Saw them last night and it was by far the single best show/tour I’ve seen of theirs in 15 years.
Truly incredible. They’ve got a hot-shit violinist (Lucia Micarelli) who teams with Ian for one unreal show. I think I spelled it right.
When they launced into the front of Bohemian Rhapsody, the audience was stunned for moment. “Whoa. What is this?”
Well…that girl did the Mercury vocals on the violin and it was stunning.
Then Ian and she did another stunner: covered Led Zepplin’s Kashmir
Holy shit!
The place went bonkers.
I was totally blown away. I hope they record it.
And anyone who goes on this tour gets a free CD of their Aqualung-Live CD, which was redone for satellite radio. It’s very cool, too.
That’s why the Zepplin tune: when Tull toured in 1970 for Aqualung, they were the opening act for Zepplin.
Can you imagine that show? I know two people who went and they describe it as sureal.
By the way…
Ian played only the silver flute, not a sight of Olwell’s bamboo this trip.
But his playing was very very good this time. Crisp and clear with terrific ornaments. His dynamics have gotten much better.
I think it’s the girl.
She played barefoot the whole show.
His live version of Mother Goose had me tapping my foot in my damn sleep! That’s how I woke up.
He is 58 years old…
and took up the flute when he was about 20 (apparently at the urging of a friend…I thought it was his daughter, but that wouldnt’ fit)
Never taken a lesson, he’s said.
Thought it was a rather easy instrument to learn for the stage.
Hmmm
I have a friend who communicates with him a lot about flutes and he’s offered Anderson a shot at antique Boehm-system wood flutes (can you imagine his sound!?). Apparently Anderson said he’s never found an antique flute that plays in tune. Unknown how many he’s looked at and tried.
I read an interview with him, and he related how his son was taking proper flute lessons and was teaching him how to do things right. He noted that a lot of things were much easier to do on a Boehm when done the proper way.
I’m a bit bummed with the tour web site. It says Canada/US tour, but the dates shown are all American. I’ve had the whole War Child album running through my head since I first saw this thread.
son?
I remember it as a daughter.
Well, either way…it’s amusing nevertheless.
I’ve been culling albums (and cassettes and…GASP…8-tracks!) searching for memories the last two days.
Yesterday it was in the car with the cassette copy that I made of vinyl long long ago of a large variety of “best of” that I liked and worked on.
I can recall standing in my bedroom, stereo blasting from two poor-by-today’s-standards speakers hung from a wall, with me standing between them to get the best sound and playing along…grunts, wheezes, snarls and all!
My Mother thought I was nuts, jumping about, pumping the flute in the air and making a rather unpleasant racket.
I recall replaying portions of Thick as a Brick so many times it wore the tape thin. And I won’t even go into how frequently I played through My God and Hymn 43 from Aqualung.
Ah, I wish I could go hear him…he and Jean-Pierre Rampal are the two beings who inspired me to play the flute in the first place. My favorite album by Tull (currently) Songs from the Wood, although I love This Was, also.
