"Jethro Tull Is On Ice" "The Group Will Never Record Another Album"

And in a correct tempo.

There's lots of people who don't care about such things at all. You know:

"How was the concert?"
"Great! They played Aqualung! And Locomotive Breath!"
"Ok, but were they good?"
"Yeah! Ian played the flute!"

That's why i'm really starting to appreciate the concept of classical music more and more. You already know what the orchestra will be playing when you buy the ticket, but the thing is how how do they play it.

 

Good speaking voice but sadly also locomotive breath.

{rimshot}

 

The first time I read the thread title, I thought we were going to have a Jethro Tull ice show....

 

Yes. But surely some of those Tull concertgoing fans will or would hear the difference. Without necessarily knowing that it's technically a change of key, they would FEEL the different tension in the tonality and might go "now THAT's more like it!"...

The song part of "Minstrel in The Gallery" should also be done in its original album and concert ('75) key. Provided of course that Martin's new cover singer don't bust his vocal cord over it (..and later turns out like Ian!)... I think it went from E down to D after '75, or something like that...

 

So Jethro Tull's ended ... no surprise, really.

 

G'day,

Well, they've been going for 40 odd years now. I think it's been a pretty good innings. No one can complain if Ian Anderson decides that it's time to pull up stumps.

--Geoff

 

Ha! Me, too!

I love Tull.

But, it's been over for a while.

And, as I said in another thread, Ian doing TAAB WITHOUT Martin is just a crime.

 

Ian Anderson ‘Would Never Say That It is the End of Jethro Tull’
http://ultimateclassicrock.com/jethro-tull-ian-anderson-interview/
Ian Anderson - I certainly would never say that it is the end of Jethro Tull. In fact, I spoke to Martin about getting together some dates actually with him and me for an acoustic venture at some point.

 

Skating away into the sunset is the right thing to do.

 

Jethro Tull guitarist Martin Barre takes high road on TAAB2 rift

Goldmine story made it to here; Reunited Jacksons kickoff tour
http://www.presstelegram.com/ci_20959244/steve-smith-reunited-jacksons-kickoff-tour

GUITARIST MARTIN BARRE ON THE END OF JETHRO TULL Martin Barre, former guitarist for British rock-folk-blues-prog rock band Jethro Tull, tells industry publication Goldmine that it was group leader, singer-flutist-guitarist Ian Anderson who broke up the band he co-founded in 1967 and that Barre joined in the first months of 1969.

"Ian just got Doane (Perry, Tull's drummer since 1984) and I in a room and said he didn't want to play in Jethro Tull anymore."

Anderson apparently had been planning to record a sequel to his 1971 Jethro Tull concept album, "Thick as a Brick," but he didn't want the rest of the band to play on it. "When Ian announced on the American tour last year that he didn't want to do any more Jethro Tull shows, Doane and I had no idea that he was planning to do 'Thick as a Brick 2."'

Anderson recorded TAAB2 with the members of his solo touring band between March and November last year. The album was released to considerable acclaim in April. Anderson is spending the summer touring Europe and Israel with his band, performing both "Brick" albums. Then, he'll bring that show to America from Sept. 18 through Nov. 5, including concerts on Oct. 17 at the Balboa Theatre in San Diego, Oct. 19 at the Agua Caliente Casino in Rancho Mirage, and Oct. 20 at the Long Beach Terrace Theatre.

Barre spent June touring the U.K. and Europe as a member of The Legends of Rock with Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood and a surprising member, former Mac guitarist Jeremy Spencer; Asia singer-bassist John Wetton; former Yes singer Jon Anderson and members of Supertramp and Barclay James Harvest. He says there's talk of bringing the tour to Canada in January, and if so, he sees no reason why they won't tour the States.

He also leads a band that plays nothing but the music of Jethro Tull called Martin Barre's New Day. Former Tull bassist Jonathan Noyce is a member. This band plays loud rocking Tull songs Anderson deleted from Tull's set lists for years, often for decades. "I've also spoken to other guys, like (former Tull drummer) Barrie Barlow on the possibility of putting together a Jethro Tull band for America, which would have some interesting people in it, like maybe (original Tull drummer) Clive Bunker. I quite fancy the idea of having the lineup of Jethro Tull from a long time ago performing again. It would be hard to get some guys, I know. John Evan (Tull's pianist during the '70 s) lives in Australia. It wouldn't be an easy task, but it would be good fun trying."

Original story:
http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showpost.php?p=7830540&postcount=450
http://www.goldminemag.com/article/jethro-tull-guitarist-martin-barre-takes-high-road-on-taab2-rift

 

I kind of like where Martin Barre is going with this. I'd much rather see his band than Ian and Co doing TAAB 2.

 

how about barre and mick abrahams together? has that ever happened?

 

I think they possibly played together on the Living With The Past video for the class of '68 Jethro Tull reunion. It's been awhile since I've watched that video, so I can't remember for sure. On the CD, there is a track credited to the Class of '68 Reunion - "Some Day The Sun Won't Shine For You". Since Martin didn't play for JT in '68, maybe he wasn't included on that song.

 

He wasn't, it was strictly the 68s lineup. Barre and Abrahams have certainly met up (see also the "MU" album poster), but I dont believe they've played together.

 

Thanks for clarifying. This reminds me that it's time to watch that DVD again

 

Mick isn't on that poster photo.

 

Martin Barre's New Day
Liz Crosthwaite • Published 22 Nov 2012
http://www.windsorobserver.co.uk/theguide/goingout/articles/2012/11/22/64584-martin-barres-new-day/

REVERED Jethro Tull guitarist Martin Barre's project, New Day, may be named in reference to a song, but it's also a telling statement. The apparent rift between Tull frontman Ian Anderson and the guitarist seems unlikely to be bridged any time soon, and so, for Martin, now is all about new beginnings.

"[Jethro Tull] is broken," Martin told me, as New Day rehearsed for their UK tour. "Sometimes I feel quite empty. Something that supported you for that long… it becomes second nature. Then it's gone; you can never prepare for that. It's like someone retiring, and they feel the ground's been taken from under them.

"That's one side, but on the other side I have got total freedom; I get to set my own schedule. It makes my life a lot more happy because I'm dealing with things that I'm in control of."

The seeds of the apparent demise of the Anderson-Barre partnership were sown this year when Ian took on tour Tull's seminal Thick As A Brick album alongside his solo sequel, Thick As A Brick 2, without Barre or Tull drummer Doane Perry. It was a decision which surprised many fans.

Martin said: "It's difficult, it's not just something that you take for granted, that [the band] can end and you can go on and do other things. You stop doing this huge entity that's supported you so well… It's really starting from absolute scratch."

Starting from scratch, for Martin, doesn't mean chucking away the 40-plus years of musical history he made with Jethro Tull. Instead, the 66-year-old has put together a band to play blues favourites and older Tull tracks, with a group of younger musicians, for an intimate tour of venues round the country. Martin admitted that during rehearsals with his band - made up of drummer George Lindsay, guitar player Pat O'May, bass player John Noyce, sax/flute player Frank Mead and singer Dan Crisp - he discovered that teaching others how to play Tull's often complex prog folk wasn't always easy.

"The music is pretty complicated; I guess I have taken it for granted, being brought up on it for 40 years," he explained. "And then you start involving people from outside and realise how difficult it is. They have problems learning it and understanding. It's quite difficult and it takes a lot of time.

"The songs we are doing, probably about eight or 10 are Jethro Tull bits of music, but songs that have not been played for 20 or more years because they are the more rock-sounding side of Jethro Tull.

"It's exciting to do those things. And the rest of it is made up of my favourite old blues standards. I love being able to arrange music and organise it. It's the cream on the cake. It's so much fun to do that."

He revealed that getting to play the rockier Tull tunes was liberating: "It's a very exciting show, musically - it's heads-down and enjoy the music. It's a good atmosphere and that's something that's been missing from things I have been doing for the last few years. It was getting more and more similar and safe and quiet in Jethro Tull. [This is] back to the roots of being in a band."

Martin Barre's New Day play Arlington Arts Centre on Saturday, at 8pm. Tickets cost £17.50


This article appeared in Royal Borough Observer 22 Nov 12

 

Well, it was time, wasn't it?

 

Read more: http://jethrotull.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=2001&page=2#32579

Arguing with Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull​

—by Mike Greenblatt, November 7, 2012​

​

Jethro Tull has been around now for 45 years. 28 musicians have been in the band but only one calls the shots: Ian Anderson. The image of Anderson, on one foot, playing the flute, is one of the more iconic images in all of progressive rock. He’s incorporated jazz, folk, blues and classical into his seamless mix and continues to tour globally with fans—Grateful Dead style—following him around the world. The current album, Thick As A Brick 2, imagines what might have happened to its original 1972 protagonist, Gerald Bostock, decades later.​

​

The conversation below was almost adversarial in that I had interviewed beloved Tull guitarist Martin Barre earlier in the year, and he was clearly upset over not being asked to participate in TAAB2. I knew Anderson, who is one of the more articulate, intelligent, philosophical and literate rock stars, could take my incessant grilling, so I went in with a mission. To his credit, he was a good sport and handled me with patience, professionalism and with a profound zen-like wisdom.​

​

How do you know when to get rid of certain guys and get other guys? You’re a crafty individual both in business and music, no?​

​

Well, it’s not as cynical or crafty as “getting rid” of guys. I have relationships. You come to enjoy oftentimes passionate friendships with other musicians whom you find productive for a while but sometimes you go into it knowing this is not going to be forever. It’s exciting—intellectually and emotionally—to play with certain people. No one is under any long-term marriage contract to make it a union for life so it’s not really a question of deciding when to get rid of them.​

​

It’s mutual. To drag on beyond the point to where it’s not fun and productive is not the best thing to do. Working with me, you can use that relationship to further your career. But then move on and do other things! Don’t get stuck in a rut by thinking you have to stick around me forever because I can manage quite well without you. I’ve given that advice to more than a few people. I’m not a guy who hires and fires like buying a new member of a football team. I’m a band leader in the tradition of Frank Zappa or John Mayall. I don’t think it’s fair to say we “get rid” of people just because they play a wrong note or something. We’re not that mean.​

​

Unless you’re James Brown.​

​

You’ll notice I didn’t mention James Brown amongst the good band leaders. He had a very bad reputation amongst his musicians for being exactly the kind of guy that maybe you’re alluding to. Another one very much in that vein is Van Morrison. He fires people when he gets bored with them!​

​

I love the lineup from ’95 to ’05 of you with Martin Barre, Jon Noyce, Andrew Giddings and Doane Perry.​

​

I think on a purely musical basis, it was a more flexible and adept lineup. Martin was at his best, continuing to develop. They were polished on stage, too. I don’t think, though, they quite had the fire in the belly for recording. At least a couple of them were never at their best in the studio. I think the pressure got to them.​

​

Who?​

​

That’s not something I feel I would want to say because it would suggest somebody wasn’t up to the mark. I never betray my friends, musicians or otherwise, by criticizing them. Some people enjoy the stage but tremble at the knees when they walk into a studio where it’s for real—a test, if you will—with the resultant pressure. I feel the pressure too as a producer, musician, composer and arranger. The buck stops with me. But, nonetheless, the adrenaline rush of building momentum is one that overcomes the trepidation. So I can see it from both sides.​

​

Why wasn’t Barre or Perry part of TAAB2? The fans were up in arms about it and it caused no small amount of controversy. You told Pat Prince of Goldmine magazine it was a scheduling conflict but Martin told me that…​

​

I did not use the phrase “scheduling conflict.” Back in June of 2011, on a few occasions, I met with Martin and Doane to talk to them about 2012. I explained I had been working on a new project which was probably going to take up most of my 2012 time, that it was a conceptual project; that I did not want to pursue it under the Jethro Tull banner. We then discussed what those guys might be doing in 2012. The talks were well-scheduled and we all agreed they would pursue other avenues that they had, mind you, already been thinking of. That’s hardly a “scheduling conflict.” It was a plus, a bonus; it was finally time to do some other things on a personal basis. Particularly for Martin. He’s actually a year older than me. We’re not guys who can go on forever. Martin and I have talked over the last few years about him pursuing some solo projects. It’s not anything unusual or even particularly new. Look, I have no intention of being drawn into a sparring match here. There is no conflict. It’s just people doing their own thing. Maybe Martin might have felt, in some way, snubbed, not to be asked to do Thick As A Brick 2 and, if so, I can understand that, but there was plenty of notice for Martin and Doane to think about pursuing actively their alternative personal plans. Martin, as you probably know, is out and about doing tours as we speak. Doane is recovering from a health issues.​

​

How often do you keep in touch with them and other ex-Tull musicians?​

​

We’re in regular touch and chat about this and that. In fact, I’m sort of disappointed if a couple of days go by and I don’t get an email from one of the 28 musicians I’ve played with over the years in Jethro Tull. I’d like to think I’m on pretty good terms with most of them. In fact, looking down my emails as I speak to you now, I can see yet another email from an ex-musician who was once in Jethro Tull. Ooh, he’s inviting me to a, well, I should have a degree of discretion; let’s just say it’s an important private function. I rather like when I get these… Wait, hang on, let’s see, here’s one… Two, two ex-musicians, three, another musician who once came to work with me very briefly and decided not to pursue, ooh, hold on, here’s another two, and this is just today’s emails. I kind of like the fact that we have this big extended family thing going on that I’m a part of.​

​

Speaking of family, I’m a paid-up member and supporter of an entity called “Population Matters.” I’m very concerned about people’s attitudes towards birth control. I’m one of those people who believe we all should be entitled to have a child or two… But stop at two! Let’s try and put the lid on population expansion. We’re already at a point where we can’t feed the planet. There’s no real possibility of increasing our food production for years to come in this topsy-turvy climate change world. This is something that actually matters to me. I have two children. I have two grandchildren whom I hope to have a hand in fostering. So that’s okay. I’m on target. I’m a responsible inhabitant of the planet Earth. I’m in that place where we can see minimal or no population growth as a direct result of my personal seminal fluid.​

​

But I have my extended family, 28, wait, two of them, sadly, have passed on, so 26 surviving Jethro Tull mates who I’m kind of proud of.​

​

So you would not be adverse, then, in the future, to possibly playing again with Martin Barre?​

​

Absolutely not. In fact, in one of the last conversations I had with Martin, I was talking to him of doing a little acoustic outing with just the two of us! We’ve never done that before. We’re all too used to the media-whipped frenzy of a Jagger-Richards will they/won’t they kind of thing…​

​

Well, this then, is the Jethro Tull equivalent. There’s a magic when you and Martin play…​

​

My point was going to be that it’s not the Jethro Tull equivalent! There isn’t that kind of a friction or bust-up. Jagger and Richards have had longstanding bad blood between them. No no, I don’t see it as an equivalent at all. Can we move on? We’ve done this one to death.​

​

 

I saw the Ian Anderson, Thick as a Brick show a few weeks ago and was quite impressed. He had a band of top notch players, who had no problem covering the original arrangements. Also, he had a young protege who did much of the vocals. Normally I would not approve of this kind of thing, but in this context it worked. It enabled Anderson the opportunity to add more flute, not to mention it masked any vocal shortcomings.

Now that being said, I would still love to see a product that included Barre, Evans, Barlowe, et al, plus what ever supplements it needs to maintain the quality & integrity of the product.