Jethro Tull are a British rock band formed in Blackpool, Lancashire, in 1967. Emerging from the 1960s British blues scene, the band soon developed a distinctive progressive rock sound, blending hard rock, English folk music and classical music, while undergoing numerous stylistic shifts throughout its history. The band was founded and has been continuously led by Ian Anderson, its principal composer, lead vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist best known for his flute playing. The group has featured a succession of musicians throughout its history, including significant contributors such as long-time guitarist Martin Barre, bassists Glenn Cornick, Jeffrey Hammond, John Glascock, Dave Pegg and Jonathan Noyce, drummers Clive Bunker, Barrie "Barriemore" Barlow and Doane Perry, and keyboardists John Evan, Dee Palmer, Peter-John Vettese and Andrew Giddings.
After gaining attention on the London club circuit, Jethro Tull released their debut album This Was in 1968. After a key line-up change which saw original guitarist Mick Abrahams replaced by Barre, the band achieved their first major success the following year with their folk-influenced second album Stand Up, which reached No. 1 in the UK. Aqualung (1971) marked the band's international breakthrough and became their most commercially successful album, while subsequent releases such as Thick as a Brick (1972) fully established their progressive rock identity. Throughout the 1970s the band maintained an intense schedule of touring and recording, releasing one studio album every year and expanding their musical scope through concept albums and increasingly complex arrangements. In the late 1970s the band shifted towards folk rock, before a major line-up change led to a period influenced by electronic rock in the early 1980s. The band returned to a hard rock sound with Crest of a Knave (1987), which earned them their only Grammy Award, and explored world music influences in the 1990s. Jethro Tull have sold an estimated 60 million albums worldwide, with 11 gold and 5 platinum albums. They have been described by Rolling Stone as "one of the most commercially successful and eccentric progressive rock bands."
The band ceased studio recording activity in the 2000s, but continued to tour until disbanding in 2011. Following the band's split, Anderson and Barre both pursued separate solo careers, with Anderson's band billed variously as both "Jethro Tull" and "Ian Anderson" solo. From 2017 onward, Anderson revived the Jethro Tull name without Barre's involvement and returned to releasing new studio albums in the 2020s, presenting the group as a continuation of the band under his sole leadership rather than as a reunion of past line-ups.
History Origins
Ian Anderson, Jeffrey Hammond, and John Evan (originally Evans), who would later become members of Jethro Tull, attended grammar school together in Blackpool. Anderson was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, in 1947 and grew up in Edinburgh before moving to Blackpool in 1960. At Blackpool Grammar School he gained GCE O-levels in Maths, Physics, Chemistry, English, Art, French, Geography, and Latin, and was a student for two years at Blackpool College of Art.. In his teens he wanted to be "an artist, a painter".
Evans became a fan of the Beatles after seeing them play "Love Me Do" on Granada Television's Scene at 6:30; although already an accomplished pianist, Evans was inspired by the Beatles to take up drums. Anderson acquired a Spanish guitar and taught himself to play it, and he and Evans decided to form a band. They added Hammond on bass, who came with a collection of blues records.
The group initially played as a three-piece at local clubs and venues before Evans, influenced by Georgie Fame and the Animals, switched to organ. Drummer Barrie Barlow and guitarist Mike Stephens were recruited from local band the Atlantics, guitarist Chris Riley joined and the band developed into a six-piece "blue-eyed soul" group called the John Evan Band (later the John Evan Smash). Evans had shortened his surname to "Evan" at the insistence of Hammond, who thought it sounded better. They recruited Johnny Taylor as a booking agent and played gigs around northwest England, performing a mixture of blues and Motown covers. Hammond left the band to attend art school and was briefly replaced by Derek Ward, then by Glenn Cornick. Riley also quit and was replaced by Neil Smith. The group recorded three songs at Regent Sound Studios in Denmark Street, London, in April 1967, and appeared at the Marquee Club in London in June 1967.
In November 1967 the band moved from the north of England to Luton, Bedfordshire, from central London, and signed a management deal with Terry Ellis and Chris Wright. They replaced Smith with guitarist Mick Abrahams, but quickly realised that supporting a six-piece band was financially impractical and disbanded. Anderson, Abrahams, and Cornick stayed together, recruited Abrahams's friend Clive Bunker on drums, and became a British blues band. Cornick recalled that Evan had been told he would be welcome to rejoin. Anderson shared a flat with Cornick in Luton and worked as a cleaner at the Luton Ritz Cinema to pay the rent. According to Cornick, "we were so poor that we would share one can of stew or soup between us each evening".
Early years (1967–1968)
At first, the new band found it difficult to obtain repeat bookings. They changed their name frequently to continue playing the London club circuit, using aliases such as Navy Blue, Ian Henderson's Bag o' Nails, and Candy Coloured Rain. Anderson recalled looking at a poster at a club and realising that the band name he did not recognise was theirs. The names were often supplied by their booking agent's staff, one of whom, a history enthusiast, gave them the alias Jethro Tull after the 18th-century agriculturist. The name stuck because they were using it when the manager of the Marquee Club liked their show enough to give them a weekly residency. In an interview in 2006, Anderson said that he had not realised it was the name of "a dead guy who invented the seed drill – I thought our agent had made it up". He said if he could change one thing in his life, he would go back and change the name of the band to something less historical.
The band recorded a session with producer Derek Lawrence which resulted in the single "Sunshine Day". The B-side, "Aeroplane", was an old John Evan Band track with the saxophones removed from the mix. It was released in February 1968 on MGM Records, miscredited to "Jethro Toe". The more common version of the single, with the name spelled correctly, is actually a counterfeit made in New York. Anderson met Hammond in London, the two renewed their friendship, and Anderson moved into a bedsit in Chelsea with Evan. Hammond became the subject of several songs, beginning with their next single, "A Song for Jeffrey".
Anderson possessed a large overcoat which his father had given to him with the words "You'd better take this. It's going to be a cold winter." Along with his flute, this overcoat became part of his early stage image. Anderson had purchased a flute after becoming frustrated with his inability to play guitar as well as Abrahams or Cream guitarist Eric Clapton. Their managers had wanted him to remain a rhythm guitarist, with Abrahams as the front man, and Anderson said later:
I didn't want to be just another third-rate guitar player who sounded like a plethora of other third-rate guitar players. I wanted to do something that was a bit more idiosyncratic, hence the switch to another instrument. When Jethro Tull began, I think I'd been playing the flute for about two weeks. It was a quick learning curve ... literally every night I walked onstage was a flute lesson.Newsome, Jim. "Living in the Present". Interview with Ian Anderson, 23 April 2002. jimnewsom.com
The group got their first major break at the National Jazz and Blues Festival at Sunbury-on-Thames in August 1968, where they drew a rapturous reception and positive reviews in the music press. They said their success at Sunbury was a result of persistent touring, which had generated a grassroots following who came to the festival and encouraged the rest of the audience. Cornick recalled, "From that moment on, we were a big band".
The group recorded their first album, This Was, between June and August 1968. Released in October 1968, it reached number 10 in the UK charts. In addition to original material, the album included the 1961 Doctor Ross blues "Cat's Squirrel", which highlighted Abrahams's blues-rock style; and the Rahsaan Roland Kirk-penned jazz piece "Serenade to a Cuckoo", which gave Anderson a showcase for his growing talents on the flute. Anderson described the group's sound around this time as "sort of progressive blues with a bit of jazz".
Following the album's release, Abrahams left the band in December to form his own group, Blodwyn Pig. Several reasons were given for his departure. Abrahams had heard that Ellis wanted Anderson to be the frontman and group leader, at his expense, and he realised that he was unlikely to have the majority share in songwriting. Other reasons given were that Abrahams was a blues purist, while Anderson wanted to branch out into other forms of music; and that Abrahams was unwilling to travel internationally, or play more than three nights a week. Abrahams himself described his reasons more succinctly: "I was fed up with all the nonsense and I wanted to form a band like Blodwyn Pig."Rock Guitar Daily blog. [rockguitardaily.blogspot.com/mick-abrahams]
The group tried several replacements for Abrahams. The first was David O'List, who had recently left the Nice. After a week's rehearsal, O'List did not show up and lost contact with the group. The next choice was Mick Taylor, who turned the group down because he felt his current gig with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers was a better deal. Following this, they approached Tony Iommi, guitarist for Earth (soon to be renamed Black Sabbath). Iommi had impressed Jethro Tull when Earth opened for them at a show in Birmingham; he briefly joined the band, but he quit after a few weeks and returned to Birmingham to rejoin Earth, feeling closer to his old band.Popoff, Martin. Sabotage!: Black Sabbath in the seventies. Wymer Publishing, 2018, pp. 22-24 He stood in with Tull for The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus on 11 December 1968, when the group performed "A Song for Jeffrey", although only Anderson's singing and flute were live. The rest was mimed to the studio track, which featured Abrahams' guitar playing.
The next choice was Martin Barre, who had seen the band perform at Sunbury and had auditioned for guitarist at the same time as Iommi. Barre arranged a second audition, and Anderson showed him new songs in a different style from the blues they had been recording. Anderson was impressed by Barre's technique and offered him the job. Barre played his first gig with Jethro Tull on 30 December 1968 at the Winter Gardens, Penzance.
Stand Up to Aqualung (1969–1971)
After Barre joined, the group played a few shows supporting Jimi Hendrix in Scandinavia, then began an extensive tour of the US supporting Led Zeppelin and Vanilla Fudge. Jethro Tull attracted a substantial live following, and Ellis and Wright asked Anderson, who had become the principal songwriter, to write a hit single. The result was "Living in the Past", which reached No. 3 in May 1969 on the UK singles chart (and No. 11 in the US when re-released in late 1972) and resulted in an appearance on Top of the Pops.