Biography
Many years ago in the English city of Blackpool, Ian Anderson musician organized a Jethro Tull team specializing in the performance of blues-fatal compositions. Since then, the group has changed the styles and directions several times, gave the world about 30 studio albums and was named one of the most commercially successful and eccentric British projects according to Rolling Stone magazine.
In 2014, the team leader announced the completion of a creative career, but after time, the musicians again gathered together to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the group of a large world tour called "Ian Anderson Presents: Jethro Tull - 50th Anniversary Tour".
The history of creation and composition.
In 1963, Pupils of High School Blackpool Ian Anderson, Jeffrey Hammond and John Ivan, inspired by the Beatles, decided to organize their own project, consisting of 2 guitarists and drummer. By purchasing instruments, young people started rehearsals, adopting melodies and riffs with popular blues compositions.
For some time, the team, originally called The Blades, performed in local clubs as a trio, and then the striker Barry Barlow and Guitarists Mike Stevens and Chris Riley joined the participants.
New friends were renamed John Even Band and with the help of the Johnny Taylor agent got a job in the establishments of North-West England, and also recorded 3 songs at the Regent Sound Studios studio.
Having played several concerts, Hammond left the group to enroll in the art school, and he was replaced by the bass guitarist Glenn Namorik, and he took the musician to the Musician on behalf of Neil Smith. In this composition, John Evan Band debuted on the scene of the famous London club "Marks" and after the speech understood that it was time to leave the province and move closer to the center.
In 1967, a young team took the next step in the history of the creation, moved to Luton and after a while he collapsed due to difficulties with financing. Anderson, Noringer and the new guitarist Mick Abrahams organized a separate project, to which the drummer Clive bankrupt was soon joined, and the blues began to play.
As it turned out, there were many similar groups in London, so the musicians had problems with the organization of concerts. In order not to arrive, Anderson and the company changed the names every week, speaking as "Navy Blue", "Ian Henderson Bag O 'Nails" and "Candy Colored Rain". Representing the public of a mediocre show, the team had little chance of re-appearing in the same club, but one day young people were lucky, and their introduced as Jethro Tull were invited to a permanent job.
Inspired by success, in 1968, the performers recorded bilateral singles "Sunshine Day" - "Aeroplane" and reunited with Jeffrey Hammond bassist. At the same time, Anderson disappointed in his own guitarist's abilities and mastered the flute, which, along with a warm long coat, became a business card of the musician and later lay down the basis of a permanent logo Jethro Tull.
After the release of the debut album in December 1968, Abrahams, who became the leader and frontman of the team, realized that he wanted to play another music and would not endure a tense touring schedule. Studying that "Owl of the throat of this nonsense", he left Jethro Tull and organized his own group called Blodwyn Pig.
Searches for a new guitarist occupied a lot of time. Among the candidates were David O'list, who recently left The Nice, Mick Taylor, who broke up with John Mayall & Bluesbreakers, and Tony Aiom, subsequently collecting famous Black Sabbath. As a result, the choice fell on Martin Barra, who perfectly fit into the style and Maneru of the game of Anderson. In 1970, when the group was needed by Keyman, Ian persuaded John Ivan to return and participate in tour and recordings of new albums.
It seemed that the composition of Jethro Tull stabilized, but unexpectedly during the tour in support of the BENEFIT album, the bassist Glenn Rugor left the collective, motivating this solution to the incompatibility of characters. His place was taken by a former member of the Jeffrey Hammond group, partially lost the game skills on the instrument due to lack of practice, but the Anderson approached the mood and style of communication.
However, he had a briefly left with friends and in 1975, he preferred to engage in painting, giving bass parties virtuoso Flamenco John Glasokoku, who was part-time the second vocalist of the group. In 1979, the new participant had health problems, and he suddenly died during the tour of the UK and the United States.
A repeated change of style in subsequent years led to the arrival of new participants and the dismissal of old. In 1980, the last major permutation occurred, during which Barlow, Korunik and Ievan left Anderson, leaving the frontman in the company Basist Dave Pegga, Gitarist Martin Barra and the drummer Dana Perry.
In January 2002, the original composition of the group, including Anderson, Abrahams, Korean and Banker, reunited for a one-time speech in the English pub, which was shot on DVD. This is the first and only time that former members of Jethro Tull gathered together on the same stage and played hits written in 40 years of creative career.
Music
For the first time, Jethro Tull loudly declared itself at the festival in Sanbury-on-Thames, having received an enthusiastic reception of the public and positive feedback in the press. Success pushed the musicians to release the album "This Was", which was in the top ten in the Hit-parades of Great Britain and the United States. In addition to the original compositions, the recorder version "Cat's Squirrel" appeared on the record, which advantageously emphasizing Abrahams blues reefs, as well as a jazz play "Serenade to A Cuckoo", discontinued the talent of Anderson Fleotist.
The new repertoire of Jethro Tull was demonstrated at concerts in support of Jimmy Hendrix in Scandinavia and joint speeches with Led Zeppelin and Vanilla Fudge in the United States. In the break, the musicians recorded the single "Living In The Past", which took 3rd place in British charts.
The Stand Up plate was helped to achieve the vertices of the group, released in September 1969, on the cover of which photographs of musicians were performed in the technique of xylography. All material, with the exception of the jazz arrangement of the Bourrée organ composition, wrote Anderson, and thanks to this, Jethro Tull moved away from the blues and sounded completely in a new way.
Cultivating style defined as a progressive rock, Ian, inspired by the success of the compositions "We Use to Know" and "Nothing IS Easy", composed several popular singles. The group then appeared on the Top Of The Pops television show and recorded the "Benefit" album. The plate provided a group of a multi-volume audience and allowed collecting stadiums. One of the most significant performances of Jethro Tull took place in August 1970 at the British Isle of Wight Festival, which was superior to the famous Woodstock.
After the tour, the team changed the composition and at the end of 1970 released the album "Aqualung" with the famous composition "Locomotive Breath". During the work of Anderson feared that the music would be too radical compared to previous records, but despite the doubts of the plate hit the top ten in the United States and received the Golden RIAA certificate, dispelled by the number of more than a million copies.
Critics called the album conceptual and strongly offended the leader of the group, which considered their own songs with distinctive and diverse. In response to the statements of the press, Anderson composed Suita, who united complex musical ideas with a sense of humor and lasted 43 minutes, occupying 2 sides of the new Disk "Thick AS A BRICK".
In 1972, Jethro Tull, called the most important progressive second-generation group, took a pause and released a collection of singles, bi-sides and outages, which allowed new fans to get acquainted with the early works of the Anderson team. This raised the popularity of musicians and contributed to the commercial success of the albums "A Passion Play" (1973), "War Child" (1974) and "Minstrel in the Gallery" (1975).
In the late 1970s, Jethro Tull began to interact with folk rock traffic and released 3 albums written under the influence of the FairPort Convention group. "Songs from the Wood" (1977), "Heavy Horses" (1978) and "StormWatch" (1979) received positive critics reviews and provided musicians full-scale European tour.
In the 1980s, the band recorded a record called "A" and engaged in the production of video clips, including staged scenes and personnel with live concert speeches. In parallel, the musicians worked on a new sound, in which electronic tools and programmed rhythm sections prevailed.
As a result, Jethro Tull experiments presented the Album "Under Wraps", famous for the tracks "Lap of Luxury" and "Automotive Engineering". After that, the Composer and Solist Anderson had problems with the throat, and the team took the creative break for 3 years.
After returning Jethro Tull won the Grammy Award as the best hard rock / metal project and replenished the discography of the 20 Years of Jethro Tull and the "Crest Of A Knave" plates, "Rock Island" and "Catfish Rising", the last of which He became a return to the blues, lively mandolina, an acoustic guitar and an unchanged flute.
In 2011, Ian Anderson officially announced the closure of the project, but a year later released the solo album "Thick As A Brick 2: Whatever Happened To Gerald Bostock?" On which there were former members of Jethro Tull: Basist David Good Judge and keyboard player John O'Hara .
Jethro Tull now
In 2017, Ian Anderson together with the musicians John O'har, David Goodie, Florian Opal and Scott Hammond organized a project called "Jethro Tull by Ian Anderson". Its purpose was to revive popularity and make concerts dedicated to the 50-year anniversary of the team from Blackpool.
"Jethro Tull 50th Anniversary Tour" started in the Danish city of Olborg and now continues in Europe. In 2019, Anderson and the company plan to play at the courts of the Czech Republic, Italy and Germany, and then visit North America.
Track list of concerts and dates of speeches The musicians announce on the Jethro Tull website, as well as on the official page in Instagram and other social networks.
Discography
- 1969 - "Stand Up"
- 1971 - "Aqualung"
- 1972 - "Thick As A BRICK"
- 1976 - "TOO OLD TO ROCK 'N' ROLL: TOO YOUNG TO DIE!"
- 1978 - "Heavy Horses"
- 1984 - "UNDER WRAPS"
- 1987 - "Crest Of a Knave"
- 1989 - "Rock Island"
- 1991 - "Catfish Rising"
- 1995 - "Roots to Branches"
- 2003 - "The Jethro Tull Christmas Album"