Under Wraps- Ian's Reflections

Naked ladies (ladies?) bursting out of large paper bags, astronaut moonwalking on stage, disturbing drum machine rhythms, 80’s keyboards galore and a vocal crisis in the making. These were key ingredients of the Under Wraps tour of 1984.

With the advent of the then new digital technology and more sophisticated synthesizers, we had embarked on a largely electronic album of songs mostly devoted to spies, secrecy and subterfuge.

To most Tull fans, the idea of us sounding like a cross between The Police and Thomas Dolby was a little bit of a stretch in credibility. The fact was, we did it rather well. Not as well as Police and Dolby perhaps but, you know, rather well. Of course, I would love – time and energy permitting (both short in supply at the time of writing this) – to re-record the Under Wraps material today with real drums and a less-than-dated keyboard sound. But the songs were good and the playing of M. Barre and D. Pegg was brilliant. My vocals were as good as they would ever be, extending my usually limited range and power like never before. Problem was, the long tour to support this performance-testing album took its toll after many weeks of concerts, first in LA at the Universal Amphitheater and later in Australia when some shows were cancelled or re-scheduled as a result of my laryngitis and severe vocal strain.

Returning to the UK, I decided to take – for the first time – a few months away from singing and switch my focus temporarily to Aquaculture and my Scottish farming activities. All this turned out to be quite worthwhile as the period “off” allowed for some reflection and recharging of spiritual batteries as well as the time to record the follow-up album Crest Of A Knave. This would prove eventually to restore the faith of Tull fans – especially in the USA – where the Nouvelle Tull sound had failed to capture the attention of radio and the media in the wake of floundering changes in formats and fashions.

But, hey, you have to push the boundaries a little in the pursuit of musical adventures. No point in staying forever in the clutches of 70’s sounds and analogue keys, valves, steam flutes and tree-gobbling guitars. Gotta move on. And then move back again……….

The guitars are now free of unsustainable forest choppings, the flute steams up as always but with more power and passion, and the keyboards sound again like Hammond Organs and grand pianos. Martin Barre has some spare vacuum tubes in his back pocket to fire up the crunchy guitar sound of rampant stallion Marshalls in heat. One rampant stallion dude that Martin Lancelot guy, what?

But back to the 80’s.

Keyboardist, Peter Vettese, brought musical ideas-a-plenty wrapped up in Fender-splendour. Fender Rhodes had briefly decided to enter the buzzy, fuzzy world of high-tech electronics and bestowed freebie keys and assorted equipment on a grateful Peter, in return for his unswerving allegiance to a bad marketing plan involving unsustainable plastic keyboards. Fender never were to crack the keyboard market and soon returned to what they did best. Strats, Teles and the sublime craft of American guitar building.

The album may have lacked a real drummer but the supporting tour did not: one young Doane Big-Boy Perry advanced over the horizon like an overgrown schoolboy on a driven mission to a first and virginal encounter with an older woman. Enthusiastic and schooled in the dubious benefits of 70’s Prog-rock, the Doanester put muscle back into the live performance of Under Wraps and intelligent drum arranging into the re-energising of older material.

So, let’s dedicate this album to the missing drums of Doane Perry. To the tour he did and the record he should have done. 20 years ago.

Ian Anderson 2004.

Buy from Amazon.com (USA)

> Broadsword
> Under Wraps
> Crest of a Knave

Buy from Amazon.com (UK).

> Broadsword
> Under Wraps
> Crest of a Knave