Lindisfarne achieved a belated breakthrough with this catchy slice of whimsical folk-rock, displaying their strong Geordie roots and showasing the songwriting talent of Alan Hull.
Alan Hull was a genius, but perhaps one unequipped to deal with success. At one time he was compared to Bob Dylan and there are similarities in his talent for blending of regional folk influences with a love of wordplay and an intuitive ability to capture a sense of time and place in song.
That place was Newcastle, never more so than in the alliterative opening lines of Fog On The (“Sitting in a sleazy snack bar sucking sickly sausage rolls”) before it was murdered by Gazza for cheap laughs, though at least that hopefully earned him a few quid in his final years before his premature death in 1995.
Lindisfarne came along at the right time, just when folk-rock fusions were getting a foothold in pop music with varying degrees of folkiness, via Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention, Horslips and, to a lesser degree, Jethro Tull.
Their songs, at least in the early days, managed to convey a strong sense of regional pride in being a Geordie – a defiant working-class resilience amid the grimness of the early Seventies. Their first album flopped in 1970 and the second only became a success after this song, Meet Me On The Corner, gave them a hit single in 1972, reaching No.5.
Just a few months before this Old Grey Whistle Test appearance, Ray Jackson was playing his mandolin as a hired session man for Rod Stewart, famously providing the signature sound of his chart topper Maggie May (and being paid a trifling £15 for the pleasure).