Photo: © Lee Millward/GRTR!

February, Featured Artist

(All our playlists will include Jethro Tull tracks)

Sunday February 28, 21:00 GMT : "Life Is A Long Song"
David Randall talks to Ian Anderson

Playlist

IAN ANDERSON Life Is A Long Song/My God
from Ian Anderson Plays The Orchestral Jethro Tull (2005)
JETHRO TULL Living In The Past
from Live In Montreux 2003 (2007)
IAN ANDERSON In The Grip Of Stronger Stuff
from Divinities Twelve Dances With God (1995)
JETHRO TULL Aqualung
from 25th Anniversary Special Edition (1996)
IAN ANDERSON Fly By Night
from Walk Into Light (1983)

IAN ANDERSON

Elder statesmen of rock maybe, but there seems no slowing down for Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull.  Now in their forty-third year, they embark on an extensive UK tour in February 2010. 

Ian Anderson M.B.E. started out musically in the early sixties in Blackpool and formed the first line-up of the Jethro Tull band in 1967.  He has been the mainstay ever since, together with guitarist Martin Barre who replaced Mick Abrahams in 1969.  The band's album highpoint is generally perceived as "Aqualung", released in 1971.

In spite of many line-up changes through the years, the band have retained their signature sound: a mixture of English folk, rock, blues and progressive.  In the late eighties they even surfed the tide of popular taste and received a Grammy for "Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance" for the album ' Crest Of A Knave' (1987).

With a band famed for its longevity, inevitably there have been several key anniversary releases: in 1988 a boxed set "20 Years of Jethro Tull" included BBC sessions and outtakes whilst in 1993 the 25th Anniversary celebration came in the shape of a sumptuous cigar box.

Separately, Ian Anderson released his first solo album in 1983 'Into the Light', a collaboration with Peter-John Vitesse who at that time was also keyboard player with Tull.  In 1995 came 'Divinities: Twelve Dances with God", and later 'The Secret Language of Birds' (2000) and 'Rupi's Dance' (2003).

A multi-instrumentalist, Anderson is best-known for his flute playing and almost single-handedly brought that instrument into a rock format, allied to his very visual approach which although easily parodied remains an iconic image of 1970's rock music.

Gig review (2010)

Jethro Tull website