|
Post by maddogfagin on Dec 20, 2010 11:56:50 GMT
|
|
|
Post by maddogfagin on Dec 20, 2010 12:02:14 GMT
|
|
|
Post by maddogfagin on Dec 20, 2010 12:06:07 GMT
|
|
|
Post by maddogfagin on Dec 27, 2011 8:23:39 GMT
An uncredited review of the 1990 UK Convention from a Seismic Ring press release.
The announcement of Mick Abrahams and Clive Bunker came as no great surprise, because they are, after all, both in Blodwyn Pig who were playing the evening concert. "Martin Allcock" brought some gasps of surprise from the people who had not seen him earlier, but I thought the walls were coming down when Graham announced Ian Anderson. Mick came out first and exchanged a few unpleasantries with the audience, threatening to **** off when one (or was it several?) wag pointedly shouted out something about weight gain in recent years! But it was all in fun of course, and the guitar stayed plugged in! Then Ian strolled onstage looking relaxed and genuinely happy to be there. He said that "nobody is more surprised than me that I'm actually here today, but after I heard that you were all coning here I thought it was the least I could do to come and say hello, and thank you for being loyal to Jethro Tull throughout the years". Ian and Mick played the first song, "Some Day The Sun Won't Shine For You" (from "This Was"), with some great vocal harmony and pretty nifty harmonica playing from Ian, and it was so good you could imagine it was 1968 and they had been doing this every night for months, until Ian went into the wrong verse towards the end! Ian apologised for that, but pointed out that it had been Mick who had got it wrong throughout the backstage rehearsal. But Mick graciously stated that "you're not bad for an old fart", and Ian responded by dedicating the last song they were going to play to Mick....."Fat Man"! Quoth Mick "yeah,I know, the same old $h1t....just like old times!" Before "Fat Man" though Martin Allcock joined them for "So Much Trouble", a song that Tull used to do when Mick was in the band, and in fact recorded for the BBC in 1968. Mick sang and played guitar, Ian played the flute and Martin played bass, and bloody good it was too! For "Fat Man" Clive Bunker came on, and so we had three quarters of the original Tull line up together onstage! Mick struggled somewhat on guitar, not surprisingly (never having played it before), but that was not important: it was a glorious reunion, and something that had seemed absolutely unthinkable previously. Before Ian left the stage he asked John and Jeffrey onstage to say hello, and they both obliged after a fashion, though they were clearly a bit uncomfortable about it, and then they took their leave of us to gather backstage to chat to each other for the first time in years. After this momentous occasion the whole place was buzzing, but there was the obvious danger that the rest of the day could feel a bit flat by comparison, but thankfully there was much more fun to come. We all had to leave the concert hall to allow sound checks for the bands, and while we were gathered in the bar Clive Bunker and Mick Abrahams came out for a "Question and answer session" which proved to be highly amusing, although unfortunately many people could hear nothing owing to the lack of amplification. Shortly afterwards the final of the Tull Mastermind competition was held upstairs, with the six finalists being selected from the large number of entries in the preliminary written quiz. The evening concert was kicked off with a set from a band called "Seismic Ring", about whom nothing was known by the vast majority of the audience. If you attended the first Convention last year you nay remember the guy who gave an impromptu performance of Ian Anderson flute solos onstage? Well, that was Martin Carter, and he placed an ad in "A.N.D" some time ago looking for other musicians to play with, and as a result "Seismic Ring" were formed. They have been through many changes and had more or less split when they were asked to play at the Convention, but a new band was formed in order to do the gig, and they developed a set completely made up of Jethro Tull songs for the event. They had apparently played the set at a couple of gigs prior to the day but they must have been under enormous pressure knowing that they would be playing to hundreds of people who knew and loved the songs as played by Jethro Tull. I put it to Martin that. they must be either very brave or totally mad to even attempt it, and we settled for a bit of both in the end. It could well have been a disaster, but they actually did a great job, and the crowd thoroughly enjoyed it. An added attraction was their friend and stagehand Bill Hicks who was turned out in a spot on "Aqualung" get up! They are doing occasional gigs here and there so do try to see them should they ever turn up in your area. (An interesting footnote;- they were having great difficulty in finding a drummer for the gig, and during a meeting somebody jokingly suggested that they phone ex Tullie Gerry Conway to ask him to do it. And the next day the cheeky sods did just that! And he said he would!! But he did suggest it would be much better if they could find another fan to do it, in keeping with the spirit of the thing, which of course they did eventually.)
|
|
|
Post by Tull50 on Mar 14, 2013 19:49:05 GMT
Report of the UK Convention 1990 in the issue # 26 of A New DayBack from the issue # 25issue # 26Tomorrow the pictures
|
|
|
Post by nonrabbit on Mar 14, 2013 21:51:30 GMT
This thread is fanbloodytastic and worth highlighting every few months
|
|
|
Post by maddogfagin on Mar 15, 2013 8:54:38 GMT
The AND write up certainly does it justice. It was a great day and it marked a turning point in the relationship between IA + the members of the band who turned up and the fans which has gone on to greater things in subsequent years.
|
|
|
Post by Tull50 on Mar 15, 2013 18:45:36 GMT
|
|
|
Post by maddogfagin on Feb 17, 2015 16:10:51 GMT
Amazing what can be found tucked away in a secret Tull place. Ian and Co backstage at the 1990 UK Convention. JHH was on stage to say "hello" to the audience - Maart played bass. Great stuff ...keep looking keep looking..
|
|
|
Post by bunkerfan on Feb 17, 2015 20:03:19 GMT
Amazing what can be found tucked away in a secret Tull place. Ian and Co backstage at the 1990 UK Convention. JHH was on stage to say "hello" to the audience - Maart played bass. Great stuff ...keep looking keep looking.. I hope you double check before you move, you don't want to leave behind any Tull gems like this. Why is Ian the only one smiling?
|
|