Jethro Tull 40th Anniversary Tour Newcastle City Hall 2008

Jethro Tull 40th Anniversary Tour Newcastle City Hall 2008
2008 was Jethro Tull’s 40th anniversary year, and they toured extensively to celebrate this momentous occasion. The tour featured special guests on some of the dates, with former Tull members Mick Abrahams, Clive Bunker, Dave Pegg, and Barrie Barlow all putting in an appearance at various venues. Jeffrey Hammond attended one of the gigs but did not appear on stage with the band. A few non-Tull members also joined as guests at some of the gigs including Greg Lake, Seth Lakeman and Fish. There were no special guests at the Newcastle gig, the band being joined by Heather Findlay (vocals) and Brian Josh (guitars) from Mostly Autumn. Mostly Autumn started the show with four songs: Evergreen; Yellow Time; Caught in A Fold; and Hero’s Never Die. They were joined by Tull for two of their four songs. The Tull set was, as you would expect for a 40th Anniversary Tour, a selection of songs from throughout their career. Setlist: My Sunday Feeling, Living In The Past, So Much Trouble, Serenade To A Cuckoo, Nursie, A Song For Jeffrey, A New Day Yesterday (including Kelpie), Bourée. Interval. For A Thousand Mothers, We Used To Know/With You There To Help Me, Dharma For One (incl. drum solo and Count The Chickens), Heavy Horses, Farm On The Freeway, Thick As A Brick, Aqualung, Locomotive Breath. This was a great show, with heavy use of video images from the early days of the Jethro Tull. Ian’s voice was also pretty good, much better than some of the times I have seen him recently, where it has been obvious that he has had some difficulty in reaching some of the high notes. That concludes my Jethro Tull memories for now. I have seen the band twice since then, twice in 2010, and have also seen Ian Anderson perform Thick as a Brick recently. I’ve already posted on those gigs. I hope we get a chance to see Ian and Martin together again as Tull. I don’t know what has happened in recent times, but it has resulted in two versions of Jethro Tull treading the boards, in the form of “Ian Anderson plays Jethro Tull” and “Martin Barre’s New Day” (who I have yet to see in concert, something I must put right soon). It would be great to see them together again as Jethro Tull. That band is so important to me, and many others.