Showing posts with label Lindisfarne. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lindisfarne. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 30, 2021

Alan Hull - Carousel (1975)

Having just watched 'Lindisfarne's Geordie Genius: The Alan Hull Story' on BBC4, I was keen to hear more him, other than the 'Pipedream' and 'Squire' solo albums and the complete Lindisfarne discography that I already have, and the documentary gave me some ideas about where to start. James Alan Hull was born on 20 February 1945 in Newcastle upon Tyne, and his musical education began with piano lessons at the age of nine, and guitar lessons two years later. He was given his first guitar at the age of twelve, writing his first song soon afterwards, and in 1962 he joined The Chosen Few, alongside Bumper Brown on bass, Rod Hudd on vocals, Tommy Jackman on drums, and Mickey Gallagher on keyboards. Their repertoire consisted of Tamla Motown covers, plus Hull's own compositions, and the band eventually moved to London, where they recorded four Hull-penned songs for release as two singles for the Pye label, which Hull has admitted were very Beatle-esque, and featured heavy Kinks overtones. He left The Chosen Few in 1965, and supported himself by working as a window cleaner, a nurse at a mental hospital, and as a driver for Newcastle Co-op TV Department, while appearing as a folk singer and guitarist in local clubs. In the meantime, The Chosen Few added Colin Gibson and John Turnbull (who were both later to play on Hull's 'Pipedream' album) and carried on for a short while. A year later, The Chosen Few morphed into Skip Bifferty, having lost Hudd and Brown, and during this transition period Hull recorded a couple of tracks with the new band. Following the release of his first solo single in 1969, which was later to be re-recorded by Lindisfarne, Hull joined Rod Clements, Ray Laidlaw, Simon Cowe, and Ray Jackson's band The Brethren in May 1970, performing variously as Alan Hull And Brethren, or Brethren With Alan Hull, before deciding on a complete change of name and becoming Lindisfarne in the summer of 1970. 
As the group's most prolific songwriter and joint lead vocalist, Hull came to be regarded as its leader, and the band had some success with hit singles and albums in the early 70's, before Hull considered leaving after he became dissatisfied with the sound and critical reception of their third album 'Dingly Dell'. Instead, he and joint lead vocalist Ray Jackson formed a new six-piece Lindisfarne the following year, leaving the three other original members to form Jack The Lad. He also released his first solo album 'Pipedream' in 1973, and published a book of poems 'Mocking Horse' the same year, after which the new Lindisfarne disbanded. In 1974 he was offered the chance to act in an episode of the BBC's Second City Firsts drama series, entitled 'Squire', in which he pretty much played himself, and he felt that he should write a song for it, coming up with 'Squire', which then became the title of his second solo album in 1975. He formed the short-lived Radiator in 1977, which also included old band-mate Ray Laidlaw, and they released one album and one single, before breaking up. In 1979 he signed to Elton John's Rocket Records label and released the 'Phantoms' album, which consisted of re-recordings of a number of tracks from Radiator's 'Isn't It Strange' record, after which he took a break from recording for a few years, returning in 1983 with 'On The Other Side'. On the night of 17 November 1995, Hull suddenly collapsed at his home in North Shields and was pronounced dead on arrival at North Tyneside General Hospital. A post-mortem later revealed his death to be the result of a coronary thrombosis. He was just 50 years old. Hull was so loved in his hometown that in July 2012, following a public campaign led by Barry McKay, Lindisfarne's manager during the 1970's, an Alan Hull memorial plaque was unveiled on the front of Newcastle City Hall, at a ceremony attended by hundreds of fans, and broadcast by Sky and ITV Tyne Tees. This collection of early recordings and hard-to-find b-sides and demos, housed in a cover by Rene Magritte to complement his 'Pipedream' and 'Phantoms' albums, should go some way to show exactly why that was. 



Track listing

01 I Won't Be Around You Any More (single by The Chosen Few 1965)
02 Big City (b-side of 'I Won't Be Around You Any More')
03 So Much To Look Forward To (single by The Chosen Few 1965)
04 Today, Tonight & Tomorrow (b-side of 'So Much To Look Forward To')
05 This We Shall Explore (with Skip Bifferty 1966)
06 Schizoid Revolution (with Skip Bifferty 1966)
07 Where Is My Sixpence? (demo  1969)
08 We Can Swing Together (single 1969)
09 Obidiah's Grave (b-side of 'We Can Swing Together')
10 Drinking Song (b-side of 'Numbers (Travelling Band)' 1973) 
11 One Off Pat (b-side of 'Numbers (Travelling Band)' 1973)
12 Down On The Underground (BBC session for Bob Harris 1973) 
13 Crazy Woman (single 1975)
14 Carousel (out-take 1975)
15 Angels At Eleven (session for Radio Clyde 1976)
16 Raw Bacon (demo 1975)
17 Evening (demo 1975)

Sunday, December 27, 2020

Lindisfarne - Red Square Dance (1995)

Lindisfarne will forever be remembered for the song 'Fog On The Tyne', although they were so much more than just that. They started out in the mid-60's under the name of Brethren, and when Alan Hull joined in 1968 they changed their name to Lindisfarne, named after The Holy Island of Lindisfarne off the northeast coast of Northumberland. In 1970 Tony Stratton-Smith signed them to Charisma Records and their debut album 'Nicely Out Of Tune' was released that year, defining their mixture of bright harmony pop and up-tempo folk rock. Although neither single released from the album, 'Clear White Light' or 'Lady Eleanor', charted, the band obtained a strong following from their popular live concerts and built a reputation as one of the top festival bands. Their second album, 1971's 'Fog On The Tyne' began their commercial success, reaching number 1 in the UK charts the following year, and the single 'Meet Me On The Corner' charted at number 5 in the UK. 'Lady Eleanor' was reissued as a follow-up to 'Meet Me On The Corner', and this time it reached number 3 in the UK and number 82 in the US. 'Nicely Out Of Tune' belatedly made the UK album chart Top 10 and the band began to attract a larger media following, with some calling Hull the greatest songwriter since Bob Dylan. In 1972 they recorded their third album 'Dingly Dell', but the band were unhappy with the initial production and so remixed it themselves, and although it entered the Top 10 in its first week of release, it received lukewarm reviews.
Internal tensions surfaced during a disappointing tour of Australia in early 1973, and Hull initially considered leaving the band, but was persuaded to reconsider. It was agreed that he and Jackson would keep the group name while Cowe, Clements and Laidlaw wold leave to form their own outfit called Jack The Lad. They were replaced by Tommy Duffy (bass guitar), Kenny Craddock (keyboards), Charlie Harcourt (guitar) and Paul Nichols (drums), but the new line-up lacked the appeal of the original, and with Hull also pursuing a solo career, the band's next two albums 'Roll On Ruby' and 'Happy Daze' failed to chart, and they disbanded in 1975. The original line-up of Alan Hull, Ray Jackson, Ray Laidlaw, Rod Clements and Simon Cowe reformed in 1976 to perform a one-off gig in Newcastle City Hall before returning to their other projects, but the Newcastle City Hall reunion was so acclaimed that the band repeated it a year later, and then decided to get back together on a permanent basis in early 1978. They gained a new record deal with Mercury Records and returned to the charts in 1978 with the UK top 10 hit 'Run For Home', but by then I'd moved on and preferred to remember them for their first few classic albums. They carried on recording albums right up to 2002, and so I was quite surprised to find a recent retrospective which featured tracks recorded in the late 80's and early 90's which sounded just a good as their 70's stuff, so I've taken those songs and added them to some exclusive b-sides and early out-takes, to make an album which in no way sounds like it was recorded over a 35 year period. The title track has an interesting story, as it was originally submitted as the theme to the Moscow Olympics following a suggestion from the runner Brendan Foster, and was completed just as the USSR invaded Afghanistan. A version of it, entitled 'Dog Ruff', was released as the b-side to their 'Nights' single in 1982 so as not to waste it, and I've gone for a literal interpretation of the title for the cover.



Track listing

01 Knackers Yard Blues (b-side of 'Clear White Light - Part 2' 1970)
02 Nothing But The Marvelous Is Beautiful (b-side of 'Lady Eleanor' 1971)
03 From My Window (out-take from the 'Nicely Out Of Tune' sessions 1970)
04 Golden Apples (out-take of a 1969 song recorded in 1981)
05 On My Own I Built A Bridge (out-take from the 'Nicely Out Of Tune' sessions 1970)
06 Newport Mount Rag (out-take 1974, featuring Mark Knopfler)
07 Scotch Mist (b-side of 'Meet Me On The Corner' 1971)
08 No Time To Lose (b-side of 'Meet Me On The Corner' 1971)
09 Drinking Song (an early song recorded in 1995)
10 Finest Hour (out-take 1981)
11 Save Our Ales (single 1989)
12 Red Square Dance (Theme for the Moscow Olympics 1980)
13 Friday Girl (single 1983)