Entertainment For Lively Minds
Thick As A Brick
Posted by Colin H on 2 September 2011 - 4:23pm.
Thought the Massive might like a heads up on this.
Ian Anderson + band (ie not going out as Jethro Tull as such) will be touring TAAB in its entirety (first time since 1972) in the UK in April/May 2011. I'm sure all the info will be online soon.
I know, I know - we haven't even had Aqualung 40th deluxe edition yet and already next year's 40th (TAAB) is ramping up.... Great!
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Jethro Tull
Saw them last year, really enjoyable concert.
April/May
2012 surely ???
Here you go: The band will
Here you go:
The band will comprise of:
Ian Anderson - Vocals, flute & guitar
John O'Hara - Keyboards and accordion
David Goodier - Bass guitar
Florian Opahle - Guitar
Scott Hammond - Drums and percussion
Dates
April
14 Concert Hall, Perth
15 Theatre Royal, Glasgow
17 City Hall Newcastle
18 Philharmonic, Liverpool
19 City Hall, Sheffield
20 St George's Hall, Blackburn
21 Royal Hall, Harrogate
22 Opera House, Manchester
24 Assembly Rooms, Derby
25 Regent Theatre, Ipswich
27 Hammersmith Apollo, London
28 Colston Hall, Bristol
29 The Swan Theatre, High Wycombe
30 Symphony Hall, Birmingham
.
May
2 Apollo, Oxford
3 Hexagon, Reading
4 G Live, Guildford
5 St David's Hall, Cardiff
6 Guildhall, Southampton
Tickets can be preordered from Ents24. Looks tip top tho I shall miss Martin Barre!
no
Martin 'Lancelot' Barre, I'll pass, Planet Rock had this up on Monday, but I didn't think anyone would be interested [insert sad smiley], yes, drink has been taken
To clarify...
...yes, Exciteable: 2012. (I was in a hurry, I made mistakes...)
I've said before around here that I feel Ian's voice just isn't up to it any more (musically he's as great as ever - I wish he'd hire a singer capable of fronting the songs these days, and stick at being flautist/guitarist/MD: there's no shame in it!). So... Iwon't be at the shows myself but I look forward to the inevitable Steven Wilson TAAB remix!
yes
And if you look at the dates it`s not going to get much rest! Pretty intense schedule!
Indeed
Did you ever see this footage (I posted it before) with the Tull tribute band guy guesting with the Tull? Apparently IA said he was so convincing maybe they could do a gig on gig off arrangement to give him a rest! He hasn't really got the performance side off - he was probably terrified, but what a blast for the guy!
Terrific stuff Twang...
...I must have missed your previous posting somehow! Ian needs to hire this chap to front his TAAB tour!
Indeed
And all credit to Ian for even allowing it!
Steven Wilson remix official
Steven Wilson has completed side one of TAAB and delivery it to Ian for approval. See little video here
http://www.progrocks.co.uk/progrocks/Exclusive-Video/
Just goes to show...
...THEY did it as a spoof - "I" think it's brilliant. Whatever IA says, it will remain great to me, even though I long ago gave up trying to add any meaning to it lyrically.
As for the gigs, I love JT, but I agree that, having seen them on the 30th anniversay tour, the voice has just gone too far. Sad, but that's life. I enjoyed the gig, but it was my head enjoying it, not my heart.
Stormwatch - Dark Ages
Ive just been enjoying rediscovering Stormwatch and the lyrics of "DarK ages" struck me as highly prescient given that they were written in the late 70s!
Darlings are you ready for the long winter's fall?
said the lady in her parlor
said the butler in the hall.
Is there time for another?
cried the drunkard in his sleep.
Not likely
said the little child. What's done
the Lord can keep.
And the vicar stands a-praying.
And the television dies
as the white dot flickers and is gone
and no-one stops to cry.
The big jet rumbles over runway miles
that scar the patchwork green
where slick tycoons and rich buffoons
have opened up the seam
of golden nights and champagne flights
ad-man overkill
and in the haze
consumer crazed
we take the sugar pill.
Jagged fires mark the picket lines
the politicians weep
and mealy-mouthed
through corridors of power on tip-toe creep.
Come and see bureaucracy
make its final heave
and let the new disorder through
while senses take their leave.
Families screaming line the streets
and put the windows through
in corner shops
where keepers kept
the country's life-blood blue.
Take their pick
and try the trick
with loaves and fishes shared
and the vicar shouts
as the lights go out,
and no-one really cares.
Dark Ages
shaking the dead
Closed pages
better not read
Cold rages
burn in your head.
Needing little excuse to do so...
...let's see a lovingly crafted reconstruction - using 8mm and some TV documentary material I believe - of a full version of 'Dark Ages' from the 1979 tour (the last one involving the 'classic line-up' - or, at least, the last one of the 3 'classic line-ups'!):
I'll see your Dark Ages (see what I did there...)
And raise you a bonkers "Dun Ringill"
Hi Twang
I well remember buying this on vinyl - 78 or 79? Last one with poor old John Glascock on bass (I was still at school - *sigh*). The spoken forecast on Dun Ringill and the shipping forecast on North sea Oil, perhaps Francis Wilson's finest hour.
The late John Glascock
or "old brittle dick" as Anderson used to announce him onstage.
He died due to complications from toothache, you know.
He did
but it was a dodgy ticker at the 'root' of it as i recall. Very sad.
Brittledick
I think there was a lifestyle dimension to it too. The double casualty was that Barrie Barlow quit the day before Glascock died, intending to form a band with him, depriving the Tull of their best drummer. I thought he was terrific.
Agreed!
At the time I thought his drumming on 'Live Bursting Out' was incendiary. Didn't do much after he left Tull did he?
Hi Colin,
any further insider news on the James Griffin re-issues?
Yes indeed Vulpmeister...
...it's in the works: the two albums (for one CD) are mastered and sounding great; James' writing partner Robb Royer has contributed some pics for the booklet; Peter Doggett has written a terrific sleevenote... I think the label is just waiting to make contact out of courtesy with James' widow (after some communication issues) and to source a good cover pic. I imagine Alex Smee might be designing the booklet.
Classic album
but not sure he can still carry it off vocally - and why not do the shows with Tull rather than this band?
I agree
I was really disappointed that it's not with the Tull. Ian's voice can probably just get through it but I'm disappointed that Martin Barre et al won't be playing. The new guitarist looks like a good player, but in the words of a YouTube post, "this guy ain't Martin Barre, he's just a shredder".
(My) God
That is good isn't it. I love the Tull.
But the thing about Barre these days...
...is that he just doesn't seem to play high enough ijn the mix (I've always had the impression though that the whole band are mixed live on one 'plane' while Ian's voice is boosted to a rather artificial plane above that to compensate for its weakness these days).
Here's the band doing more or less the same extract of TAAB
as they did in the 1978 clip above, but 30 years later (2008). The guys on keyboard and bass (and doesn't a 6 string bass look ugly?) will be in the 2012 solo tour band.You can barely hear Martin Barre. Maybe he's just lost interest?
Hope you don't mind
but I'll sit this one out, if that's what your singing's like these days.
Surely that's the fault of the mixing "engineer" Colin..
(I use the term loosely, what with some of the tin-eared wazzocks who've sabotaged me over the years)
I think it's got more to do with the equipment and tone Barre is using these days.
A Les Paul, Marshall and limited gain will let you cut through the mix, no matter wat the engineer is up to out front.
Happy to take your word for it, Shane...
...though (from personal experience of several 80s-00s JT shows) Martin B does often seem to be a tad lower in the mix than one would expect from this kind of act. That particular clip is though an extreme case.
Gerald Bostock will also be a no show
If there's any justice they will stop the show halfway through for the news and weather, and the stage will be invaded by bunnies and gorillas
I'm still mulling over this one
Yes Ian's voice is not as strong as in the days of yore. But he makes up for it through sheer charisma and onstage presence. His audience banter, humour, personal projection and, of course, faultless flute playing are what make him a thoroughly entertaining act to see live, as I witnessed at the recent High Voltage festival.
But at the end of the day, I'd probably rather see TAAB done by the band too.
Completely agree
about Ian Anderson's charisma and stage presence. I saw Tull in March and they were truly terrific. I didn't actually think Ian A's voice was that bad or perhaps the band's brilliance covered any flaws.
Martin Barre
Well I saw Tull a couple of years ago and MB was absolutely on fire. But he does a lot of other side projects so maybe he's not available?
Bunnies, telephone calls, Super 8 film...
...remember it this way!
There's a chap on youtube who has done a marvellous job of rescuing bits of 8mm fan-shot film from the Tull 'dark ages' of 1972-75 and syncing them with live audio from the same tours. He has a terrific clip of part of TAAB created from two US shows (video) and one US show (audio) which I'll post below. He's also done a splendid job of combining bits of film, Anderson interview, stills etc in a 'TAAB' mini-doc, part one of which is here. Hats off, then, to the madman known as 'TullTapes':
Dead good
That. The interview comes from the TAAB remaster. It's cut to sound like and interview with Ian, Martin and Geoffrey but if you lsten the Ian one has been cut into the other. Interesting though. It makes you realise what a great performer IA was back then!
And here's that live 1972 bit of restoration...
...I mentioned above. (Though I was wrong to credit this to the TullTapes - it's another madman to whom we must be grateful: this one going under the name UnderWraps2)
I *heart* Jethro Tull
but the JT that recorded Thick As A Brick and then toured it, not the pretend band touring it next year. The recent clip above has convinced me that I would be sad and frustrated if I saw them now. Sad because Ian's voice is no longer in there and frustrated because one-syllable words are suddenly becoming two-syllable. I would rather he spoke the lyrics in a Leonard Cohen style than get lost in the mix.
I know what you're saying, 57Varietiesmeister...
...but wouldn't it be terrific if the (presumed - and hinted at in recent IA interviews) TAAB Steven Wilson remix/deluxe release featured some of these fan-curated 8mm restorations above. They're tremendously atmospheric, aren't they?
High Wycombe
I'll be going to HW with a few friends but would be happy to meet up with any of the massive in attendance. Just message me.
I saw the guitarist play with Greg Lake - he's more than competent but needs to rein in his virtuosity.
I know Ian hasn't been hitting thr notes for a few years, but IT'S THICK AS A BRICK!!!!! A must go event.
HW
I'm thinking about going to High Wycombe rather than horrible London. I'll let you know. As you say, it's TAAB!
Oops
...thought this was the Celebrity Mastermind thread.
this reminds me of discussions abourt another artist
zimmerman r
imagine if he started doing total album shows ?
I hear he's doing the whole of..
"Knocked Out Loaded" this year.
But how...
...will anyone know?
he can play brownsville girl all night
fine by me
Baskerville and Rocker
This is the Tull board I told you about. Scarily obsessive!
http://thejethrotullboard.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=d...
Details of Martin Barre does Tull gigs:
Two UK shows are now on sale:
April 21st. The Borderline London
April 22nd. The Wharf Tavistock Devon
These shows will be showcase gigs for "New Day " featuring the music of Jethro Tull.
The band will be : Martin Barre..guitar;Pat O'may..guitar/vocals;John Mitchell (It Bites)..vocals/guitar
Frank Mead (Procul Harum)..flute/sax./harmonica/vocals;Fred Moreau..drums.
Read more: http://thejethrotullboard.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=mbtour&action=di...
thanks buddy
some interesting stuff on there, including the photos of the High Voltage festival which we attended last year. But I'll proably give these shows a miss. For me its got to be JT together.
7th January
Isn't that the date on the newspaper album cover. It was 40 years ago today............
TAAB essay
Excellent essay on TAAB here
http://www.ibiblio.org/johncovach/jethrotull.htm