Post by TM on May 8, 2011 21:50:06 GMT -5
This is great Q&A posted by permission from a fellow named Sean from the bass-guitar forum below.
acapella.harmony-central.com/showthread.php?1814131-Attention-all-Tull-Fans-The-Glenn-Cornick-Interview
Sean: So Glenn, let’s start out by telling me a bit of biographical information about you. Where were you born?
Glenn Cornick: I was born April 23 1947 in Barrow in Furness, Cumbria, England although my parents' home at the time was on an island in Scotland.
(My mother was visiting her mother when I was born early)
Sean: What was it like growing up there?
Glenn Cornick: I spent my first 3 years in a town called Port Bannatyne on the Isle of Bute in Scotland and then moved in with our Grandparents in Barrow in Furness.It was soon after the end of WWII and things were not yet back to normal in Britain. Food was still rationed and remained so until I was about 9 years old and when we used to go out and play, we would play on bombsites where homes had been destroyed during the War or in disused bomb shelters! It was a medium sized industrial town on the fringes of one of the most beautiful parts of Britain, the Lake District, so we were just minutes walk away from the open countryside and farms and such. It was also rather cut off so we didn't get many people passing through. We did however have one club where top groups came and played so when I was in my teens, I could see the best of the British bands.
Sean: Where did you go to school? What was school in Britain like “back in the day?”
Glenn Cornick: I went to school in Barrow and as I reached the Secondary School level (High School in the USA) I went to an all boys school which was fairly standard for the times. Discipline was fairly strict and the academic standards were quite high and I did fairly well until I discovered rock music and pubs at which point my academics rapidly declined!
Sean: When did you first start playing bass?
Glenn Cornick: I first acquired a guitar when I was about 15. It was a Selmer steel string acoustic and I worked on it for about a year and then acquired a Futurama II - a cheap Fender copy from Czechoslovakia, popular at the time in Britain. I worked some more with that and then started to look for a job playing rhythm guitar. There was nothing available locally but there were openings for bass players so I traded the Futurama for a Framus Bass and did a gig the very first night. I can't imagine how badly I must have sounded!
Sean: How did you get into Gibson basses?
Glenn Cornick: After the Framus, I got a Hofner Beatle Bass - considered cool at the time as you couldn't get them in Britain (I bought mine in Holland) though barely an improvement over the Framus. After that it was a salmon pink 62 Precision - how I wish I still had that one - as good an instrument as I have ever owned. At that time though, Fender basses were not considered hip although I played Fenders till 69. On our first American tour, I needed to replace my thrashed Jazz/ Precision hybrid bass that I had used on This Was and fancied an EB3 so I bought one from Sam Ash Music (at that time just one store on Long Island.) I liked it and used it most of the time though certain songs were better on a Fender (amongst others, Bourrée) Unfortunately Gibsons have always been unreliable and I had to get a spare guitar so I picked up the EB 2 CD that I am playing on the cover of Benefit. It turned out to be the worst bass I have ever owned and in all the time I owned it, was never played on stage and only once on record.
Sean: Your playing on the Isle of Wight 1970 performance reminds me a lot of Jack Bruce, even though you’re using the Thunderbird and not the EB-3. However, your show opening for The Who a few months earlier, you were using the EB-3, and your sound wasn’t nearly as distorted. What accounted for the difference?
Glenn Cornick: I'd always wanted a Thunderbird since I saw the Merseybeats playing them in 64? We didn't really know what they were in Britain so they were always known as Upside Down Gibsons (funnily enough, the later non reverse Firebirds were then christened Right Way Up Gibsons!) I finally found one in late in 1970 and loved it. I loved the distorted sound which I really got from my friend Felix Pappalardi (Mountain) and not from Jack Bruce. I always thought Jack Bruce was a terrible overplayer so I'm not a big fan of his.
Sean: When did you start playing in bands? What were they called?
Glenn Cornick: The first real band I played in was called the Vikings and I'm still friends with most of the guys after all these years. They went on to have some minor success in Britain under the name Chapter Five and had a couple of 45's that are quite collectible on the Northern Soul scene. I was then with another Barrow band, Formula One and then took off for Blackpool, a seaside town in Northern England - Englands answer to Atlantic City! I played with a couple of bands there including the Hobos and the Executives before meeting John Evans and joining the John Evan Band.
Sean: Did anybody from those bands go on to other noteworthy bands?
Glenn Cornick:My friend Tony Williams from the Executives went on to be a founder member of Stealer's Wheel (Stuck in the Middle with You) and Roy Carr from the Executives went on to become a well known rock writer and now an important publisher. Tony Williams also played bass with Tull on one tour (Songs from the Wood, I think) while John Glascock was sick.
Sean: When and where did you first meet Ian Anderson, Clive Bunker, Mick Abrahams, and John Evan? What were they like at the time?
Glenn Cornick: I first met John Evans in Blackpool and soon joined the John Evan Band with Ian Anderson on vocals. We eventually moved down South to try to break into the blues scene that was happening then in London. We joined up with Mick Abrahams who we had met before and as Barrie Barlow decided not to stay, he brought in his friend, Clive to play drums. I was very close with John from the start (and have remained so). Ian was never a very social person so I have never been close to him. I've also always got along well with Clive and we've stayed friends. I never ever liked or trusted Mick and still feel the same although we are on acceptable speaking terms.
Sean: What was Mick & Ian’s relationship like? Did you & Clive ever get involved, or did you stay out of it?
Glenn Cornick: There was always tension between Mick and Ian as Mick was always afraid to go beyond his comfort zone of playing basic simple blues and Mick did some most unpleasant things which really alienated the rest of the band. Even Clive realised the need for replacing Mick. There was also tension regarding the fronting of the band and Mick was jealous of Ian's influence. As far as I saw it, we needed to go with the person who wrote the best material and who did the best job for the band and that was obviously Ian.
Sean: What was Martin Barre like when he first joined? Did you and him get along?
Glenn Cornick: Martin was great from the start. Very nervous and shy but always willing to have a go. He became the perfect guitarist for Tull and I can't imagine anyone else doing his job (or sticking it for so long!)
Sean: What were your first tours of the United States like? How did American audiences differ from British audiences?
Glenn Cornick: The first American tour in January 1969 was a real revelation to us. We felt very provincial coming to the States but soon got used to it. We were accepted very well on the East and West Coasts but barely penetrated anything in the middle except maybe Chicago and Detroit. The American audiences at the time were far more stoned than British audiences and musically nowhere near as knowledgeable or sophisticated as European audiences. We were quite surprised that many of the bands we had heard of were actually quite disappointing on stage and would not have been well received back home. American audiences were much more susceptible to what we considered cheap theatrics. We were amazed how little the average American teenager knew about music and how little knowledge they had of the roots of rock music - most of which is, of course, American originated music.
By the second tour, our name had got around a little further and we had become quite accustomed to the touring lifestyle. We played a little further afield but the hotspots were still the coasts and the Great Lakes and each succeeding tour, we covered more ground and, of course, became much better known.
Sean: Jethro Tull have been described as being a very “tame” band offstage, yet you were always described as the “party animal.” Was it just that you were more socially outgoing than the others? If so, did that cause a lot of tension?
Glenn Cornick: That story is somewhat of an exaggeration though the band as a whole were not very social. I was the one, however, who really enjoyed touring and who really thought life on the road was great. When I think of the alcoholics, druggies and womanisers who have been in the band since, I think my exploits pale in comparison! I wasn't aware at the time of any tension but I suppose it was possible with Ian's narrow minded values.
Sean: Here’s the big question everybody wants to know: under what circumstances did you leave Jethro Tull, and why? Did you leave on good terms?
Glenn Cornick: I was fired from the band. At the end of an American tour, we were waiting at Kennedy Airport to fly home and I was taken aside by our manager and told that Ian no longer wanted me in the band. My flight had been changed so that I wouldn't be on the same plane as them and no real reason was given.
Sean: The sound of the bass (and the music, for that matter) changed dramatically after you left. What did you think of the bassplayers that followed you, notably Jeffery Hammond-Hammond and John Glascock?
Glenn Cornick: I had known Jeffrey from the old days and, though, he is a great guy and a great artist, he has never made claim to being a bass player so he played whatever Ian told him and Ian has absolutely no conception of bass playing. In case anyone is wondering, everything that I ever played with Tull was my own creation with no input from Ian. I don't know much about John Glascock's playing as I had stopped listening to the band by then. I've barely heard anything they've done since Thick as a Brick. I saw John play once with Carmen but don't remember much of them.
I had someone ask recently which songs I had played bass on. I told them that, if they could hum the bass line, it was probably me! No one since has has used the bass line as a melodic contribution to the songs.
Sean: I know you met Jeffery, but did you ever meet John Glascock? I’m just curious as to what he was like (he’s my second favorite Tull bassist).
Glenn Cornick: No, I never met John but, funnily enough, I played for a while with his brother, Brian who plays drums and who I believe was also originally with Carmen so I did hear a lot about John (who was by that time already dead).
Sean: Are you still friends with your old bandmates?
Glenn Cornick: I'm still best of friends with John (Evan) though I don't get to see him much since he moved to Australia and I'm still close with Clive and usually stay with him for a few days whenever I'm in Britain. I even toured with Clive last year when I put my old band Wild Turkey back together. I visited Barrie a couple of years ago and it was great to see him (don't forget we had played together in the old days in the John Evan Band). I don't get to see anyone else from those days but I'm on good terms with Dave Pegg, Doane Perry and Jonathan Noyce from later days. I'd still be happy to see Martin but we just never have the chance to meet.
Sean: Well Glenn, thank you for having this interview with me. You are officially my favorite bassplayer ever for doing this for me.
Glenn Cornick: Merry Christmas
acapella.harmony-central.com/showthread.php?1814131-Attention-all-Tull-Fans-The-Glenn-Cornick-Interview
Sean: So Glenn, let’s start out by telling me a bit of biographical information about you. Where were you born?
Glenn Cornick: I was born April 23 1947 in Barrow in Furness, Cumbria, England although my parents' home at the time was on an island in Scotland.
(My mother was visiting her mother when I was born early)
Sean: What was it like growing up there?
Glenn Cornick: I spent my first 3 years in a town called Port Bannatyne on the Isle of Bute in Scotland and then moved in with our Grandparents in Barrow in Furness.It was soon after the end of WWII and things were not yet back to normal in Britain. Food was still rationed and remained so until I was about 9 years old and when we used to go out and play, we would play on bombsites where homes had been destroyed during the War or in disused bomb shelters! It was a medium sized industrial town on the fringes of one of the most beautiful parts of Britain, the Lake District, so we were just minutes walk away from the open countryside and farms and such. It was also rather cut off so we didn't get many people passing through. We did however have one club where top groups came and played so when I was in my teens, I could see the best of the British bands.
Sean: Where did you go to school? What was school in Britain like “back in the day?”
Glenn Cornick: I went to school in Barrow and as I reached the Secondary School level (High School in the USA) I went to an all boys school which was fairly standard for the times. Discipline was fairly strict and the academic standards were quite high and I did fairly well until I discovered rock music and pubs at which point my academics rapidly declined!
Sean: When did you first start playing bass?
Glenn Cornick: I first acquired a guitar when I was about 15. It was a Selmer steel string acoustic and I worked on it for about a year and then acquired a Futurama II - a cheap Fender copy from Czechoslovakia, popular at the time in Britain. I worked some more with that and then started to look for a job playing rhythm guitar. There was nothing available locally but there were openings for bass players so I traded the Futurama for a Framus Bass and did a gig the very first night. I can't imagine how badly I must have sounded!
Sean: How did you get into Gibson basses?
Glenn Cornick: After the Framus, I got a Hofner Beatle Bass - considered cool at the time as you couldn't get them in Britain (I bought mine in Holland) though barely an improvement over the Framus. After that it was a salmon pink 62 Precision - how I wish I still had that one - as good an instrument as I have ever owned. At that time though, Fender basses were not considered hip although I played Fenders till 69. On our first American tour, I needed to replace my thrashed Jazz/ Precision hybrid bass that I had used on This Was and fancied an EB3 so I bought one from Sam Ash Music (at that time just one store on Long Island.) I liked it and used it most of the time though certain songs were better on a Fender (amongst others, Bourrée) Unfortunately Gibsons have always been unreliable and I had to get a spare guitar so I picked up the EB 2 CD that I am playing on the cover of Benefit. It turned out to be the worst bass I have ever owned and in all the time I owned it, was never played on stage and only once on record.
Sean: Your playing on the Isle of Wight 1970 performance reminds me a lot of Jack Bruce, even though you’re using the Thunderbird and not the EB-3. However, your show opening for The Who a few months earlier, you were using the EB-3, and your sound wasn’t nearly as distorted. What accounted for the difference?
Glenn Cornick: I'd always wanted a Thunderbird since I saw the Merseybeats playing them in 64? We didn't really know what they were in Britain so they were always known as Upside Down Gibsons (funnily enough, the later non reverse Firebirds were then christened Right Way Up Gibsons!) I finally found one in late in 1970 and loved it. I loved the distorted sound which I really got from my friend Felix Pappalardi (Mountain) and not from Jack Bruce. I always thought Jack Bruce was a terrible overplayer so I'm not a big fan of his.
Sean: When did you start playing in bands? What were they called?
Glenn Cornick: The first real band I played in was called the Vikings and I'm still friends with most of the guys after all these years. They went on to have some minor success in Britain under the name Chapter Five and had a couple of 45's that are quite collectible on the Northern Soul scene. I was then with another Barrow band, Formula One and then took off for Blackpool, a seaside town in Northern England - Englands answer to Atlantic City! I played with a couple of bands there including the Hobos and the Executives before meeting John Evans and joining the John Evan Band.
Sean: Did anybody from those bands go on to other noteworthy bands?
Glenn Cornick:My friend Tony Williams from the Executives went on to be a founder member of Stealer's Wheel (Stuck in the Middle with You) and Roy Carr from the Executives went on to become a well known rock writer and now an important publisher. Tony Williams also played bass with Tull on one tour (Songs from the Wood, I think) while John Glascock was sick.
Sean: When and where did you first meet Ian Anderson, Clive Bunker, Mick Abrahams, and John Evan? What were they like at the time?
Glenn Cornick: I first met John Evans in Blackpool and soon joined the John Evan Band with Ian Anderson on vocals. We eventually moved down South to try to break into the blues scene that was happening then in London. We joined up with Mick Abrahams who we had met before and as Barrie Barlow decided not to stay, he brought in his friend, Clive to play drums. I was very close with John from the start (and have remained so). Ian was never a very social person so I have never been close to him. I've also always got along well with Clive and we've stayed friends. I never ever liked or trusted Mick and still feel the same although we are on acceptable speaking terms.
Sean: What was Mick & Ian’s relationship like? Did you & Clive ever get involved, or did you stay out of it?
Glenn Cornick: There was always tension between Mick and Ian as Mick was always afraid to go beyond his comfort zone of playing basic simple blues and Mick did some most unpleasant things which really alienated the rest of the band. Even Clive realised the need for replacing Mick. There was also tension regarding the fronting of the band and Mick was jealous of Ian's influence. As far as I saw it, we needed to go with the person who wrote the best material and who did the best job for the band and that was obviously Ian.
Sean: What was Martin Barre like when he first joined? Did you and him get along?
Glenn Cornick: Martin was great from the start. Very nervous and shy but always willing to have a go. He became the perfect guitarist for Tull and I can't imagine anyone else doing his job (or sticking it for so long!)
Sean: What were your first tours of the United States like? How did American audiences differ from British audiences?
Glenn Cornick: The first American tour in January 1969 was a real revelation to us. We felt very provincial coming to the States but soon got used to it. We were accepted very well on the East and West Coasts but barely penetrated anything in the middle except maybe Chicago and Detroit. The American audiences at the time were far more stoned than British audiences and musically nowhere near as knowledgeable or sophisticated as European audiences. We were quite surprised that many of the bands we had heard of were actually quite disappointing on stage and would not have been well received back home. American audiences were much more susceptible to what we considered cheap theatrics. We were amazed how little the average American teenager knew about music and how little knowledge they had of the roots of rock music - most of which is, of course, American originated music.
By the second tour, our name had got around a little further and we had become quite accustomed to the touring lifestyle. We played a little further afield but the hotspots were still the coasts and the Great Lakes and each succeeding tour, we covered more ground and, of course, became much better known.
Sean: Jethro Tull have been described as being a very “tame” band offstage, yet you were always described as the “party animal.” Was it just that you were more socially outgoing than the others? If so, did that cause a lot of tension?
Glenn Cornick: That story is somewhat of an exaggeration though the band as a whole were not very social. I was the one, however, who really enjoyed touring and who really thought life on the road was great. When I think of the alcoholics, druggies and womanisers who have been in the band since, I think my exploits pale in comparison! I wasn't aware at the time of any tension but I suppose it was possible with Ian's narrow minded values.
Sean: Here’s the big question everybody wants to know: under what circumstances did you leave Jethro Tull, and why? Did you leave on good terms?
Glenn Cornick: I was fired from the band. At the end of an American tour, we were waiting at Kennedy Airport to fly home and I was taken aside by our manager and told that Ian no longer wanted me in the band. My flight had been changed so that I wouldn't be on the same plane as them and no real reason was given.
Sean: The sound of the bass (and the music, for that matter) changed dramatically after you left. What did you think of the bassplayers that followed you, notably Jeffery Hammond-Hammond and John Glascock?
Glenn Cornick: I had known Jeffrey from the old days and, though, he is a great guy and a great artist, he has never made claim to being a bass player so he played whatever Ian told him and Ian has absolutely no conception of bass playing. In case anyone is wondering, everything that I ever played with Tull was my own creation with no input from Ian. I don't know much about John Glascock's playing as I had stopped listening to the band by then. I've barely heard anything they've done since Thick as a Brick. I saw John play once with Carmen but don't remember much of them.
I had someone ask recently which songs I had played bass on. I told them that, if they could hum the bass line, it was probably me! No one since has has used the bass line as a melodic contribution to the songs.
Sean: I know you met Jeffery, but did you ever meet John Glascock? I’m just curious as to what he was like (he’s my second favorite Tull bassist).
Glenn Cornick: No, I never met John but, funnily enough, I played for a while with his brother, Brian who plays drums and who I believe was also originally with Carmen so I did hear a lot about John (who was by that time already dead).
Sean: Are you still friends with your old bandmates?
Glenn Cornick: I'm still best of friends with John (Evan) though I don't get to see him much since he moved to Australia and I'm still close with Clive and usually stay with him for a few days whenever I'm in Britain. I even toured with Clive last year when I put my old band Wild Turkey back together. I visited Barrie a couple of years ago and it was great to see him (don't forget we had played together in the old days in the John Evan Band). I don't get to see anyone else from those days but I'm on good terms with Dave Pegg, Doane Perry and Jonathan Noyce from later days. I'd still be happy to see Martin but we just never have the chance to meet.
Sean: Well Glenn, thank you for having this interview with me. You are officially my favorite bassplayer ever for doing this for me.
Glenn Cornick: Merry Christmas
