Wallsend is a town in North Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England, at the eastern end of Hadrian’s Wall. It has a population of 43,842 and lies four miles east of Newcastle upon Tyne.

In the mid-90s, in Wallsend, there was a band called The Sojourners. I just found about it on Soundcloud. Davy Craig, who was part of the band, uploaded 14(!) years ago a bunch of tracks. They cover a few different styles, but there’s a very good one that just makes this post worth doing, a track titled “Don”.

According to the little description the song was recorded at Impulse in Wallsend and is named after Don from Hoults Yard Rehearsal Rooms. The music is by Davy and the lyrics by Steve Jobling. Another extra bit of info is that the song was inspired by Donovan, The Beatles and The Smiths.

There are other tracks, also recorded at the same place and the same year. I’ll go through them.

“47 Hastings Parade” which was the name of the street Davy used to live in Hebburn. Then there is a demo of the track “Biscuit”, this one with lyrics by Ash Timmins.

“Blue Skies” is a track with both music and lyrics by Davy. “61 Miles (To London)” is a story of a journey to London when you are nearly there but stuck in traffic. Seems like everyone knows this story.

“Harry” is a track of a guy with the same name from Leroys in Hebburn. The lyrics were written by Davy and Steve Jobling. Then there’s “Distant Prayer”, “The Fiddle” and “Daddy”.

Lastly there’s “Beneath the Waves”. Here there’s a list of all the band members. So it was Ash Timmins on vocals, Davy Craig on guitars and e-bows, Stephen Jobling on bass and Luke Phillips on drums.

That’s really all the information about the band I could find. I do see Davy had been in another project called DRILL and that he has some songs solo.

Wonder how active they were on their day. Did they play much live? Did they release anything? Would be good to find out.

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Listen
The Sojourners – Don