Although the official chapter ended in 2011, Ian Anderson, 71, has kept the band alive both live and with new releases as Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson. With the three-CD box "50 For 50" he and the Warner label celebrate half a century of band history. Let's not kid ourselves: Nobody knows whether Tull music will still be played by one of the leading group members - above all Anderson - in ten years' time. This year's celebrations are therefore the ideal occasion to talk to the man who stands for Jethro Tull like no other about his life's work.
eclipsed: Jethro Tull celebrates his fiftieth birthday. How did you choose the tracks for the anniversary box "50 For 50"?
Ian Anderson: Of course the specification with fifty songs, corresponding to fifty years of band history, limits you. Much more doesn't fit on three CDs. So you can choose a maximum of three or four tracks per album. The exclusion criterion was to preserve the stylistic diversity, such as matching songs in the same key, tempo or theme. That's why it wasn't about my fifty personal favourites, but about a more objective selection from the point of view of a record producer. Of course, the essence of the studio albums should also be reflected, the different phases and line-ups. But when comparing my personal list with that of the record company, coordinated with fans, the differences were surprisingly small. Of course, for artistic reasons I adjusted the order of the pieces and not simply arranged them chronologically.
eclipsed: But does that mean that certain pieces have fallen under the table?
Anderson: Some tracks about eight minutes or more could not be considered. It was about pragmatic solutions. Also some of the small fine acoustic pieces from "Aqualung" or "Minstrel In The Gallery" didn't get on, because it was about depicting Jethro Tull as a rock band with all thirty-six members over the years and not me alone. But all this didn't take quite a long time, because I know my complete song catalogue very well.
eclipsed: What else have you got planned for the anniversary?
Anderson: Well, first of all I have to mention the anniversary tour, which runs through Europe and the states until the end of the year. At some concerts, at festivals for example, we can't take the whole multimedia production with video screens. We can't play fifty songs live either, so we have to compress the Jethro Tull story even more. We focus on the period that most fans know best, we say the first ten years. That was certainly where we were the biggest, although we still sold a lot of records in the early eighties.
eclipsed: Jethro Tull's style has often changed. Sometimes she preferred blues, folk, hard rock, prog, even electronica or world music. What's your favorite period?
Anderson: Favourite period is probably not the right word. It's like asking me about my favorite cat. These are all products of creative work. I may have good memories of certain moments in the seventies, of the classic line-up with Martin Barre, John Evan, Jeffrey Hammond and Barriemore Barlow. This was an energetic period with a lot of new creative music. Jeffrey Hammond and John Evan were my equals in performance and energy, not so much Martin Barre. And Barriemore Barlow was a fantastic drummer. "Thick As A Brick," for example, wouldn't have come across so well on stage. At the end of the seventies there was increasing tension in the band.
