Lindisfarne's Geordie Genius: The Alan Hull Story
2021-11-26
BBC Four Documentary
PAL Format
Chapters Every 3 Mins.
60 Mins
Quality A
Artwork Included.



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Christmas Has Come Early...............


From the BBC website..........

Brit Award winner Sam Fender goes in search of a musical hero from another era - the late, great, Alan Hull of Lindisfarne. Sam is amazed how few people, outside of his native north east, know much about his hero’s work. He’s now on a mission to win back Hull’s place in music history.

In this film, he traces the career of the man whose words and music put Newcastle and supergroup Lindisfarne on the musical map in the 1970s. Alan continued to write classic songs until his early death in 1995. He spoke of love and life, championed the underdog and the misunderstood, and celebrated working-class people and his hometown - both of which he loved with a passion. Alan lived and wrote through turbulent times - writing eloquently about the troubles in Northern Ireland, the Falklands War and the miners’ strike.

Sam digs out great archive interviews, performances and unseen footage, and meets friends, family and bandmates who knew Alan Hull best. Sam also hears from top stars like Sting, Elvis Costello, Mark Knopfler, Dave Stewart and Peter Gabriel. All were huge fans of songs such as Lady Eleanor, Fog on the Tyne, Winter Song, Clear White Light and Run For Home. But he also finds that Alan inspired an entire new generation of musicians like Kay Greyson: a young rapper from Tyneside. To his surprise, Sam discovers ‘Hully’ also took the lead role in an acclaimed BBC TV primetime drama. He reveals a complex man - a political animal, a drinker and an agitator, beset by his own insecurities but someone who could break hearts and inspire minds with his lyrics and melodies.



A review by David J. Whetstone...........

The fog on the Tyne was all his, all his… but he was left a little out of pocket when it comes to enduring recognition.

That’s the view of many who knew and worked with Alan Hull and have thrown their weight behind a new TV documentary whose title says it all: Lindisfarne’s Geordie Genius – The Alan Hull Story.

It’s a revealing and affectionate account of a life cut short and they’re hoping it will go some way towards keeping his name alive.


Fingers are crossed for an airing on BBC Four – possibly even BBC One in the North East and Cumbria – before the end of November.

A premiere screening at the Tyneside Cinema was attended by many of the redoubtable souls who have seemingly jumped through hoops – or at least banged on doors – to get the documentary made.

TV producer Malcolm Gerrie, who produced The Tube back in the 1980s, was first on stage to describe Hull as an “unsung hero of British song writing” and one who “turned the page in contemporary music, without any question”.

Leeds-based Daisybeck Studios, which Gerrie chairs, made the film for BBC Music with the support of Northern Film & Media.


Ray Laidlaw, Lindisfarne’s drummer, said he was “ecstatic” to see the film in the can.

“From my point of view, it’s unfinished business because I always felt Alan never really got the recognition he deserved.”

Director Ged Clarke was there, too, along with Geoff Wonfor whose footage of Alan and Lindisfarne accounts for a sizeable portion of the running time.

In their heyday Lindisfarne were up there with the best of them, gigging furiously and turning out songs as catchy and diverse as Fog on the Tyne, Run for Home, Lady Eleanor, Clear White Light and Winter Song.

All those were written by Alan Hull, who was as prolific as he was talented, although the film, in fairness, points out that it was band colleague Rod Clements who wrote Meet Me on the Corner, winner of an Ivor Novello Award.


The film is laden with fulsome tributes, with Sting first to opine that Alan Hull was “unique… world-class… our Bob Dylan”.

Peter Gabriel wouldn’t disagree, nor Elvis Costello. Dave Stewart plucks at his guitar to demonstrate the genius of Winter Song while The Unthanks and the gospel choir Voices of Virtue literally sing his praises.

In typically forthright style, Geordie poet Tom Pickard calls one Hull lyric “f***ing brilliant” and adds: “I wish I’d written it.”

Former bandmates Ray Jackson and Billy Mitchell chip in with their vivid memories, as do Clements and Laidlaw.

Executive producer Geoff Wonfor’s atmospheric footage captures the band’s Seventies pomp with long hair, flares and Afghan coats flapping against a backdrop of industrial decline – or on the island whose name they borrowed.

What will probably serve Alan Hull’s memory best, though, is not so much the old men reminiscing as the interest of the young.


Rising star Sam Fender, born in 1994, the year before Alan Hull died, covered Winter Song a year ago in aid of the Big Issue and the film follows his journey of discovery. Who was this fellow Tynesider whose music he had long admired but of whom he knew little?

His inquiries come across as heartfelt, genuine. He tears up at the sight of one young man in the crowd at a Lindisfarne gig, bellowing along to Alan’s music with heart and soul.

With Sam we learn that life with Alan Hull could be a bit of a roller coaster. As well as a musician, he was a political activist on the left of the Labour Party, supporting the underdog and performing to raise money for striking miners.

For a time he worked with mental patients at ‘St Nick’s’ in Gosforth and was very good with them, by all accounts. He got something from them, too.

“It made the songs go deeper,” he remarks on film. “I went so deep I nearly sank.”

He could be difficult, no question. On stage Ray Laidlaw laughed when asked if Alan knew he was good. “Oh, yes.”



Sting first saw Alan Hull play solo in Whitley Bay before the days of Lindisfarne. Pictured with Ray Laidlaw and director Ged Clarke

And Geoff suggested: “The worst thing anyone could say about Alan was that he was a nice man. He’d have hated that.”

It was a terrible shock to many when he died of a heart attack, aged just 50. But in retrospect it doesn’t seem the most surprising thing in the world.

He smoked, was rarely seen without a drink (Ray Laidlaw vouches for that on screen) and liked a sofa nap on a Saturday after his fry-up.

“We both drank,” smiles Pat, his wife, then pauses… “but he drank more than me.”

I should add, perhaps, that Pat looks the picture of health.

She recalls their first meeting when Alan cheekily introduced himself as Jesus Christ. They were married soon after.


His daughters remember a doting father and there’s a plaque on the wall at Newcastle City Hall recalling that he performed there more than 120 times with Lindisfarne.

Most of those will have been the annual Christmas concerts which became a Tyneside institution, selling out year after year and leading to progressively extended runs.

The plaque, recording that Alan Hull was born in Benwell in 1945, describes him as “humanist, songwriter and poet, singer and musician”. He was a man of many parts.

But the plaque isn’t quite all. There is also the Alan Hull Award established in his memory with the proceeds of The Hull Story, a rousing musical tribute and fundraiser staged at Newcastle City Hall in 2005.


Technical Info.........
Video MPEG-2
Video Bitrate 6278 kbp/s
Audio AC3
Audio Bitrate 192kbp/s
PAL Format 720x576
Screensize 16:9


BBC Credits
Executive Producer Tony Parker
Executive Producer Geoff Wonfor
Executive Producer Malcolm Gerrie
Producer Ged Clarke
Director Ged Clarke



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