Nicely Out Of Tune

Product Information

The "flatulette" was actually one of the band members blowing raspberries during the instrumental break in "Down".

The title of the piece was displayed in an ornate line drawing featuring cherubs and ladies playing harps and singing. What was the reason for changing the title "Alan In The River With Flowers" into "Float Me Down The River", swapping Jackhammer Blues against "Nothing But The Marvellous" and dropping Rod's The Things I Should Have Said? Of course you wouldn’t get a band like this, nowadays, securing the commercial success of Lindisfarne (ok, maybe Mumford? Anna Mylott, Alan and Pat's live-in nanny and close friend of the band ('Oh Anna what does money mean anyway' ) Yes, that Anna. milligrammes later, Hull tripped for a month and still had flashbacks in 1978 (‘pretty frightening, really’).A more masculine brand of English folk rock, complete with strong melodies and eerily reedy harmonies. Spectrum was design company owned by Joe Robertson, responsible for early Lindisfarne imagery/posters etc. At that time few local promoters would take a chance on booking us as our repertoire of Tyneside Delta Blues, Dylan influenced originals and Zappa covers was a little challenging to their regular punters who prefered a backdrop of Tamla Motown songs to fight and fornicate to. An antique frame with a picture of the band in the centre and a special font echoing the Northumbrian origins of our name would be the main features.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. That was in 1983, when I’d not long started work and I had to go into a training day unable to hear much beyond the ringing in my ears. A couple of days later I was at my mam and dad’s house when I noticed a book of sheet music that belonged to my brother who plays piano. The upshot is that I was always going to be well disposed to this album, even though I haven’t listened to it for quite some time.I think the vocal harmonies are excellent on here with some very nice choruses throughout, however individually I do not think these singers are the best. It charted more than a year after release, thanks to the huge success of their second album Fog on the Tyne, which topped the charts early in 1972. Bruce Eder of AllMusic praised Nicely Out of Tune as "easily the best album the group ever recorded".

On Nicely Out of Tune they play a style of electric folk less beholden to traditional sensibilities and more in touch with then-current styles in art rock than the likes of Fairport Convention or Steeleye Span. When you slide this out, a colour photograph of the band is revealed - a shot I had not seen before, of the group looning about on the shore in front of Holy Island. On the back of the insert are the lyrics - American releases always try to have lyric sheets enclosed somewhere, it seems. A live version can be found on the group's Lindisfarne Live, recorded in 1971 and released in 1973, and as a bonus track on their third album, Dingly Dell. The title of the seventh track, "Alan in the River With Flowers", is a parody of The Beatles' song " Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", and was given its original title of "Float Me Down the River" on the American version.I took my trophy back to Jacka and he got it photographed and completed the artwork which featured his splendid Lindisfarne logo.

Drummond Amin, Tyneside rock'n'roll godfather and owner of the Shaftsbury electric 12 string guitar that Lindisfarne borrowed for the NOOT recording sessions.Track B1 published by Hazy/Heathside, Track B4 published by Stratsong and Track B5 published by Essex Music.