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Chronicle Live

Entertainment

Barbara Hodgson

Exclusive Lindisfarne images revealed as band celebrates 50 years of Fog on the Tyne

Lindisfarne Billy Mitchell

Its lyrics are part of the tapestry of North East life and there can't be a Geordie who doesn't know its singalong chorus.

Now Lindisfarne's Fog on the Tyne is set to enjoy the attention it continues to deserve during celebrations to mark the song's 50-year anniversary.

Drummer Ray Laidlaw, part of the local band's original line-up with Alan Hull, Ray Jackson, Rod Clements and Simon Cowe, has shared some of his collection of photographs from the Fog on the Tyne days as he prepares to take to the road with Billy Mitchell - Lindisfarne 's frontman from 1995-2004 - for a blast back to the golden days.

They will be touring another "chapter" of The Lindisfarne Story, the show the pair created in 2012 to share the band's history and its music, and this time the iconic Fog on the Tyne will be at its heart.

LF2 Trident 71, from Ray Laidlaw's collection of Lindisfarne images from the days of Fog on the Tyne, which was recorded at the Trident Studios in London (Keith Newman PR)

The title track of the hit album - which also includes Meet Me on The Corner and January Song -
became Lindisfarne's signature tune and it was the UK's biggest selling album in 1971 .

It also topped the charts in early 1972 for four weeks - and now inspires The Lindisfarne Story's latest tour: Fifty Years of Fog.

Seventies festival picture, from Ray Laidlaw's collection of Lindisfarne images from the days of Fog on the Tyne (Keith Newman PR)

The tour will get under way at The Customs House in South Shields on March 25 and will take in Hexham, Whitley Bay, Durham, Darlington, Alnwick and Berwick between then and early April.

Beyond the region, it will also stop off at the likes of Berwick, Shrewsbury and New Brighton in Merseyside.

The Lindisfarne Story celebrates the life, times and music of the band which formed in 1969 and went on to carve a niche in local hearts.

A press advert, from Ray Laidlaw's collection of Lindisfarne images from the days of Fog on the Tyne (Keith Newman PR)

Hailed as "the new Beatles", the musicians toured the world and their memorable songs continue to stand the test of time in the touring show.

The band's story has been told in other ways too, having inspired local play Clear White Light and recently having a high-profile role in the popular BBC Four documentary Lindisfarne's Geordie Genius: The Alan Hull story, which was presented by Sam Fender.

The upcoming touring promises to be a treat for fans with the show's acoustic versions of favourite Lindisfarne songs played out alongside screenings of rare video, photographs and what they describe as "a smattering of scurrilous gossip".