Who agrees - the TAAB tour was the one!

[Mttbsh]

My very first rock concert was Tull on the Aqualung tour, here in Seattle WA, with Yes opening the show. I was very impressed with Yes's set, but entirely unprepared for that moment in Tull's opening song "My God" when Ian kicked the stool away and the whole band exploded onto the stage. Jeffrey and Martin both lept out into spotlights, Jeffrey wearing huge pink sunglasses and Martin in a houndstooth suit just tearing it up on guitar. The sheer power, volume, intensity and stage presence of Tull was a complete sensory overload to a 15 year old kid. I could only compare it to when the Blue Angels would do a 600 MPH precision fly-over and practically light your hair on fire.

And yet it was the following year, on the TAAB tour, that Tull left their greatest impression. I had ingested something to "enhance" the experience, had a seat very near the stage and from the moment the band took the stage (disguised as trenchcoat-clad stage workers) it was a magical experience. In fact the performance of Thick as a Brick that night was the finest hour in all my 40 years of concerts. Of course it wasn't just the music - there was the Tullaphone answered by a dripping wet frogman, the non-rabbit, the beach tent, the weather report and the other zany antics that all wove seemlessly into the Brick.

The band seemed to have grown much tighter from the previous year, and they mesmerized the audience - Ian was the madman, flying and twirling in perfect time with the music, conducting with his flute like a baton, playing ferociously in strobe lights. My favorite moment was when John Evans slid across the stage on his knees to pray at at the feet of Martin Barre whose guitar solo reached into the statosphere and beyond. During particularly wild passages John would run about the stage, jumping and waving his arms, only to be led back to his organ by Ian. Crosseyed Mary, A New Day Yesterday, Aqualung, Windup, Locomotive Breath -all were played with such perfection and intensity that when it was all over the audience was left exhausted. 1972, in my opinion, was Tull 's peak, their stage performance was the best of any rock band I've ever seen. Although I attended their concerts for many years afterward, most all of them excellent (at least through the seventies) that TAAB show was the one that stood head and shoulders above the others. Do any of you feel the same way?

I guess that besides having a natural attraction to Tull music the reason I loved the band so much was that, ulike other "progressive" bands of the era, they never took themselves seriously. They poked fun as much at themselves as they did at their audiences. They were lilke circus clowns who came on like complete goofballs, yet, as musicians, were in a whole different league as musicians than their contemporaries. And while other bands struggled to perform their albums live, the stage was where Tull came alive; to me their albums were like toned-down souverniers of their concerts, which my friends and I looked forward to for months ahead of time.

I've wondered, if I were able to travel back in time and experience that June 11, 1972 concert again as a 55 year old, would I enjoy it as much? was it the "enhancement"? was I fooled by a band that knew that enough volume, motion, flashy solos and stage business would drive any 16 year old ga ga?
Nah, I have a feeling I would enjoy it as much today as I did back then.

Where else but here on the Tull Board would I even consider indulging myself so endlessly in a favorite memory from my youth? Ilt's been almost 40 years and yet I remember the whole evening quite vividly. It really was magical.

Matt

[Deleted]

Without doubt it was the one show which left such a significant impression on me that I have stayed with the band as a fan ever since.

As you say it was a great mix of music, entertainment, fun and even bewilderment, being part of an audience who didn't know what would come next, both on and off stage.

I saw the show in the Royal Albert Hall, London, and other than a pint of Guinness each [illlegally obtained from the RAH bar as we were all underage] me and several mates all enjoyed the show in a relatively unaltered state of mind. If anyone else was there and you remember cheering three blokes clambering precariously between the boxes on the middle level, just prior to Tull coming on stage, juggling glasses of booze whilst trying not to slip and fall the 20 odd feet into the seats below or worse, spill any beer, then thanks, I was one of those blokes and your support got us back to our seats!

However, I don't think the lack of external stimulation made much difference to the show, Tull brought that in bucketloads, as I remember the show vividly and the fact we all walked away from the RAH, down the underpass towards the Tube home, all slightly euphoric from the gig we had seen.

It was a gig that did heighten the expectation of future Tull shows and certainly APP at Wembley and Warchild at The Rainbow were up there alongside the TaaB gig in terms of showmanship, quality, music and unexpected twists and turns, Tull at their best.

But it was the TaaB gig that reinforced Tull as being the band for me...and if you find a way to travel back to see it again, can you book a ticket for me as well.

[tootull]

[repeat] There was a time when you were so young and walked in their way...
On June 04, 1972 Maple Leaf Gardens Toronto - Free tickets.
The Thick As A Brick newspaper was handed out on Yonge Street to promote the concert...never heard of Tull before this. I was amazed & hypnotized by the concert. Best concert of my life, no doubt.


The Toronto Star's William Burrill in memories of Maple Leaf Gardens wrote about my first Tull concert, describing only the beginning of the show...

"The gimmick I liked best was perhaps the most subtle."
"It was during a Jethro Tull concert in the early '70s,
when Tull was touring to promote their album Thick As A Brick.
The show was late in starting, as always, so the already-ugly
crowd turned homicidal when their chants of 'Tull! Tull! Tull!
Tull!' were ignored and--worse--some unannounced opening act took
centre stage, alone in the spotlight with an acoustic guitar,
playing really cheesy folk songs.
This weirdly dressed sissy boy strummed and sang as the crowd
rioted, surging forward and pelting the poor bastard with
their empties and screaming for 'Tull! TULL! TUULLL!!!'
louder than ever.
'Oh, you want to hear Jethro Tull,'
the folkie said, as if just then clueing into the cause
of the mob's mass hysteria. 'I know one of their songs!'
He then actually started playing the acoustic guitar intro
to 'Thick As A Brick' an act of sacrilege.
Just as the crowd was about to pounce and pound into puree
this opening act interloper, he finished the quiet acoustic
guitar intro riff and--BOOM!--the stage lights up and the rest
of Tull kicked in at full force. The band had been onstage all
along hidden by darkness. And this folkie fool that the crowd
almost killed was, of course, Tull frontman Ian Anderson himself."
- William Burrill


Remember: Life is a long song. But the tune ends too soon for us all. [/repeat]

Read more: thejethrotullboard.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=lyrics&thread=40&page=1#2688#ixzz1CdPqdNmm

[Nursie Dear]

What a dream! Far to young to see a show like that in 72. Although at one point wilst with my parents visiting my older brother at his flop house he did stick a pair of head phones on my and spun TAAB. Once again it made my brain ache and I liked it! My first Tull show was in 76 and I think is was the SFTW tour. Most excellent live music I have ever been privilaged to hear! A bit of enhancement just made it that much better!

[TM]

Being too young to see Tull in 1972 I've really enjoyed reading this thread.

With word of the upcoming Thick As A Brick 40th anniversary tour next year, it will be interesting to see if this tour generates greater interest. It wouldn't surprise me to see Tull playing to larger audiences on this one.

[Nonfatman]

Jan 31, 2011 12:41:01 GMT -5 Nursie Dear said:

What a dream! Far to young to see a show like that in 72. Although at one point wilst with my parents visiting my older brother at his flop house he did stick a pair of head phones on my and spun TAAB. Once again it made my brain ache and I liked it! My first Tull show was in 76 and I think is was the SFTW tour. Most excellent live music I have ever been privilaged to hear! A bit of enhancement just made it that much better!

Welcome to The Jethro Tull Board, John, and thanks for making the jump over from Facebook! I can see that you've already gotten the hang of posting, and I have read your first few posts with interest.

Like you and Paul, I was too young to see Tull for the Thick as a Brick tour, and didn't see my first live show until 1977 on the SFTW tour, two or three years after I first discovered them.

That's why the 2012 tour looks so great.....Tull will be doing the entire Thick as a Brick album from cover to cover for the first time in nearly 40 years. I do hope, for your sake, that they hit Salt Lake City for that one, but even if they don't, you may have to take a road trip!



Jeff

[Nursie Dear]

ood heads up Jeff. Thanx! I will have to get in touch with my best friend Bill and plan a trip together. In 1978 we took summer jobs in Jackson Hole Wy. We spent many a day tripping around Grand Teton ntl. park with TAAB blasting as we sang along word for word! We would even do little shows for the local girls at the camp ground as we made up Shakespearian moves to it. I know most of my fellow Tullies have never seen the Grand Tetons. The veiw from the Snake River Valley is perhaps the most beautiful vista in the world! Perfect for Tull!

[Nursie Dear]

lOVE THE cAT fISH AND 05 ONES!

[Standupguy]

I was at both the Aqualung and TAAB Seattle concerts. I recall that when Ian was playing the flute solo there was someone out in the audience banging a tambourine. After about 30 seconds, Ian put down the flute and said, "If you don't stop banging that tambourine, I'm going to come down there and break your fucking neck!" And, was it the TAAB concert where at the end of the show, the telephone rang and Ian picked it up saying, "It's for you." and disappeared?

[Mttbsh]

Jan 13, 2013 14:21:54 GMT -5 Standupguy said:

I was at both the Aqualung and TAAB Seattle concerts. I recall that when Ian was playing the flute solo there was someone out in the audience banging a tambourine. After about 30 seconds, Ian put down the flute and said, "If you don't stop banging that tambourine, I'm going to come down there and break your fucking neck!" And, was it the TAAB concert where at the end of the show, the telephone rang and Ian picked it up saying, "It's for you." and disappeared?

If memory serves, when Ian answered the Tullaphone he asked if there was "a Mike Nelson in the audience, there's a fish on the line" and soon a roadie fully clad in dripping scuba gear came on stage and took the call during TAAB. It was the next year, at the very end of the Passion Play concert that the phone, which had been lurking on stage through the whole show, rang and Ian answered and said "it's for you"

Those '71, '72 and '73 Seattle shows made me a lifelong fan. Nice to know you were there too Standupguy!

Matt

[Deleted]

Jan 31, 2011 0:33:38 GMT -5 Mttbsh said:

My very first rock concert was Tull on the Aqualung tour, here in Seattle WA, with Yes opening the show. I was very impressed with Yes's set, but entirely unprepared for that moment in Tull's opening song "My God" when Ian kicked the stool away and the whole band exploded onto the stage. Jeffrey and Martin both lept out into spotlights, Jeffrey wearing huge pink sunglasses and Martin in a houndstooth suit just tearing it up on guitar. The sheer power, volume, intensity and stage presence of Tull was a complete sensory overload to a 15 year old kid. I could only compare it to when the Blue Angels would do a 600 MPH precision fly-over and practically light your hair on fire.

And yet it was the following year, on the TAAB tour, that Tull left their greatest impression. I had ingested something to "enhance" the experience, had a seat very near the stage and from the moment the band took the stage (disguised as trenchcoat-clad stage workers) it was a magical experience. In fact the performance of Thick as a Brick that night was the finest hour in all my 40 years of concerts. Of course it wasn't just the music - there was the Tullaphone answered by a dripping wet frogman, the non-rabbit, the beach tent, the weather report and the other zany antics that all wove seemlessly into the Brick.

The band seemed to have grown much tighter from the previous year, and they mesmerized the audience - Ian was the madman, flying and twirling in perfect time with the music, conducting with his flute like a baton, playing ferociously in strobe lights. My favorite moment was when John Evans slid across the stage on his knees to pray at at the feet of Martin Barre whose guitar solo reached into the statosphere and beyond. During particularly wild passages John would run about the stage, jumping and waving his arms, only to be led back to his organ by Ian. Crosseyed Mary, A New Day Yesterday, Aqualung, Windup, Locomotive Breath -all were played with such perfection and intensity that when it was all over the audience was left exhausted. 1972, in my opinion, was Tull 's peak, their stage performance was the best of any rock band I've ever seen. Although I attended their concerts for many years afterward, most all of them excellent (at least through the seventies) that TAAB show was the one that stood head and shoulders above the others. Do any of you feel the same way?

I guess that besides having a natural attraction to Tull music the reason I loved the band so much was that, ulike other "progressive" bands of the era, they never took themselves seriously. They poked fun as much at themselves as they did at their audiences. They were lilke circus clowns who came on like complete goofballs, yet, as musicians, were in a whole different league as musicians than their contemporaries. And while other bands struggled to perform their albums live, the stage was where Tull came alive; to me their albums were like toned-down souverniers of their concerts, which my friends and I looked forward to for months ahead of time.

I've wondered, if I were able to travel back in time and experience that June 11, 1972 concert again as a 55 year old, would I enjoy it as much? was it the "enhancement"? was I fooled by a band that knew that enough volume, motion, flashy solos and stage business would drive any 16 year old ga ga?
Nah, I have a feeling I would enjoy it as much today as I did back then.

Where else but here on the Tull Board would I even consider indulging myself so endlessly in a favorite memory from my youth? Ilt's been almost 40 years and yet I remember the whole evening quite vividly. It really was magical.

Matt

I don't know where I was when this was posted but I just have to say that Matt you and I have had completely parallel experiences and feelings about both 71 and then the 72 shows.
I think I could only add small details to your post as my 72 show was just 7 days later (LA) but over most all of it I'd say "Your'e voicing my memories!" right down to the enhancements, and yes I remember these 2 nights very vividly. Really nice post, I couldnt improve on it.
Darin

[Tullabye]

I have mixed memories. I had a great time camping out for tickets with all of my buddies but had no money to buy a ticket and didn't go. After missing out I got 8th row tickets for PP the following year and have been more than hooked ever since. By the way Darin, I did make it to the superb Long Beach show last year but it took much longer from San Clemente to get there than anticipated and i was paranoid about being late. What a show and what a venue! I'll catch you for a beer the next time on me and maybe we can plan on jamming (know many Tull tunes on acoustic guitar and love to sing them), need a flute player to make it really special.

[Heathcliffe]

The Songs from the Wood tour was the first one I saw and it was fantastic.

[Biggles]

Matt, your'e right on point! TAAB, May 8th, 1972 Cobo Hall, Detroit, Mi. USA, Sold out show with over 1,000 people turned away. Tickets were $6.50.

I was 16 years old and that show changed my life.

[Lucas]

I love the perfomance of the band in 72. Even if only from a bootleg and with no images but still pictures! Heehehehehe