After Dinner Speakers: Lindisfarne, Savage Garden, Nick Hancock

The triumph and tragedy faced by Lindisfarne in 1995 has created a new awareness of the band's unique position in British rock. In July they cel-ebrated their 2Slh anniversary with a sell-out concert at Newcastle City Hall, captured on video and CD as "Another Fine Mess ". Three weeks later, a barnstorming headline appearance at Cambridge Folk Festival emphatically re-established them as a creative force with a future as well as a past. Then, in November, the band, their fans and the public at large were stunned by the sudden death of co-founder and principal songwriter Alan Hull. The tributes in the national press and the wealth of affectionate memories stirred by the tragedy prompted many people to reassess the achievements of a talent they were in danger of taking for granted. That the surviving members of the band should decide to play on will come as no surprise to anyone who knows them or the forces that have shaped them. Though their flurry of early hits marks lindisfarne down for some as a "seventies band", their musical origins, like their idealism and anti-estab-lishment stance, can be traced more accurately to the sixties. The band's adherence to those vales ensures they are as relevant now as they were at the outset. Rod Clements and Ray laidlaw set out in 1967 to form a blues band, the Downtown Faction, whose line-up included Si Cowe on gui-tar and Ray Jockson (Jacka) on vocals and harmonica, with Rod and Ray on bass and drums. The Fadion joined a strong following around the pubs and clubs of their native Tyneside but were left stranded by the ebbing tide of the blues boom before they could make a wider impact. Undaunted, they changed their name and musical direction. Drawing on Rod and Jack’s shared enthusiasm for the folk-blues of leadbelly and Woody Guthrie, they put together on acoustic set featuring mandolin and fiddle, and re-christened themselves Brethren, and presented themselves at the one local venue where they knew they would get a sympathetic hearing - Alan Hull's folk club in Whitley Bay. Alan had enjoyed a brief false down of success in the mid-60's as guitarist and songwriter with the Chosen Few. By 1969 he was working as a psy-chiatric nurse by day and singer / songwriter by night, toting his guitar and songs round the blossoming Tyneside folk-club circuit, and recording countless demos at his monger Dave Wood's studio. As a sideline, Alon and Dave started their own folk club at the Rex Hotel in Whitley Bay, and when the newly-unplugged Brethren brought the house down one Sunday night it was immediately clear that Alan and Brethren hod a great deal to offer each other. Together they created one of the most distinctive sounds in British rock, starting with the classic mix of acoustic and electric guitars over a solid rhythm section, adding harmonica, mandolin or fiddle, finishing off with the unique vocal harmonies which ensured anyone who heard that sound would always know it as lindisfarne. It wasn't until after Alon and Brethren's demos had won them o contract with Charisma Records, however, that a new name was sought, but it was as Lindisfarne that they went into the studio with John Anthony in 1970. The resulting album, "Nicely Out Of Tune", was an immediate success, featuring several songs destined to become Lindisfarne classic inducing "lady Eleanor", "Clear White light" and "Road To Kingdom come". The London music press sow the bond as a breath of fresh air from the North - o role Lindisfarne were only too happy to ploy up to. On stage, mean-while, the band were fast earning themselves an enviable reputation as a live ad with their unusual sound, unpretentious manner and infectious enthusiasm. When Charisma announced that Bob Johnson, who had produced albums by Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Simon & Garfunkel, was coming to London to produce Lindisfarne’s second album, the band found themselves on the front cover of the Melody Maker. The album was released in 1971 and took the music scene by storm. "Fog On The Tyne" contains all the classic lindisfarne elements and gave the band its first Top 10 single with Rod's "Meet Me On The Corner". The album itself went to No. 1 and remained on the chart for over o year it's success regenerating sales of "Nicely Out Of Tune" and sending the "lady Eleanor" single into the Top 10. Lindisfarne were moving from strength to strength as a live attraction, and having conquered the clubs and colleges, moved into the concert halls, often with stalemates Genesis and Van Der Graaf Generotor in support. The group's ability to communicate with any audience, however large, earned them legendary status at the big outdoor festivals of the early 70's. The "difficult third album", 1972's "Dingly Dell", followed its prede-cessors into the Top 10, and with successful tours of the U.S.A. and Australia, it seemed there was no stopping Lindisfarne’s ascent. But there was a price to be paid. The move to London, the constant touring, the pressure to supply new material and the speculation surrounding Lindisfarne’s every move was sapping their creativity. Alan, particularly, found the constant demand to provide new songs impossible to reconcile with the band's hectic lifestyle, and grew increasingly unhappy away from his inspirational roots in the north-east. A possible solution was sug-gested by Charisma chairman Tony Stratton-Smith : Alan would concentrate on Songwriting while the others would bring in a new member and tine to tour. The new member was to be Billy Mitchell, -a dynamic singer and guitarist and a close friend of the band from there earliest days on Tyneside. But events overtook the band and the threatened split came in early 1973. Rod, Ray and Si teamed up with Billy Mitchell as Jack The Lad, while Alan and Jacka put together a new band and carried on as Lindisfarne "Mark Two". Once the pressure was off, however, disagreements between the original members of Lindisfarne quickly evaporated, and when they were invited to reform for a one-off Christmas reunion concert at Newcastle City Hall in 1976, they took it as an opportunity to bury the hatchet and have some fun. No-one could have predicted the wave of excitement that greeted the news. The reunion was repeated in 1977, by which time record companies were starting to show renewed interest. The original Lindisfarne re-formed on a permanent basis in Spring 1978. The news was greeted with derision by some sections of the press who regarded lindisfarne as the antithesis of the new wave of punk-rock, despite the fact that the band's no-nonsense approach helped to puncture the overblown pretensions of the day before yesterday. But as Alan was to comment later, "We've always bucked the system and are still looked upon as o quirky strange band who didn't play it by the rules". As if to prove the point Lindisfarne's comeback album immediately provided one of their biggest hits in "Run For Home". The early 80's, however, saw lindisfarne inexorably isolated by the changing tide in musical fashion. They continued to write and release albums that were enthusiastically received by the fans, but rather than compete with the New Wave, lindisfarne opted to turn themselves into one of the most exciting and entertaining live bands on the international performance circuit. In 1984 they brought in Morty Craggs on vocals and sax, imme-diately giving the band a more up-front, rocky edge. They toured throughout Britain and Europe and visited Russia, the Middle-East and Hong Kong. But the flagship of their concert schedule was the now-legendary Christmas concerts in Newcastle, which peaked at an unprecedented 12 sell-out nights at the City Hall - a record as yet unequalled- Throughout these years Alan continued to write songs inspired by the controversial issues of the day - the Falklands War, the Miners' Strike - as well as his favourite topics of life, love and the odd drink of beer. After 1990's unexpected return to the charts as Gazza’s backing group, lindisfarne felt they had reached a cross-roads. Ray Jackson's recent depar-ture, and Rod's full-time move to slide guitar, mandolin and fiddle, had brought a shift in musical emphasis which the band wanted to develop, and their two albums from this transitional period, "Amigos" and "Elvis Lives On The Moon", reveal a confident return to form. The tide was beginning to run their way again, and a renewed interest in acoustic-based music began to attract a new generation of fans. Glastonbury, Cropredy and the 1993 Fleadhs sow lindisfarne returning to the festivals in fine style, prompting one young journalist to remark, "Better than the Levellers, the Pogues and the Sow Doctors put together!" 1994 saw the release of the band's retrospective collection "Lindisfarne On Top", giving old and new fans another chance to appreciate the band's enduring appeal. With the departure of Si Cowe to realise his long-cherished dream of opening a brewery in Toronto, Lindisfarne went into 1995 with a new line-up featuring Dave Denholm on guitar and Ian Thomson on bass. After several outings with this team, including the highlights of Newcastle City Hall and the Cambridge Festival, Alan in particular felt it was Lindisfarne’s most musically successful and artistically credible period since the early days. His tragic death in November rob6ed him of a chance to enjoy the development of this renaissance. But as Ray said, "Alan has left us a fantastic musical legacy and the most positive thing we can do for him is to ensure that his songs ore performed, recorded and enjoyed". To enable them to build on 1995's solid musical foundation, lindisfarne ore bringing in their old mate Billy Mitchell, whose status as a performer and a friend qualify him uniquely for the task in hand. Some of the faces may have changed over the years, but lindisfarne has always been more than the sum of its ports. Alan’s presence will always be felt through his songs, and the band will continue to prove themselves as durable a creative force as they have been for the last 25 years. As Rod said recently, "Lindisfarne is a family. like all families we've had our arguments and taken each other for granted. But Alan's death has put things in perspective. We'll be ready when we go out on the road in March. We're looking forward to it."