Pipedream

Alan Hull might be best known as the founder of earthy Newcastle folk rockers Lindisfarne (of Fog On The Tyne fame), but his 1973 solo debut album is the quixotic, quintessentially northern songwriter’s finest work. Hull’s folk background is evident throughout, such as on the wistful, soot-stained instrumental Std 0632, but Pipedream is a richly melodic work that frequently pitches him closer to solo John Lennon. Barrelling opener “Breakfast” rolls out of bed like a bleary-eyed, jack-the-lad Bowie, the smoky funk of “Blue Murder” has a pop at his former Lindisfarne bandmate Rod Clements, while the mandolin-led “United States Of Mind” is the sound of Led Zeppelin had they relocated to a Tyneside boozer instead of the Welsh countryside circa Led Zeppelin III. Hull died of a heart attack aged just 50, but full of humour, pathos and with an eye for the details and dramas of everyday life, he was one of the finest chroniclers of British working-class life.