Their first album, Nicely Out of Tune, is perfect and deserves to be more widely known. Fog on the Tyne is nearly as good. At their best, with the first line up, Lindisfarne were a great band. They are much loved in the north east of England where I'm from.
Saw them live in 1974, sandwiched between Little Feat and Traffic. I remember liking them third best. Would be curious about their studio recordings and which to start with.
One of my favorites. I have all their studio & live stuff plus a few extras up thru Here Comes the Neighborhood. So hard to pick favorites, but The News, Back & Fourth & Sleepless Nights are at the top.
Nicely Out Of Tune 1970 Fog On The Tyne 1971 Dingly Dell 1972 Really like these three, but that's as far as I go.
I had their first two in the 1970s but it's Alan Hull's first two solo albums I'm still crazy about. What's weird is I preferred the non-Hull tracks on those Lindisfarne albums (Meet Me On the Corner, Road to Kingdom Come etc)
I used to love this song back in the summer of 1972, "Lady Eleanor" got good airplay on FM radio here in the States where I was living at the time (San Diego). One of my favorite songs from that year.
Here in Norway, they are one of the "secret" bands of the 70s. Few people have heard of even "FOG ON THE TYNE", "MEET ME ON THE CORNER" or "LADY ELEANOR". I was lucky enough to stumble upon the latter on a compilation of 70s hits, and immediately loved it. Still do.
I remember the first time I heard it on Radio 1 in 1972. Johnnie Walker played Rocket Man followed by Lady Eleanor, pure magic.
I have a lot of their early LP's but haven't listened to for a few years....due for a visit. A guy traded me a whole box of UK LP's for some paper ephemera. Lindisfarne,Fairport,Pentangle,Sandy Denny,Swarb,Martin Carthy,etc....good stuff!
My interest in late 60s/early 70s British folk/rock (dunno what else to call it) has been ripening, and I added this album to my small collection of Fairport Convention, Pentangle, Bert Jansch, Steeleye Span, etc.
It's always surprised me that Bob Johnston produced Fog On The Tyne. How did that happen?!? The first three albums are all good, I'd say, but they are definitely in descending order of quality. I've not heard the fourth album (Roll On Rosey?) or the post-reformation stuff (though Run For Home is a good pop single). Alan Hull had a very short songwriting career, a bit like Tim Hardin's: most of his songs were written in an eighteen month period. His first solo album Pipedream should be regarded as part of the Lindisfarne canon, as it features all the band members (and is superb, anyway).
A great band, and luckily, off an uncle who bought them on release , I've got the 1st 4 albums on vinyl. The 1st album is IMHO a masterpiece, great from beginning to end. January song off fog on the Tyne is brilliant. Off a later album, I'd have to check which, Run for Home is great.
I need to get into their albums. The best of is great and the later Run for Home too. One thing to checkout is youtube. There's quite a bit of BBC Old Grey Whistle test performances of the band and also Alun Hull to check out.