My days of Hull

WHEN North-East singer-songwriter Billy Mitchell first met the Newcastle musical genius and later creator of Lindisfarne Alan Hull the two didn't get on. Mitchell remembers a drunken Hull enjoying so many encores at North Shields' Wheatsheaf pub in 1968 that he missed his bus home and demanded a lift back to Benwell.

"I was one of the few drivers there. He was a fantastic talent but very cock-sure of himself and a bit arsie. He went down extremely well, but drank far more beer than he should have. I started to drive him home, with him in the back of my landrover and he was giving me loads and loads of grief and in the end I just stopped the landrover and kicked him out and drove off. I couldn't have cared less where he went, he was getting on me wick. That was my first meeting with Alan Hull. I didn't see him again for quite a while but he never forgot, even though he was extremely drunk, and he and I became good drinking pals.

"He used to take the mick out of me something awful because Alan was always the best and he was the best from his era and many of his songs are still very relevant and will be in my show.

"I will remember him as a prestigious talent, but a bolshie bugger."

The show that 58-year-old Mitchell refers to is his first solo tour which begins next week. There are two performances in the North-East, Hexham and Washington, plus a joint appearance with old friend Brendan Healy at Alnwick. Both became performers with Lindisfarne after Hull's death in 1995 and Mitchell became the regular frontman, admitting he was scared stiff when he stepped out centre-stage at Hartlepool Town Hall in 1996.

"It was horrible. I don't think I enjoyed it and have vague memories of feeling very uncomfortable because lots of pairs of eyes were staring at me for being in the wrong place in the centre of the stage where Alan used to be. But it got better.

"A lot of people thought the band should have called it a day when Alan went, but when the rest of the band asked me to join I figured that the songs needed to be done and there was a life there. The band was still a relevant force in today's music."

Asked why the North-East has struggled to find another Lindisfarne, he replies: "I don't know if any of the bands right now would want to spend 30 years playing and recording music. I'm not sure that even the Coldplay's of today will want to last for 30 years, while we did without wanting to become a parody of ourselves."

Two albums followed before Lindisfarne held a spectacular farewell concert at Newcastle's Opera House in November last year.

"Everybody had a god time and there were a few tears, but there were other fish to fry."

The main fish being Mitchell's decision to take on his first solo tour.

"I've done solo gigs before but never on this sort of scale.

It's quite a challenge, but I'm looking forward to it. When you're in a band you just play a part of the whole thing, but when you're solo... that's it man. I'm looking forward to the tour with a little bit of trepidation because when I walk out on that stage it will only be me... and hopefully an audience. I won't be going for massive audience participation but it will be helpful if they let me know they are there occasionally."

Mitchell, who has lived for many years at Cullercoats, prefers to play acoustically and believes that it creates a better atmosphere for the solo performer although it has meant restructuring some of the songs. "There won't be any solo instrument, when you're in a band it's verse-chorus, verse-chorus, solo instrument, verse-chorus, so the audience won't get the extra solo unless I can play a harmonica strapped around my neck," he jokes.

There will be a little bit of chat about how some of the songs were created. "Some of them I don't like to mention and sometimes that's deliberate, but sometimes I just can't remember what happened. There was a time in the 1970s when memory wasn't the best of things. But there will be little anecdotes, although the songs will change every night. In the nearly 50 years I've been performing there's been a lot of songs, so I'm choosing from a big selection."

He's doing a few dates with Brendan Healy, who was with Lindisfarne for a couple of tours, with the North-East gig being at Alnwick Playhouse on September 29. He calls the gig a night of three halves: each of them doing solos spots and then the two together. "That could be fun, particularly the final half which may be completely off the wall... anything might happen."

Returning to thoughts of Lindisfarne and thoughts of Alan Hull, Mitchell adds: "Alan even got the fog to come in on the Tyne when we scattered his ashes. It was absolutely unbelievable. It was a bright, sunny day and off we went on the old Freda Cunningham ferry and the ashes went in, a couple of large gin and tonics and a packet of Benson and Hedges and suddenly the fog rolled right in from the piers. It was stunning and a hair up on the back of head moment."

He also remembers that the "awful song" Fog On The Tyne was one of pop's lucky accidents where Hull was just messing around with one poignant verse about being on the dole at a recording studio when it was decided "that's the one, write two more verses and we'll record it".

"Alan threw together two nonsensical verses and that was that. If Alan had got a pound for every pun on the title in newspaper headlines - Frog on the Tyne etc - he'd have been a millionaire."

* Bill and Bren plays Alnwick Playhouse on September 29, (01665) 510785.

* The solo tour plays Hexham, Queen's Hall, October 9, (01434) 652477 and Washington's Davy Lamp Folk Club on November 6, 0191-416 6999

Published: 02/09/2004