Nigel Stonier

Committed Rod Clements and Lindisfarne fans will require little introduction to Nigel Stonier, who was Rod's co-writer on no fewer than seven of the eleven tracks on Here Comes the Neighbourhood, and on a further magnificent seven from Stamping Ground. The latter album also boasted Nigel's formidable instrumental and vocal talents, in the form of electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin, harmonium, and backing vocals. On Promenade, which Nigel produced, his tally of co-writes rose to the highly impressive total of nine out of thirteen.

Rod's involvement with Nigel goes back to when he was invited to play on Nigel's album Golden Coins for the Holy Kid. Nigel, himself a longstanding fan of Lindisfarne, made a fateful 'phone call to the band's office to ask, 'Does Rod do sessions?' At the eleventh hour, Paul Burgess, who had been booked as drummer on the album, got himself stranded in Denmark (fortunately Paul made it back to the UK in time to perform in a similar capacity on Stamping Ground seven years later), so Rod drafted in his Pentangle colleague, Gerry Conway, instead.

Rod played bass on the album, and acoustic slide on track 4, Rainbow Under Your Wheels.

It may be surmised that in time that the Clements-Stonier songwriting partnership will yield some material for Nigel too, but Rod did not write anything for Golden Coins, as they had only just met.

Nigel has since made another album, English Ghosts, which Rod was not involved with - it came just prior to the start of their songwriting partnership.