The earliest John Evans/Tull photos on record for sale.
Sept 29, 2013 9:41:21 GMT
flutedminstrel likes this
Post by elmsliegirl on Sept 29, 2013 9:41:21 GMT
It was with a tinge of sadness that I parted with some more of my collection of early John Evans Blues Band/Jethro Tull memorabilia yesterday. It was nice to see the delight from the estimator at Bonhams Knightsbridge auction house as we agreed I must have the earliest publicity photograph ever of the original line up. I am told that my collection is difficult to estimate because unlike with other groups from the same era no one has submitted such early memorabilia from Tull to Bonhams before so thank you Ian for originally giving these things to me.
I gave away several pieces which will not be mine to talk about when they finally, hopefully get sold on the 18th of December 2013. The memorabilia I have submitted this time dates from January 1967 to 1974 and includes the War Child script that Ian Anderson wrote and gave to me in late 1974. This stuff has to be of some interest to one or two of you guys. I am sad that I was never able to publish my book because those early memories, photographs and Ians day to day account of his struggle as a young musician in the form of many lovely and informative letters that he wrote to me are to my mind just priceless. I have also included four more of these letters which have snippets of delightful information but are not so packed full of music history as was one of the two I sold in the summer. For any of you who read my post in the summer I am talking about a 9 page letter that gave Ian's personal account of the formation of Jethro Tull as it happened at the time.
Basically for the December auction I have submitted four separate 'lots' so perhaps I will talk about them in separate threads to avoid confusion.
Lot one. The John Evans Blues Band poster, publicity photograph and flyer which will be displayed on the Bonhams website nearer the time of auction. (The letters will be included in the catalogue)
The poster is tatty because it stayed on my bedroom wall probably from 1967 to 1969. Since then I have kept it rolled up in a cupboard to the present day. There is a pencil written date for a John Evans Blues Band gig written on the poster dated 22nd of January 1967 and though I undoubtedly attended the gig I couldn't tell you which one it was. I would love to know if any of you guys know where they were playing that night. The photograph on the poster and the publicity photograph (which is in very good condition) shows the seven piece line up that existed in early 1967. The line up is as follows Ian , Barry, Jim and John Evan sitting at his Hammond organ in the foreground and Chris, Geoffrey and Martin (who if I remember correctly gave Ian his first flute and left the band to go to music college) in the background . Note no flute included in the photograph. (Reference to Ian starting to learn to play a flute he had just procured is in one of the letters). Envelopes and date stamps on all the four letters.
The musical instruments are displayed in the foreground. There are two guitars one must be a bass guitar played by Geoffrey Hammond. There are two sax-phones played by Chris and Martin and one trumpet played by Jim. Of course Barry Barlow was on drums but there are no drums in the picture. I recalled the names of Chris, Martin and Jim because I wrote everyones name on the flyer which I also coloured and doodled on lovingly for some reason. Jim at least I know was a pupil at Blackpool Grammar School with Ian, Jeffery and John. I think Martin may have been too.
Guided by Bonhams I am getting the gist of what Jethro Tull fans might be interested in which reflects in the price the memorabilia sells for. Basically music information. So I'm thinking what do I do with the rare and sweet little pictures of I/A as a child or might they be linked to Gerald Bostock in some way? My scanner glass is badly cracked so I can't post any photos at present. I do have some very nice ones some of which I would like to share at some point. I will talk about the other three 'lots' later.
I gave away several pieces which will not be mine to talk about when they finally, hopefully get sold on the 18th of December 2013. The memorabilia I have submitted this time dates from January 1967 to 1974 and includes the War Child script that Ian Anderson wrote and gave to me in late 1974. This stuff has to be of some interest to one or two of you guys. I am sad that I was never able to publish my book because those early memories, photographs and Ians day to day account of his struggle as a young musician in the form of many lovely and informative letters that he wrote to me are to my mind just priceless. I have also included four more of these letters which have snippets of delightful information but are not so packed full of music history as was one of the two I sold in the summer. For any of you who read my post in the summer I am talking about a 9 page letter that gave Ian's personal account of the formation of Jethro Tull as it happened at the time.
Basically for the December auction I have submitted four separate 'lots' so perhaps I will talk about them in separate threads to avoid confusion.
Lot one. The John Evans Blues Band poster, publicity photograph and flyer which will be displayed on the Bonhams website nearer the time of auction. (The letters will be included in the catalogue)
The poster is tatty because it stayed on my bedroom wall probably from 1967 to 1969. Since then I have kept it rolled up in a cupboard to the present day. There is a pencil written date for a John Evans Blues Band gig written on the poster dated 22nd of January 1967 and though I undoubtedly attended the gig I couldn't tell you which one it was. I would love to know if any of you guys know where they were playing that night. The photograph on the poster and the publicity photograph (which is in very good condition) shows the seven piece line up that existed in early 1967. The line up is as follows Ian , Barry, Jim and John Evan sitting at his Hammond organ in the foreground and Chris, Geoffrey and Martin (who if I remember correctly gave Ian his first flute and left the band to go to music college) in the background . Note no flute included in the photograph. (Reference to Ian starting to learn to play a flute he had just procured is in one of the letters). Envelopes and date stamps on all the four letters.
The musical instruments are displayed in the foreground. There are two guitars one must be a bass guitar played by Geoffrey Hammond. There are two sax-phones played by Chris and Martin and one trumpet played by Jim. Of course Barry Barlow was on drums but there are no drums in the picture. I recalled the names of Chris, Martin and Jim because I wrote everyones name on the flyer which I also coloured and doodled on lovingly for some reason. Jim at least I know was a pupil at Blackpool Grammar School with Ian, Jeffery and John. I think Martin may have been too.
Guided by Bonhams I am getting the gist of what Jethro Tull fans might be interested in which reflects in the price the memorabilia sells for. Basically music information. So I'm thinking what do I do with the rare and sweet little pictures of I/A as a child or might they be linked to Gerald Bostock in some way? My scanner glass is badly cracked so I can't post any photos at present. I do have some very nice ones some of which I would like to share at some point. I will talk about the other three 'lots' later.