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NEW MUSICAL EXPRESS
4 October 1969
JETHRO TULLVERISED 'EM
Said Ian Anderson, who regards Edinburgh, where he was educated, as his home town and was in the Scots capital on the second stop of Jethro Tull's seven-week British and Continental tour:
"We try to raise the level of musical understanding a teeny, teeny bit ... we try to help the pop thing a little bit which is ruddy bad anyway ... we play to our limits every night."
That was backstage at the Usher Hall. Out front Jethro, playing to a brimming-over house, promptly went out of their way to prove it. They surely helped educate a fanatical audience; they did something for pop in filling this expensive-to-rent hall for the first time in two or three years; and they did play to what seemed like their limits.
The fans, softened up by Terry Reid and Savoy Brown, were all set up for the first barrage, the familiar 'Nothing Is Easy.' Hot, breathy Anderson flute and there was more where that came from. 'Play In Time' was out of a similar groove.
Then a taste of something to come — the group's imminent single 'Sweet Dream.' A frenetic thing with too much vocal in it for me, but undoubtedly commercial in spite of what some people in the record industry have predicted.
"As long as it gets into Top Of The Pops we don't care what happens,"
said Anderson. The remark brought a mini Hampden roar.
On to 'Fat Man', with Anderson picking up a mandolin and Martin Barre switching from guitar to flute and Glenn Cornick slinking off into the wings.
"He's a funny lad, Glenn,"
quipped Anderson, the capacity house hanging on to his every word.
"We caught him listening to an Amen Corner LP the other night!"
By now the audience (the ticket agency claimed they could have filled the hall twice over) were ripe for Clive Bunker's drawn out drum showcase.
Altogether an out and out triumph, the likes of which hadn't been seen in Edinburgh for years.
In a word ... the audience was TULLVERISED.
JOHN GIBSON
Thanks to Mike Wain for this article, and Gerrit de Geus for confirmation of source and publication date.