Lindisfarne: The Charisma Years 1970 - 1973 on 4 CDs

LINDISFARNE avancierte Anfang der 70er Jahre zur kommerziell höchst erfolgreichen Speerspitze des britischen Folk Rocks, der wenige Jahre zuvor mit Gruppen wie Fairport Convention, Pentangle oder Steeleye Span seinen Anfang genommen hatte. "Fog On The Tyne", das zweite Album des aus Newcastle-upon-Tyne stammenden Quintetts, erreichte im Herbst 1971 tatsächlich Platz 1 der regulären englischen Album-Charts, auch der 72er-Nachfolger "Dingly Dell" kam noch bis auf Platz 6.

Das jetzt aufgelegte, 4 CDs umfassende Set "The Charisma Years (1970 - 1973)" enthält neben den beiden genannten Longplayern, wiederum in chronologischer Abfolge, auch das "Nicely Out Of Tune" betitelte Debüt von 1970, das mitreißende "Live"-Album von 1973 sowie, aus dem gleichen Jahr stammend, das letzte Label-Album "Roll On, Ruby".

Product Information

The Charisma Years (1970 - 1973) comprises the five Lindisfarne albums that were released by The Famous Charisma Label. The set also includes B-sides, outtakes and several rare tracks taken from foreign LPs, most of which are appearing on CD for the first time.

The band originally formed in the North East of England in 1969 when the members of Brethren joined forces with singer-songwriter Alan Hull. They soon became known as Lindisfarne and Tony Stratton-Smith signed them to Charisma Records in 1970.

Their debut album was 1970’s “Nicely Out Of Tune” and the major commercial breakthrough came with the following year’s “Fog On The Tyne” which spent four weeks at #1 on the UK chart and was the biggest selling British album of 1972. It included the Rod Clements-penned #5 hit single ‘Meet Me On The Corner’, and another successful single was a reissue of ‘Lady Eleanor’ from the previous album which this time peaked at #3.

1972’s “Dingly Dell” reached #5, but the following year brought about a split. Rod Clements, Simon Cowe and Ray Laidlaw teamed up with Billy Mitchell to form Jack The Lad. Alan Hull and Ray Jackson retained the Lindisfarne name and recruited Kenny Craddock, Tommy Duffy, Charlie Harcourt and Paul Nichols to create the Mk II band, who recorded the album “Roll On, Ruby” which was released by Charisma in 1973. The same year also saw the label (much to the band’s surprise) issue a “Live” album which had been recorded in 1971.

The Mk I band eventually reformed and Lindisfarne continued to release albums and perform live (with varying line-ups) until their final concert in 2003. Their Charisma output is still widely felt to be their strongest and is now collected together in this 4CD set.

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