Lindisfarne - Lindisfarne At The BBC (The Charisma Years 1971-1973) '2009

Tracks list

Tracklist:

01. Lady Eleanor (BBC Radio Ones Sounds Of The 70s 8/6/71)
02. City Song (BBC Radio Ones Sounds Of The 70s 8/6/71)
03. Train In G Major (BBC Radio Ones Sounds Of The 70s 8/6/71)
04. Fog On The Tyne (BBC Radio Ones Sounds Of The 70s 8/6/71)
05. Scotch Mist (BBC Radio Ones Sounds Of The 70s 8/6/71)
06. City Song (BBC Radio Ones John Peel Concert 24/6/71)
07. Train In G Major (BBC Radio Ones John Peel Concert 24/6/71)
08. Lady Eleanor (BBC Radio Ones John Peel Concert 24/6/71)
09. Fog On The Tyne (BBC Radio Ones John Peel Concert 24/6/71)
10. Knackers Yard Blues (BBC Radio Ones John Peel Concert 24/6/71)
11. We Can Swing Together (BBC Radio Ones John Peel Concert 24/6/71)
12. Together Forever (BBC Radio Ones In Concert 2/12/71)
13. No Time To Lose (BBC Radio Ones In Concert 2/12/71)
14. January Song (BBC Radio Ones In Concert 2/12/71)
15. Lady Eleanor (BBC Radio Ones In Concert 2/12/71)
16. Meet Me On The Corner (BBC Radio Ones In Concert 2/12/71)
17. Train In G Major (BBC Radio Ones In Concert 2/12/71)
18. Fog On The Tyne (BBC Radio Ones In Concert 2/12/71)
19. Jackhammer Blues (BBC Radio Ones In Concert 2/12/71)
20. Mandolin King (BBC Radio Ones Sounds Of The 70s 8/5/72)
21. Poor Old Ireland (BBC Radio Ones Sounds Of The 70s 8/5/72)
22. Road To Kingdom Come (BBC Radio Ones Sounds Of The 70s 8/5/72)
23. Lady Eleanor (BBC Radio Ones Sounds Of The 70s 8/5/72)
24. Drug Song (BBC Radio Ones Sounds Of The 70s 14/6/72)
25. Country Gentlemans Wife (BBC Radio Ones Sounds Of The 70s 14/6/72)
26. Passing Ghosts (BBC Radio Ones Sounds Of The 70s 14/6/72)
27. Turn A Deaf Ear (BBC Radio Ones Sounds Of The 70s 14/6/72)
28. Steppenwolf (BBC Radio Ones In Concert 14/12/73)
29. No Time To Lose (BBC Radio Ones In Concert 14/12/73)
30. North Country Boy (BBC Radio Ones In Concert 14/12/73)
31. Roll On River (BBC Radio Ones In Concert 14/12/73)
32. Taking Care Of Business (BBC Radio Ones In Concert 14/12/73)
33. Lady Eleanor (BBC Radio Ones In Concert 14/12/73)
34. Moonshine (BBC Radio Ones In Concert 14/12/73)
35. Tow The Line (BBC Radio Ones In Concert 14/12/73)
36. When The War Is Over (BBC Radio Ones In Concert 14/12/73)


 Read Full BiographyIn 1968, they discovered that an American group was
already using the name Brethren, and the Newcastle group rechristened itself
Lindisfarne, taken from the name of an island off the coast of Northumberland in
Northern England -- the island Lindisfarne (also known as Holy Island) is most
famous for its early medieval monastery and castle and the ancient Lindisfarne
Gospels medieval manuscript. The new name fit the times and the groups sound,
which was evolving in the direction of folk-style music. The group was signed to
Tony Stratton-Smiths Charisma Records, Englands premiere progressive rock label,
in 1970.

They released their first (and best) album, Nicely Out of Tune, that same year.
Their debut album captured the groups best attributes, a rollicking, upbeat,
optimistic collection of hippie/folk music, somewhere midway between Fairport
Convention and the early Grateful Dead, with a peculiarly urban, English
working-class ambience. Their Englishness, coupled with the occasionally uneven
quality of their songwriting, may explain one major reason why Lindisfarne never
achieved more than a tiny cult following in the United States. Nicely Out of
Tune contained one wistfully romantic number, Lady Eleanor, which became a
favorite number in the bands concert repertoire, and seemed destined to find an
audience. The album and the Lady Eleanor single failed to chart, but
Lindisfarnes live shows only grew in popularity -- by the end of 1970, they were
able to ask for £1500 a night from promoters, a far cry from the £300 they
had been getting on the college circuit.

Their second album, Fog on the Tyne, released in 1971, marked their commercial
breakthrough -- a collection of earthy, folk-type pub songs, Fog on the Tyne
entered the British charts in October of that year and began a slow climb into
the middle reaches. In February of 1972, however, the groups label belated
issued a single from the album, Meet Me on the Corner. That record was number
five on the charts the following month, while Fog on the Tyne suddenly rose to
the number one spot. Within a matter of weeks, Nicely Out of Tune entered the
charts for the first time and eventually hit number eight; Lady Eleanor,
reissued in June of 1972, made it to number three.

That was when the media hype kicked in, raising expectations and aspirations for
a group that, until four months earlier, had been a pleasant folk-rock outfit
with a solid cult following. Alan Hull was referred to in the press as the most
important new songwriter since Bob Dylan, and Lindisfarne were saddled with the
designation as the 1970s Beatles. Up to this time, the group had played in
England and Wales, but, apart from one show in Scotland and individual forays to
Paris and Holland, its members hadnt even pondered the notion or implications of
an international career. It all seemed too good to last, and it was.

Later in 1972, after a frantic period capitalizing on one massive success after
another, the band released its third album, Dingly Dell. The album was troubled
from the start. The records producer was Bob Johnston, the American who had
worked on Bob Dylans John Wesley Harding, among many other records, and who had
also produced Fog on the Tyne. The bandmembers had a falling out with Johnston
over Dingly Dell, and remixed the album themselves immediately prior to release.
The resulting record had a very crisp sound, very up-front, and more of a
mainstream hard rock sound than their previous two long-players. Unfortunately,
this was not the move that the critics had wanted or expected of the band --
they wanted a richer, more progressive folk-type sound, in some ways closer to
Fairport Convention, not the harder, more basic sound that they found here.
Additionally, the songwriting didnt match the prior two albums, and nobody was
drawing comparisons between Alan Hull and Dylan over the songs on Dingly Dell.

Ironically, this album came out at just about the time Lindisfarne were in the
process of gaining a small following in America, although they never really had
much chance of succeeding. Their association with Charisma Records meant that
they were afforded a listen by the American progressive rock audience, and to
some limited extent their mixture of folk and rock was progressive. In reality,
Lindisfarne were closer in spirit and music to such hard-rocking bands as
Brinsley Schwarz, Bees Make Honey, and Eggs Over Easy, utterly lacking the
pretensions needed for a prog rock band.

Under other circumstances, the album would have been passed over by most critics
as nothing more than a slightly disappointing lapse, but reviewers and
journalists seemed bent on revenge for Lindisfarnes failure to rise to the
praise and hype lavished on them over the previous year. The record and the
group were universally savaged, although Dingly Dell still got to number five on
the charts and yielded one modest hit, All Fall Down. They toured America, but
discovered that American listeners and critics found their sound too peculiarly
English -- in the wrong ways -- to really accept Lindisfarne. The group was
never remotely as popular as its Charisma labelmates Genesis, who were eagerly
snapped up by Atlantic Records once their Charisma contract was up.

Cowe, Laidlaw, and Clements exited the band in early 1973 and formed a new group
called Jack the Lad, which specialized in a harder, more basic pub rock sound,
and went on to release three albums on Charisma. A live Lindisfarne album,
featuring the original lineup and songs mostly from the first three albums, was
issued by Charisma in 1973, but it was at best a holding action. Later that
year, Alan Hull and Ray Jackson were back leading a new Lindisfarne lineup,
featuring Ken Craddock on guitar, keyboards, and vocals; Charlie Harcourt on
guitars; Tommy Duffy on bass and vocals; and Paul Nichols on drums. Their first
album, Roll on Ruby, was a critical and commercial failure. Hull embarked on a
solo recording career at around this same time, which seemed to draw away still
more of the bands original audience. As the principal songwriter and voice of
the group, and one of two original members, he held Lindisfarnes public better
than the new Lindisfarne did.

The band switched to Warner Bros. for its next album, Happy Daze, which fared no
better. By 1977, Jack the Lad had called it quits and Cowe, Clements, and
Laidlaw were back with Lindisfarne. Hull also recorded with Laidlaw and Craddock
under the group name Radiator on the Rocket label, releasing a single album,
entitled Isnt It Strange. Lindisfarne switched labels again to Mercury and
debuted with a double live album, Magic in the Air, with songs drawn from the
groups first three albums. The band remained intact and on Mercury for two more
long-players, released to little lasting commercial avail: Back and Fourth
(1978), which yielded a pair of modest hits in Alan Hulls Run for Home, a song
that sounds more like Springsteen than Springsteen does, and Warm Feeling; and
The News (1979). They remained a reasonably popular concert attraction --
especially in Newcastle and the surrounding area -- into the early 80s, and have
continued to record and reunite for concerts periodically in the years since.
During the early 80s, they organized Lindisfarne Musical Productions and began
releasing their work on the LMP label, including a live album cut in 1983. Their
live recordings, featuring new renditions of their classic early-70s material,
seem to draw the greatest enthusiasm. Hull also maintained a separate solo
career until his 1995 passing. Fans of the group should definitely own his Back
to Basics CD, featuring live acoustic versions of his best songs dating back to
1970. ~ Bruce Eder

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