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Jethro Tull

Jethro Tull

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Jethro Tull: Thick As A Brick

Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, August 1972

JETHRO TULL's admirers are wont to believe that the lads are an inventive, entertaining, eminently witty, oft profound rock group, with a propensity for satire ...

Jethro Tull On The Road

Interview by Ira Robbins, Circus, 20 January 1976

"JETHRO RETIRE HURT!" blared the headline in a major British magazine just over two years ago, when a spokesman for the group announced an "indefinite" ...

Audio interviews

Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson (1988)

Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages audio, August 1988

The Tull front-man, in Italy to play a TV show, on performing live; the economics of salmon farming on the Skye; his relationship with Chrysalis Records; still being on the road after all these years; not socialising with other musicians; his time in tax exile, and taking part in The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus.

File format: mp3; file size: 70.4mb, interview length: 1h 13' 21" sound quality: ***

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8th National Jazz & Blues Festival: Lazy Sunbury Afternoon...

Live Review by Derek Boltwood, Record Mirror, 17 August 1968

PLAGUED BY DISASTER AND COUNTLESS SETBACKS, THE SUNBURY FESTIVAL PRESENTED SOME OF THE BEST MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENT EVER SEEN. RM WAS THERE. ...

Jethro Tull: This Was (Island Stereo Ilps 9085.)

Review by uncredited writer, Record Mirror, 16 November 1968

JETHRO TULL LP SETS FANS ON FIRE ...

The Rolling Stones: Rock and Roll Circus

Report by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 21 December 1968

IT WAS a group fan's dream, when the giants of pop held a three hour jam session, while rehearsing for the Rolling Stones' Rock And ...

Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jethro Tull, Sanpaku: Fillmore West, San Francisco CA

Live Review by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 14 March 1969

Creedence Playing Better Than Ever ...

Now Jethro Tull Aim For The Pop Thirty

Interview by Royston Eldridge, Melody Maker, 10 May 1969

UNDERGROUND GROUPS as a rule aren't concerned about the singles charts. ...

Why It's Wrong To Judge Jethro Tull By Looks

Report and Interview by David Hughes, Disc and Music Echo, 14 June 1969

HEREWITH A MESSAGE to all dubious parents who are still of the opinion that every hairy and strangely attired pop group — like the one ...

Newport Jazz Festival 1969: New Records & Not All That Jazz

Live Review by Ian Dove, Billboard, 19 July 1969

NEWPORT, R.I. — On paper at least the experiment of adding rock music to the Newport Jazz Festival 1969 came from the purest of motives. ...

Jethro Tull: Stand Up (Island I LPS 9103)

Review by Mark Williams, International Times, 15 August 1969

SOME CLEVER bastard is going to remark that the cover is the best part of this album, which would be a drag for him. Nevertheless ...

Ian Anderson Wrote Music For Next Tull Album On U.S. Tour

Interview by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 6 September 1969

MOST GROUP members, when they visit America, spend all their spare time looning about clubs and generally having a rare old time. Not so Ian ...

Jethro Tull: "The Only Thing We Have In Common Is Our Music"

Interview by David Hughes, Disc and Music Echo, 8 November 1969

IT'S QUITE possible that John Peel — let's face it, the creator of Britain's underground scene — does not like Jethro Tull. John was praising ...

Jethro Tull, MC5: Fillmore West, San Francisco CA

Live Review by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 21 November 1969

Good Music and Giggling Foolishness ...

Ian Anderson

Interview by uncredited writer, ZigZag, December 1969

Vitamin C tablets are sold in dark glass bottles because exposure to light weakens their effectiveness, oranges with their high vitamin C content are more ...

Jethro Tull

Interview by uncredited writer, Beat Instrumental, December 1969

We need you too Jethro Tull! ...

Keith Richard on Mick, Beatles, Led, Faith, Tull, Gees

Interview by Ritchie Yorke, New Musical Express, 6 December 1969

THE NEWS that the Rolling Stones have resumed personal appearances must have gladdened the hearts of pop fans everywhere. The Stones always were the most ...

Jethro Tull: Fillmore East, New York NY

Live Review by Mike Jahn, The New York Times, 8 December 1969

JETHRO TULL FOUR AT FILLMORE EASTFlute and Vocals Mainstay of British Rock Croup ...

Jethro Tull

Interview by uncredited writer, Beat Instrumental, February 1970

"WHERE shall I start?" asked Jethro Tull's singer-man. ...

The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus

Report by David Dalton, Rolling Stone, 19 March 1970

The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus was an entertainment extravaganza planned and put on by the Rolling Stones in December 1968. Originally done as ...

Jethro Tull: He's Embarrassed and Great

Interview by Mike Gormley, Detroit Free Press, 5 June 1970

ALL THE hoopla about Jethro Tull, including stories in Life, Time, Jazz & Pop and other influential magazines, is justified. Jethro Tull is the best ...

Jethro Tull: A Subtle Acceptance

Interview by Jacoba Atlas, Circus, July 1970

A LITTLE OVER a year ago, Jethro Tull made their first appearance in America. The result was slightly less than overwhelming. No fanfares went up, ...

Jethro Tull: Ian Anderson Tulling It Like It Is

Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 26 September 1970

"THEY SAY I don't stand on one leg as much as I used to." Ian Anderson stretched out on a sofa and gazed quizzically at ...

Jethro Tull: Ian Anderson, in it for the Birds

Interview by Andrew Bailey, Rolling Stone, 2 December 1970

LONDON — "The name? Well, we hadn't got one and we were asking around and this university-educated agent suggested Jethro Tull. I'd never heard it ...

Jethro Tull in the Studio

Report by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, February 1971

SOMEWHERE IN London stands a black-painted church building with its innards ripped out and carefully replaced with all that modern interior decorating can offer. Inside ...

Jethro Tull: God Is Alive and Starring On…

Interview by Keith Altham, Record Mirror, 27 March 1971

AQUALUNG is undoubtedly Jethro Tull's most significant album to date and although comparisons are often odious to the artist concerned, the highest compliment I feel ...

Jethro Tull: Aqualung

Review by Jon Tiven, Fusion, 23 July 1971

TOUCHÉ, Jesus Christ Superstar (the non-statement rock opera of the year), here's a religious message with a bit more balls and a lot more talent ...

The Rise And Fall Of God As Told By Ian Anderson

Interview by Vernon Gibbs, Circus, August 1971

THE LATEST from Jethro Tull is as all the other albums were, mainly, the product of the hyperactive mind of leader Ian Anderson. Who is ...

Jethro Tull: Ian Anderson Is No Rock Hitler

Interview by Keith Altham, Record Mirror, 18 September 1971

THAT BEARDED prankster Ian Anderson is amongst us once more with his reshuffled ensemble now featuring Barrie-More Barlow on percussion in place of Clive Bunker ...

Jethro Tull: The Forum, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Jonh Ingham, Creem, October 1971

Rock As Electric Wallpaper ...

Jethro Tull: Rocking In The USA

Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 16 October 1971

This week, Jethro Tull flew out to start their eleventh tour of America. Like other top British Rock acts, they are reaping the rich rewards ...

Jethro Tull: Thick As A Brick (Chrysalis)

Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 11 March 1972

AS THE album is already brilliantly reviewed on the elaborately produced sleeve, there is hardly any point in adding our own comments. ...

Jethro Tull: Thick As A Brick

Review by John Swenson, Crawdaddy!, August 1972

THE NEW Tull package is clever, very, and complicated enough to sustain interest over an extended series of listenings. Most albums can be assimilated in ...

The Government and Alice Cooper’s Panties

Report by John Mendelsohn, Disc, Summer 1972

WOTTA week it’s been here in Hollywood, guys and gals, what with each and every day virtually splitting its trousers with grand and glamorous events, ...

Jethro Tull: Crime of Passion

Live Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 30 June 1973

IT BEGAN TO OCCUR to me that this was very poor music indeed. ...

Jethro Tull: Wembley Arena

Live Review by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 30 June 1973

I REMEMBER THE TIME when you could hum along to a Jethro Tull tune. I even remember the time you could hum along to a ...

Jethro Tull: A Passion Play

Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 21 July 1973

IT GIVES ME NO pleasure to report upon this recording. In fact I cannot recall an album by a British rock band that has given ...

Jethro Tull: Can 72,000 Fans Be Wrong?

Report by Loraine Alterman, Melody Maker, 4 August 1973

I DON'T KNOW how it is in England, but in this country the minute you get too big, too powerful, people start gunning for you. ...

Jethro Tull: Why Tull Called It A Day

Report by Rob Partridge, Melody Maker, 1 September 1973

JETHRO TULL's manager Terry Ellis this week accused rock critics of "taking advantage of their unassailable position to be abusive." ...

Jethro Tull, Livingston Taylor: Madison Square Garden, New York NY

Live Review by Dan Nooger, The Village Voice, 6 September 1973

WHERE THERE'S SMOKE ...

Jethro Tull: The House That Jethro Built

Comment by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 22 September 1973

IT NOW SEEMS rather incongruous to think back on Jethro Tull as veterans of the Great 1968 Blues Boom, right out of the same scene ...

Jethro Tull: Usher Hall, Edinburgh

Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 16 November 1974

RISE SIR Ian of Flute, for thou hast indeed redeemed thyself. The critics have had their way, the Passion Play has been forgotten and Jethro ...

Tull on top: Ian Anderson Speaks His Mind

Interview by Judith Sims, Rolling Stone, 27 March 1975

LOS ANGELES — Ian Anderson, leader of Jethro Tull, did not seem pleased, even though his group had just broken all attendance records at the ...

Jethro Tull invade America with a vengeance

Interview by Ron Ross, Circus Raves, May 1975

WHILE A bizarrely costumed quartet of musical madmen generated waves of sonic splendour, Ian Anderson scowled at his congregation of fans and hopped about like ...

Jethro Tull: Minstrel In The Gallery

Review by Barbara Charone, Sounds, 13 September 1975

A NEW Jethro Tull album is not the most exciting release in the world these days: not the type of record to force its way ...

The Jethro Tull Story

Interview by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, 27 September 1975

"I want to justify the place on my passport where it says 'Occupation: musician'. I feel that I've not yet really justified that" Harry Doherty ...

Jethro Tull: A 'Minstrel' Bares His Soul

Interview by Steven Rosen, Circus Raves, November 1975

IAN ANDERSON IS twenty-eight years old today, a fact which pleases him none too greatly. The face is no betrayal of age; long and thin, ...

Jethro Tull: An Interview with Ian Anderson

Interview by Steven Rosen, Circus, 9 December 1975

IAN ANDERSON is not fond of the press; in fact, he dislikes that body intensely. Interviews have misquoted him, misrepresented him and manhandled him. In ...

Jethro Tull: Too Old To Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young To Die! (Chrysalis)

Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 1 May 1976

ROMANTICISING THE WORKING LAD as a cult hero is a popular theme with rock musicians. They have oft flirted with, or observed at close hand, ...

Jethro Tull: Too Old To Rock 'N' Roll: Too Young To Die

Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 8 May 1976

ON A quick perusal of the field I reckon Ian Anderson is the most articulate rocker I've ever encountered. In fact hearing him talk is ...

Jethro Tull: So Who's Too Old To Rock?

Interview by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, 15 May 1976

. . . certainly not Tull's Ian Anderson, who tells Harry Doherty that change keeps him going. ...

Jethro Tull: Too Old To Rock And Roll, Too Young To Die

Film/DVD/TV Review by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, 24 July 1976

Dull Tull's big mistake ...

10cc, Genesis, Fleetwood Mac, ELO et al: Split Ends

Overview by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, 4 December 1976

SOME come, others go, but the name lives on for ever...10cc set no precedent by splitting in half last week, but the decision by Graham ...

Jethro Tull: Songs From The Wood (Chrysalis)

Review by Chas de Whalley, Sounds, 5 February 1977

IF YOU PLAY this album at 45 rpm it sounds just like Steeleye Span. ...

Jethro Tull: City Hall, Newcastle

Live Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 12 February 1977

YOU KNOW how supergroups are supposed to open the show with the '1812 Overture' complete with real facsimile nineteenth-century Muscovite cannon and a battallion of ...

Jethro Tull: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Pete Makowski, Sounds, 19 February 1977

IT'S STRANGE, but up until Sunday night at the Hammersmith Odeon, Jethro Tull had been an anonymous quantity in my musical catalogue. ...

Rock Stars Talk Back

Comment by Susan Whitall, Creem, May 1977

Dozens listen. ...

Jethro Tull: New Wave From An Old Hand

Interview by Pete Makowski, Sounds, 18 June 1977

OII!!!!! EVEN IF YOU THINK JETHRO TULL ARE JUST A BUNCH OF ARTHRITIC CLAPPED OUT OLDTIMERS, COP A READ OF THIS, YOU MIGHT EVEN FIND ...

Ian Anderson: A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Squire

Profile and Interview by Simon Frith, Creem, June 1978

IAN ANDERSON rules OK. For an hour I've been waiting in the foyer, talking to his manager, his wife, watching his employees bustle about. It's ...

Jethro Tull: Heavy Horses (Chrysalis)

Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, July 1978

CRIPES, NOT another Jethro Toenail record! WHY? Seems like only yesteryear that Lezter Brainz wuz comparing their bo-de-o-dos to 'Nam folk chants and Air-Wreck wuz ...

Jethro Tull: Live – Bursting Out

Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 30 September 1978

SECRETIVE lot, Jethro Tull. This "live" double set was NOT recorded at Harold Rumsey's Lighthouse, nor at the Manor, nor on Ronnie Lane's mobile, but ...

Jethro Tull: Tull-evision

Report and Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 14 October 1978

On Monday night, Jethro Tull became the first rock group to appear live from America on British TV. CHRIS WELCH sat in the control booth ...

Ian Anderson: Walk Into Light (Chrysalis)

Review by Jeffrey Morgan, Creem, April 1984

STOP ME IF you've heard this one before, but you really do gotta watch out for these guys who insist on releasing debut solo albums ...

Jethro Tull: Wrapped Up Tight

Interview by Phil Bell, Sounds, 15 September 1984

THE SMELL of success? For this interview, not the thin atmosphere of air-conditioned record company offices, nor the sterile tang of a posh hotel suite. ...

Jethro Tull: Phew! Rocke’n’Rolle!

Profile and Interview by Mat Snow, Q, September 1988

For 20 long years Jethro Tull have peddled their hoary riffs and uniquely rustic folklore, ever clad in sturdy items from the winter wardrobe. They ...

Interview: Island Records' Chris Blackwell (1989) [transcript]

Audio transcript of interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 1989

This is a transcript of John Tobler's 1989 audio interview. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...

Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson on Aqualung

Book Excerpt by John Pidgeon, Classic Albums (BBC Books), 1991

Aqualung was Jethro Tull's fourth album since the group first gained attention with 'Song For Jeffrey' in 1968. Further hit singles had followed in the ...

Jethro Tull: Roots Before Branches (Chrysalis)

Review by Stuart Maconie, Q, October 1995

Flutes in rock. Hmmm. Thijs Van Leer of Focus. Does James Galway's epochal rendition of Annie's Song count? It's really just Ian Anderson, isn't it ...

Jethro Tull: Roots To Branches

Review and Interview by Colin Harper, MOJO, October 1995

ONE CAN NEVER SPEAK with confidence for the entirety of Jethro Tull's following — and certainly not for the Ian-is-God element — but speaking as ...

"Radically Festive": The Rolling Stones' Rock and Roll Circus

Retrospective and Interview by Mat Snow, MOJO, November 1996

On December 10, 1968, some of the most exciting talent in rock history gathered for an event all the more legendary for having been quietly ...

Jethro Tull: Bursting Out/Stormwatch/A (EMI)

Review by Colin Harper, Record Collector, March 2004

Yet more remasters from 1978-80 ...

An Interview with Ian Anderson

Interview by Johnny Black, Classic Rock, December 2011

CR: When you started, there were virtually no flute players in rock music. What inspired you to take it up? ...

In The Mood: The Favourite Albums Of Rush's Geddy Lee

Guide by Mick Middles, The Quietus, 29 June 2012

Mick Middles speaks to Rush bassist and singer Geddy Lee about his favourite albums of all times... and finds surprises amidst the classic of the ...

Ian Anderson: "The delight in making music is that you don't have a formula…"

Interview by Carl Wiser, Songfacts, 11 April 2013

IN 1972, JETHRO TULL released Thick As A Brick, an entire album comprised of one song. Critics hated it. "You can listen to it, but ...

The Fast-Moving Mind (and Mouth) of Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson

Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 2 July 2014

IT SEEMS THAT Gerald Bostock, the noted writer and lyricist, is at it again. ...

see also Ian Anderson

see also Blodwyn Pig

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