Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Happy birthday Jethro Tull, still packing them in after 40 years

Under the radar of the media, the band are embarking on an anniversary tour. Ian Anderson explains their success

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Jethro Tull in 1970

If the czars of musical fashion had their way, Jethro Tull would have ceased to exist decades ago. Tull music is a fanciful mélange of prog rock, metal and folk, laced with classical lite and a smattering of Monty Python whimsy. The White Stripes they are not. The band haven't had a Top Ten single since 1970 and their most famous song (Aqualung) portrays - perhaps rather too sympathetically - a pervert on a park bench. Oh, and their oeuvre is almost entirely undanceable.

And yet ... Ian Anderson and his troupe are currently embarked on a globe-straddling 40th anniversary tour, packing out the enormodomes of America en route. In the febrile world of pop, where the average NME-endorsed hipster crashes and burns after a couple of indie hits, the Tull are a ruggedly reliable stock, playing 70-plus gigs every year and quietly flogging 60 million-plus albums. Celebrity fans range from Nick Cave and Stephen King to Geoff Hoon and Russia's President-elect.

So, in the face of near-total media indifference in their homeland, how has Anderson, 60, contrived such a successful career? Culled from a meeting at his discreetly splendid Wiltshire pile, amid his 400-acre farm, here are a few tips to success the Jethro Tull way.

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