Lindisfarne Newcastle City Hall 23 December 2023

Peter our music correspondent has so many memories of this iconic Geordie band in an iconic venue. So many memories for me. Please accept my apologies for reminiscing about this band and the venue, but they are both so important to my musical meanderings through life.

I first saw Lindisfarne supporting Van Der Graf Generator, with Genesis lower down on the bill at Newcastle City Hall in early 1971. I then attended the Lindisfarne first Christmas concert at the City Hall in, I think, also 1971.

Along the way I saw Lindisfarne many times. The Lincoln Festival where they triumphed with the whole crowd singing along to songs from Nicely Out Of Tune and the Fog On The Tyne albums. The Grangemouth festival 1972 in Scotland where they again got the crowd singing along. Seeing them at Sunderland Top Rank around 1972 and headlining the City Hall two nights in a row, one with Genesis support and the other with Stackridge support on the Dingley Dell tour (a much underrated album). Then the split and witnessing Lindisfarne 2 and the other offshoot Jack The Lad at festivals. The reforming of the band with a magical comeback concert at the City Hall and then back at the top with "Run for Home" and attending a sold-out concert at Redcar Coatham bowl during which we all danced on the tables and the aforementioned single was high in the charts.

The Alan Hull solo concert at the City Hall. Then all the Christmas concerts which I attended during the 1980s at the Newcastle City Hall. Travelling to Carlisle Sands Centre to see their farewell concert. I even took a copy of that evening's Newcastle evening Chronicle trusted Carlisle; they were fully pictured on the cover and I got them to sign the newspaper. They were surprised as they did not know that they featured in it! Attending a ceremony outside the City Hall when a blue plaque was placed there to celebrate the life of Alan Hull. Ray Jackson's Lindisfarne played outside at the ceremony.

And then starting to see the newly reformed band a few times, firstly with Ray Jackson fronting the band and more recently with Rod Clements as front man. I don't know how many times I must have seen Lindisfarne but it is on many, many occasions. And of course, the Newcastle City Hall was, and remains, my spiritual music home. So, you can see how this was such a memorable event for me.

The City Hall was completely sold out and when Jan, my carer for the evening, and I entered the building we were greeted by a brass band on stage playing Christmas carols. Soon a Geordie Santa arrived to tell us a series of rather rude, but also quite funny, Christmas jokes, in the same way that Mike Elliott would do so at the original Christmas concerts. Then the band took to the stage to a very loud Geordie welcome. The set for the evening was very similar to that I have witnessed a couple of times this year already: once in the Princess Pavilion Yarm and also in the Sunderland Fire Station. But this time things were very different. The atmosphere was very different. This was Lindisfarne, fronted by Rod Clements, returning home to their home crowd in their spiritual home, Newcastle City Hall.

The evening was in two parts with a short interval during which a double Jack Daniels went down well and set me up for the proceedings. Santa returned with more Christmas cracker jokes before the band resumed the concert to another massive cheer. The Newcastle crowd who had travelled from near and far to this special event were really up for a great night. We were treated to all the classic songs: "No Time to Lose", "We Can Swing Together" and my personal favourite "Winter Song" performed perfectly by David Hull- Denholm, Alan Hull's son in law.

Soon, we were on the home front and the closing songs were: "Fog on the Tyne", "Meet Me on the Corner" and "Run for Home". All massive singalongs with the entire City Hall on its feet. The closer was, as it was in 1971 and has been ever since: "Clear White Light". There truly was magic in the air last night. We all walked out into the rather mild Christmas evening, Jan and I into our taxi and away home.