Jethro Tull (band) - Onstage Antics

Onstage Antics

During the early 1970s, Jethro Tull went from a progressive blues band to one of the largest concert draws in the world. In concert, the band were known for theatricality and long medleys with brief instrumental interludes. While early Jethro Tull shows featured a manic Anderson with bushy hair and beard dressed in tattered overcoats and ragged clothes, as the band became bigger he moved towards varied costumes. This culminated with the War Child tour's over-sized codpiece and colourful costume.

Other band members joined in the dress-up and developed stage personae. Bassist Glenn Cornick always appeared in waistcoat and headband, while his successor Jeffrey Hammond eventually adopted a black-and-white diagonally-striped suit (and similarly striped bass guitar, electric guitar, and string bass). It was a 'zebra look', and at one point a two-manned zebra came out excreting ping pong balls into the audience while both performers moved forcefully around their stage areas. Former Carmen bassist John Glascock also wore flamboyant clothes on stage, most of which he sewed himself. Keyboard player John Evan dressed in an all-white suit with a neck-scarf of scarlet with white polka-dots; described as a "sad clown" type with extremely over-sized shoes, he joined in the theatrics by galumphing back and forth between Hammond Organ and grand piano (placed on opposite sides of the stage in the Thick as a Brick tour) or by such sight-gags as pulling out a flask and pretending to drink from it during a rest in the music. Barriemore Barlow's stage attire was a crimson tank-top and matching runner's shorts with rugby foot gear, and his solos were marked by smoke-machines and enormous drumsticks. He also wore a bucket hat. Martin Barre was the island of calm amongst the madmen, with Anderson (and sometimes Evan) crowding him and making faces during his solos.

The band's stage theatrics peaked during the Thick As A Brick tour, a performance distinguished by stage hands wearing the tan trench-coat/madras cap ensemble from the album art, extras in rabbit suits running across stage and an extended interlude during which Barre and Barlow entered a beach-tent onstage and swapped pants.

A Passion Play was planned to have a full-length film to go with the stage theatrics. However, from this effort, it seems that only a few excerpts have survived to be re-released on recent commemorative videos of the band, including the interlude "The Story of the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles."

A similar multi-media effort had been planned for Too Old To Rock and Roll... but was not completed. Thereafter, the emphasis on theatrics was reduced but never eliminated. In 1982's Broadsword and the Beast concerts, the entire stage was transformed into a Viking ship. Anderson often dressed as a country squire on tours in the late 1970s, with the rest of the band adopting the style during their folk phase. The A tour featured the same white jumpsuit uniforms worn by the band on the album cover. Certain routines from the 1970s have become ensconced in concerts, such as having a song interrupted by a phone call for an audience member (which Anderson now takes on a cell) and the climactic conclusion of shows including bombastic instrumentals and the giant balloons which Anderson would carry over his head and toss into the crowd.

In 1992, Jethro Tull embarked on a tour titled A Little Light Music, with most of the show focusing on acoustic songs, many of which they had not played live for years, if at all. A live CD was recorded on this tour and released under the same title later in that year. This was well received by fans because of its different takes on many past compositions, as well as a rendition of the folk song "John Barleycorn". As documented by these live performances, Ian's voice had clearly improved since his vocal cord injury in the mid-Eighties. After the CD release, the tour continued as a show of two halves, the Light and Dark Tour.

1993 was marked as the 25th Anniversary of Jethro Tull by the release of various new products, as well as an extensive Anniversary Tour, which started in May 1993 and lasting nearly a year. In keeping with the anniversary theme, this tour again revived a number of older songs.

The 25th Anniversary Box was a four-CD set including new and vintage live recordings, remixed and remastered songs from earlier albums, and re-recordings of old songs by the 1990s band. A two-CD Anniversary Collection compilation was also released, containing original tracks remastered, and a video collection included new interviews, promo videos and archive material. The remixed single, Living in the (Slightly more Recent) Past, reached No. 32 in the UK singles chart. A planned second boxed set of outtakes and rare tracks was scaled down to two discs and released towards the end of the year under the title Nightcap.

In 2006, Jethro Tull performed at Indian Institute of Management Bangalore's (IIM-B) cultural fest Unmaad in India."In the last 10 years we have seen India blossom in the eyes of the West. We eagerly wait to see the latest offing from Bollywood or the Indian rock bands," Anderson said after the performance.

Their 2008 tour, celebrating 40 years of the band, included many older songs as well as guest appearances from former band members and others.

Jethro Tull and sitarist Anoushka Shankar postponed a concert scheduled for 29 November 2008 in Mumbai after the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. They reorganised the performance as A Billion Hands Concert, a benefit concert for victims of the attacks, and held it on 5 December 2008. Ian Anderson commented on this decision stating that: "Some people might consider it disrespectful that we are having a concert but hopefully a majority will realise what this is about and what it says."

Jethro Tull's 2010 concert tour took them to Austria, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Norway and Switzerland in July and August, Armenia and the UK in September and Ian toured an acoustic solo tour in North America during October–November.

Jethro Tull announced a tour of North America in June 2011 in honour of the Aqualung album's 40th anniversary. At every show on this tour, the band played the Aqualung album in its entirety, however not in order.

Jethro Tull scheduled four concerts in Australia in April 2011, the band's first since 2005. These consisted of two performances at Sydney's State Theatre, one at Melbourne's Palais Theatre, and one performance at the Byron Bay Bluesfest, alongside headliner Bob Dylan.