Alan Hull

Alan Hull earned recognition as the founding member, guiding force, and chief composer for the Newcastle-based folk-rock ensemble Lindisfarne, while also carving out a parallel path as a solo artist focused on his own compositions. During the band's initial breakthroughs, observers positioned him as the freshest songwriting talent to emerge since Bob Dylan, yet although later Lindisfarne releases fell short of that early expectation, his independent recordings maintained a consistently high standard. Born in Newcastle in 1945, he began playing guitar during childhood and joined the Chosen Few in 1962 with keyboardist Mickey Gallagher, who later worked with Ian Dury. The group concentrated on Tamla-Motown material, secured a deal with Pye Records, and featured Hull's early songwriting efforts, among them the single "Today Tonight and Tomorrow." He departed the ensemble in 1966, shifted toward folk influences in his instrumental, vocal, and compositional approach, and linked up with Downtown Faction, the unit that later became Lindisfarne; in the interim he sustained himself through a year-long nursing position at a mental hospital. As the writer of many signature songs and one of the primary vocalists, he functioned as the group's effective leader, a status that factored into the 1973 breakup. Solo releases appeared at intervals, starting with the 1973 Charisma album Pipedream, which enlisted second-generation Lindisfarne guitarist and keyboardist Ken Craddock along with founding members Ray Jackson and Ray Laidlaw. Warner Bros. issued his follow-up Squire in 1975, and Rocket Records, Elton John's label, put out the third effort, Phantoms, in 1979.

Hull's strongest compositions displayed flowing, subtly infectious melodies paired with dense, vividly atmospheric language and imagery. His "Fog on the Tyne" stands as an enduring piece, a Dylanesque portrayal of Newcastle existence in the late 1960s, while pieces such as "Run for Home," whose chorus carries an especially moving quality that could have propelled it to worldwide success, evoke Bruce Springsteen even more directly than Springsteen's own work. In 1994 he captured Back to Basics, an all-acoustic live overview spanning his songcraft from 1970 forward. On November 17, 1995, during sessions for a new album, he succumbed abruptly to a heart thrombosis. Lindisfarne has maintained activity in subsequent years, and additional Hull recordings have emerged from assorted origins, among them radio sessions dating to the early 1970s.