The "flatulette" was actually one of the band members blowing raspberries during the instrumental break in "Down". Lindisfarne were part of the early Charisma Records pack, palling around with Van der Graaf Generator and Genesis, and whilst they really aren't all that proggy you can sort of see how they fit in with that pack. Title change because Lindisfarne's in-joke 'Alan in the River with Flowers' = 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' did not amuse the americans so they reverted to the songs original title. At that time few local promoters would take a chance on booking us as our repertoire of Tyneside Delta Blues, Dylan influenced originals and Zappa covers was a little challenging to their regular punters who prefered a backdrop of Tamla Motown songs to fight and fornicate to.

This debut is probably their best, boasting pint-swinging tunes like "Lady Eleanor", "Scarecrow Song", "Clear White Light" and "We Can Sing Together". The title of the piece was displayed in an ornate line drawing featuring cherubs and ladies playing harps and singing. Long before Lindisfarne made their first album we had a collective interest in things visual and often fantasised about what our sleeve would be like when we eventually made our first album.milligrammes later, Hull tripped for a month and still had flashbacks in 1978 (‘pretty frightening, really’).

The spine has a tear in it right in the centre, and a small split at the top of the cover, but the rest of the cover is great.

I'm also getting the album recorded to CD form, I'll have to see if I can tell which one sounds best.

Spectrum was design company owned by Joe Robertson, responsible for early Lindisfarne imagery/posters etc.Playing the album this afternoon, I cheerfully sang along with most of the songs (Fog on the Tyne was released later). Songwriting is decent, usually containing ok verses followed by some catchy singalong choruses (complete with great harmonies). One of the primary successes of a folk cross over into the heavyweight world of pop / chart worthiness. Nicely Out of Tune was Lindisfarne’s debut album, released on Charisma when they were touring with two labelmates, Van der Graaf Generator and Genesis, and holding their own.

I think the vocal harmonies are excellent on here with some very nice choruses throughout, however individually I do not think these singers are the best. Since I am a huge fan of Genesis, reading their history, I found out that they used to open for this band, so was obviously very curious as to what this band may sound like as they were being booked together. This kicks off with one of the most famous songs, still very enjoyable many years later (ok, ok FOTN was massive but I felt Lady Eleanor was a more traditional, ‘closer to the bands roots’ type of song than the commercial success of ‘Fog’).Most of the songs were written by Alan Hull, with Rod Clements adding two and Rab Noakes adding one (the Noakes tune, Turn a Deaf Ear was a staple of pub sessions in Edinburgh for years).