Jethro Tull

Ian Anderson's band, named after an inventor of farm machinery, which began as a Luton blues quartet in 1967, moved through progressive rock, folk rock and hard rock, and has sold about 60 million albums.

Origin
Luton, Bedfordshire, England
Years active
1967-2012, 2017-present
Genres
blues rock, progressive rock, folk rock, hard rock
Labels
Island, Reprise, Chrysalis, EMI, Inside Out Music, Parlophone

Blackpool to Luton

Jethro Tull grew out of the John Evan Band, a Blackpool group formed by schoolmates from Blackpool Grammar School, among them Ian Anderson, John Evan and Jeffrey Hammond, who played blue-eyed soul and Motown covers. Anderson was born in Dunfermline in 1947 and had moved to Blackpool with his family in 1959. In November 1967 the band moved to Luton and became a blues quartet: Anderson, guitarist Mick Abrahams, bassist Glenn Cornick and drummer Clive Bunker, managed by Terry Ellis and Chris Wright.

They rotated names on the London club circuit until staff at their booking agency offered that of the 18th-century agriculturist who invented the seed drill. It stuck when the Marquee Club gave them a weekly residency under it, though Anderson has said he would change it if he could. He had swapped electric guitar for flute, feeling he would never be as good as Eric Clapton, and his one-legged stance began by accident while he was playing harmonica. The debut This Was reached number 10 in Britain in October 1968. Abrahams left that December to form Blodwyn Pig, and Martin Barre joined on 30 December 1968.

The seventies

In 1969 the non-album single Living in the Past, a song in 5/4, went to number 3 in Britain, and Stand Up entered the album chart at number 1. The progressive era followed: Benefit, then Aqualung, their first US top ten album, and Thick as a Brick, their first US number 1, then A Passion Play, War Child, Minstrel in the Gallery and Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young to Die! The 1972 compilation Living in the Past gathered singles and rarities and reached number 3 in America.

The band turned to folk rock with the trilogy Songs from the Wood, Heavy Horses and Stormwatch, and bassist John Glascock died in 1979. After the Stormwatch tour Barriemore Barlow, John Evan and Dee Palmer left. A (1980) had begun as an Anderson solo record, and he said in 1982 that it came out as Tull at the record company's request and against his better judgement.

Broadsword and the eighties

With Gerry Conway on drums and Peter-John Vettese on keyboards, the band made The Broadsword and the Beast (1982), their only album with an outside producer, the former Yardbird Paul Samwell-Smith. Anderson wanted to recapture a romantic element of fantasy, and wrote the title song, Broadsword, about Viking raiders seen from the Isle of Skye. Anderson called it their best-selling record ever in Germany and a dead duck in the USA. The tour that followed, with a longship on stage, was their last highly theatrical one.

Anderson made the solo album Walk into Light with Vettese in 1983, and Under Wraps followed in 1984. Anderson wrecked his voice on the tour after it. Crest of a Knave (1987) won the 1989 Grammy for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance, beating Metallica. The band did not attend, and Chrysalis ran an advertisement declaring the flute a heavy metal instrument.

Later years

Rock Island (1989), Catfish Rising (1991) and Roots to Branches (1995) followed, and Dave Pegg left in 1995. After J-Tull Dot Com (1999) and The Jethro Tull Christmas Album (2003), the band went on hiatus. Barre said in November 2011 there were no plans for more Tull, and Anderson released Thick as a Brick 2 and Homo Erraticus under his own name. In 2017 he revived Jethro Tull without Barre, and has since made The Zealot Gene (2022), RökFlöte (2023) and Curious Ruminant (2025).

The band has sold about 60 million albums. Steve Harris and Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden, Eddie Vedder, Geddy Lee and The Decemberists are among the musicians who cite them, and Nick Cave named a son Jethro. Steven Wilson has remixed much of the catalogue for expanded reissues. They are not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Members

Records

Songs

Blodwyn Pig, Fairport Convention, Steven Wilson, Iron Maiden, The Decemberists

Where to go next

Official

Reference

Discography and data

Writing and criticism

Interviews

Live performance archives

Fan sites and communities

Sources

  1. Jethro Tull (band), Wikipedia
  2. Ian Anderson, Wikipedia
  3. Jethro Tull's 80s albums, Louder (2024)
  4. Trouser Press autodiscography, The Jethro Tull Press (1982-10)
  5. Tull Tour History, Ministry of Information
  6. Jethro Tull, MusicBrainz