They didn't have any bread to speak of, so the pressures to write were a little keener, and at that stage it was probably still more fun than business. In many ways, "Nicely Out Of Tune" is their best album, because it completely lacks sophistication. They signed to Charisma records shortly afterwards and made their first album, "Nicely Out Of Tune.Īlan Hull proved to be a very useful man to have in the band as he wrote most of the compositions on the album, including "Clear White Light" and "Lady Eleanor" - their first two singles - the beautiful "Winter Song," and the first of the ravers, "We Can Swing Together." The same year they changed their name again, this time to Lindisfarne. In 1969 their lead guitarist Jeff Sadler left, to be replaced by Alan Hull early in 1970. They became very friendly with Rab Noakes there and eventually were to record Rab's song "Together Forever" (on "Fog On The Tyne") and invite him to join their most recent tour. The band were now known as Brethren, doing gigs around the north, and, in particular, a club in Whitley Bay. Just to keep his hand in, he designed the sleeve for their first album a few years later, "Nicely Out Of Tune" and the Lindisfarne logo. "The only alternative to that was earning £8.10 a week as that was the highest offer I'd had to date," said Jacka. He came south, but the situation was the same, so when he bumped into Ray Laidlaw back in Newcastle and found he was looking for a singer, it seemed the best road to take. The openings were few, and those that did exist were very boring - not even as high as designing corn flake packet standard. Ray Jackson struggled unsuccessfully to break into advertising in Newcastle.
Things were a bit difficult at that time, because when they finished at college there were the usual pressures to put the knowledge to good use. The group expanded when Rod Clements, who knew Simon at school, joined to play bass and violin, and then Ray Jackson met Ray Laidlaw at art college. In 1966, they became the Downtown Faction Blues Band. They got together and formed a band called the Aristokats which lasted for about two years.
A young lad called Simon Cowe, who played guitar, lived just down the road. Lindisfarne began 10 years ago, when Ray Laidlaw's grandfather gave him a drum kit for his 13th birthday. And so far, they have been living riotously up to expectation. So it was no great surprise when the group ran away with the Brightest Hope award in the Disc poll the following year. If the building had come down around our ears, we would have all gone happily, at least. The walls of the ancient theatre literally shook as the crowds whirled around dancing to the jigs and reels. An amazing concert in the Lyceum in London brought scenes that must have been almost unprecedented in the place.
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Audiences that had been coached in supercool by hip bands forgot all they'd been taught and remembered how to enjoy themselves.
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When they hit us on their first tour of Britain, in a package with van Der Graaf Generator and Genesis in January last year, it became obvious that they were making an enormous impression. The actual island of Lindisfarne, lying some miles away beside the coast and connected to the mainland by a narrow causeway, is somewhat more picturesque, but doesn't have as much to do with the music.They are an uncompromising lot, playing their music in the same straightforward way as Newcastle United football team approach their game.įiercely individual in outlook, they have always retained their style of entertainment although they have long since moved to the south, in body if not in spirit. The mist still hangs over the mud banks of the river, and you wonder how all of this could have provided such happy inspiration for the music of Lindisfarne. The High Level stands over the Tyne as if it was created in the first seven days, and the railway station creeps up out of the gloom as the Scotland-bound train pulls in at four in the morning for brief respite after hauling its weight through a dark and sleeping England.Ī few hours later, as the rest of the city wakes, the gloom lifts very slightly to a uniform grey, and the brand new city centre stands out conspicuously in its brightness. Newcastle is a funny mixture of old and new. Rosalind Russell traces the history of the band, through their schooldays, previous groups in which they played, and their emergence first as Newcastle's top outfit and then later as one of Britain's best-selling bands and almost legendary live performers.
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