We were promised the whole album played live (and we got it, interspersed with other classic Tull and some other far from classic stuff)...
The gig started off well with three great tunes from the olden days, "Life's a Long Song", "Skating Away On The Thin Ice Of A New Day" and "Living in the Past"...
However things went downhill when a young American violinist was introduced and proceeded to have the spotlight for around a third of the first half of the show...
She was an excellent violinist of course - but we had paid our money to see and hear Jethro Tull, not Sibelius...
The opening of the second half left me even more bewildered as the band, which has an enormous back catalogue of excellent music, proceeded to play cover versions (and not very good ones at that) of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" (again starring the young lady violin player) and Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir"???
The rest of the second half wasn't as bad as that, although it included a muzak medley of pieces by Mozart....we could have been at a James Last concert...
Overall, the group seemed to be lacking in power, perhaps reticent to drown out Ian Anderson's voice, which has lost much of its strength since Tull's heyday back in the 70s...
Of course the highlights came right at the end with "My God", "Aqualung" and "Locomotive Breath"...
As one disgruntled punter shouted as he left before the encore, "I didn't pay good money to see some girl playing the violin all night - that wasn't the Tull"...
Ian Sclater had procured back stage passes for us and, at the end of the show I spotted Dr Prog making his way to the exit. I tried to wangle him into the backstage scenario but to no avail and he had to leave...
Twenty or so hardcore Tull fans together with what looked to be relations of the band, were huddled into a back room at the Usher Hall (an area I'd not been in for around 30 years - as I used to be an Usher at the Usher Hall while I was still at school)...
I waited my turn for a chat with head honcho Ian Anderson, a very unassuming, polite, very un-rock'n'roll type gentleman, in order to ask him...
What's with all the bloody violin solos? (Turns out the girl shares the same agent in the USA as Ian Anderson)
Why the cod classical muzak pieces?
Why the dreadful cover versions?
Why not raid more of your excellent back catalogue instead of boring the pants off us for around half the gig with nonsens that wasn't even Jethro Tull?
That would've been putting the cat amongst the pigeons...
However, instead I told him the story of how, at the age of 13 when I first started making up my own charts, my first ever number one was "Sweet Dream/17" by none other than Jethro Tull...
I didn't tell him that, to be fair, the single was actually on loan from Rory MacRae, the same Rory MacRae who's overnight party in May 1978 stopped me from witnessing a concert by prog "supergroup" UK...
Mr Anderson seemed less than impressed with my tale - possibly unable to understand why a 13 year old boy would want to make up his own charts - and expressed the view that he actually cared not a jot for "the charts"...
So I gave him a copy of "Deeperdown" by Cloudland Blue Quartet - I wonder if he'll ever listen to it - probably not but he left for his taxi clutching it in his flute playing hand...
As I left the venue and went outside into the sub zero temperatures, a small crowd of die-hard Tull fans stood waiting for a glimpse of Ian Anderson, clutching LPs they no doubt wanted him to autograph...
I felt a bit guilty about having obtained access to the after gig party...
Here's my (autographed) back stage pass...
Despite all my gripes, I really enjoyed the night...
Highlight of the Day : Meeting the man who recorded the first ever No 1 single in my made up charts...
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