It’s 50 years and counting for Jethro Tull
Jethro Tull made its live debut at the legendary Marquee Club in London on Feb. 2, 1968.
That was the start of one of the most successful — and most unusual — music careers of the era, as flute-playing rocker Ian Anderson led his band (named after an 18th-century agriculturist) to worldwide album sales of more than 60 million. Anderson is out on the road celebrating the 50th anniversary of Jethro Tull with a tour that touches down Saturday at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley. Showtime is 8 p.m. and tickets are $45-$115; www. ticketmaster.com.
He’ll be accompanied by bassist David Goodier and keyboardist John O’Hara, both former Jethro Tull members, as well as guitarist Florian Opahle, drummer Scott Hammond and “surprise virtual guests,” whatever that might mean.
It’s always fun to talk with Anderson, who never fails to entertain and enlighten in conversation. Thus, I was able happy to catch up with him again for a preview of this tour. Q
Hi, Ian. Thanks for once again taking the time to talk with me. I’m curious to know your feelings about celebrating a half-century of Jethro Tull. A
Fifty years ago, as a schoolboy, I grew up with an interest in music. And it mostly had to do with the music played by old men. It was blues. It was jazz. My whole teenage period of growing awareness and involvement in music was based on this idea that somehow the things I liked, they weren’t being played by people of my age or a few years older, it was stuff by old guys. That was a given in my life — that music was a career. It was something that hopefully, if you had any success, you would want to continue with and you’d go on until you were 50, 60, 70, 80 years old. Q That’s certainly the case these days. A We do live in an age now where it’s not unusual for bands to celebrate, or artists to celebrate, their 50th anniversary. For perhaps that reason, I wasn’t overly enamored by the idea of doing some nostalgic celebration or 50th anniversary touring or concerts or record releases or whatever this time last year. But, shortly afterwards when I started thinking about what I am going to be doing in 2018 and we are getting offers for doing concerts in different parts of the world, I had to weigh up what was the best way of doing it.
So, I came up with a few ideas. The record companies came up with a few ideas. I listened to some of the ideas that were coming back from the media and fans. Then I began to get more enthusiastic about it, because it was a bit of a challenge to try and find a way to celebrate the 50th anniversary without it becoming mawkish sentimentality, which I’m not very good at. Q What can you tell me about the show? Does it take a retrospective approach? Is it straight up greatest hits? A It follows a temporal, logical sense. We start off with two or three pieces from the very first Jethro Tull album, from our very earliest days of playing together in 1968 — from January 1968. The show as a whole focuses mainly on the first 10 years of Jethro Tull, because, particularly in the U.K. and the USA, our audiences are fairly mature. We don’t have that many young fans, compared to some other countries. For that reason, I suppose most of the people who are familiar with Jethro Tull
will have come to know about Jethro Tull during, broadly speaking, the ’70s.
That’s the time that, for them I suppose, is the greatest significance of (our songbook). And there’s plenty of material to choose from, to make up a two-hour show. It’s not exclusively the ’70s, but most of it is.
Q
Sounds like a fun way to celebrate the 50th anniversary.
A
The nature of playing that music isn’t about turning the clock back for me as a musician, because many of those songs, of course, I perform regularly
anyway. It’s not about some little nostalgic (feeling). It’s hard to be nostalgic about something you just played 24 hours before, the last time you were onstage.
Most of the music in the show, I’m so familiar with playing over the years that it doesn’t feel like I’m revisiting times gone by.
It’s the repertoire that I delve into and out of in picking set lists for any tour, anytime, anywhere. But there are several songs in this show that I haven’t played for a long time — and one or two that I have never played live onstage at all. Q
That’s cool. Should be a good mix.
A
Some of the songs, people will be quite familiar with and there will be quite a few where they will scratch their heads and say, “What album was that from? I don’t remember that one?”
Try this Sample
Like most people, David Sample was greatly saddened and moved by the tragic mass shooting that occurred on Valentine’s Day at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.
So moved, in fact, that the South Bay singer-songwriter has decided to turn his album “Life’s Lessons” into a fundraising tool for Orange Ribbons for Jaime, a nonprofit that was named in memory of Jaime Guttenberg, one of 17 people killed during that senseless massacre.
Sample says that he will give 90 percent of his album sales (post tax) to the organization, which, according to its GoFundMe page, supports “causes important to Jaime in life, but also causes that will deal with why her life was cut short. “
That translates, in part, to supporting “organizations that deal with the causes of violence in schools and other public facilities and on how to limit casualties associated with the violence.”
For more information on Orange Ribbons for Jaime, go to www.gofundme.com/OrangeRibbonsForJaime.
“Life’s Lessons,” an album that features blues, gospel and other styles, can be purchased through CD Baby, iTunes and other retailers.