Tull News June 2003

All this, of course, in the wake of four months of songwriting, recording and mixing two new albums for release this year.

Bang on schedule, I completed the artwork for the Tull album and my solo record two days before departure for the Sweden Rock Festival, having approved the audio production masters earlier in thee week. What a clever and punctual lad.

Rupi’s Dance – for that is the name of the next Ian Anderson solo album – and The Jethro Tull Christmas Album are now ready to roll. Mid-August for Rupi’s Dance and late October for Tull.

The Christmas Record

Some might venture that the Tull record is not really a new Tull record at all but a quaint and slightly silly Christmassy, fluffy bit of tinsel to cash in on the seasonal market. In fact, I am really pleased with what was one of the most difficult musical challenges to overcome – original and reworked material of musical integrity but with an up-beat and Tull-flavoured nod to the Christmas festive fling.

If you liked Bouree and Songs From The Wood, you will love this record. Acoustic-ish Folk/Jazz feel and excellent solo performances from various band members. Apart from the usual guys, there are guest appearances from David Pegg and James Duncan to round things out.

Martin's New Solo Album: "Stage Left"

My solo record will be accompanied in the market place by Martin Barre’s new solo record, "Stage Left," which contains mainly instrumental pieces of his own devising. Featuring Jonathan Noyce and Andrew Giddings from Tull as well as other guests, it offers Martin a feast of instrumental choices to include in the Tull set as his guitar work-out. Check out the preview which includes music samples.

Tour News

The current Euro-tour just embarked upon sees the unveiling in live concert of some of the new tunes from these records. We will see how they progress and evolve over the next few weeks as concert performances and add a couple more by the time we get to the States in August.

Three extra shows have been added to the US tour: Costa Mesa on August 1st, Las Vegas on the 2nd and the famous Sturgis Biker-fest in South Dakota on the 4th. We have just seven weeks to learn Born To Be Wild and the Grateful Dead medley on mandolin and kazoo to appease the Harley Hordes as they stare us down, astride their trusty steeds, from the audience area. Think I might leave the tights and codpiece in the ladies locker room for that one…….

The Ian Anderson Rubbing Elbows dates for the fall in the USA are pretty much all confirmed now but the dates won’t appear on this website for just a few weeks yet as we don’t want you dithering over which shows to go to. But the IA dates are mostly in the so-called major markets while Tull shows are mainly in peripheral and typical summer venues so there shouldn’t be a huge overlap. Watch out for the tour dates soon.

Road Crew Eating Habits

Tonight, we meet up with young German artist Masha who will join us for the next three weeks in Germany and Switzerland as opening act. Being the perfect gentlemen that we are, we shall assist and abet her onstage to supplement her backing guitarist who we call “Bangers”. Bangers and Mash is a strange British concoction of Sausage and mashed potato with onion gravy and sorely missed by our road crew who, in spite of years of global travel and feasting on many a sheep’s eyeball and bull’s testicle, can’t quite shake the habits of a lifetime when it comes to our national, if limited, cuisine. Pie, chips, curry, beans, and the fry-up breakfast have never lost their allure. Sauerkraut and pig’s knuckle, snails and pickled herring don’t quite cut it, I am told.

And then the veggies of the crew have to pick and scrape at everything to remove the lingering tarnish of anything-that-once-had-a-face-on-it.

Personally, I don’t eat with the band and crew anyway as I can’t do a show on a full stomach but I do go in to the catering room to have a look sometimes. Couldn’t help notice, the other day, that the kitchen hand cutting up yet another dead carcase in the back looked like a dead ringer for Paul McCartney. Must have been mistaken, ‘though.

Running into "Yes"

Some of my best friends are Vegans. Others are Martians and I have even enjoyed the passing acquaintance of even more esoteric and spiritually enlightened folks such as Jon Anderson (Yes) and Rick Wakeman (Yes, please) who I met at the heavy metal Sweden Rock Festival last weekend. Riccardo Wakeperson kindly helped me with the confusing multi-buttoned coffee machine in the breakfast room, nearly scalding himself in the process. Seemed like a good opportunity to introduce myself, not have met him before. What a nice chap. Back with the Yessers for a mega Euro tour, we shall doubtless bump into him again. I owe him a coffee.

The "Road Map"

As we trundle around the “old” Europe, I continuously find myself drawn into the debate on either the excesses of British football fans and their associated violence or the actions of the misters Bush and Blair. Now, we’re not going to go into all that again but the fact remains that most European folks are completely against the Brits and Yanks on the Iraq issue.

As the Bush “road map” unravels following another day of carnage in Jerusalem, I wonder if I shall ever play there again. A few parts of the world now seem seriously out of bounds for us travelling musos. And for you too when you spend your vacation dollar. The cool and hygienic high-speed bubble that is this German train, seems a million miles from the CNN breaking news that seems to greet me whenever I return from a show to my lonely hotel room.

Sometimes music is a refuge from all of the horrors of the world – sometimes it seems to amplify them.

IA,
on a train somewhere in Germany,
Friday the thirteenth June.