“It was love at first listen” – Aqualung and me. ROSS JENNINGS (HAKEN)

“Iwas just 14 when comic actor Owen Wilson, in a scene from Michael Bay’s 1998 blockbuster movie Armageddon, joked, ‘I’ll tell you one thing that really drives me nuts is people that think that Jethro Tull is just a person in the band’… only to be given the reply, ‘Who is Jethro Tull?’

“My knowledge and interest in rock music beyond Aerosmith had long matured by then, but Tull were not a band I was familiar with yet. From what I could tell at the time, Aqualung was generally regarded as the entry point record for anyone who dared explore the world of Tull. Most never look back and, after some back catalogue digging, this was also to be my fate!

“Aqualung was love at first listen, and came to me at a very influential period of my life when I was discovering many legendary prog rock bands and albums. It’s rich in variety, which makes it progressive yet still strong in its blues influences, which I absolutely adore and probably why it’s so widely accessible. The album contains some of Tull’s most memorable tunes in my opinion, and it also proved quite boldly that the flute can rock too!

“Fast-forward 20 years from that ill-fated asteroid movie experience, and I happened to catch both Locomotive Breath and the title track performed by Martin Barre and his band on Cruise To The Edge; a reminder just how special that record actually is to me. The icing on the cake was meeting Martin briefly as we exited the ship, and discovering what an absolute gentleman he is! Whoever said never meet your heroes was wrong in his case!”