FOLK musicians have recorded their latest album in a pub owned by football legend Jack Charlton.

Led by former Lindisfarne frontman Marty Craggs, The Happy Cats celebrated their 10th anniversary by laying down a collection of covers in the upstairs function room of the former Magpies boss’s cliff-top pub – Charlton’s, in Cambois near Blyth.

Saxophonist and singer Marty, 60, said that, after their previous efforts being recorded in a studio, they wanted to so something different with 10 Years On.

He said: “We were looking for premises to record in that would give it a live rather than studio feel, and we knew that somewhere was probably a pub.”

The recording culminated in fans being offered the chance to have their own vocal input, with a “mass choir” assembling to help record a rendition of Galway Shawl.

Guitarist Les Dodd, 58, who, along with accordion and piano player Brian Duffy, 50, round out the trio, said the entire experience had been particularly interactive.

“The covers we have on the album were chosen by the fans through an online poll on our website, so it the top 10 tunes they wanted to see.

“They include Fairytale of New York by the Pogues and Dirty Old Town, which they also covered.”

As well as the 10 covers, the album – which was previously titled Cover to Cover – contains one new original song, 10 Years On, which tells the history of the band.

World Cup winner and former Newcastle United, Middlesbrough and Ireland manager Jack Charlton, whose son John refurbished and reopened the old Buccaneer pub as Charlton’s two years ago, said he’d been a little shocked by the band’s unusual request, but was happy to let them use the space.

“We get a lot of weddings and parties who use the room,” he said, “but I was quite surprised when the band came and asked if they could use it. When my son and I put the pub together I never imagined anyone would want to use the upstairs to record an album.”