They were the second great band to come out of Newcastle.
In the early 1960s, it was one-time Club a'Gogo resident five-piece, The Animals, with their electrifying take on the American blues, who hit the big time.
A decade later, the folk-rock-cum-pop creations of a shaggy-haired Tyneside quintet with soaring vocal harmonies, called Lindisfarne, would gain a huge audience and earn them single and album success.
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It's 50 years since their first hit, the anthemic Meet Me On The Corner , entered the UK singles chart.
By the end of March, 1972, the song had climbed to number 5, rubbing shoulders with the likes of such evergreens as Don McLean's American Pie , Nilsson's Without You , and Paul Simon's Mother And Child Reunion .
Meet Me On The Corner was written by Rod Clements who fronts the 2022 incarnation of Lindisfarne and is the sole survivor of the classic original line-up.
"I'd written it long before it became a hit," remembers the 74-year-old multi-instrumentalist and singer.
"I was very hard-up at the time, with a young wife and baby, living off mushroom soup I'd nicked from Newcastle Mayfair, and pinching coal.
"I wrote the song over two nights. It just came together. The guitar part took me about half-an-hour to put together. Then the following night I came up with the lyrics - again in about half an hour."
With its joyous melody and evocative lyrics, it became an instant classic and an ever-popular singalong number.
"Meet me on the corner,
When the lights are coming on,
And I'll be there.
I promise I'll be there.
Down the empty streets,
We'll disappear into the dawn,
If you have dreams enough to share."
The band happened to be touring in the United States (on a 'test mission' as Rod puts it, supporting the likes of the Beach Boys, Frank Zappa and The Kinks) when they learned Meet Me On The Corner had charted.
"Suddenly everything changed," he recalls. "Our mini bus, for a while, gave way to a limo, and the hotels got better. When we got back to the UK, there was a big party thrown by our record company, Charisma."
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Lindisfarne had hit the big time, but only after extensively honing their craft and musical chops around the gritty clubs and pubs of Tyneside - and beyond.
Rod, alongside Ray Jackson, Ray Laidlaw and Si Cowe were paying their dues in the late 1960s, gigging in a band called Brethren, when they met a charismatic Newcastle singer-songwriter called Alan Hull who already had a repertoire of around 300 self-penned songs.
Finding that they enjoyed performing and having a beer together, the five musicians decided to become one unit and rebranded themselves as Lindisfarne.
After Meet Me On The Corner , there was more quickfire success with another major hit single, Lady Eleanor (a re-release that hadn't charted first time around) which reached number three, as well as a trio of top-10 albums - Fog On The Tyne (which hit the top spot), Nicely Out Of Tune , and Dingly Dell .
"The creative process was that we'd all write separately," says Rod. "And we were all different personalities, and that dynamic was part of our success."
If Ray Jackson had a happy-go-lucky persona as one of the band's two frontmen, Alan Hull projected a different image.
"Alan almost had a John Lennon-type vibe," recalls Rod. "He had seniority, he was very accomplished, and was a commanding personality. He could even be a little scary at times.
"At the same time, he had a great bull**** detector, he was very honest, and was a great spokesman for the band."
Lindisfarne found themselves on television, with Alan Hull even wearing a Newcastle United replica shirt as they played live on The Old Grey Whistle Test.
And there was THE music programme of the day, Top Of The Pops, where Rod remembers hanging out backstage with the likes of Marc Bolan and member of Status Quo.
But away from the bright lights and glamour of TV, the life of a professional touring musician in the early 1970s was often demanding.
"We went from a small transit van to a bigger transit van with bigger seats and headphones, but it could be a slog on the road," says Rod. "Hotels weren't like they are today. They were often basic and it was like stepping back to the 1950s - it was the same with the old motorway cafes."
And there were tours abroad: Europe, America and even Australia. "Alan hated going to Europe," remembers Rod.
If, in the early days, the lads in the band had "got on fine", by 1973 they didn't any more.
Rod, Ray and Si Cowe broke away to form a new band, Jack The Lad, while Alan Hull and Ray Jackson continued with a revamped version of Lindisfarne that lasted until 1975.
Thankfully, as we know, it wouldn't be the end for Lindisfarne. In 1976, the original five members reunited for a series of triumphant Christmas concerts at Newcastle City Hall - something which would become an annual Tyneside festive tradition.
And in June 1978, the revitalised band would enjoy another massive hit with Run For Home which reached number 10 in the UK singles chart.
A full half century after Meet Me On The Corner made its UK chart debut, and after many band line-up permutations over the years, Rod Clements is still flying the Lindisfarne flag in 2022.
"We're all mates and I'm sure we'll just go on and on," says the frontman and founder member.
Visit Lindisfarne's official website here.
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