John BungeyIf the czars of musical fashion had their way, Jethro Tull would have ceased to exist decades ago. Tull music is a fanciful melange of prog rock, metal and folk, laced with classical lite and a smattering of Monty Python whimsy. The White Stripes they are not. The band haven't had a Top Ten single since 1970 and their most famous song (Aqualung) portrays - perhaps rather too sympathetically - a pervert on a park bench. Oh, and their oeuvre is almost entirely undanceable.
And yet ... Ian Anderson and his troupe are currently embarked on a globe-straddling 40th anniversary tour, packing out the enormodomes of America en route. In the febrile world of pop, where the average NME-endorsed hipster crashes and burns after a couple of indie hits, the Tull are a ruggedly reliable stock, playing 70-plus gigs every year and quietly flogging 60 million-plus albums. Celebrity fans range from Nick Cave and Stephen King to Geoff Hoon and Russia's President-elect.
So, in the face of near-total media indifference in their homeland, how has Anderson, 60, contrived such a successful career? Culled from a meeting at his discreetly splendid Wiltshire pile, amid his 400-acre farm, here are a few tips to success the Jethro Tull way.
Have a unique selling point
Amid a scrum of sweaty boogie bands heading from the provinces to London in 1967 only one had a man playing flute. On one leg. “It made us stand out,” says Anderson. This delicate instrument didn't stop them playing very loudly on occasion and in 1989 they beat Metallica to the first Grammy for heavy metal. “Yes, everyone was slightly surprised at that.”
Put on a show
“In 1972 we were one of the first bands to do a production tour with some theatricality. It was really just Alice Cooper and us. Back then you didn't have huge video screens. That came in '75 and again we were one of the first with a system called Tullivision.” Theatricality included making an entrance in rabbit suits and hiring Pan's People.
Just say no
“I never touched drugs. The guy sitting next to me at art college in Blackpool had needle marks down his arm. I remember saying, ‘Oh, what's that?' I knew there were perils out there from an early age. Around the time of the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970 they were dropping like flies - people we shared a stage with - Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison.
“We did the last night of the festival with Hendrix, almost his last show - the moment he appeared on stage you could tell he was not a happy bunny.”
Don't give up
“The closest I've ever been to thinking ‘This is enough' was on the tour for Thick as a Brick [famously bonkers 1972 concept album] in America. By then I was playing quite a lot of acoustic passages. Trying to cope with screeching, hooting people who think they're at a football game I found deeply unpleasant. Having 10,000 people whistling is completely overpowering.” The band's response in America was to turn up the riffs - hence that Grammy.
Don't follow trends
When punk came along, Jethro Tull opted to go folkie with Songs from the Wood. “We'd seen all that [punk] before. It was no surprise. We'd played alongside the MC5 in 1969, who were the prototype. They didn't spit; the bass player used to have a shit on stage. Every night. In the same number. Offstage they were just like a bunch of kids from next door and rather in awe of us.”
Become a global brand
Rock'n'roll isn't just London and New York. “I've always liked the idea of playing in places that shaped the era that I grew up in. It was important for me to visit the Eastern Bloc in the 1980s, so too India, Israel - and South America with its history of communism and fascism. People forget how subversive rock music was once considered. I've had people come to me with their albums in Chile and they've said: ‘If I'd been found with this I'd have gone to jail.' Or even worse: ‘I had a friend who had a copy of Aqualung and we never saw him again.'”
Do it yourself
“It came to my awareness early on that if you employ managers and tour managers you end up spending an awful lot more money than you need to. You'd get booked into hotels just because they had the best commission, not because they were near the show or the airport. I also got fed up with the idea that you'd have roadies to pack and carry your suitcases. You can sometimes draw from the murky depths this amazing ability to actually get on the right aeroplane yourself.” Anderson has been managing himself since the midSeventies, his wife, Shona, does the books and his son, James, is promoting the British leg of the current tour.
It helps if you started at the Marquee Club in 1968
Not much use to today's Facebook hopefuls but as Anderson points out: “Deep Purple, Fleetwood Mac, Yes, King Crimson, Jethro Tull all began there and are still working. It was an incredibly inventive era, one that perhaps we're only beginning to really appreciate now.”
Know your fans
Fans age with a band. “Whether they like it or not, Duran Duran's core audience is now 40-year-old mums,” Anderson says. But contrary to rumour, Tull fans are not all middle-aged gents in real-ale T-shirts. “We are not constricted by a particular age group. We have a lot of Asians but not many black people. It's mixed gender but not so mixed that we have a lot of gays. There are bands with a strong gay following, which makes a difference to the numbers.” Clearly all those years in tights and codpiece did not work.
Have a life off stage
Anderson famously ran a successful salmon-farming business in Scotland, now sold. Hobbies include growing hot chillis and the study and conservation of the 26 species of small wildcats in the world.
Keep it real
“I don't want to live in my stately home in the country and have Waitrose deliver to me. On Friday morning I'll be with my wife in the Toyota Prius at Cirencester Waitrose. That's part of being out there.”
Anderson doesn't travel on the tour bus, preferring to journey alone on the train. “What you encounter on the frequently dodgy streets around stations is a way of keeping in touch with British society.”
Win friends and influence people
Jethro Tull have some unlikely political fans, including Geoff Hoon. “I'm not exactly happy about his stance on Iraq when he was Defence Secretary. Still, it's hard to dislike someone who has been gushing how much he likes your stuff ... But God forbid that Tony Blair owns one of my albums.”
The Russian President-elect Dmitri Medvedev has named Tull as one of his four favourite groups. In fact they are a hit generally with the big men of Russia - except one. In 1991 Anderson was photographed with the Mayor of St Petersburg. “He seemed like an OK, urbane character but on the edge of this photo is this face, it's an evil-looking guy who is his bodyguard. He's staring at me and clearly doesn't like me. Many years later someone showed me the picture again and said, ‘Do you recognise that face on the edge of the photo?' It was Vladimir Putin in his days as a KGB minder.”
For tour dates see http://www.j-tull.com/
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