I'm going to see them on Monday, actually! Really hope we get Bunker and Abrahams, too.

I'd heard that some new material was premiered on the last tour and Ian Anderson claimed they were working on it, but anyway, I wasn't too wild about the last one they put out '.com'.

I like most of Tull's material, though the appeal of 'A Passion Play' is lost on me (I find it to be disastrously overegged, and I love 'Thick As A Brick') and some of their 80s stuff is decidedly dodgy too....but few rock legends avoided this in the 80s!

I too am a St Albans resident and I am going to see Jethro (the comedian) next weekend... there was some confusion at the box office

I'm currently doing the Locomotive Breath along the M4 most mornings. I've had a sort of Tull crisis, rediscovering how damn good they are, and working through the catalogue year by year.

Cross threading alert: lyrics don't get a lot better than Tull's:

When I was young and they packed me off to school
and taught me how not to play the game,
I didn't mind if they groomed me for success,
or if they said that I was a fool.
So I left there in the morning
with their God tucked underneath my arm --
their half-assed smiles and the book of rules.
So I asked this God a question
and by way of firm reply,
He said -- I'm not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays.
So to my old headmaster (and to anyone who cares):
before I'm through I'd like to say my prayers --
I don't believe you:
you had the whole damn thing all wrong --
He's not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays.
Well you can excommunicate me on my way to Sunday school
and have all the bishops harmonize these lines --
how do you dare tell me that I'm my Father's son
when that was just an accident of Birth.
I'd rather look around me -- compose a better song
`cos that's the honest measure of my worth.
In your pomp and all your glory you're a poorer man than me,
as you lick the boots of death born out of fear.
I don't believe you:
you had the whole damn thing all wrong --
He's not the kind you have to wind up on Sundays.

...is although some of their deviations haven't been to my taste, they are at least not formulaic. Ian Anderson has said that they were 'all things to all people'.

I've really tried with 'A Passion Play' but I can't find any memorable refrains or anything to latch onto. And don't get me started on that 'Hare That Lost His Spectacles' business...

I bought Songs from the Wood on spec about 15 years ago second-hand for £3. And then bought Aqualung the following week.
They really hit their straps with SFTW. When I bought the Decemberists' last album, The Crane Wife, during the second track I sat up and thought "Hang on a minute...that sounds familiar"
Maybe they are coming back in fashion...

Loved their early existence as a blues band and their earlier forays into a more rural whimsy. Bizarrely, just as Dave Pegg joined, much as I admire him, his bass playing and his dayjob of then (and now), so Tull went off and down in my estimation. That has not ever seemed to recover, but the new tour does sound promising. The duo of Aqualung and Locomotives Breath cannot be beaten within their catalogue, even if Living in the Past was my first ever purchase of a single.
Spent my relatively recent honeymoon* on Skye and his old house, Ian Andersons that is, has a fabulous fabulous location. Very envious.
*2 years.

like Chris Rea plays Dire straits. Weird on all counts.

...some of 'Crest Of A Knave' but yeah, 'Said She Was A Dancer' in particular just IS Dire Straits. 'Thick As A Brick' and 'Songs From The Wood' are my favourites.

Interestingly in the recent Mojo, Nick Cave, The Decemberists (indeed, the influence is clear IMHO) and Midlake all testify to the brilliance of Tull.

Sorry chaps, but I didb;t fight the Punk Rock Wars (TM) to watch some superannuated fopp play the flute whilst pirouetting. I arsk yer......I preferred the Enid (ahem).
ps wot no seed drill comments?

Neutral observer speaks up: but you clearly lost. How else could this blog exist?

...the 'Punk Rock Wars' were before my time and so mean nothing to me- I like some punk/post punk acts and can play them side by side with the prog bands. Who cares?

Never a great fan of The Enid, funnily enough. I can tolerate the first album but the rest of it I find to be grand fromage, so to speak...That kind of cod-classical stuff doesn't do it for me.

I loathe the Enid but a bloke in my old Scunnie local used to roadie for 'em.
And I was kindov being facetious viz a viz punk too - tho I still possess an inchoate and intuative hatred of the bombastic yet effete likes of the Tull, post-Gabriel Genesis and, oh yes, the phlegm de la phlegm, Rick F***in' Wakeman......

....that I like "Skating Away On The Thin Ice Of A New Day"?

indeed, David, and I'll think no less of you.
(Mutters sotto voice: Bluddy Tull fans; they;re everywhere)

and it was the wife's choice! Very lovely it was, too.

Ah, early days at uni. Saw the Tull at the Union in Manchester in autumn 68, bought the first album at Marshall's in Rusholme. Live they were excellent. Ian rubbished another blues band, calling them Stan Webb's Chicken Shit. People here mention Mick Abrahams but no mention of the mighty Blodwyn Pig? And does anyone else have problems singing the opening lyrics to Aqualung at inappropriate moments (are there any appropriate ones?)?

...he has rubbished, I seem to remember on a radio interview a few years ago he trashed them as 'chicken shit' AND Savoy Brown as Saveloy Brown!! Brilliant!

I have the two Blodwyn Pig albums; I seem to remember reading in Word years ago someone calling them 'hod-carrying prog rock' but they're better than that, whoever wrote that should hang their head in shame! ;) For someone who left the band because (allegedly) Abrahams wanted to stay doing the blues, this is far removed from a turgid boogie-rock album that did the rounds in the late 60s and early 70s (Aynsley Dunbar's Retaliation springs to mind!). Some elements of jazz and folk on there too.

Tull gig in a few hours, can't wait!

...from St Davids Hall and like you said, they were terrific. Performance was bang on the money. Nicely varied set and some comic turns from Ian Anderson with witty anecdotes and digs at targets ranging from Monika Lewinsky through to The Eagles.

No older members did a turn; we had some local band who Ian selected with a helping hand from Radio Wales. They were pleasant enough, and Ian and Doane Perry did a few songs with them, but I can't remember much about them...Main event was well worth it.

I was 15 - 16 in the late 70's and had a denim jacket with the line drawing of IA from the FU best of Tull album painted onto the back in white paint. On thinking back it was a wonder I didn't get attacked by marauding punks for sporting a 'fopp of a flute player'.
Strangely I haven't given Tull much thought or a listen to in years - just checked ipod and don't even have any tracks but I know there is a least one CD in a dusty corner so will have to brush off those cobwebs and remember some good music from ny youth.

Skating away..... is the finest of Tull songs and War Child from which it came is my favourite album.
The following one was pretty good too but cant remember the name (it was a bit of concept album if i recall).

I never owned anything by them but my older brother had Aqualung and when I was about 10 I read the bit on the cover about "In the beginning Man created God" . Catholic education overthrown in an instant, lifetime of doubt/unbelief etc set in train. How many can claim that?
I liked the album too- My God and Wind Up were fairly convincing supporting arguements for the abovementioned polemic. Plus, of course, some pretty shorter things like Wondring Aloud.

this band, for some reason has always done it for me (and I talk as one who fought the "punk wars" too). Maybe it was seeing them on TOTP in 1970 doing Witches Promise with Ian Anderson gurning like a complete madman that triggered something. Anyway, no matter how many times I have tried to distance myself from them, (and there has been many an occasion when I have not dared to mentioned them in polite company)I always seem to place Stand Up in my all time favourite album list. If the truth be told, it probably tops the damn thing.