jeffrey
Alive & Well & Living In
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Re: Jethro Tull
http://entertainment.timesonline.co....cle7067377.ece
From The Times March 19, 2010 Jethro Tull at Union Chapel, N1
Ian Anderson and his band may not be fashionable any more, but that’s not going to put them off a folk-rock exploration
by John Bungey
There are two approaches to a live show for the seasoned touring musician: one is the Rolling Stones’ human jukebox routine, bashing out the old hits; the other is the John Coltrane/Miles Davis stance, which is roughly: “I’m a slave to my muse, not you lot, so I’ll play what I like.” The latter path requires a lot of talent and a blithe disregard for the box office to work for long. Ian Anderson and his band plough a middle course, which may explain their continued vitality approximately 35 years after the pop press last deemed them fashionable.
If their 40th anniversary tour in 2008 was the nearest they have recently got to a “greatest hits” tour, their current gigs are more “B-sides and rarities”. Rootling near the bottom of his song drawer, Anderson had found March the Mad Scientist, an ancient album bonus track, and the seasonally dislocated Birthday Card at Christmas. Neither quite matched the brio of Life is a Long Song, Songs from the Wood or other more familiar fare.
Still, when the soundman masters its boomy acoustic, the Union Chapel is quite the loveliest rock venue in London, with its vaulted heights bathed in pink and gold light and the band emitting a pleasingly woody sound. Mandolin, acoustic guitar and bass, accordion and, of course, flute dominated. The lead guitarist Martin Barre’s crashing blues-rock of old was tamed and the drummer Doane Perry tickled rather than pummelled.
As the group investigated its folk- rock side, it was hard to credit that this was the troupe that once beat Metallica to a heavy-metal Grammy. Anderson, as ever, played the genial, self- deprecating host, making jokes about his age and waist size and introducing their Bach-lite Bourée as “cruise-ship cocktail-lounge jazz”. Barre’s sprightly gypsy- jazz solo feature, Empty Café, was so called, Anderson said, because all the attractive women walked out when he walked in. The venerable Barre smiled wanly.
There were Eastern influences, too, in more recent material, the perky instrumental Eurology and Tea with the Princess, written about the sitar player Anoushka Shankar while in India — Jethro Tull often stray from the tried-and-tested touring circuit.
But as Anderson huffed and mugged through yet another flute solo, the dustier corners of the repertoire did not always yield gems. Surer ground was finally reached with the climactic Aqualung, this time preceded by a clever, folkie Aqualung overture, and then an encore of a similarly reworked Locomotive Breath. The sold-out crowd duly rose to its feet.
Ian Anderson once told me that after a couple of hit albums it was easy to keep a band touring successfully. It isn’t, of course, but the wily gents of Tull make it seem so.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co....cle7067377.ece
From The Times March 19, 2010 Jethro Tull at Union Chapel, N1
Ian Anderson and his band may not be fashionable any more, but that’s not going to put them off a folk-rock exploration
by John Bungey
There are two approaches to a live show for the seasoned touring musician: one is the Rolling Stones’ human jukebox routine, bashing out the old hits; the other is the John Coltrane/Miles Davis stance, which is roughly: “I’m a slave to my muse, not you lot, so I’ll play what I like.” The latter path requires a lot of talent and a blithe disregard for the box office to work for long. Ian Anderson and his band plough a middle course, which may explain their continued vitality approximately 35 years after the pop press last deemed them fashionable.
If their 40th anniversary tour in 2008 was the nearest they have recently got to a “greatest hits” tour, their current gigs are more “B-sides and rarities”. Rootling near the bottom of his song drawer, Anderson had found March the Mad Scientist, an ancient album bonus track, and the seasonally dislocated Birthday Card at Christmas. Neither quite matched the brio of Life is a Long Song, Songs from the Wood or other more familiar fare.
Still, when the soundman masters its boomy acoustic, the Union Chapel is quite the loveliest rock venue in London, with its vaulted heights bathed in pink and gold light and the band emitting a pleasingly woody sound. Mandolin, acoustic guitar and bass, accordion and, of course, flute dominated. The lead guitarist Martin Barre’s crashing blues-rock of old was tamed and the drummer Doane Perry tickled rather than pummelled.
As the group investigated its folk- rock side, it was hard to credit that this was the troupe that once beat Metallica to a heavy-metal Grammy. Anderson, as ever, played the genial, self- deprecating host, making jokes about his age and waist size and introducing their Bach-lite Bourée as “cruise-ship cocktail-lounge jazz”. Barre’s sprightly gypsy- jazz solo feature, Empty Café, was so called, Anderson said, because all the attractive women walked out when he walked in. The venerable Barre smiled wanly.
There were Eastern influences, too, in more recent material, the perky instrumental Eurology and Tea with the Princess, written about the sitar player Anoushka Shankar while in India — Jethro Tull often stray from the tried-and-tested touring circuit.
But as Anderson huffed and mugged through yet another flute solo, the dustier corners of the repertoire did not always yield gems. Surer ground was finally reached with the climactic Aqualung, this time preceded by a clever, folkie Aqualung overture, and then an encore of a similarly reworked Locomotive Breath. The sold-out crowd duly rose to its feet.
Ian Anderson once told me that after a couple of hit albums it was easy to keep a band touring successfully. It isn’t, of course, but the wily gents of Tull make it seem so.
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