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Review by Adele.

Acoustic show from the old gits.

Last night I found myself, for the second time in the last couple of years, in the strange position of going to see a band my dad liked when he was at university. (But not actually going with my dad). In this case the band was Jethro Tull.

It was an older crowd than I'm used to, which may have influenced the civilised 7:30 – 10:15 timetable and the all seating arrangement of the gig, however the style of music suited a seated gig so it worked out well. There was no support act but the set was split into two halves, all told just over two hours of solid Tull.

The gig opened with Ian Anderson and Martin Barre playing an early Tull blues track and the all acoustic night was a mix of all ages of Tull, some pieces by the guest violinist Anna Phoebe and a few other oddities, including an arrangement of America originally by Emerson, a Henry VIII tune and a little JS Bach for the classical fans. A good array of styles, ranging from the jazz tinged blues of the late 60's, through a selection of folk tunes, to the hard rocking riff that is 'Aqualung', with the complimentary array of instruments from the aforementioned violin to a bit of mandolin and a smattering of Bouzouki, (Made famous by the Monty Python cheese shop sketch). Plenty of Tull classics were aired. 'Living in the Past', 'A New Day Yesterda', 'Heavy Horses' and 'Jack in the Green' were particularly effective, but there were also a few rarer tunes such as 'Dun Ringill' from 'Stormwatch'.

The musical performances were superb and front man Ian Anderson was entertaining with his comical interludes between songs. He puts me in mind of a cartoon character, highly energetic and animated, very funny and a little unreal.

A truly enjoyable evening, with some pleasant surprises. First was the extremely skilled and very attractive guest violinist, who waited afterwards to sign copies of her album and take photos. (not of her album - ed). The second was Iron Maiden's Steve Harris who obliged me with a photo in the interval.

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