Hey Mr Dreamseller, where have you been?

Continuing my trip back through the 1971 album charts.

31/10/71 : Fog On The Tyne - Lindisfarne

I know Lindisfarne were around for ages (are they still around?) but my only exposure to them that I'm aware of is the re-release of this album's title track with Gazza - so I think I can be forgiven for actively avoiding their other work in case it's just as bad. But it can't be that dreadful - can it?

Hmmm. For the most part, it's not dreadful at all - it's in the traditional English folk style (whilst also reminding me of American folk in places) and the songs are mostly unremarkable, but pleasant enough with some interesting musical twiddles in places. And the playing is fine enough, but also pretty unremarkable - it has a strong local pub band feel to it and I reckon they'd be fun to catch there. However, what is remarkable is that, at times, the lead singer is so far away from any note (let alone the note he's trying to hit) that you just cringe - it's all most peculiar! I also have to say that the title track is better without the presence of Gazza, but it's still pretty bad - but I did actually quite like "Meet Me On The Corner" (which I recognised, but never knew it was by Lindisfarne).

We're at #11 in the charts this week on the start of six week run, with this being as high as it got in this run. However, after a couple of weeks away, it came storming back for a fifty week run, during which it peaked at #1 for four consecutive weeks - huh? How very odd indeed. The top five this week were John Lennon, Rod Stewart, T Rex, Motown Chartbusters Vol 6 and Hot Hits 7 and the highest new entry was Smash Hits Country Style (#38), which seems to be another of those weird 70s cover albums by anonymous artists, but focussing on country music rather than the usual pop.

Wikipedia tells us this is their second album and that's pretty much your lot, except for noting that the recording engineer was Ken Scott, who is known for his work with The Beatles and many others - it's fair to say his skills were not challenged here. Looking at their entry, it's fair to say they've experienced a reasonable amount of churn in membership over the years, but they're still going with Rod Clements, one of the original members, present - although he is on his fourth go with different people. Critically, our old mate Robert Christgau only gave it a C+, but AllMusic has it at 4.5 stars (which feels somewhat generous) and commercially, it really only did anything here, but it did get to #45 in Australia.

discogs.com tells us you can pick up a decent version of this for a couple of quid, but if you want a version signed by three of the band members then it will set you back £90 - I think I'm probably fine without though. Mostly, this was a very unremarkable album - but both the success it experienced and just how bad it is in (admittedly infrequent) places certainly make it stand out from the crowd.

07/11/71 - Very average