archives?p=2Articles: The Lindisfarne Archives2019-02-11T21:36:52+00:00Lindisfarne - the official websitefalsetag:www.lindisfarne.co.uk,2005:Post/46475192017-03-27T21:36:34+01:002017-03-27T21:36:34+01:00Lindisfarne for the cup: Music Disc & Echo, 1972<p><strong><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/244471/930d5c4ed177f330dd6e4f9cbb1a83f3c1df4a56/original/cup.jpg?1490646980" class="size_orig justify_center border_" />David Hughes</strong>, <strong>from Music & Disco Echo, 1972 - discovered by Michael Clayton</strong></p>
<p>If there were any among you who doubt that Lindisfarne deserve their award there is one sure way to dispel those doubts – go and see them live.</p>
<p>I’ve raved about this group ever since I first received <em>Clear White Light Part 2</em> just before Christmas 1970. Here was a sound that lifted me, refreshed and delighted. I played it for weeks on end, but then forgot about them – until <em>Lady Eleanor</em>which revived all the earlier enthusiasm. Since then they’ve become probably the only British group I’ve wanted to see on stage. I was right. I left the Queen Elizabeth Hall last Friday feeling more exhilarated than by any concert since the first visit of Aretha Franklin. That’s the feeling Lindisfarne generate, maybe not as exciting as a soul show but every bit as lifting and happy.</p>
<p>Theirs is Newcastle Brown music – “commercial pub” music as a colleague cryptically put it recently. And in fact the one item that scored with the packed audience more than any other was Ray Jackson’s unaccompanied rendition of a Tyne-Tees TV jingle for said ale.</p>
<p>Apart from a warm stage personality, Lindisfarne score on two major fronts. Firstly Ray, Alan Hull and Tiny Simon Cowe are all exceptionally good singers. Ray has the deep rich full folk balladeer’s voice, Alan’s is higher and more sensitive and Simon, when he’s given the chance, belts out some incredible high notes.</p>
<p>Secondly, they are all good but not self-indulgent musicians. Mandolins and open guitar are the main instruments – well no, really the voices are the main instruments. Add ti this an honest and endearing attitude towards singles (they like singles and they want a hit) plus the desirable tendency to make their songs too short rather than too long and you should need virtually no recommendation.</p>
<p>At the Elizabeth Hall, the five were greeted with a football roar of welcome. They announced every number to get the applause over with before starting, wasted little time retuning between numbers, were interested only in providing good entertainment and not amusing themselves, and played only 13 songs.</p>
<p>These included <em>Lady Eleanor</em>, <em>Meet Me On The Corner</em>, <em>Fog On The Tyne</em>, and as an amazing encore <em>Clear White Light</em>. I say amazing for the penultimate number <em>We Can Swing Together</em>, did last almost 30 minutes, including a 10 minutes solo contribution on harmonica from Ray, comprising snatches from many a shanty, folk standard, <em>Three German Officers Crossed The Rhine</em>, <em>Z Cars Theme</em> (greeted with boos) and others.</p>
<p>Two songs were brand new Alan Hull compositions – <em>Poor Old Ireland</em>, which provided the only serious moment of the evening and <em>Mandolin King</em>, being played in public for only the second time. By the time the evening was over, a good hundred of the audience were arms linked in a joyous hokey-cokey, support group Genesis were on stage joining in with tambourines and cow-bells and the atmosphere was just as if Newcastle United had won the FA Cup (though that’s maybe an unfortunate analogy).</p>
<p>Lindisfarne are off to America soon, so you’ll have to wait to catch them. Make sure you do.</p>Lindisfarne - the official websitetag:www.lindisfarne.co.uk,2005:Post/46475072017-03-27T21:31:45+01:002017-03-27T21:31:45+01:00How to be successful without really trying: NME, 1972<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/244471/0bd479951ebfcd7695f847723211781defc8d477/original/wrt.jpg?1490646697" class="size_l justify_center border_" />Tony Stewart, NME, May 13th, 1972 - discovered by Michael Clayton</p>
<p>We’re looking,” said Alan Hull thoughtfully, “to create a brilliant album. Obviously we strive for perfection. Like ‘Abbey Road’ and ‘Sgt. Pepper’, Lindisfarne’s third album is going to be a whopper. “It won’t really matter if it doesn’t get to number 1. We can feel artistically proud of it. Which we will do. I’m sure.”</p>
<p>The Newcastle boys have ambition. And it’s good to hear such honesty in keeping with northern traditions. Basically Lindisfarne are a folk group. They appeal to a majority of people, and with their stage performances rekindle the band/audience relationship, resulting in a festive atmosphere. The band has recently returned from America. The tour proved a good one, if only that it matured and developed the band’s outlook. “The most hardening effect,” Hull told me, “was that we came together. Five people being alone in the great wide United States brought us closer as people. “It didn’t really affect the music that much, because it was already there. But it’s got a bit tighter. That’s natural.</p>
<p><strong>WEAKNESSES</strong><br>“I’ve been told a first tour of America can either make or break a band: I think it’s made us. We know ourselves better as musicians now.” This is good because, as the band admits, the first two albums did not engender confidence in themselves mainly because there were too many weaknesses delaying group maturity.</p>
<p>Explained Hull: “I think the shortcomings were on our side because of a lack in experience as a new band. But it obviously hasn’t come through to the public as the second album reached no. 1, and the first album (Nicely Out Of Tune) – after two years – is still selling well. So they can’t have been that bad. “We’re artistically happy with them. In fact sometimes I’ve been delirious with happiness, because there are certain moods I can be in.” Added Si Cowe “I don’t think the songs on Tyne were particularly ordinary. It’s that they were similar. The actual songs themselves were quite extraordinary really. It was Bob Johnston (producer) who treated them similarly. <br><br><strong>TASTEFUL</strong></p>
<p>“He didn’t have as wide an appreciation for them: for the things we wanted to put in. “He looked for a hook,” said Hull once more taking control of the conversation, and he found the Lindisfarne thing. Nobody can blame him because he’s been proved right. And it got to no. 1. “Even the production of Fog On The Tyne is first class. It’s really tasteful, beautiful.” Yet Si is more prone to criticise the production.</p>
<p>“What we could of done is play roughly through and got a good backing track together. Then the shortcomings wouldn’t have been in the backing tracks so much, but in what went on top of it.<br>“If we’d listened enough, and knew more about production and commerciality we could have changed it ourselves. And worked Bob Johnston instead of him working us.”</p>
<p>“We’re at our best stage,” Hull quickly points out in defence. “We’re not that often in studios. We’re not really a studio band. But we can be in the hands of a good producer, like Bob Johnston. “But if we can get the stage feel to a studio situation with Bob – which we’re trying for with the next album – it’ll be something. It really will be one of the albums to have forever.”<br>Though Hull and Si argue about it moderately, Fog according to some criticisms, did expel a certain ordinariness in material Now after a three week rest period they are going to continue a policy of stringent selection and collation of material. <br><br><strong>REWARDING</strong></p>
<p>Even though unable to rehearse, the lay off proved highly rewarding. The writing rate, and build up of songs now presenting a fresh problem. “Now we’ve got a hell-of-a-lot of material,” informed Hull. Si, Rod and me write a lot. Between us we’ve got over 300 songs.”</p>
<p>“When you’ve got that much material it’s hard to be objective about it. I’ve got so many songs I don’t know which is good and which is bad. I prefer to leave it up to somebody else. The best people in the world to leave it up to are the record buying public. “The buying public in England obviously liked the songs on Fog on the Tyne, no matter what anybody else says. Though they’re not my personal favourites.” Making it once again obvious he wasn’t happy with the last album, Si contributed: “What we’d like to do is make it our favourite numbers, rather than Bob Johnston’s.” “But we never do a song we don’t like,” clarified Hull as a measure of defence. “If somebody writes a song and one person doesn’t like it, then it’s out.”</p>
<p>As yet, Lindisfarne’s British success has not extended into Europe. But now they have the confidence and optimism to achieve that. The Stateside tour has given them the necessary impetus to reach the goal that drummer Ray Laidlaw once enthused about: To be, “the best group in the world”. “Success brings confidence,” Hull explained simply. “After America it was not so much a musical tightness, but a personal one. We all feel like that. We’re at our best ever and more capable now.“ But we’re not going to set out like total professionals to do it. Like dressing properly each night and being totally brilliant each night. We’re just going to let it happen. It’s happening to a certain extent in England. That’s the whole thing about our success so far as we haven’t tried to do anything really. We’re not professionals. I think we’re professional amateurs.” “We’re not a heavy intense thing, but we want it to happen. We’re not going to try and push it though.” Emphasised Si: “We just know it’s happening all the time. We’re not an overnight success. Because we haven’t tried to push.”</p>Lindisfarne - the official websitetag:www.lindisfarne.co.uk,2005:Post/46475062017-03-27T21:27:51+01:002017-03-27T21:27:51+01:00Charles Shaar Murray, NME, September 1972<p><strong><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/244471/58fcb0a89a0d24cd21076ba5ab01783bacbde09d/original/csm.jpg?1490646460" class="size_orig justify_center border_" />Charles Shaar Murray, NME, September 2nd, 1972 - discovered by Michael Clayton</strong></p>
<p>If it were ever possible to kill a group with kindness then Lindisfarne might be the first victims of their own success. Their new album Dingly Dell (Charisma) is out to rapturous reviews and their new stage act has been equally well received by reviewers and public alike. At the moment they are the darlings of the Biz without a cloud on the horizon. It’s almost all too good to be true.<br>Fortunately the individuals in the group are level headed enough not to be affected by all the rhapsodising and are probably their own best critics as drummer Ray Laidlaw pointed out during our interview. At the same time he managed to shatter a few cherished illusions about the legendary Newcastle brown-ale swilling Geordies.</p>
<p>“Awful beer,” quoth Laidlaw supping his Guinness. “I stopped drinking it at sixteen – it sends you crackers you know!” On the subject of objective criticism about Lindisfarne he was more elaborate.</p>
<p>“We’ve never been really ‘slagged’ in the press y’know. Which is really a bit of a disappointment. I mean, even the Beatles and the Stones got ‘slagged’ at the height of their popularity and T.Rex are a good example of being knocked because they are successful. In a way I think knocking’s a healthy sign! “Everyone is really nice to us – I mean we’ve done some really shitty gigs – real stinkers, and we come off stage and have a shout up about it back in the dressing room. Then out come the reviews that are really good, and we can’t understand it.<br>“The ironic thing is that if someone really did put us down hard we would probably be heartbroken. We can come off and say it was ‘disgusting’ or ‘awful’, but it’s totally a different thing if someone outside the family starts to have a go.</p>
<p>“Fortunately, I think we know our weaknesses as well as our strengths but occasionally it might be nice to get a little more constructive criticism to help us see ourselves more objectively. We’re not really great musicians but we make good honest swingalong music which communicates the basics, and we’re beginning to learn how to make good records at last.</p>
<p>“We were going through a very critical period just a few months back where we were going on stage to play those numbers we had been playing for about two years and it got to feel like going through the motions. “Everyone knew all the songs and it got to the stage where we hardly needed to sing them because the audience could do that for us and it is at that point where you are getting a kind of total acceptance that it can be dangerous.</p>
<p>“It means that in spite of re-arranging the old material and trying to inject some genuine spontaneity and enthusiasm into the music, you are still only repeating yourself. The next step is boredom, and the next after that is the audience become bored and then you are really in trouble. <br>“We finally managed to get out of that situation by taking a break and getting all our new material down, which has brought back a feeling of freshness to the act – so that we actually look forward to playing our newer numbers. Some of the oldies like Fog On The Tyne, Lady Eleanor, Meet Me On The Corner and We Can Swing Together will be incorporated into a medley.</p>
<p>“I think our approach now is far less localised simply because we are travelling more and our experience is widening. The roots remain in Newcastle. Our home is in Newcastle but it’s not the obsessional subject some might think from reading our press. It got to the stage where there used to be about five crates of Newcastle Brown in the dressing room before a gig and we really didn’t like the stuff.”</p>
<p><strong>Cobblers</strong></p>
<p>Laidlaw was not sure how they got the reputation of being a hard drinking band although, like most rumours it has some foundation in fact as a few rounds with Jacka might prove. What of their much lauded new album, which was produced once more under the general direction of Bob Johnstone?</p>
<p>“You’ll see we’ve deliberately played down the gimmicks by having it released in a brown cardboard sleeve with just the title and the group’s name,” said Laidlaw. “It’s a deliberately anti-packaging idea. It’s definitely our best work in a studio and we had a much better working relationship with Bob Johnstone this time – and more time to record.</p>
<p>“The thing about the other two albums we’ve recorded was that there were ‘cringe’ factors. After we’d finished, we’d listen to it and go ‘Oh no’ – maybe no one else would notice or hear them but we knew they were there. With Dingly Dell there is nothing like that – we can still listen to it weeks after we’ve completed it and feel satisfied with the job. </p>
<p>“The single is a very different number for us – I’m sure most people won’t even realise that it is Lindisfarne at first. All Fall Down is a protest song for want of a better description. It was inspired by the Newcastle City Council decision to drive a motorway through the heart of the old part of the town.</p>
<p>“It’s got much wider implications, of course, because this type of so-called development is going on all the time. Tearing down beautiful old buildings to put up disgusting office blocks and drive motorways through cities is happening everywhere.”</p>
<p>Under the heading of other matters arising we got stuck into some egg and chips – got the wine waiter to bring over the Guinness and reminisced about Lindisfarne’s first American tour. <br>“Working with the Kinks was a great kick for me because they’ve been one of my fave raves for years. I mean, well before they had their first hit single when they were doing things like Long Tall Sally. The thing which really struck me about working with them was what a great feeling it must be to wind up your act with You Really Got Me and know it was your own number!”</p>
<p>Ray’s particular ‘magic moment’ (give us a kiss Perry) on the tour was not the Carnegie Hall, or even Lubbock where, despite the absence of alcohol, the group went over big with the Texans, nor because of the taxi driver pointing out where Buddy Holly used to live. The most enjoyable aspect of the tour for Laidlaw was a gig they did in a ‘glorified Wimpy Bar’ into which they had inadvertently been booked in San Francisco and Fairport turned up one night to jam a few old rockers and R&B favourites like Smokestack Lightning.</p>
<p><strong>“In all there were approximately 15 people in the place but we had a ball.”</strong></p>
<p>On their forthcoming tour Laidlaw was ecstatic over the inclusion of their old mate Rab Noakes, who wrote among others Together Forever on the Fog On The Tyne album. <br>“The really nice thing about having your own tour is that you can pick the people you want on it with you,” said Ray. “We think that Rab is in his own way as great an artist as someone like Neil Young, and his songs . . . well the fact that we have never used anyone else’s material should speak for itself.</p>
<p>Most groups have some kind of method for relieving the tedium and the strains of touring and, quite apart from drinking, our intrepid Geordies have now launched upon a campaign with Ray Jackson as Lindisfarne’s answer to Boris Spassky on dominoes. They also bring their own dartboard to gigs.</p>
<p>“I mean, I laughed when they brought it with us on the American tour,” said Ray. “But darts are really a great way to relax before a gig and I particularly enjoy it because it gives me something to do while all the others are tuning up.” Other matters arising concerned one ‘Tappy’ Wright who managed the group and was formerly renowned as the Animals’ meanest road manager due to his insistence of warming up cold meat pies on his car engine rather than go into a transport café.<br>Those were the days of Laidlaw’s old group the Druids and Alan Hull’s Junco Partners, who had their own show on Radio Luxembourg for a time.</p>
<p>The group recently took their publicist Glen Colson up to Newcastle for a holiday, from which he is still recovering, and introduced him to the delights of the working men’s clubs and the Wingate Constitutional Club where an old and much respected local group, Tex Leon and the Tynesiders, are resident. That was the night that Jacka was so moved by their rendition of Johnny Kidd’s (his personal musical guru) Hungry For Love and Shakin’ All Over that he got up on stage for an un-super-jam!</p>
<p>We also discussed the idea of presenting this article in such a manner as to make it the world’s first critical ‘slagging off’ for Lindisfarne. Ray was much taken with the idea of inserting his own crossheads into the feature which quite often in magazines bear no relation to the copy.</p>
<p><strong>Piffle</strong></p>
<p>“You know the idea – you get paragraphs broken up with boring things like ‘Thrilling’, ‘Sometimes’ or ‘Startling’ and then you read the copy and the words aren’t even there. How about putting things like ‘Rubbish’, ‘Cobblers’ and ‘Piffle’ in our feature.”</p>
<p>Finally we returned to the subject of their current album and Laidlaw recommended one track as particularly worthy of attention. “It’s got this very heavy lyric set to an absurdly simple backing. We even pinched a Joe Brown guitar riff for the middle which was most embarrassing because he turned up at Charisma Records the other day while someone was playing this particular track upstairs.</p>
<p>“Either he didn’t notice or he was too much of a gentleman to mention it but anyway the track is called Bring The Government Down!”<br>“What inspired that?”</p>
<p>“Edward Heath,” said Laidlaw dead-pan.<br><br>And a slight contradiction in the same edition:<br>NME What’s On Pull-Out<br>Garden Party Preview<br>Yes At The Palace <br>Plus The Wondrous Lindisfarne<br><br>Lindisfarne have passed into legend as the world champion consumers of Newcastle Brown Ale, and as the only British band produced by popular folk-rock mastermind Bob Johnstone. But what matters is the music. Once upon a time a blues band called Brethren, they were transformed by the addition of harpist and mandolinist Ray Jackson (Jacka to the world) and singer/songwriter Alan Hull into the wondrous Lindisfarne.</p>
<p>English music is a truly wonderful thing. Aside from the electric traditional music of Steeleye Span, there’ve always been such homegrown stalwarts as the Kinks playing music that relates directly to English life, and Slade who since the lamentable demise of the Troggs are the only true expression of English punk rock.</p>
<p>But the key to Lindisfarne is this: they’re lotsa fun. What’s more, it is undeniable that singing drunkenly along with We Can Swing Together and Fog On The Tyne are among life’s major joys. Of course, they’re gonna have a new stage act for this gig but the principal remains the same.<br>Your round Jacka.</p>
<p><em>Charles Shaar Murray </em></p>Lindisfarne - the official websitetag:www.lindisfarne.co.uk,2005:Post/46463782017-03-26T20:43:59+01:002017-11-08T19:28:00+00:00Lindisfarne: Sounds, October 1972<p><strong><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/244471/565e4578abc4bfa0f643b61bd1ec6a4276c71ec4/medium/285107-185147544880212-2411546-n.jpg?1490557423" class="size_m justify_center border_" />A Special Report by Jerry Gilbert from Sounds Oct 7th, 1972 - discovered by Michael Clayton</strong></p>
<p>“Five crates of Brown ale and a crate of Guinness please.” Twelve quid across the bar to a landlord shaking his head in disbelief, and then back to the gig.“What time do they start?” asked a couple of public bar boozers. “7.30,” I replied, observing that it was already 7.45.</p>
<p>“But I mean what time do Lindisfarne go on ‘cos we want to go down later,” they came back. “About 9.30 I should think.” I hadn’t the heart to tell them that all the seats were long gone even though the concert had been deliberately hushed up. There we were, right in the heart of Newcastle, standing outside the Haymarket, the one time Lindisfarne local and now the scene of the reunion, six crates of beer to get backstage – into the car of Joe Robertson, the previous manager of the band, and back to the City Hall. The concert was underway and the army of groupies who had earlier queued at the stage door had evaporated. Likely they’d either taken their place in the queue, climbed in through the toilet window, tagged on hopefully to the group, or taken a forlorn walk home. </p>
<p>One disconsolate chick remained. “Are you with Lindisfarne?” she asked resignedly without really seeking an answer as we transported our cargo through to the Lindisfarne dressing room. Eight hours earlier the Newcastle City Hall had looked chillingly empty – a few faces dotted about the auditorium, mostly belonging to the group themselves. Nothing much to look at on stage, only Alan and Mick, two of The Who’s sound men, battling to get fifteen thousand dollars’ worth of equipment the same as propelled The Who safely through their recent European tour, into working order. A mike wasn’t working, there was a heavy buzz that couldn’t be eliminated – earthing problems.Very little activity save for the char lady, fussing around with pail, mop and dusters. “There’s a terrible lot of seats in this hall,” she gestured to no one in particular. “There’s all the ones upstairs as well as all the ones down and I’ve got to be here tomorrow to clean up all tonight’s mess.“</p>
<p>But at least the weather was good, and had been since 9 o’clock the same morning when we’d crossed the Tyne and landed at Newcastle airport. The sun was breaking through and the mist was beginning to lift from the shrouded city centre. Little activity as we drove in – down past St James’s Park (the Magpies were away at Everton) down to the Swallow Hotel. A view of St James’s floodlights from one side, Gateshead sprawling out from the other. But the great awakener had been the garbled conversation with an effervescent cabbie on the road in. Sure he knew the lads were back in town because he’d seen the midweek Tyne-Tees TV documentary and he’d remembered digging the chick singer… but Newcastle were away at Everton and London was the best city in England because there was so much to do and Newcastle was really a drag because there was so much rubble and debris about….. Ah well, another romantic myth shattered. </p>
<p>The band arrived in dribs and drabs – Si in a tam o’shanter, Ray in his farmer’s get up, Jacka fresh faced and with his bird, Rod, submerged beneath his umbrella hat. Lunchtime down the Haymarket with a few familiar London faces but mostly with old Geordie friends of the band – people who had helped the band, played with the band, drunk with the band . . . and people who had just admired the band from a close distance. Alan Hull shows for the first time and a cheer goes up, but Hully was cursing that his night on the town had not led him to the Fairports’ gig, which turned out to be an alcoholic reunion of group past and present. <br>Meet Me . . .</p>
<p>Hully borrows a pen, produces a scrap of paper and starts to scrawl down a running order for the gig that night. “Meet Me . . . . .,” “Float me . . . . ..” Someone immediately sees the joke and starts singing “Meet Me, Float Me, Touch Me.” A dozen Geordies dissolve into laughter. Lunch break over and back to the City Hall. Hully slouches into a front row seat with his Yamaha still plugged in to the amp. He picks away resignedly at some familiar Lindisfarne themes so the sound men can take a balance. </p>
<p>Geoff Heslop, an old musician friend of the group’s and lately with <strong>The Callies</strong>, can’t believe the skyscraper bank of space age speakers that flank upwards like a couple of Empire States. “I mean, they don’t even look like speakers,” he mutters incredulously, trying desperately to reconcile this with the folk band he once knew. Did they have to go through all this palaver just to do a show for their mates at the City Hall? Comedians.</p>
<p>But Geoff realises that there’s pride involved these days. “If it wasn’t for the music more people would be on the dole, and the depression would be worse than it already is,” he remarked. “Everyone up here is so involved that way. I mean for a long time there’s been a hell of a lot of musicians here whereas Liverpool, for instance, has generally produced comedians. Up here it’s different because there’s an inferiority complex and you can see it all ways. For instance if the first two months of the football season goes by and Newcastle haven’t been on Match Of The Day, letters flood in to say that there’s prejudice. But now that Lindisfarne have made it the big eye has turned on Newcastle, and I really think the band have got something to shout about. It’s like all north-east bands, there’s so much force behind their music and I think it stems from the feeling of being ignored.You know, at the time of people like Bruce Welch and Hank Marvin it was a disadvantage to say you came from Newcastle but now it’s an advantage to be a Geordie.”</p>
<p>Geoff belongs inexplicably to the Lindisfarne clique and plays in the Peter Brophy Band with another old Newcastle musician Terry Morgan who was with Alan Hull in Barabas. Later that afternoon we drove up to Geoff’s place in Jesmond – right past Exhibition Park, off Windsor terrace in Newcastle 2. And if you happen to remember the park before the bulldozers hacked their way through one of Newcastle’s most beautiful habitats you’ll know why Alan Hull wrote “All Fall Down.”</p>
<p>Back in the boozer at opening time: Andy Andrews proudly displaying the court jester’s outfit in which he intended compering the show which was now only two hours away. Also in the backroom bar Jeff Sadler, who quit Lindisfarne before their vital move to London. Others study the Football Pink hot off the presses. It’s Saturday night in Newcastle.<br><br>Suddenly we’re joined by a rather anxious looking mum who seems to know everyone. “Hello Sal,” rings the choral greeting from the bar. “Have you seen Alan, he’s not been back for his tea. I had chicken cooked for him as well.”<br><br>She proceeds to explain how she’s been forced into alternative accommodation because the authorities have decided that the house she’s occupied for years is too big for her. The principle doesn’t seem to bother her, she’s no time for principles, it’s just that she can’t suddenly be uprooted and transposed elsewhere. But tonight nothing is really that important as Mrs Sally Hull picks up a ticket and makes her way down to the City Hall to take her place out front.</p>
<p>Stackridge fell right into the spirit of the concert that night like they knew exactly what was needed; especially Mike Evans, clowning around at the front as his fiddle drove familiar themes into the hearts of music loving people who were there simply for the entertainment. It was sheer music the audience assembled in families, like a pantomime crowd there for the annual outing – the old ‘uns, the kiddiewinkies, the tarts and all manner of working class people. When the band were playing, they clapped along, when they finished they cheered.</p>
<p>“Slark” closed a very shrewd set indeed with Mutter doing some amazing things. The band finished, assembled at the front of the stage and took their bow as one man. That did it. The crowd went mad and back they came to pile it on even further with “Dora, The Female Explorer.”On came Andy Andrews, a shambolic, buffoon of a man, who by virtue of these unlikely attributes is just about the greatest comedy act on Tyneside. His speciality is jumping off his feet and landing on his knees. Tonight he was doing no such thing, as he’d spent the afternoon up the local infirmary as a result of an earlier unhappy landing. <br><br>It was obvious throughout Rab Noakes’ set that suddenly Lindisfarne were all that mattered. Rab, backed ably by Robin McKidd, was somewhat out of it, failing to project as strongly as usual, and engendering a little impatience in an audience who had been entirely receptive at the outset. “Everywhere You Look It’s There,” “Goodnight Loving Trail,” with McKidd playing beautiful slide, and “Drunk Again,” were the numbers that really earned him his money.</p>
<p>Lindisfarne made their way on stage like cup finalists emerging from the Wembley tunnel. “Stooooop! We’ve lost Alan. Where’s Alan?” came the cry. “He’s having a piss,” screams Jacka, whereupon Alan gaily sweeps past the lot of them and onto the stage like he’d planned to steal scene whatever. “Meet Me On The Corner” did materialise first off and then a newly arranged “Float Me Down The River” as planned – the highlight of the entire set and a beautiful instance of nostalgic Lindisfarne from around the time they split to London.</p>
<p>Already it was the sort of gig you wished all your friends could have been at. “Go Back” followed and Jacka hadn’t a chance to make himself heard during the introductions. “How are you all in Newcastle, we haven’t seen you in a long time,” egging them on constantly. “This one’s a number from a few years back . . . . . . . .and it got to number three . . . in the charts” (when will they start cheering?) “Aye, in the charts . . . . . . . . . ‘Lady Eleanor’.”</p>
<p>Then “Wake Up Little Sister” and “Poor Old Ireland” with Clements on autoharp, “Dingly Dell”, a number I would prefer with Jacka taking the choruses on harmonica rather than mandolin, a slower, more pronounced version of “Alright On The Night”. Then “All Fall Down”, the excitement at its peak and Hully on pianostooping to his voice mike and almost kissing the keyboard in the process. “No Time To Lose”, “Court In The Act” and of course the City Hall audience know all the songs off by heart – after all the new album’s been out several weeks now. “Fog On The Tyne” marked the beginning of the extra-curricular aberrations with an improvised Bo Diddley style work out. Similarly with “We Can Swing Together” which, good people, in the interest of economy now features “Dingle Regatta” amidships.</p>
<p>Back came Rab Noakes and Robin McKidd for the final encore – Lonny Donegan’s “Battle Of New Orleans”, with Stackridge’s Mike Evans and Andy Davies grinning in appreciation from the wings; it was a smile of self satisfaction, a smile of admiration and a smile for the audience, bearing in mind only too well how the crowds turn out when they return home to Bristol.</p>
<p>The whole of Plainsong along with Simon Nicol turned up at the City Hall the following night to see Lindisfarne’s set – a set that was unusually slick and devoid of the passion which they had earlier put into their music. In terms of excitement, Sunday seemed to be the lull after the storm although on a purely musical level it was superior.</p>
<p>Communication between Genesis and the audience (which included 32 coach loads of fans who had travelled from all points) was laboured, and although the band evoked loud cheers they often seemed perfunctory ones. Flashes Even when Peter Gabriel left the stage during “The Musical Box” and returned hideously garbed in long red dress and fox’s head with a nod in the direction of their new album sleeve, the sudience remained relatively unmoved. Finally during “Return Of The Giant Hogweed” some genuine appreciation was shown, and the two giant flashe that went off midnumber seemed to wake everyone up.</p>
<p>Maybe the mistake was in starting a Sunday night concert at 7.0 p.m. – especially in Newcastle. </p>
<p>Backstage after the show somebody forgot to keep their eye on the stage door and suddenly the place was overrun with autograph hunters. Somewhere in the middle was Hully’s mum who’d slipped back to pay her respects. “Great” was all she could say, tears in her eyes. “Both nights – just great."</p>
<p><strong>Bringing It All Back Home</strong></p>
<p>There’s nothing like a pint back in the old town for bringing it all back home, and it was during a lunchtime session at Newcastle’s Haymarket that Lindisfarne’s Rod Clements began to reminisce and cast his mind back to the earliest beginnings of the group. By the time last orders were called he had pieced together the entire Lindisfarne story – prior to them coming to London and signing with Charisma.</p>
<p>“We had this record contract with Morgan Studios in London, and I’d earlier rejoined the band because I could see the opportunities of getting to London,” he explained. “I joined about halfway through after leaving to take a general arts degree in English, Anthropology and Ancient History, and Jacka joined about the same time – he’s singing on half the tracks and a guy called Richard Squirrell is on the other half. Jeff Sadler was our guitarist at that time – a really good guitarist but he left because he didn’t want to go to London and he was also involved in college.</p>
<p>“But it was very much a transitional album, leading away from the blues things we were doing and into the kind of thing we’re playing today. But the newer side is really the worse side because whereas Jeff was fine for what we used to do he wouldn’t really have fitted in with what we’re doing now. “The album contained a couple of Si’s things and a couple of mine ‘Road To Kingdom Come’ and Si’s ‘Uncle Sam’ and also a funny thing called ‘<strong>Jimmy’s Field</strong>’ and another song that I rate called ‘From My Window’ – we recorded that for ‘Nicely Out Of Tune, but it didn’t really work out.</p>
<p>“As far as ‘Nicely Out Of Tune’ goes I wasn’t very happy about the individual sounds although the production was pretty good and if we could have made that album with the slight heaviness we’ve got now it could have been a knockout.”</p>
<p>Lindisfarne, as we know the band, evolved out of the original Downtown Faction for which Si Cowe was initially roadying. He joined the band on bass when Rod went off on holiday, and on Rod’s return it transpired that he was also a pretty good guitarist – and that’s how he became a group member. But in a sense the band dates right back to 1963 where Rod and Richard Squirrell were in a band at Durham School. In 1965 they quit school and teamed up with Ray Laidlaw in Impact, which also featured featured the old Junco Partner Bob Sargeant. By 1967 the group consisted of Rod Clements, Ray Laidlaw, Richard Squirrell, who had recently returned from Canada and Jeff Sadler. “But we sacked Jeff and brought in Don Whittaker, who later turned up in the Spirit Of John Morgan.</p>
<p>Si Cowe joined the band and in 1968, when Don Whittaker eventually left the band, Jeff Sadler rejoined. The same year Rod left the band in order to take his finals, playing his final gig at a hugely successful festival in Newcastle. Si took over on bass and Don Whittaker rejoined the band which was now operating with two lead guitars.</p>
<p>“Later I went to see the band at Durham and with the two lead guitars they were bloody great, so I phoned Ray in December 1968 to try and rebook them for Durham and I found out that Don had since quit. They carried on doing some quite interesting things, side tracking into different things, and at that time I was trying to form a band with Noel Johnston and he knew Jacka who was in a band called the Autumn States; he tried to get Jacka to join but he wouldn’t, and our band never got off the ground because he couldn’t find a singer and a drummer. “Downtown Faction asked me to rejoin them and this time Jacka did join us in the second half of 1969.</p>
<p>“By this time we were more or less professional and London looked a possibility. Ray said he’d go if things looked good and this was the time we were starting to get off on the folk thing more; Jeff felt a bit out of it so he left at Christmas, and it was whilst doing folk clubs that we met Alan Hull. Alan had played with the Chosen Few around 1965 but then faded out completely and it wasn’t until 1969 that he became active again.</p>
<p>“Ray used to drum on his demo sessions at Dave Wood’s Impulse Studios and then Alan asked me to join a band that he was forming which was another nail in the Downtown Faction coffin.” Downtown Faction became Brethren and Alan Hull spent more and more time with the band. “So when Alan joined we had two managers – Dave Wood who’d been managing Alan and owned the studios and Joe Robertson who was our manager. “So when we signed up with Strat (Tony Stratton-Smith) we asked him to buy us out of our management contracts which he did. - He also bought the rights to the Morgan album.</p>
<p><strong>Raps At Random</strong></p>
<p><strong>Tony Stratton-Smith (the band’s manager): </strong><em>“At the time I signed them different managers were looking after Alan Hull and Brethren, but my real interest was in the group as a whole with Alan making occasional solo albums. “I heard a demo tape with ‘Road To Kingdom Come’ and I think it was ‘Turn A Death Ear’ (sic). I’d heard of Alan Hull from folk buffs and always thought of him as a club singer, but I realised on one hearing of the Brethren tape that Ray Jackson could do for the harp what Ian Anderson had done for the flute.<br><br>“I think the one thing that excited me about Lindisfarne was the magic of the songs and the balls of the performance. I love affirmative music – music that affirms life: although if they had come down two years earlier they wouldn’t have been the band that they are. “I signed the band for recording and it was obvious they would have to come to London. Neither of their managers really wanted to come to London so they asked me to take them on for management. A deal was worked out for Joe Robertson and Dave Wood which involved a small sum of money and five percent management override for a period of two years. I think that it worked out pleasantly for both of them.</em></p>
<p><em>“We put the band on at the Marquee on a Sunday night supporting an American band, Raven, there were only about 50 people there and the group were pretty miserable. I remember encouraging them by saying that within six months they’d be turning people away from the Marquee because there was no more room. - “And that’s exactly what happened.”</em></p>
<p><strong>Dave Wood (Alan Hull’s publishing partner and former manager): <em>“</em></strong><em>Alan used to play with the Chosen Few at the Manhole Club in Wallsend and I own the studios upstairs. That’s how I got to know him and how mad he was. They had songs like ‘Today, Tonight And Tomorrow’, ‘Big City’ and ‘Won’t Be Round You’ which were pretty big, and I remember we went down to London and booked four places in a Bayswater hotel which ended up accomodating nine of us. On top of that we broke the washbasin and got thrown out.</em></p>
<p><em>“But the group fell apart and Alan formed Barabas. Two of his songs were recorded, including ‘Grey’. Originally the only reason I got involved with him was because he made a demo £25 at my studio but he only paid me £10. I used to keep pestering for the rest until I realised he had no money anyway, so I thought ‘if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em’ and I became his manager.</em></p>
<p><em>“I have tapes of about 280 Alan Hull songs, all of which you could safely get the group to do now. I find it difficult to come across a song I don’t like. Alan was always a little ahead of his time – he changed my way of thinking completely and some of his early songs like ‘Schizoid Revolution’ were frightening.”</em></p>
<p><strong>Joe Robertson (former manager of Brethren): </strong><em>“I came into contact with Dave Wood because I was managing Junco Partners and Gin House and would always be down at Dave’s studios. He’d never stop talking about Alan Hull, and by early 1970 he was a star attraction.</em></p>
<p><em>“I started managing Brethren, who were really hard up, and I remember Jack virtually walked the nine miles from his house to see me. Alan and Brethren started to play together more and more, so Dave and myself decided to go to London and set things up. “I’d earlier been managing Charlie Harcourt who by now was with Jackson Heights so I decided to go and see Tony Stratton-Smith at Charisma. “By the time the deal was signed Alan had joined Brethren but Strat said there was product in the States by a group called Brethren and we had to change the name. Charisma wanted the new name pretty quick and I immediately thought of a local name – Prudhoe Street Mission – but a few hours later Lindisfarne was born.</em></p>
<p><em>“During that three month period from June to August we were so enthusiastic we were out of our heads. We’d do some ridiculous things because we could see the group were going to make it – like we took a £10 gig at Kirk Levington Country Club and took out a £15 advert for a gig in the Middlesbrough paper. We had so much nerve at that time that we wouldn’t mind screaming at anyone in London. But in the end they wanted Tony to manage them. They needed to progress and we realised he could do much more for them than we could. There hadn’t really been enough money there behind them – if it had, things might have been different.</em></p>
<p><strong>Barbara Hayes (Alan’s partner in Hazy Music): <em>“</em></strong><em>I was working as press officer for Radio Luxembourg and they were holding auditions for their talent search. I went up to Newcastle and someone said to go to the Manhole Club in Wallsend where Alan was playing with the Chosen Few. They were the only Newcastle band who were any good at the audition, and as a result they made three records for Pye.</em></p>
<p><em>“But I retained an interest in Alan’s songs, and in 1967 I managed to elicit his address. Eventually Dave Wood brought some tapes down to London. I was interested in his voice and he was a natural songwriter. “In 1969, Alan, Dave and myself formed Hazy Music and the first song we had was ‘We Can Swing Together’ which Alan recorded for Transatlantic. “I always knew Alan’s songs would make it, but Charisma had done a marvellous job. Even so, I’m surprised how quickly it’s all happened.</em></p>
<p><strong>Mrs. Sally Hull (Alan Hull’s Mum):</strong><em> “Alan was always a villainous child.”</em></p>Lindisfarne - the official websitetag:www.lindisfarne.co.uk,2005:Post/46463772017-03-26T20:36:09+01:002017-03-26T20:36:09+01:00Rod Clements: Where? magazine, 1991<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/244471/cccb64d0611ebc62e22bcb3670233705ac60e717/medium/rodclements1991.jpg?1490556926" class="size_m justify_center border_" />By Tim Joseph, Nov 1991 - discovered by Michael Clayton</p>
<p><strong>Rod Clements is best known as the bass player in Lindisfarne, but this year he will have appeared in the area in three guises: as a solo artist, with Lindisfarne and as a member of the part-time project Pacamax. Where? spoke to him prior to his recent solo gig at the Processed Pea in Etton about all three projects. Lindisfarne will be appearing at Hull City Hall on December 15th.</strong></p>
<p>Starting with his solo work, I asked him whether the gig was part of a tour he was doing: “No, it's just a one-off. The solo things are more-or-less to request, really. If somebody I know phones up and says ‘Do you fancy playing?’ then if I can fit it in I say ‘Yes please, that will be fine’. But I'm sort of developing a taste for it, increasingly.”</p>
<p>A solo album is on the cards for next year, although nothing is definite yet. It won't however be all original material, but will include some of the slide and blues numbers that Clements includes in his live set. His press release includes the comment that ‘Rod's approach to his material acknowledges the influence of American ballads and blues from pre-Woody Guthrie times to today’. This is not something he has chosen deliberately however: “I think it's something that's been there all the time, and the solo work gives it the chance to come out. I mean, my first love is the slide guitar. And that in a sense is why I started doing the solo work in the first place. When I was the bass player in the band, it had nothing to do with my guitar playing, and I wanted to develop that. And it's as a result of having developed it, that I've shifted from bass guitar with Lindisfarne. But the American roots stuff, it was one of my boyhood enthusiasms anyway: blues and American folk and prison songs and stuff like that, and being continually interested in blues guitar, slide guitar particularly, it sort of points you towards that sort of repertoire.”</p>
<p>It's hard to believe that Lindisfarne have been back together for 16 years now, even though they originally only survived for four or five. “When I look back on the original period, it almost seems like another lifetime, it seems so long ago now. Certain things remain very vivid, but as a whole period, it could have been different people.” How does he feel about the band's original classic albums, such as Nicely Out Of Tune and Fog On The Tyne? “Particularly Nicely Out Of Tune, I look back on very fondly and still enjoy hearing it. I don't put the old records on very much, but they were a lot of good fun in the making, and there were so many ideas. Everybody was coming up with ideas, off-the-wall things. And some of the things don't half rock on in today's terms. I was quite surprised when I've heard stuff like Road To Kingdom Come, it really shifts along.”</p>
<p>Clements is best known for writing Lindisfarne's big hit Meet Me On The Corner. Doesn't he ever get sick of playing it? “No, I don't get sick of it. It seems to keep regenerating itself. It's funny, there are still some songs with Lindisfarne that we've found we play exactly the same as when we started off: Meet Me On The Corner is one of them, Lady Eleanor is another. Whereas something like Fog On The Tyne gets revamped every year.” Especially when over-rated footballers take it back into the charts, I suppose.</p>
<p>So which is his favourite Lindisfarne LP? “At the moment it's Amigos (the band's last LP, from 1989). It's got my favourite crop of songs on from recent years. I think some of the performances could have been better, but you always think that.” Although the band are touring as usual this Christmas there will be no new album in the Shops to tie in. “We've been recording for most of this year. I think the actual record in the shops is still a long way off. I can't see it being out this side of Christmas. What we're actually doing is making tracks for the American market which may or may not be finished masters. They may just end up being demos, so we'll have to wait and see on that. There are some good songs coming out, and new production techniques, a new producer waiting in the wings, a change of line-up in the band.”</p>
<p>What?? “Ray Jackson's left. It had been coming for a long time I think, actually. Unfortunately last year he was only able to do the Christmas shows. We'd done quite a few festivals in the summer without him and we'd been half-expecting a decision for quite a long time. But in one sense we were quite well prepared for it when it came.” I suppose that means no more Z Cars or Blaydon Races solos anymore. Speaking of line-ups, I wondered why they had made a saxophonist a full-time member of the band. “He just fitted in so well. But it's going back a long way now. He's been touring with the band for seven years now, and been a full member four years.”</p>
<p>With Clements' increasing interest in playing more basic music, will the new Lindisfarne LP see them retuning to their roots? “I would certainly like to, and I would regard that as being my sort of input to Lindisfarne. I think that's one of the reasons I liked Amigos because it had a strong element of that in it. At the moment I would say we are retaining quite a lot of that, in the present crop of material, although maybe not directly. There's one song I'll be doing tonight called Black Rain which it lends itself pretty much to that rootsy treatment. Certainly, we're continuing to use real sounds, real guitar sounds, real piano sounds. If we're using an acoustic guitar now, we really make it sound like good acoustic guitar, rather than multi-layered walls of acoustics that we used to do at one time.”</p>
<p>So will Lindisfarne last indefinitely? “I can't see any reason not to do it. If any of us got tremendously interested in doing something else, then we could always give it a rest, or just get back together at Christmas and do whatever we like the rest of the year, but there's no reason to knock it on the head. We all get on tremendously well with each other, we have done for years. We're not going to fall out now. We understand each other's differences, and we leave space for everybody to have their head. We construct the band's show now to make sure that everybody gets the chance to show off what they're good at.”</p>
<p>If it did fall through, there's always the part-time band Pacamax. How did that come about? “Pacamax is a good-time band, which was a down-time activity, it was just something we decided to start doing for fun, playing strictly R & B covers and standards, no original material allowed, which takes a lot of pressure off. And it was a different combination of people, people like Billy Mitchell and Jed Grimes, who are long-standing friends and members of the same Newcastle circle, a sort of extended family of musicians who weren't exactly in the same band.</p>
<p>The band's last gig in this area was at the Duke Of Cumberland in Ferriby, a joint venture between the Processed Pea and the Hull Street Freaks: Who? “Well, we were playing at Hull City Hall about four or five years ago, and we got a call from a bloke called Mike Cartledge, who said ‘I've got a motorbike, it's a custom Harley called Lady Eleanor decorated with scenes from the song. How would it be if I came and set it up in the foyer for tonight’s show?’ And we said ‘Great, it sounds wonderful.’ He put a little display round it, and the bike was absolutely knockout. And Mike works in a bike workshop, a full-time job. He and his mates are the Street Freaks, self described custom maniacs, who do up old Harleys and such like and travel around to bike shows and things. And we hit it off really well with Mike and the rest of the gang, and then they started showing up at other Lindisfarne shows as well and Pacamax shows. And I got talking to Mike about slide guitar one night, and I happened to mention that I was having difficulty finding the gauge of brass bottle-neck that I was used to. Because I bought the one I was using then in London about 12 or 15 years ago, and they didn't make them anymore. So he said, ‘Let's have a look’, and he said ‘I can knock some of those off for you, no bother at all.’ So he took the dimensions and made a couple of prototypes, and they're just the job. Apparently they were quite hard to make, but he's just invested in a new lathe, so we're thinking of knocking them out on a commercial basis. So if anybody's interested, contact me or the Hull Street Freaks!”</p>
<p><em>Tim Joseph</em></p>Lindisfarne - the official websitetag:www.lindisfarne.co.uk,2005:Post/46463692017-03-26T20:30:01+01:002017-03-26T20:30:01+01:00Rock'n'Reel 1989<p><strong><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/244471/babe6293cd486af748d392a57956093b6f70fce8/original/rnr.jpg?1490556584" class="size_orig justify_center border_" />Rock ‘N’ Reel Number Four Summer 1989 provided by Michael Clayton</strong></p>
<p><strong>Do all the band undertake solo projects from time to time like Alan’s Another Little Adventure album on Black Crow Records and the solo tour he undertook?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Alan Hull: </strong>Apart from myself, Rod Clements does solo tours and records with Bert Jansch - they have an album currently available on Black Crow. Ray Laidlaw and Marty Craggs have a sometime rock band called Pacamax or sometimes Dirt on the Needle, featuring local musos like Jed Grimes (ex Hedgehog Pie) and Billy Mitchell (ex Jack the Lad) now with Maxi and Mitch.</p>
<p><strong>Did you grow up with north-east traditional music and when you were developing your folk rock style in the early 70s did you feel part of the same movement / feeling as what Steeleye Span and Fairport Convention were doing then?</strong></p>
<p>When we formed in 1969, there was a very healthy music scene on Tyneside. The Club A'Gogo was the centre for blues and rock. The Bridge Folk Club was the place for folk and the area had many other smaller places where bands could cut their teeth. I drifted into the folk clubs as they were prepared to listen to new singer / songwriters. That's basically how I bumped into Brethren who had had the same idea as Rod (Clements) and Si (Cowe) were writing original songs.</p>
<p>We eventually teamed up and became Lindisfarne, taking with us blues from the A'Gogo and attitudes we had picked up in folk Clubs. We were certainly aware at the time of the Fairports and the rest but I don't think we consciously felt part of a movement as such. We were too busy gigging!</p>
<p><strong>Do you feel an affinity with what the new generation of acts who fuse rock and folk like the Pogues are doing, and in your own area the Whisky Priests, and do you appreciate the music they produce?</strong></p>
<p>I think the whole band like what the new lot are up to. I especially like the Waterboys and in a sense it's little recognition that ourselves, Fairports, Steeleye and others paved the way for what I like to think of as real music. Good songs without frills and well played and sung.\<strong>What can people expect with the new Lindisfarne album, and has the new interest in folk / roots music inspired you to reach out for new influences musically?</strong></p>
<p>What people can expect from the new Lindisfarne album is a set of smashing songs well produced by Steve Daggett. The new feeling in the business for folk / roots music, has, I think, given us an added incentive to succeed with this record. We've carefully selected the material and are reaching out to explore new capabilities within the band. A major one of these has been the emergence of Rod as a mean slide guitarist. We've kept the vocals traditionally Lindisfarne as this is a very recognisable facet of the band. All we need now is a title!</p>
<p><strong>Do you still find people who connect with Fog On The Tyne and do you feel disappointed that some people would judge you on tracks recorded about eighteen years ago, do you sti1l perform the hits from the seventies live and do you feel happy doing them?</strong></p>
<p>We are still very happy to perform the hits like Fog On The Tyne from the early seventies because we still get a genuine buzz from seeing the audience reaction. We've never stood still though and never simply relied on the biggies to carry us through. There has always been a constant input of new material and we have even radically re-structured the way we do the older ones. There is a tendency amongst some people who aren't that well acquainted with the band to think that Lindisfarne is rooted in the early seventies and got no farther than Meet Me On The Corner and Lady Eleanor. But this, as many people know, is miles from the truth - ask anyone who's been to a show! We aim to carry on more vigorously than ever as I feel we're getting better all the time, watch out for the new album and all the best with the magazine.</p>Lindisfarne - the official websitetag:www.lindisfarne.co.uk,2005:Post/46463562017-03-26T19:55:39+01:002022-08-18T18:32:17+01:00Dingly Dell: A pre-review - Melody Maker, October 1973<strong><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/244471/74fc1887293769f19b439a22d77422420fa1d1bf/original/dd.jpg?1490554528" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><br>By Chris Charlesworth from Melody Maker, Oct 6th, 1973 - discovered by Michael Clayton</strong><p>Next week, LINDISFARNE and YES will be playing songs from their new LPs at the Crystal Palace. Here, MM presents an exclusive preview of the two albums.....</p>
<p>SOMETIMES, just occasionally, the ears pick up on a piece of music that commands a silent respect from the opening chords to the closing note on the first hearing. It happened to me when I first heard A Day In The Life, and it happened again when I heard Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water for the first time. And it happened again last week when a man from Charisma played me the new Lindisfarne album and, in particular, the title track Dingly Dell. Sympathetic though I am towards Lindisfarne, I really wasn't prepared for that trip into Dingly Dell, wherever it may be. Take a tip: when you buy the album play this track first, turn the volume up loud and listen through cans. You won't regret it.</p>
<p>Like A Day In The Life it comes at the end of the record and includes fast and slow movements. Alan Hull (and this really is Alan Hull's album) sings the melancholy verses over an eerie bass line which could have been recorded by using a bow across the strings. The effect is almost frightening - as if he really was lost in the Tyneside we heard about on their last album. But after two verses there's a total change. Electric guitar brings in violins, 'cellos, violas, string basses, oboes and anything else you can think of… a whole symphony orchestra takes over and gradually fades until the next eerie verse drones in.</p>
<p>It has to be the definitive Lindisfarne track, just as the album has to be the definitive Lindisfarne album. There isn't one poor track, but this stands head and shoulders above the rest. It will be impossible to perform live without the additional instrumentation, but few groups could achieve this sound in a studio, even with the assistance of Bob Johnston as producer.</p>
<p>Johnston is a perfectionist whose technical virtuosity occasionally outweighs his feeling for the music. But even he must be pleased with the outcome of this album, for most of the tracks Dingly Dell being the standout exception generate a funky feeling hitherto unassociated with Lindisfarne.</p>
<p>For openers we have a trilogy of songs all linked together, <strong>All Fall Down</strong>, which is destined to be their next single, is the happy sing-along type of tune we expect from Lindisfarne. There's a lot of harmonica from Ray Jackson, and a French horn booming away in the background.</p>
<p>It runs into <strong>Plankton's Lament</strong>, an instrumental jig influenced no doubt by Jimmy Shand, and then we go into <strong>Bring Down The Government</strong>, a protest type of song which, the group hope, will develop into an audience participation song similar to We Can Swing Together. It's a bit fast for an audience, though, and each member of the band sings a verse in turn. (A lively version of Swing Together, incidentally, is planned as the reverse side of their next single).</p>
<p><strong>Poor Old Ireland</strong> is Hull's lament for the Irish, a slow pensive number which doesn't attempt to solve the Irish problem or take sides. If anything, it knocks at the strong religious beliefs held in that country. It's unlikely to cause the same stir that McCartney's song about the Irish situation.</p>
<p><strong>Don't Ask Me</strong> is the only song by bassist Rod Clements, and the heaviest number on the album. Thick guitar chords open the number which is way away from the folk/rock bag Lindisfarne have slotted into. Mutually, the group's favourite album of the last 12 months was Sticky Fingers and there's a Stones influence pervading here. It's a song about being a pop star - a subject perhaps too frequently aired by groups, but it'll make you dance all the same.</p>
<p><strong>Oh No, Not Again</strong> is the most commercial number of the set. With its easily recognisable riff, it would make a perfect single. The words in the title are chanted behind the verses, not unlike the way the Beatles used vocal harmony in their early days.</p>
<p><strong>Side two</strong> opens with a quick harmonica jig called <strong>Dingle Regatta</strong> by Ray Jackson which slips immediately into another commercial track <strong>Wake Up Little Sister</strong>. Again the acoustic guitars give way to electric behind Jackson's voice.</p>
<p>There's some offhand chat in the grooves before Simon Cowe's contribution to the album <strong>Go Back</strong>, another song that rattles along with a slight Stones feel about it. There's more brass including some tuba punches in the right places.</p>
<p><strong>Court In The Act</strong>, a song apparently written by Hull as a result of a driving offence he committed and appeared in court for, opens with the famous C'mon Everybody riff. It's another rocker which, I am reliably informed, took, its title from the MM's live review feature.</p>
<p><strong>Mandolin King</strong> could have come from the Beatles in their Rubber Soul era. Harmonies chant across the track, and crisp lead guitar is filled out with two mandolins. Another track which could make a single. The closer is the title track which I described above.</p>
<p>The album is undoubtedly Lindisfarne's best yet, and the best on the Charisma catalogue so far. In Charisma's short history their three most successful albums, Lindisfarne's two and the Nice's Five Bridges, (recorded in, and written about, Newcastle), have all come from the North-East. This won't be an exception. Alan Hull can write songs as well as any British songwriter, and here his talents spread into a wider field than the previous Lindisfarne albums.</p>
<p>The change in musical direction gives drummer Ray Laidlaw more work and he takes it easily in his stride. Ray Jackson is at the top of his field in playing both harmonica and mandolin, while his singing takes on a new edge in the faster numbers.</p>
<p>The album will be previewed at Crystal Palace on September 2. The group intend to include all the numbers from the album in their new stage act, and phase out the old favourites. They may rehearse a medley with short excerpts from the oldies as a closing number.</p>
<p>“We have written the album in the style we wanted to go,” says Alan Hull. “We didn't actually decide to get out of the folk bag we were in, but just write Lindisfarne music. And this album really is Lindisfarne music. For years we were a blues band before we joined Charisma.”</p>
<p>The track <strong>Dingly Dell</strong>, says Alan, was written three years ago at the same time he wrote Lady Eleanor. At the time no-one wanted to hear it, a similar fate which befell Lady Eleanor when first issued as a single. It was the re-release which scored so heavy in the charts this year. We originally recorded it for Fog On The Tyne, and we kept the tape and added the orchestral parts for this album. It's very like Debussy.</p>
<p>“I think this is the best Lindisfarne album, and more to the point the whole band does. The songs are as good, if not better than the first album, and the production is better than the second one. It's a combination of the best parts of the two and very positive. There are no hidden tracks. We tried to make every track different from the one before.” </p>
<p><strong>CHRIS CHARLESWORTH</strong></p>Lindisfarne - the official websitetag:www.lindisfarne.co.uk,2005:Post/46463552017-03-26T19:52:22+01:002017-03-26T19:52:22+01:00Lindisfarne MkII: NME, October 1973<p><strong><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/244471/3fcc4f7c4d96f66187e718ef5e93393a7a8a7481/original/mk2.jpg?1490554315" class="size_l justify_center border_" />There seems to be no sign of musical rejection following the Lindisfarne transplant of a few months ago when the body was sawn in half.</strong></p>
<p>The mind (Alan Hull) still seems to be ticking over nicely and the heart (Ray Jackson) beats as strongly ever with all the newly grafted limbs kicking away like mad. Just how healthy they are mind and body we have been able to assess from their joyous appearance on Reading Festival and the sneak preview I heard of their new album under the working title “<strong>Don’t Rip It…I’ll Take It By The Yard</strong>” which I heard last week.</p>
<p>Jacka, who remains the personification on stage of a man who believes you can enjoy yourself as much as the audience, told me last week what we can expect from the new Lindisfarne on tour. </p>
<p>“I think we've broken through a musical barrier, with our new members, so that we can do more than just swingalong songs. It got too easy with the old band and our enthusiasm wilted because we were just repeating ourselves. We'll still do Fog On The Tyne and Lady Eleanor because you can't disappoint all those who expect those songs but we won't do songs like Meet Me On The Corner. There’ll be new rockers from our album, such as Moonshine which our bass player Tommy Duffy wrote, and Tow The Line which our pianist Kenny Craddock wrote, and maybe our new single."</p>
<p>“If anything I think there'll be more fun and games on stage.”</p>
<p>With the excellent material on their new album – much of it written by their new members, a new P.A. system, new lights and the old spirit – this British tour could see Lindisfarne’s feet firmly under your table once more.</p>Lindisfarne - the official websitetag:www.lindisfarne.co.uk,2005:Post/46463542017-03-26T19:48:50+01:002017-03-26T19:48:50+01:00Lindisfarne: Record Mirror, March 1972<p><strong><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/244471/8b3b897d2cba5a19566b23e1dc156ced1dfc3484/original/rm72.jpg?1490554119" class="size_orig justify_center border_" />DEFINING Lindisfarne's success is rather like pulling the wings off a butterfly at present but there seems little doubt after having seen them on stage or listened to their albums it has something to do with their apparent vulnerability - they are possibly the first of the great UN-super groups who have based their appeal on being of the people - not perfect and proud of it as their early album titled Nicely Out Of Tune might suggest.</strong></p>
<p>As opposed to coming on strong in the time honoured tradition of big stars they come shambling on and pull off the seemingly impossible by the sheer musical enthusiasm of their amateur-professionalism which escalates into a kind of soft rock knees up at their most exuberant and thoughtful fireside folk meeting at their more placid pace. It is perhaps best summed by one critic who recently referred to them in the category of pub-rock - but definitely The Snug not The Saloon.</p>
<p>And certainly as representative of their music and style as any one individual can be is the self effacing composer-guitarist Mr. Alan Hull whom I recently met at Charisma's London office where he quietly introduced himself as “the worst interviewee in the world”. Certainly not an ego-tripper our Alan but then one would hardly expect extrovert showmanship from the man who wrote Lady Eleanor.</p>
<p>“I'm not sure what kind of influence I've had on the band but I was just a boozy folk singer back in May 1970 when I met them and they were playing rock and blues as Brethren,” said Alan. Jacke (sic) was a real died in the wool R&B fanatic at that time - he had a vast record collection of those musicians.</p>
<p>“They became Danton Faction (sic) for a while and were easily the best hard band in the North East but no one was getting much personal satisfaction out of playing other people's work and everyone decided at the same time it was about time we played and created some sensible music of our own.</p>
<p>“It's very difficult to be objective about our music when you're so involved in it but I think that part of our appeal is that we have kept a sense of perspective over our success by keeping a sense of humour. We've always felt it was more important to enjoy what we were doing than take it so seriously as some of the bigger groups appear to do. <br>There’s no doubt that keeping our Geordie backgrounds in sight has helped but then that’s not a deliberate thing – it’s just there and comes out in the music as a natural extension of ourselves. Some people have suggested that as we become more successful and move on to bigger audiences we could lose that close communication we have built up in the clubs and halls but I don’t think that is proving true. </p>
<p>“Although the Oval gig was dire for us and we had a lot of PA problems we played Wheeley (sic) to a vast crowd and managed to produce the same kind of rapport with the people we’ve done in small halls. The only danger might be in moving and travelling much more as we become more successful that we find it more difficult to get back to basics. But you don’t stop being what you are because you happen to be in New York and if the travelling becomes a problem you can always write about that. What it really means is drawing from you own experience.</p>
<p>“We're naturally a little concerned with the forthcoming American tour because of much of our act is based upon Northern humour but there's no reason why we shouldn’t adapt to terms they can understand. For example instead of Jacke (sic) doing his little medley of things like Z Cars on harmonica he'll probably try Highway Patrol. Going out with the Kinks who I understand are going over quite big there now should help us enormously.”<br>Having witnessed a recent Lindisfarne performance where the audience reacted like a football crowd to their performance and brought along their own cow bells, tambourines and whistles I wondered whether Alan felt they might have to curb some of the enthusiasm in order to get across more of their music.</p>
<p>“I don’t think so,” said Alan. “I think we have quite a nice balance at present – I mean they’re not going crazy all the time and we’ve worked a programme of varying tempos and time changes to bring the mood up and down as we want it. Certainly it wouldn’t do us much good to throw a wet blanket over the ‘all join in’ spirit which has been very important in the act – it seems natural to share your own enjoyment in the music anyway.<br>What will happen on the next Lindisfarne album - do they intend to use producer Bob Johnston whose association with Fog On The Tyne proved so successful?</p>
<p>“We're thinking of giving him another chance,” smiled Alan. “He created a great working atmosphere in the studio which is enormously important for us if we are going to come over sounding as if we are enjoying ourselves.”</p>
<p>Alan has recently been subjected to the BBC’s policy of banning any record which they feel in their opinion makes inflammatory statements on the present situation in Ireland. Alan has written a song called Poor Old Ireland for inclusion on the group’s next album which they are currently performing on stage but which the BBC would not permit to be broadcast in a recent radio programme they did. </p>
<p>“That’s their decision and so one accepts it,” said Alan. “But I think they are wrong about the song, it really is not political in implication because I am not political. It’s really just a comment on a sad situation – in fact from a political standpoint it is rather negative. I wrote it well before the Bloody Sunday situation but it happened to coincide from a performance point of view with that tragedy and I think that the BBC’s decision was coloured by current events rather than anything specific I had to say.”</p>
<p>We finished up holding a brief memorial service for the Newcastle football team recently knocked out by the non league club Hereford and Alan obliged with a brief impersonation of Eric Burden “I’m hallucinating like man mon,” for some reason, before wishing Lindisfarne the best of luck in converting damn Yankees to Newcastle Brown.</p>
<p><strong>A great little band getting better and anyone who thinks different can go to ‘Hull’!</strong></p>Lindisfarne - the official websitetag:www.lindisfarne.co.uk,2005:Post/46457712017-03-25T21:08:47+00:002017-03-26T19:49:08+01:00Lindisfarne: Record Mirror, January 1972<p><strong><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/244471/03fa901299cdeb813d1cc81c3c2fc354c373c19d/original/recordmirror-720122.jpg?1490476102" class="size_l justify_center border_" />Selling Newcastle </strong><br>Lindisfarne talk to Keith Altham <br>from Record Mirror Jan, 22 1972 - provided by Michael Clayton </p>
<p>Long ago and far away when Hyde park was just a flower pot and underground meant the Bakerloo line to me I was given to lurching around England in my capacity as a musical trade paper journalist with a group called The Animals. </p>
<p>They were at the time a new breed on the rock and roll front because their appeal was basically a masculine ‘Let’s loon man,’ rather than the current vogue of ‘Scream along with me,’ which the four mop tops and wicked Mick and his band of renown projected at that time. </p>
<p><strong>Honest </strong></p>
<p>The Animals were, of course, natives of Newcastle – Geordies – a species which I subsequently discovered at the risk of sounding maudlin are the salt of the earth – crude, crass and obstinate they are also generally speaking the most honest, kind-hearted, perceptive and down to earth people in Britain – I happened to be born in London for the record! </p>
<p>All of which might seem a bloody funny way to start an article about Lindisfarne but then they are Geordies and somehow they seem to capture the feeling of their people and their city better than anyone I have ever heard. </p>
<p>I’ve always felt that if you could somehow bottle that particular Tyneside spirit it would market internationally. It has been, it will be – and if you have not bought Fog On The Tyne do so – my album of the year. </p>
<p>Quite recently I spoke to their mandolin player Ray Jackson who got to be Jacka after the second Newcastle brown ale we downed. “I don’t write, sorry about that,” but is highly prevalent in their sound and significantly was used by Long John on his excellent It Ain’t Easy album and Rod Stewart’s Every Picture Tells A Story. </p>
<p>Just how important does Jacka feel that Newcastle spirit is to Newcastle? </p>
<p>“Obviously it’s very important. Just over a year a go we were in a band called Brethren playing the same kind of boring R&B material as every other so called progressive band – long boring guitar solos and the volume turned up to cover any musical defects. <br>“In the January of 1970 we all put our heads together and realised it was no good going on unless we began to play something we believed in and that was the beginning of what became Lindisfarne. </p>
<p>“It was also about that time that Alan Hull joined the group and his bias towards folk music and our own preference for acoustic numbers brought about the change of direction.” </p>
<p><strong>Name </strong></p>
<p>“We started to rely more heavily on our own compositions – anything we felt was us and the result was people started looking less bored and began to get genuinely enthusiastic about our music and our background. “We were going to keep the name Brethren but after we got our recording contract with Charisma Records, Tony Stratton Smith discovered there was a successful American group working under the same name. “We chose the name Lindisfarne after the small tidal island off Newcastle – it’s completely cut off at high tide, consequently the pubs stay open all day without fear of police action. </p>
<p>“We cling quite tightly to our ties with Newcastle because it’s a common bond and keeps us together. I think every northern group slightly resents the fact that you have to come to London to get recognised. Keeping our Geordie identities within the music is our own way of refusing to sell out – the hype machine won’t get us. </p>
<p>“We try to carry our home town feeling with us. We’re enjoying it the more now because it is the real us and managing to convey that enjoyment to others means they want to join in. It’s that basic human being stuff like ‘Have a drink on me’, which gives people a sense of joining in – sometimes they do. </p>
<p>“We’ve got this kind of football team following now in some places which can be a bit embarrassing when they want the rowdy numbers like Fog On The Tyne but it’s flattering to think they feel emotionally involved with us now to that extent. </p>
<p>“In a sense it is the final reward to see people get up and clap and singing because I know it is what I wanted to do when I was 14 or 15 – I liked The Animals too y’know. They were the best in their time. We nearly signed up with John Steel and Chas at one time before we found Strat – mind you no one could have done more for us than he has done!” </p>
<p>Jacka’s early inspirations were Woody Guthrie and The Dillards although he claims The Beatles ‘were our light’ especially with regard to the early Beatles music Like Norwegian Wood. </p>
<p>“They wrote so many songs it was so easy to share in what they were doing,” said Jacka. “We try to keep the same basic simplicity and honesty in our music.” One of Jacka’s main claims to fame apart from Lindisfarne is that he is the mandolin player Rod Stewart credits on his album, Every Picture Tells A Story. As the man whose name he could not remember! </p>
<p><strong>Plans </strong></p>
<p>“That came about because I was playing mandolin down at The Marquee one night and Baldry happened ‘Hall boy, what’s that you’re playing?’ y’know how he goes on. Anyway he was impressed enough to ask me to play on his album, It Ain’t Easy – I played on tracks like Black Girl and Rod was producing. He liked my playing and asked me to play on his album. </p>
<p>There are plans afoot to release Lindisfarne’s track Meet Me On The Corner from the Fog On The Tyne album as a single – the result I can assure you will be an instant smash hit but could it work in any way against the band? </p>
<p>“It might,” agreed Ray. “We don’t want to end up like T.Rex but then I don’t think there is much danger of that – it’s an album track after all and not a deliberate sell-out single.” </p>
<p>We wound up convening an unofficial meeting of the Lesley Duncan appreciation society – her album if you have not bought it is worth every penny – and passed a resolution hoping that 1972 should be a record year for the Newcastle Experience.</p>Lindisfarne - the official websitetag:www.lindisfarne.co.uk,2005:Post/46457502017-03-25T20:58:11+00:002017-03-25T21:05:28+00:00Lindisfarne: NME, July 1978<p><strong><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/244471/222c11090b5fa6f323810aebfe855a1bbb2077b0/original/nme780722.jpg?1490475473" class="size_orig justify_center border_" />How Lindisfarne Ran To Mum And Hit Paydirt In The Hermitage </strong><br>NME, July 22nd, 1978 by Bob Edmands - discovered by Michael Clayton</p>
<p>Alan Hull is thirty one, a lanky Geordie with a rampaging moustache, thinning hair, and a nervous manner. His manager Barry McKay says Hull is “the supreme extrovert”. Hull says that’s true, but “only when I’m drunk.” </p>
<p>Hull is sitting in a pub in Newcastle, reflecting upon his erratic career. Lindisfarne’s offices are above the pub, which is handy if you want to nip downstairs and do a little reflecting. </p>
<p>Lindisfarne had a couple of hit singles and two big albums at the turn of the decade, and then they split up. Five years later, the original band has decided to get back together again, and they’re already back in the charts. What sort of person is starting all over again as a pop musician at 31? </p>
<p>Barry McKay says he’s surprised that Alan Hull is willing to be interviewed, as Hull’s not too fond of the rock press. He’s a sensitive sort of chap and hostile reviews upset him. </p>
<p>If you think that sounds silly, then you don’t understand Alan Hull. Why should he care, when he’s written lots of melodic songs that lots of people like? Well, the fact is that he does. A slagging review in Melody Maker depressed him so much that he completely turned his back on the business for almost four years. Left his plush home at Barnet, near London, and fled back to Newcastle. </p>
<p>“I felt rejected,” he says. “It sounds a bit parsimonious, but it’s true. So what you do is reject what rejects you. And I stopped being part of the scene. “I didn’t have a manager. I didn’t have an agent or a record company. I didn’t read the music press. Didn’t even watch Top Of The Pops. Not even that.”<em> [He laughs.] </em></p>
<p>“Anyway, when we signed with our new label (Phonogram) I discovered that the guy who’d written the article – Brain Harrigan – had become the press officer there.” </p>
<p><em>So how did you get on? </em></p>
<p>“Well, this article had been on my mind for three years. It wasn’t just a slagging review of a solo concert that I thought was great. It was a complete, personal affront. There was no way it could be explained away. “The only thing I could think was that when I saw him, I was gonna kick his head in.” </p>
<p><em>Did you see him? </em></p>
<p>“Yes.” </p>
<p><em>And? </em></p>
<p>“I didn’t kick his head in. I got him to buy us a drink instead.” </p>
<p>In the event, Hull had the last laugh anyway. The incident inspired a song called Run For Home, which has become Lindisfarne’s first hit single since they got back together. In fact, most things seem to inspire songs from Hull. He says he accumulated dozens of songs in the years away from the limelight. Currently he’s “working like a pig” on yet more new music, although he’s supposed to be on holiday. </p>
<p>Most songs come from doodling around on guitar or on a piano, and “the doodles grow into pictures.” Other songs arrive full blown. One of Lindisfarne’s best known songs, We Can Swing Together, came to him in five minutes flat. It’s actually about a police raid on a party in Newcastle, but Lindisfarne fans have turned it into a jolly anthem. Hull says he’s just written an equally powerful song called Brand New Day, which should be out as a single before Christmas. </p>
<p>“Actually, it’s driving me crazy,” he said. “It’s in me head all the time. It’s just gone off again now because I’m talking about it. It’s tremendous.” </p>
<p>Alan Hull has had songs flying around in his head for years, even before Lindisfarne was formed. He was once a nurse in a mental hospital, and wrote away furiously in his spare time. Not all his inspiration was entirely spontaneous at that time. The patients used to be given the drug LSD to help them with their problems. This was in the late ‘60s, and each patient would get 25 milligrammes a day. Alan Hull though it would be interesting to try a little of the drug himself. He took a couple of the tablets and nothing much happened, so he took some more. </p>
<p>“I didn’t realise it took 40 minutes to have any effect,” he says, “so I kept on taking it. I took a thousand milligrammes in all. “The result was that I ended up tripping for a month. After the first week, I went back to work, and for three weeks I was stumbling around like one of the patients. I still get flashes of it now. It’s pretty frightening, really.” </p>
<p>Those days, though, seem long gone. Run For Home is getting airplay on radio Two, and critics have found Lindisfarne’s comeback album a bit smooth for their tastes. Barry McKay says quite openly that he’d like to see Lindisfarne make it big in the international markets. Rough and ready Tyneside folk songs might not go down that well in the States. <br><br>Still, Alan Hull insists that there’s no question of the band giving up their heritage. “There’s no way we can ditch our folk influence,” he says. “that’s the way we are. There’s no way you can ditch yourself.” </p>
<p>Lindisfarne’s return has been marked by a 34 date sell-out tour of Britain, which apparently played to ecstatic houses. You can’t help but feel they’d be in the superstar league by now, if they hadn’t split up in the first place. </p>
<p>“It’s all become very vague in my mind,” says Hull. “I’m not that clear why the band did split up. We felt that the magic had gone as far as we were concerned. Maybe we just needed a rest.” </p>
<p><em>Did he regret the years that were lost? </em></p>
<p>“Not in the least. Now we’re back together and it’s working so well, it looks like it was a good idea. We needed that break. And we can handle it that much better this time.” Hull says the reason they reunited was the success of their annual reunion concerts in Newcastle. According to him, money didn’t come into it. One of the songs on Lindisfarne’s new album is called Only Alone. It has a line in it that goes: ‘No I’m not lonely, I’m only here by myself.’ </p>
<p>I suggest to Alan Hull that the song could only have been written by someone who tended to be a bit solitary and didn’t like going around in crowds. Hull says: “You’re dead right. Loneliness is a peculiar thing People try to get it out in different ways. I try to get it out in songs. And it came out that way in that song.” </p>
<p><em>Does he think it’s odd that a group with a reputation for cheerful songs should have a songwriter who’s so broody? </em></p>
<p>“Well,” he says, “everybody gets a bit maudlin and morbid at times.” </p>
<p><em>But aren’t those dominant traits with you? </em></p>
<p>“No,” says Alan Hull, “usually, I’m just all right. Regular sort of person, you know. A bit crazy, perhaps, but who isn’t?” </p>
<p>The tape recorder is switched off, Alan Hull looks less worried and Barry McKay takes us off in his plush new Mercedes for lunch at a nice middle class bistro in Eldon Square. <br>Over lunch, Alan Hull gets positively extrovert, fulfilling his own character analysis with a little help from litres of white wine. </p>
<p>Reminiscing about his days as a mental hospital nurse, he offers this sharp assessment of the loonie business: “Neurotics build castles in the sky,” he says, “psychotics live in them, psychiatrists collect the rent, and psychopaths smash the windows.” <em>[There is much laughter.] </em></p>
<p>“Actually,” says Alan Hull, “it’s an old gag – but I added the last line, and I think it’s quite good.”<em> [We laugh some more.]</em></p>Lindisfarne - the official websitetag:www.lindisfarne.co.uk,2005:Post/46457372017-03-25T20:45:05+00:002017-03-25T20:45:25+00:00Why Alan Hull decided to quit Lindisfarne: Go Set, 1973<p><strong><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/244471/0ae8a42e1d0dd0d95ad18962cac1e65fa3724256/original/goset730811a.jpg?1490474587" class="size_l justify_center border_" />...but ended up in the new band of the same name </strong><br>by Steve Clarke <br>from Go-Set (Australia), Aug 11th, 1973 - discovered by Michael Clayton </p>
<p>A few months back Alan Hull had no plans other than to quit Lindisfarne and maybe record a solo album. Dingly Dell – the band’s last album – wasn’t as good as it should have been and they were losing their creative urge. That was it. </p>
<p>But things change and Hull, along with Ray Jackson, kept Lindisfarne together. And that ‘maybe’ solo album was released last week. It’s called Pipedream and Hull reckons it’s the best thing he’s ever done. Better than some of the things he did with the original Lindisfarne, I ask him, as we slouch amongst the soft cushions of what’ll soon be Charisma Records’ new offices. </p>
<p>“It’s hard to say because you get so close to a thing. It’s not for me to say. It’s for other people.” His words are just about making themselves heard through his whiskers. </p>
<p>“I think the old Lindisfarne was a very fine band. There were some very high moments. You can’t really deny that songs like Lady Eleanor were good, and they were done well. I feel Pipedream is better because it’s fresher but that’s just because it’s new.” The songs on Pipedream are, with few exceptions, of an exceptionally high quality, most of them dealing with situations which could easily crop up in real life. Hull says they’re part real and part imagined, and in some cases he’s taken the situation a step further than what actually happened. </p>
<p>Country Gentleman’s Wife comes from the days when he used to clean windows in one of Newcastle’s richer sectors and met the kind of lady described in the song. The situation didn’t actually arise as stated in the song, but he stresses it could have done. </p>
<p>His own personal favourite is Drug Song: “It’s all a bit in the past now, but looking back to the time when I did it, I got most buzz from it – I think it’s one of my better songs – has a real message and it really happened. “I wrote that and Clear White Light in the same night. It was the only two songs I’ve ever written completely under the influence. And I thought, ‘what am I doing to myself?’ and I was writing this tune.” </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/244471/79c9969f823c8ffbee984564c8179a82c6a3a553/original/goset730811b.jpg?1490474594" class="size_orig justify_right border_" /><em>Would he say it was an anti drug song? </em><br><br>“It’s a little bit of both – so I thought of calling it Auntie’s Drug Song. It’s not completely, definitely anti and it’s not definitely for. It’s just a song about drugs with a slight bias against. “I don’t believe in saying things definitely. It’s not my philosophy. You can say what you think a thing is, but you can’t say it’s either bad or good. I just don’t like a philosophy of directness . . . complete yes or no.” </p>
<p>Recording the album was different from playing with Lindisfarne he says as he was working with two professional musicians, as opposed to the original Lindisfarne in the sense that they were more like five guys playing songs together. </p>
<p>“It was a slightly different approach, a more professional approach and that’s the difference with the new band. It’s slightly more professional. As I said before, we had some really high moments in the old band and played some good music at times, but it came to the point where the five of us couldn’t get any further with each other. </p>
<p>“I was going to leave the group and they were going to get a replacement. I wasn’t going to do anything – just float around and maybe make my solo album. I just wasn’t thinking about performances. “Jacka decided to leave as well so we thought we’d better think again.” </p>
<p>The rest is history, with Hull and Jacka adding four other Geordie musicians and keeping the name Lindisfarne, while Messrs. Clements, Cowe and Laidlaw formed jack the Lad. As Hull puts it, things worked out quite nicely. Hull admits that at the time of recording Dingly Dell something happened within the band: “We didn’t capitalise or consolidate the success we had right then. We were right at the top and we blew it. It was as simple as that. We blew it. “We just went into the studio with the attitude whatever we do is going to be good because we’re good. And whatever we do is going to sell ‘cause we’re popular. “That’s the wrong attitude to go into the studio with – as we’ve since found out. You have to learn things like that. You have to make mistakes. We made a mistake. </p>
<p>“Pipedream has made up for it to me. I approached it with a brand new attitude. It’s a shame that album is coming out as Alan Hull – it’d be great if it had been Lindisfarne, as basically that’s the area in which the new Lindisfarne is going. “Pipedream is the last Alan Hull thing for as long as I can see.” </p>
<p>With the old Lindisfarne it got to the stage where Hull was writing the bulk of the material. This, he says, won’t happen with the new band which will be much more co-operative. <br>“there’s three strong songwriters in the band now. Tommy Duffy, who’s written the new single, and Kenny Craddock, who’s probably the best musician. He plays piano and he writes as much as I do. The next Lindisfarne album will be basically their songs and a couple of mine. </p>
<p>“I wasn’t getting much out of gigs at the end. I don’t think anybody was. That was on of the factors in the destruction. We’d come to a period where we were repeating ourselves. We were going on stage all the time to large audiences and we weren’t getting any buzz. It just fell flat. </p>
<p>“When it stops being fun you’ve got to think about packing up and doing something new. I don’t care about the money – I don’t think anybody does. I wouldn’t do a thing simply to make money.” </p>
<p><em>He must be pretty well-off now though? </em><br><br>“Yeah, but I wasn’t always. I’ve always done what I wanted to and not for the sake of money. We were doing things and we were starving. We were a ludicrously different band and people used to look at us and think ‘no guitarist, where’s Eric Clapton?’ </p>
<p>“They’d wonder what a mandolin was, and they used to walk away. We got pelted but we stuck at it. We did that for about 18 months, going all round the country for virtually nothing, and I never changed when the money came.” </p>
<p>Before becoming a professional musician Hull was a nurse in a mental hospital. Mental health concerns him, and in later life he hopes to spend some of his money on opening clinics for psychiatric treatment. He is also very conscious of class barriers and his working class roots come across in his songs on Pipedream. </p>
<p><em>Did he think that what he had been through as a child in Newcastle had helped him in his song writing? </em><br><br>“I used to believe that, but I think it depends as much if not more on what you’ve been through internally, rather than externally. I think in all art you’ll find that people who have been through a hard time, who’ve had a so-called hard existence in early life are deeper in their perceptions, in their emotions, in their art. </p>
<p>“But one person who doesn’t fit that category is Bob Dylan, because he was quite well off. It’s the same with Randy Newman. Those guys have got so much internally that external situations don’t matter much. </p>
<p><em>Did he think his external environment affected his writing? </em><br><br>“I think it definitely did. I was looking around when I was a kid and I’d think, ‘What’s all this?’. Now I’m quite well off, and in the future I hope to get more well off and I hope to do some good things with my money. But I’m not a capitalist. I don’t think I like a capitalist. I’m a working class lad and I always will be. I don’t care what anybody says.” </p>
<p>Work had just started on recording the first album from the new Lindisfarne. As all the musicians knew each other before they joined the group, it wasn’t difficult for them to play together. On stage they play a third of their set from Pipedream, a third of new songs and the rest are old Lindisfarne songs like Lady Eleanor and Fog On The Tyne. </p>
<p>“We’re hoping in the future to phase out the old stuff. I don’t mind playing it. It’s just lost its brilliance to me. I just sort of do it automatically.” </p>
<p>So far they’ve played under a dozen gigs, all except one being successful. Their London debut is later this month. </p>
<p>This is the best time for a band, when you’ve started bursting with ideas and the new songs are great. I think they’re as good as the old ones.” </p>
<p><strong>Lindisfarne is dead. Long live Lindisfarne.</strong></p>Lindisfarne - the official websitetag:www.lindisfarne.co.uk,2005:Post/46457352017-03-25T20:36:21+00:002018-11-27T20:43:39+00:00Lindisfarne: Record Mirror, June 1972<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/244471/0f1bdcd28faf1ba1db0df7b1749f7c62287a57a0/original/nme720603.jpg?1490474153" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><strong>Lindisfarne turn their back on folk because . . . ‘Rock is where it’s at’ </strong><br>from Record Mirror June 3rd, 1972 - discovered by Michael Clayton </p>
<p>“We’re becoming less of a folk band, the rock side’s coming up all the time now,” said Lindisfarne’s bass player Rod Clements last week, after the group’s Royal Festival Hall gig with poets Pablo Neruda, Stephen Spender, Brian Patten and Adrian Mitchell. </p>
<p>“Alan Hull used to be a folk singer but more for practical reasons than anything else, and we’ve always been interested in rock basically,” added Rod. “We’ve only been dabbling in folk.” </p>
<p>This may sound strange after the heavy folk flavour of both Lindisfarne’s albums and their two single hits Meet Me On The Corner and Lady Eleanor. Fog On The Tyne has now been in the album charts for over twenty consecutive weeks and Nicely Out Of Tune from which Lady Eleanor is taken, is climbing up second time around. </p>
<p>Since the folk sound of Lindisfarne has been so successful why should they change it? Part of the answer is that we’ve been getting a bit of a false picture of Lindisfarne from the albums. </p>
<p>“We’ve been in a bit of a dichotomy,” said Rod. “We’ve been folkier on the albums and much rockier on stage. Anyway, rock is where it’s at. It’s exciting for the audience to watch and for the musicians to play. “The reason that we got into folk is that the songs are uppermost and we are a writing band. We’ve always been looking round for a form to express our songs best without instrumental indulgences and we’re still going to play songs as songs, it’s just that they’ll be rock songs rather than folk. </p>
<p>“Actually it’s not a question of writing different sorts of songs, it’s really the way we play them. We would have done all right as a folk band because of our songs, but it’s a question of doing what we want to do. For me being a bass player automatically means that I’m used to rhythms sections, amplifiers, funkiness and all the rest.” </p>
<p>So however Lindisfarne play from now on, it’s still the songwriting that moves them along. Said Rod, “There are a lot of groups around who are good rock and rollers but their songs are nothing. But there is one good rock and roll group that turn out good songs that should be mentioned and that’s the Stones. I think Sticky Fingers was excellent music, from a rock and roll and lyrical point of view. </p>
<p>“The kind of thing that Dylan started with words hasn’t been followed up really,” continued Rod. I’ve just been listening to Highway 61 a lot again and it’s shit hot musically and the words are miles in advance of anyone else. “Lady Eleanor wasn’t a heavy song in the Highway 61 or Sticky Fingers sense but I think it tells a story in an intelligent sort of way that people can get something out of.” </p>
<p>Despite the group’s two hit singles and appearances on the dreaded Top Of The Pops – “a fairly painless experience” says Rod – Lindisfarne have no plans at present to release another single. “There’s a real danger in worrying about follow up singles,” said Rod, “and I couldn’t see us falling into that trap. We write songs and they go on our albums and certain tracks are released as singles if we think they are marketable. I’m sure there will be more single but we’ve nothing in mind right now.” </p>
<p>However the group are soon to go into the studio again to work on their third album. They are presently enjoying a couple of weeks off after playing dates in Germany and Switzerland. Then they start rehearsing for the album. </p>
<p>Lindisfarne are not a group who go into the studio with only a vague idea of what they might record. They thoroughly work their songs out beforehand and then go and put them on tape, most of the material being written by Rod Clements and Alan Hull. “We write a set of words to a certain tune over a certain chord sequence,” Rod explained. “After that, everyone invents their own bit, we play it over a few times and then an arrangement goes over that. </p>
<p>“We’ve four or five songs written for the album so far. The third album though seems to be the one that traditionally gets knocked after the first two have been praised. Just think of the Beatles, the Stones and the Band – all their third albums got a slagging. However we’re really optimistic the way ours is shaping up.” </p>
<p>Like Fog On The Tyne the new album will be produced by Bob Johnston. “It was a bit strange working with Bob at first,” recalled Rod. “We were very much in awe of him as the man who produced Dylan. To everything he suggested – down to going out for a pint – it was ‘Oh yes, Bob’. We got a bit sidetracked, but towards the end we got a much better understanding going and he’s a technically brilliant producer.” </p>
<p>As Lindisfarne go on to their third album about the only regret the group admit to is that the character of their live performances has changed. Gone are the days of knocking around pubs and clubs in the northeast. Said Rod, “We’re playing in big halls now. You can’t get the atmosphere of some of the little clubs. We’ve spent last year gigging nearly every night. We must have played in literally three hundred clubs. It got a drag at the time but every now and then you got a really good club where the people were friendly and it went really great, and we’d all have a really good night out. It’s a shame we’re not able to do that at the moment.</p>Lindisfarne - the official websitetag:www.lindisfarne.co.uk,2005:Post/46457302017-03-25T20:26:50+00:002022-06-08T14:09:13+01:00The Chosen Few<p><strong><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/244471/9565874b1870a8e8908a626f92acd40712ee3349/original/fottb025.jpg?1490473767" class="size_l justify_center border_" />Their singles and their descendants - by Charles Orr </strong></p>
<p>Formed in 1962, The Chosen Few was the vehicle by which Alan Hull would launch his recording career. The band's original line up was Hull (guitar and vocals), Bumper Brown (bass), Rod Hudd (vocals), Tommy Jackman (drums), and Mickey Gallagher (keyboards). Their main output was that of Tamla Motown covers, plus Alan's own compositions. They released only two singles, both on the PYE record label, and both issued in 1965. Alan is quoted as having said that the two singles were very "Beatle-esque" - he was right, all four songs are in backbeat mode, with heavy Kinks overtones. All songs were penned by Alan Hull. <br><br>The Singles:</p>
<p>PYE 7N.15905: I WON'T BE ROUND YOU ANYMORE b/w BIG CITY</p>
<p>PYE 7N.15942: SO MUCH TO LOOK FORWARD TO b/w TODAY, TONIGHT AND TOMORROW</p>
<p>After Mr. Hull left the band (1965), line up changes included the addition of one Colin Gibson (of Radiator fame, also of Snafu - check out the mention on the back of Alan's SQUIRE album), and John Turnbull. Both were destined to play on the PIPEDREAM LP, and have their photographs appear within the gatefold cover. Both Turnbull and Gallagher later played with Loving Awareness, and then became two of Ian Dury's "blockheads". </p>
<p>A year later, the group became 'Skip Bifferty', without Rod Hudd and Bumper Brown. Now London based, vocals were provided by Graham Bell (probably the first person apart from Alan to publicly perform LADY ELEANOR). The 1967 psychedelic album SKIP BIFFERTY (RCA) is much sought after, and was available later on CD (Essex 111003CD). Three singles in all were released, all on RCA: ON LOVE (1967), HAPPY LAND (1967), and MAN IN BLACK (1968). The latter was produced and arranged by Ronnie Lane and Steve Marriot of the Small Faces. The band later recorded another single under the name of 'Heavy Jelly'. </p>
<p>The group evolved into 'Arc', temporarily without Graham Bell, but now with Tommy Duffy (bass). They produced an LP in 1971 - ARC… AT THIS (Decca SKL-R 5077), and with the return of the main vocalist, they became 'Bell + Arc'. More line up changes, but their debut album in 1971 on Charisma (CAS 1053) BELL + ARC, consisted of Graham Bell, John Turnbull, Tommy Duffy, Mickey Gallagher, with John Woods on drums. The album spawned an average single SHE BELONGS TO ME (CB170). The band split in 1972, and Bell recorded a solo album in the same year - GRAHAM BELL (Charisma CAS1061). </p>Lindisfarne - the official websitetag:www.lindisfarne.co.uk,2005:Post/46454472017-03-25T13:22:33+00:002020-05-13T20:32:45+01:00Nicely Out of Tune: The story behind the album sleeve<p><strong><span class="font_regular"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/244471/2d7b603417b960656fc9c0b04913a98e06ced747/original/d3796c7c955765e7ee008b52a08a44a7-1000x988x1.jpg?1490448144" class="size_l justify_center border_" />Ray Laidlaw tells the story... </span></strong></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">Long before Lindisfarne made their first album we had a collective interest in things visual and often fantasised about what our sleeve would be like when we eventually made our first album. It was always when and never if. Confident little gits we were. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">Ray Jackson and myself had met at art college, a well-known safe haven for musicians who had yet to figure out how to make a living from music. We were surrounded by talented artists of all types and the constant exposure to striking visuals had an effect on both of us. All of us in the band were enthusiastic supporters of the films of Fellini and we often used to have trips to the Tyneside Cinema where all the arty films of the late sixties could be seen. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">During the Lindisfarne gestation period in the late sixties, we produced between us a succession of posters and flyers that we displayed in a prominent shop window next to the Haymarket Bus Station in Newcastle. At that time few local promoters would take a chance on booking us as our repertoire of Tyneside Delta Blues, Dylan influenced originals and Zappa covers was a little challenging to their regular punters who prefered a backdrop of Tamla Motown songs to fight and fornicate to. Our self-promoted gigs at venues like Jesmond Banqueting Hall and the New Orleans Jazz Club attracted a clientele who were as daft as us and often remarked on the whacky self-produced advertising material that had drawn them to our gigs. For a while an artist friend of ours produced a monthly, hand drawn, one sheet comic, featuring the mythical exploits of our band. It was stuck in the Haymarket shop window next to the posters. The last picture box always had the rest of the band saying ‘Where’s Si?’ Some things never change. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">I don’t remember if Jacka and I volunteered to design the ‘Nicely’ sleeve or if it was just presumed that we would. I know that the contemporary albums of the time didn’t inspire us much. We decided on a simple concept that would be direct and eye catching. An antique frame with a picture of the band in the centre and a special font echoing the Northumbrian origins of our name would be the main features. Jacka said he would design the logo and I began searching for a reference for the frame. This was long before the days of the Internet or scanners and the only way to research visuals was to go to the library. I spent a while searching but couldn’t find what I was looking for. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">A couple of days later I was at my mam and dad’s house when I noticed a book of sheet music that belonged to my brother who plays piano. It was light classics or opera and was opened at a title page. The title of the piece was displayed in an ornate line drawing featuring cherubs and ladies playing harps and singing. Perfect. As there was no one around I tore out the page and put the sheet music book back in the piano stool. I took my trophy back to Jacka and he got it photographed and completed the artwork which featured his splendid Lindisfarne logo. The picture session for the sleeve was done one lunchtime between gigs. It still looks good to me. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">Reinhard Groll: <em>Ray, on the rear side of the album cover of the original Charisma album, and only there, one can find a "Thanks to..." section. First named is Ian, Si's younger brother and Lindisfarne's roadie until the disband in 73. Then there is the "Hull family", Alan's wife Pat and their daughters Rosamund, Francesca and Berenice. Coming from the pre-LF time still under the name of "Brethren" and "Downtown Faction" are Jeff Sadler and Richard Squirrel. Long time friend and Alan's partner in Hazy Music: Barbara Hayes. David Wood as the Engineer and Uncle Tony might be noone else than John Anthony. But who is: "Charlie, Kath, Barbara, Anna, Julia, Joe Robertson, Drummond, Mr. Bolton and Spectrum?" </em></span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">Ray: OK Reinhard, here goes. All above is correct except that Dave Wood, in addition to being the engineer on all of Alan's and Lindisfarne's early demos, was also the owner of Impulse Studios in Wallsend, the third partner in Hazy Music and Alan's / Lindisfarne's manager. Uncle Tony was Tony Stratton Smith, Lindisfarne's manager and owner of the Charisma label which was based at Number 7, Dean Street (I think). Confusion because the office moved about six times in three years. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">Charlie Cameron, Ian Cowe's pal and Lindisfarne's other roadie till '73. Kath Clements, Rod's first wife. Barbera Pell, Ray Laidlaw's girlfriend at the time. Anna Mylott, Alan and Pat's live-in nanny and close friend of the band ('Oh Anna what does money mean anyway' ) Yes, that Anna. Julia Clements, Rod's daughter. Joe Robertson, Brethren manager and then Lindisfarne co-manager with Dave Wood, took Alan Hull/Brethren demos to Tony Stratton Smith which resulted in recording deal with Charisma. Drummond Amin, Tyneside rock'n'roll godfather and owner of the Shaftsbury electric 12 string guitar that Lindisfarne borrowed for the NOOT recording sessions. Mr Bolton, owner of the local garage that regularly repaired Lindisfarne's vans at ridiculously low cost. Spectrum was design company owned by Joe Robertson, responsible for early Lindisfarne imagery/posters etc. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">RG: <em>In August 99 the website had a featured story about the US versions of various covers where Chris Groom described it this way: "The front of the sleeve has a cut-away top that follows the edge of of the trees and clouds - all part of a muted colour illustration of the five band members. Behind this cut-out, you can slide in a square card insert which contains the album title and what we’ll call the ‘American Lindisfarne logo’, both visible above the clouds. When you slide this out, a colour photograph of the band is revealed - a shot I had not seen before, of the group looning about on the shore in front of Holy Island. On the back of the insert are the lyrics - American releases always try to have lyric sheets enclosed somewhere, it seems. The record itself comes in a printed brown paper inner sleeve with a small white band logo in the centre." </em></span></p>
<p><em><span class="font_regular">Why was there a completely different sleeve for the U.S.? </span></em></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">RL: Simple answer. US record company Elektra insisted on it. </span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">RG: <em>The tracklist on Side One was identical between the original and the US release. What was the reason for changing the title "Alan In The River With Flowers" into "Float Me Down The River", swapping Jackhammer Blues against "Nothing But The Marvellous" and dropping Rod's The Things I Should Have Said? </em></span></p>
<p><span class="font_regular">RL: Again Elektra's insistance. Title change because Lindisfarne's in-joke 'Alan in the River with Flowers' = 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' did not amuse the americans so they reverted to the songs original title. 'Jackhammer' was dropped because it sounded to American so replaced it with UK b-side 'Marvellous'. I can't remember the reason for leaving off 'Things..' but it was probably because they didn't like it.</span></p>Lindisfarne - the official websitetag:www.lindisfarne.co.uk,2005:Post/46454342017-03-25T13:03:13+00:002017-03-25T13:04:51+00:00Lindisfarne: NME October 1971<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/244471/3d28f07ef77b8d2f9d16962ebc2ee54003cada6d/original/nme711030.jpg?1490446947" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p><span class="font_large">Lindisfarne... are five musicians emerging from the Tyne fog to become really BIG.</span><br><br><strong>Currently Lindisfarne are one of the country’s most interesting groups, and if you ask them the secret of that success they will point to their producer Bob Johnston. </strong></p>
<p>Be that as it may, I personally feel there’s a lot more to Lindisfarne than brilliant direction. Bob’s good fortune is that he is handling some of the best material in music today. Since the success of their first album, Nicely Out Of Tune, the group have risen from being a struggling dance-hall band to about the best musical attraction on the scene. </p>
<p>I recently called on them at their house in Edgware, North London. The time was 1 pm and all were rather bleary eyed, having only just emerged from bed. With a “You’ll have to take us as you find us” they showed me into their living room. </p>
<p>Aristokats <br>“Our rapid success has made life a bit hectic,” said pianist/guitarist Alan Hull. “It’s strange to think that only 18 months ago we were working ourselves to death and seemingly getting nowhere.” </p>
<p>Lindisfarne began 10 years ago with Ray Laidlaw, whose grandfather gave him a drum kit for his 13th birthday. Guitarist Simon Cowe lived down the road and the two formed a group called the Aristokats. It lasted about two years. Rod Clements (bass guitar, violin) was a schoolmate of Simon’s, and later Ray Jackson (mandolin, harmonica, vocals) when he was at art college. All this time they had been aware of a guitarist in Newcastle called Jimmy Alan Hull, who used to play in pop groups, so they contacted him and he agreed to join the group. </p>
<p>“Our first date altogether was in this village called Ashington one Saturday night late in 1969,” said Ray Laidlaw. “Our lead guitarist had just left, and Alan was new. We were completely ignored by the audience who were only there to get drunk and meet birds. This put Alan off, and we didn’t get together again on stage for two months.” </p>
<p>Like everyone Lindisfarne had a tough time at the beginning, in the days they were known as Brethren. They would go away fro four days, and make about £40, but after food and travelling expenses were left with about 10s each. That didn’t even include hotel costs. From the stage Si would make a little speech, asking if there was anyone who had a spare floor they could sleep on. “If you want to get anywhere in Newcastle as a professional group you have to do the social clubs and bingo halls,” Ray Jackson said. “These dudes are the hardest in the world to keep happy, but if you can keep them quiet you’re getting somewhere.” </p>
<p>Soon they began to feel bored by the sameness of guitar-starred groups. And that’s probably the reason why they have no one lead instrument. Instead they have 10. Odd instruments take the lead for a short while, but never the same one twice. They have three main singers instead of one. </p>
<p>“As far as our music goes, the five of us must have been influenced by just about every musical form there is, said Ray Laidlaw. “Everything, as long as it’s good and it’s still around. But our main influences have been the Beatles, Frank Zappa and Hank Marvin. “Yes, Hank Marvin. That guy must have influenced more guitarists in his day than Clapton and Hendrix did put together, because he was the only one. “Coming from Newcastle, he was a local hero before the Beatles made it. A lot of people in Newcastle would go to 142 Stanhope Street just to look at his front door.” </p>
<p>The group may have broad tastes but when they set up on stage together it becomes something entirely different. It becomes Lindisfarne. Their new album Fog On The Tyne is where they are now. They were very pleased at the way Bob Johnston produced it and amazed at the way Ken Scott engineered it. Ken has worked with some of the finest people on record. He helped make albums like the Beatles’ Sargeant Pepper, George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass and Procol Harum’s Salty Dog. </p>
<p>There was talk of Lindisfarne going to the States to record the album, but they weren’t sure. They had never met Bob, and had only heard third hand that he was going to produce them. “When you go into the studio you can feel perfectly confident that Bob knows what he’s doing,” Alan Hull said. “He will never make a mistake, and has a wonderful knack of making your decisions for you. He lets you think you have to decide between two things, when he knows all the time what you are going to choose. Most important of all, he knows exactly how you want to do your song.” </p>
<p>Furthermore, Bob Johnston wasn’t their producer just for the one album; he is to work with them permanently. They may be going to America next year, but are not sure whether they really want to. What they plan to do, contrary to what everyone else does, is to see it once, and if they don’t like it, never return. </p>
<p>Rubbish <br>Both their singles have been covered; Clear White Light by Wishful Thinking and Lady Eleanor by Lemon. To them it’s flattery. They won’t be releasing a single from the new album because, judging from advance sales , the album will do quite well enough by itself. </p>
<p>Lindisfarne have positive views on the future of the single record. Said Ray Laidlaw: “Five years ago, before albums sold so many, people really used their imagination to make a good record. But apart from consistently good groups like the Move, most of the material we hear now is pure rubbish. “Half the records played on the radio aren’t even worth the plastic they are printed on. They must be fools not to realise that by lowering the standards they are cutting their own throats.” </p>
<p>“We all agreed that the present state of pop music on the radio and television is pathetic. Radio 1 for instance is almost at any hour of the day a sample of what the mass of listeners do NOT want – to judge from the music paper popularity polls. Laidlaw thinks there has never been a TV programme to rival Ready Steady Go. “Surely there must be an enormous market for a programme based on the Ready Steady Go principle. A cross between that and John Peel’s In Concert programme, except on television. “I honestly think that people are so fed up with the whole scene in general,” Alan Hull observed. “If you could get a group together playing nothing but Beatle songs, they would fill concert halls every night. People are crying out.” </p>
<p>They might be crying out, but I think that Lindisfarne could well be the group to provide the consistent excitement which the public has been waiting for since the demise of the Merseybeat era.<br><br><span class="font_large">Pamela Homan </span><br>from NME, Oct 30th, 1971<br><em>With thanks to Michael Clayton</em></p>Lindisfarne - the official websitetag:www.lindisfarne.co.uk,2005:Post/46454322017-03-25T13:00:01+00:002017-03-25T20:48:14+00:00Lindisfarne: Music & Disco Echo 1972<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/244471/f230ceb13bbb636424733ef9ec49cb57371d8ccd/original/disc721202a.jpg?1490446557" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><p><strong>It is meet and right that our Brightest Hope award this year should go to Lindisfarne, the most sincere, straightforward and no-nonsense band to emerge out of 1971. </strong></p>
<p>They made the final rung of the ladder to success in the latter half of that year with Fog On The Tyne and the few months leading up to it, but all through the early part of the year their name cropped up here and there, whisper whisper, so you were quite well aware of them creeping up behind your shoulder. </p>
<p>And from the very early days Lindisfarne stood out because of their distinctive songs - polished Northern pub-folk songs. And they were fiercely proud of their Newcastle roots, they didn't flounder and wallow in the nostalgia of back-home as a lot of Liverpool musicians seem to do, they were just very Geordie. As Alan Hull said to me when I interviewed him last November: </p>
<p><em>“The kids in Newcastle have given us their support because we've come down to London and shit on a lot groups that were born with silver spoons in their mouths. We were born with pickaxes in ours and we spat them right out at them." </em></p>
<p>Lindisfarne began ten years ago when Ray Laidlaw got a drum kit from his grandfather for his 13th birthday. Guitarist Simon Cowe lived down the road and they formed a group called the Aristokats which lasted for about two years. Rod Clements (bass and violin) was at school with Simon and then Ray met Ray Jackson (mandolin, harmonica, vocals) at Art College. Alan Hull had been playing with other Newcastle groups all this time and they asked him to join them. The first gig wasn't very successful together, they gave it another go a few months later and late in 1969 the current line-up of Lindisfarne was on the road, known as the Bretheren. </p>
<p>Their first album Nicely Out Of Tune (so called because they always seemed to do just that playing in sweaty little clubs) sold as well as most first albums, perhaps a little better than some. In between that and the second album, Fog On The Tyne, they began to build up a following. Bob Johnston was brought in to produce it and that made a few people sit up and think. The result made almost everybody sit up and think, because that made Lindisfarne. It outsold the first album in a matter of weeks and was rated by many as the album of 1971. </p>
<p>Their manager is Tony Stratton-Smith who managed the Nice, and also has Van der Graaf Generator and Genesis under his wing. He first heard tapes of Lindisfarne in 1970 and found something haunting about the music although everybody else in the office loathed them, but he went ahead and signed them. </p>
<p><em>"When we first heard Lindisfarne the most important thing was the songs, I thought they really shone. I signed them on the strength of them, and then after that the next thing that convinced me we had an outstanding band was their rare ability to get it on with an audience very quickly." </em></p>
<p>Certainly he's a happy manager. In March Lindisfarne do their first tour of America opening at Carnegie Hall with the Kinks. In May they tour Europe, during the summer they record their next album and possibly return to America and in September they do a national tour here. </p>
<p>One Only hopes that they manage to keep their isolated identity throughout all this hustle and bustle. Their songs so plaintively reflect the North, the whistle-down-the-wind solitariness of the island they called themselves after. </p>
<p>Lindisfarne ought to be sent back to Newcastle for compulsory refresher courses to keep their music so good, honest and true.</p>
<p><span class="font_large">Caroline Boucher</span><br>Music & Disco Echo, Feb 2nd, 1972<br><em>With thanks to Michael Clayton</em></p>Lindisfarne - the official websitetag:www.lindisfarne.co.uk,2005:Post/46457342017-03-21T21:05:00+00:002019-02-11T21:36:52+00:00The Callies: 'On Your Side' re-evaluated<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/244471/480166461f97d9a5dfe9444bfe4effa169dec060/original/calliesf.jpg?1490474017" class="size_orig justify_center border_" /><strong>Billy Mitchell & co.'s 1971 LP rediscovered and reviewed by Charles Orr </strong></p>
<p>A very youthful sounding Billy Mitchell (lead vocals) heads the cast of the three 'Callies' – the other members being Ray Tweedie and Will Browell (all contributing strings and vocals). This unfortunately now deleted album was produced by the legendary Dave Wood; other credits go to Richard Bowe (drums), Si Cowe (domino card), and engineering by Geoff Heslop. The exterior of the gatefold album cover boasts striking graphics in yellow, black and orange, whilst a large monochrome photograph of the band lurks within. A record worth seeking out, and a valuable asset to your Lindisfarne ‘family’ collection. </p>
<p><em>Running time: 37 min. 58 secs. - Rubber Records Rub 002 </em></p>
<p>A number of tracks will be instantly recognised by Jack The Lad fans - seven out of the total eleven tracks were penned either solely or partly by Mitch. Although lacking the cheekiness and humour of "Jack", it is easy to see how that band’s style developed one stage further from the influences of this Callies release. </p>
<p>Running Order: </p>
<p><strong>Rocking Chair </strong>The classic song from Billy - it gets everywhere! This version of the song is close to that found on his solo 'Almost Grown' album of 1993 (and is still available). It resurfaced on the Jack The Lad live album (1993) - but I have to say my own favourite version is from the 1975 Jack The Lad 'Rough Diamonds' LP. (4min.14secs) </p>
<p><strong>January Man</strong> (D. Goulder) Strong acoustic style - in keeping with the rest of this album. A remarkably similar presentation to that found on 'Almost Grown'. </p>
<p><strong>Monty's Song </strong>A whimsical track, but fairly average.I wonder who Monty was... </p>
<p><strong>Make Me Happy</strong> Billy really rocking on! Sounds like they had good fun recording it. Features some different verses from that found on the Jack The Lad 'B' side - no references to taking women to bed on this one! </p>
<p><strong>Reason To Believe </strong>(T. Hardin) This 1966 Tim Hardin song has been covered by many artists including another Rod whose second name I can't remember - but the most famous version is to be found on the 'Almost Grown' album (of course!!). </p>
<p><strong>Home Town </strong>Vocal harmonies combine with acoustic guitars for a catchy little number. </p>
<p><strong>Peggy Gordon</strong> (R. Burns) This song was also a single release by the Callies. A different recording to the 'Take Off Your Head' version. Whilst this is a pleasant track, I feel it doesn't sit very comfortably with the rest of this album; being a very traditional sounding folk song of the 'old school' - most of the other tracks have a more contemporary atmosphere. </p>
<p><strong>Is It Surprising</strong> Interesting track. Typical early '70's acoustic ballad. Sounds a little like very early Lindisfarne - in the same vein as 'From My Window'. With a different arrangement it wouldn't sound out of place on a current album. </p>
<p><strong>A Change Of Mind</strong> Faster number combining banjos and vocals; the only number to include drums. My least favourite track on the album, but no doubt others will disagree! </p>
<p><strong>Turning Into Winter </strong>Another Mitchell classic - no surprises with this one - similar in presentation to the 'Almost Grown' version, but being almost two minutes shorter than "Jack's" rendition ('It's Jack The Lad, 1973) it lacks the jolly little jig tagged on to the end! </p>
<p><strong>Top Forty </strong>(S.Simon) Oh dear - how could they do it? With such lines as " Are you in the top forty of the Lordy, Lordy, Lordy?" This gospel/country anthem is so awful that it's good! Billy gets carried away with his best American accent, and finishes with a resounding and appropriate "yeee-hah!" Presumably all done tongue-in-cheek, and no doubt taking the mickey - a foretaste of what was to come with Mr. Mitchell's next band the rest is history! "</p>Lindisfarne - the official website