Autographed in person by: Ian Anderson, Martin Barre, Clive Bunker, John Evan, and Jeffrey Hammond
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Jethro Tull are a British rock band formed in Blackpool, Lancashire, in 1967. Initially playing blues rock and jazz fusion, the band later developed their sound to incorporate elements of hard rock and folk rock to forge a progressive rock signature.[3] The band is led by vocalist/flautist/guitarist Ian Anderson, and has featured a revolving door of lineups through the years including significant members such as guitarists Mick Abrahams and Martin Barre, keyboardist John Evan, drummers Clive Bunker, Barriemore Barlow, and Doane Perry, and bassists Glenn Cornick, Jeffrey Hammond, John Glascock, and Dave Pegg.
The group first achieved commercial success in 1969, with the folk-tinged blues album Stand Up, which reached No. 1 in the UK, and they toured regularly in the UK and the US. Their musical style shifted in the direction of progressive rock with the albums Aqualung (1971), Thick as a Brick (1972) and A Passion Play (1973), and shifted again to hard rock mixed with folk rock with Songs from the Wood (1977) and Heavy Horses (1978). After an excursion into electronic rock in the early-to-mid 1980s, the band won its first and only Grammy Award with the 1987 album Crest of a Knave. Jethro Tull have sold an estimated 60 million albums worldwide,[4] with 11 gold and five platinum albums among them.[5] They have been described by Rolling Stone as "one of the most commercially successful and eccentric progressive rock bands".[6]
The last works as a group to contain new material were released in 2003, though the band continued to tour until 2011. Anderson said Jethro Tull were finished in 2014;[7] however, in September 2017 Anderson announced plans for a tour to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the band's first album This Was, and then record a new studio album in 2018. The current band line-up includes musicians who have been members of Anderson's solo band since 2012. The band began a world tour on 1 March 2018.
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Ian Anderson, Jeffrey Hammond and John Evan (originally Evans), who would become members of Jethro Tull, attended grammar school together in Blackpool. Anderson was born in Dunfermline, Scotland and grew up in Edinburgh before moving to Blackpool in January 1960.[8] Evans had become a fan of the Beatles after seeing them play "Love Me Do" on Granada Television's Scene at 6:30. Though he was an accomplished pianist, he decided to take up the drums, as it was an instrument featured in the Beatles' line-up.[9] Anderson had acquired a Spanish guitar and taught himself how to play it, and the pair decided to form a band.[10] The pair recruited Hammond on bass, who brought along his collection of blues records to listen to.[11]
The group initially played as a three piece at local clubs and venues, before Evans became influenced by Georgie Fame and the Animals and switched to organ, recruiting drummer Barrie Barlow[12] and guitarist Mike Stephens from local band the Atlantics.[13][14] By 1964 the band had recruited guitarist Chris Riley[14] and developed into a six-piece blue-eyed soul band called the John Evan Band (later the John Evan Smash). Evans had shortened his surname to "Evan" at the insistence of Hammond, who thought it sounded better and more unusual. The group recruited Johnny Taylor as a booking agent and played gigs further afield around northwest England,[15] playing a mixture of blues and Motown covers.[16] Hammond subsequently quit the band to go to art school.[15] He was briefly replaced by Derek Ward, then by Glenn Cornick.[17] Riley also quit and was replaced by Neil Smith.[18] The group recorded three songs at Regent Sound Studios in Denmark Street, London in April 1967, and appeared at The Marquee club in June.[19]
In November 1967, the band moved to the London area, basing themselves in Luton. They signed a management deal with Terry Ellis and Chris Wright and replaced Smith with guitarist Mick Abrahams,[20] but quickly realised that supporting a 6-piece band was financially impractical, and the group split up. Anderson, Abrahams and Cornick decided to stay together, recruiting Abrahams' friend Clive Bunker on drums[21] and becoming a British blues band.[22] Cornick recalled that although Evan left, the band said he was welcome to rejoin at a later date.[19] Anderson shared a ground-floor flat with Cornick in a large house at the top of Studley Road in Luton, [23] and worked as a cleaner for the Luton Ritz Cinema to pay the rent.[24] According to Cornick, "we were so poor that we would share one can of stew or soup between us each evening." [25]
At first, the new band had trouble getting repeat bookings and they took to changing their name frequently to continue playing the London club circuit, names which included "Navy Blue", "Ian Henderson's Bag o' Nails", and "Candy Coloured Rain". Anderson recalled looking at a poster at a club and concluding that the band name he didn't recognise was his.[26] Band names were often supplied by their booking agents' staff, one of whom, a history enthusiast, eventually christened them "Jethro Tull" after the 18th-century agriculturist. The name stuck because they happened to be using it the first time a club manager liked their show enough to invite them to return.[7] They recorded a session with producer Derek Lawrence, which resulted in the single "Sunshine Day". The B-side "Aeroplane" was an old John Evan Band track with the saxophones mixed out. It was released in February 1968 on MGM Records, miscredited to "Jethro Toe".[27] Anderson has since questioned the misnomer as a way to avoid paying royalties.[28] The more common version, with the name spelled correctly, is actually a counterfeit made in New York.[29] Anderson later met Hammond while in London and the two renewed their friendship, while Anderson moved into a bedsit in Chelsea with Evan.[30] Hammond became the subject of several songs, beginning with their next single, "A Song for Jeffrey".[31]
Because he was living in a cold bedsit, Anderson bought a large overcoat to keep him warm, and, along with the flute, it became part of his early stage image. It was around this time that Anderson purchased a flute after becoming frustrated with his inability to play guitar as well as Abrahams, and because their managers thought he should remain a rhythm guitarist, with Abrahams becoming the front man.[32]
I didn't want to be just another third-rate guitar player who sounded like a bunch of other third-rate guitar players. I wanted to do something that was a bit more idiosyncratic, hence the switch to another instrument. When Jethro Tull began, I think I'd been playing the flute for about two weeks. It was a quick learning curve ... literally every night I walked onstage was a flute lesson.[33]
The group's first major break occurred at the National Jazz and Blues Festival at Sunbury-on-Thames in August 1968, where the band drew a rapturous reception and positive reviews in the music press. The band have since claimed that the success at Sunbury was a result of their persistent touring, which had generated a grassroots following who had all assembled at the festival and encouraged the rest of the audience. Cornick recalled, "from that moment on, we were a big band".[34]
The group recorded their first album, This Was, between June and August 1968, and it was released in October, reaching number 10 in the charts.[35] In addition to original material, the album included the traditional "Cat's Squirrel", which highlighted Abrahams' blues-rock style, while the Rahsaan Roland Kirk-penned jazz piece "Serenade to a Cuckoo" gave Anderson a showcase for his growing talents on the flute.[36] The overall sound of the group at this time was described in the Record Mirror by Anderson in 1968 as "a sort of progressive blues with a bit of jazz".[37]
Following the album's release, Abrahams left the band in December to form his own group, Blodwyn Pig.[38] There were a number of reasons given for his departure. Abrahams had heard that Ellis wanted Anderson to be the frontman and group leader, at his expense, and realised he was unlikely to have the majority share in songwriting.[39] Other reasons given were that Abrahams was a blues purist while Anderson wanted to branch out into other forms of music, and that Abrahams was unwilling to travel internationally or play more than three nights a week.[40][41] Abrahams himself described his reasons more succinctly: "I was fed up with all the nonsense, and I wanted to form a band like Blodwyn Pig."[42]
The group tried several different replacements for Abrahams. The first was David O'List, who had recently left the Nice. After a week's rehearsal, O'List didn't show up and lost contact with the group. The next choice was Mick Taylor, who turned the group down because he felt his current gig with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers was a better deal.[38] Following this, the group put an advertisement in Melody Maker which was answered by Tony Iommi. After a few rehearsals, the group appeared in The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus on 11 December. The group performed "A Song for Jeffrey", but only Anderson's singing and flute were live; the rest was mimed. Iommi felt closer to his old band, 'Earth', so he returned to Birmingham to rejoin them. However, his brief time in Jethro Tull instilled a strong work ethic in Iommi. 'Earth' later became Black Sabbath, achieving great commercial success.[43]
The next choice was Martin Barre, who had seen the band perform at Sunbury,[44] and had been tried out at the same audition as Iommi. Barre arranged a second audition with Anderson, who showed him some new songs that were in a different style to the blues they had been recording. Anderson was impressed by Barre's technique, and offered him the job as the new guitarist.[45] Barre played his first gig with Jethro Tull on 30 December 1968 at the Winter Gardens, Penzance.[43]
After Barre joined, the group did a few shows supporting Jimi Hendrix in Scandinavia,[46] then set out on an extensive tour of the US, supporting Led Zeppelin and Vanilla Fudge.[47] Having attracted a substantial live following, Ellis and Wright asked Anderson, who had become the dominant songwriter, to write a hit single. The result was "Living in the Past", which reached No. 3 in May on the UK singles chart and No. 11 in the US,[47] and resulted in an appearance on Top of the Pops. Although other so-called "serious" groups actively resisted issuing stand-alone singles at the time, Jethro Tull felt a hit single was a positive move for the group, if not their priority.[48]
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The next album was Stand Up, recorded during April–May and August 1969.[49] It was released in September, and quickly reached No. 1 in the UK charts, the only album by the group to do so. Anderson had now established himself as the group's leader and songwriter, and wrote all of the material, aside from his jazzy rearrangement of J. S. Bach's "Bourrée in E minor BWV 996 (fifth movement)".[48] The album cover unfolded to a photo insert of the band attached to the covers like a pop-up book.
Immediately after releasing Stand Up, the group set off on their first headlining tour in the US, including an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival.[50] Barre recalled, "It was really the turning point for Jethro Tull—for everything that we were to become and everything we were to inspire in others."[51] The band was invited to play in the Woodstock Festival, but Anderson declined, being afraid that the band would be permanently typecast as hippies, able to play only one musical style.[52]
On 29 January 1970 the band appeared on BBC's Top of the Pops again, performing "Witch's Promise".[53][54] Evan rejoined the band in early 1970. He had stayed in London since the John Evan Band broke up, living with Anderson, and began studying music at the University of London. The pair did not see much of each other because of Jethro Tull's increasing workload, and Evan was reluctant to rejoin because of his studies, which gave him access to a free studio.[55] He played as a session musician on the next album, Benefit (1970), following which Anderson said they needed somebody to play the keyboard parts on tour. His tutor eventually persuaded him that it was a good idea, and Evan formally joined.[56] The album reached No. 4 in the UK and No. 11 in the US,[57] and allowed the group to sell out 20,000-seat arenas, establishing themselves as a premier live act.[58] In August, the band played to one of their largest audiences at the 1970 Isle of Wight festival.[59]
The Isle of Wight appearance was followed by another US tour, following which Cornick left the band. He was keen to socialise on tour, while the other members became more reclusive and introverted.[60] Cornick said he was fired by Anderson,[61] while the band's official website said he was "invited to leave" by Ellis, but given full support and encouragement to form his own band.[60] Cornick subsequently formed Wild Turkey, a band which he revived for Jethro Tull fan conventions decades later. He died in August 2014.[62]
Anderson invited Jeffrey Hammond to replace Cornick, buying a new bass for this purpose.[63] However, Hammond had not played an instrument since going to art school shortly after his time in the John Evan Band, and was chosen more for his social compatibility with the other band members than for his musical skills.[61] This line-up recorded Aqualung in late 1970, releasing it in 1971. The album was split into two sides, subtitled 'Aqualung' and 'My God', and featured Anderson's opinions about organised religion.[64] Recording the album was problematic because of technical issues in the studio and Hammond's rusty musical skills. On "Locomotive Breath", Anderson recorded the backing track on his own, singing along to a hi-hat accompaniment, which the rest of the band recorded on top of later.[65] Despite Anderson's concerns that it may have been "too radical" compared with the band's previous albums, Aqualung was the first Jethro Tull album to reach the top ten in the US, peaking at No. 7.[57] It sold over one million copies, earning it a gold disc by the RIAA in July 1971.[66]
Because of the heavy touring schedule and his wish to spend more time with his family, drummer Bunker quit the group after the Aqualung album in May 1971,[67][68] and was replaced by Barrie Barlow, whom Anderson rechristened "Barriemore". Barlow had first recorded with the band for the five-track EP Life Is a Long Song.[67] Except for Barre, the line-up of Jethro Tull now consisted entirely of former John Evan Band members from Blackpool.[67]
Anderson had become annoyed with music critics calling Aqualung a concept album, which he did not intend it to be. On a "banter" track that accompanies the 2005 Aqualung Live album recorded for XM Satellite Radio, Anderson insisted, "I always said at the time, this is not a concept album. It's an album of varied songs...in which three or four are kind of the keynote pieces for the album, but it doesn't make it a concept album."
In response to the many critics who called Aqualung a concept album, Anderson decided to "come up with something that really is the mother of all concept albums".[69] He had become influenced by Monty Python's humour, and wrote a suite that combined complex musical ideas with a sense of humour to make fun of the band, its audience and its critics.[70] The album, released in 1972, became Thick as a Brick, which was co-credited to a fictional schoolboy, Gerald Bostock.[69] It consisted of a single track running over 43 minutes, split over two sides, which was uncommon for rock albums.[71] Although the finished album was a continuous piece of music, it was written and recorded in stages, with the whole band helping with the arrangements.[72] Thick as a Brick was the first Tull album to reach number one on the (US) Billboard Pop Albums chart[73] with the following year's A Passion Play being the only other to do so.