1972, Lindisfarne & Loon Pants.

I had a few little coincidences in the last week or so. One rainy afternoon I decided to pass the time by tidying up my bureau where I keep all my paperwork, bills etc. I came across some of Kim’s old photographs and among them I found this card on which she had written June 13^th 1972, Swindon, Lindisfarne. It was signed by two members of the band Lindisfarne who were Alan Hull who wrote most of their great songs and Ray Laidlaw who was the drummer. (See picture) This was about six years before I first met Kim who would have only been sixteen in 1972.

I don’t remember her ever mentioning to me that she once saw Lindisfarne and got their autographs. Looking at this card brought back some great memories for me because I was also a big fan of Lindisfarne in the early 1970’s. I had their first two albums Nicely Out Of Tune and Fog On The Tyne which were both classics of folk rock containing such songs as Lady Eleanor, Winter Song, Clear White Light, We Can Swing Together, and Meet Me On The Corner. I must admit though that I started to lose interest after the third album Dingly Dell. I saw them play live several times during those heady days of the early 70s. I was a few years older than Kim and at college when the Students Union organised a coach trip to Liverpool Locarno to see a double bill of Lindisfarne and Genesis. The two bands toured together because they were both on the Charisma Records label. 

The main thing I remember about that night is our friend Linda sat on some chewing gum which stuck to her loon pants, “Oh no, I’ve ruined my loons”, she exclaimed in her Yorkshire accent. It seems really funny now looking back on it. (If you don’t know what loon pants are, see picture) Also, Lindisfarne were on the bill at The Great Western Festival in 72 which was the first ever big music festival I went to. Another memorable event was in 1974 when The Who headlined at Charlton Athletic football stadium and Lindisfarne were one of the support acts. They were also there at Knebworth in 1980 headlined by The Beach Boys which was the last time all the original Beach Boys performed together on stage. 

Anyway to get back to my story, the very evening of the day I came across the card in the bureau, which I think was last Friday I was flipping through the channels on the telly to see if there was anything worth watching, and lo and behold, on BBC4 there was a documentary about none other than Alan Hull the genius songwriter of Lindisfarne. It seemed uncanny. This was followed by a concert from 1978 called Rock Goes To College featuring Lindisfarne (See video below). Then to my further astonishment I looked on the internet to see if Lindisfarne are still going, and they are, although there is only one original member Rod Clements still in the band. I was amazed to see that they are playing just down the road from here at the Wiltshire Music Centre in Bradford On Avon in October. 

It seemed fated that I should go, so I looked at the website. It is a tiny little theatre of only 300 capacity, although purpose built with splendid acoustics. There were only a handful of seats left but I managed to get one of them. I’ll tell you all about that in October. There are a lot of gigs, concerts and festivals before then though starting on 18^th March with Van Morrison, so lots to look forward to, have a nice weekend. Cheers.