News Update: October 1999
The busy period of touring continues with the band returning from the USA to play concerts in Holland, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Austria and Germany, Italy and the UK.
The US dates were punctuated by the odd hurricane, as usual, and some unseasonal cold weather (so the promoter tried to assure us) in Boise, Idaho and Missoula, Montana. The temperature dropped to four degrees above freezing in Missoula and jolly sore fingers were had by all as we tried to keep circulation going to aging limbs and fragile extremities.
The last few dates included a recorded show for Westwood One’s syndicated radio show and a House of Blues video webcast, so watch out for those events in due course on your local radio station and the HOB site on the web.
The Euro-tour began with a recorded TV special for Holland’s 2 Metre Session show and this will be broadcast just before Christmas in the Netherlands. Big help to those of you in New Jersey, I know. But doubtless we will both get a bootleg video from someone we love in the Christmas stocking. In fact, she might even be wearing both of them.
Now back in Deutschland for the next couple of weeks, the Tull-boys-true are suitably clad for the onset of winter, and Monsieur Du Barre is double-wrapped for the morning run and casual sex, should Madamoiselle Du Barre feel frisky, that is.
Jonathan Noyce has just given birth to a fancy Swiss watch of considerable monetary value, so muggers, thieves and vagabonds take note. Such goods, opportunistically appropriated in this way, can be “fenced” at a most reasonable rate by Tom Lynch at merchandising, and Jon might even be able to buy his watch back from Tom at an outstanding bargain price. Twice as much fun, Jonno-boy.
Martin is fully recovered (for now) from his severe and ground-breaking medical case of Cheesitis Necrosis Maximus and thanks you all for the get-well-soon E-mails and messages. He would have thanked you even more for some real males and massages, but is grateful for any attention he can get.
Doane Perry has had two bad hair days and an appalling luggage day and, according to reliable witnesses, tantrummed and tribulated on the overnight bus which he shares with the long-suffering crew on such occasions. Twice, the much promised Indian restaurant luncheon failed to materialise due to them being closed in Utrecht and Feldkirch but he will get lucky in Berlin or, at least, Bristol.
Andy Giddings is webbing madly to get some updates on the site for the second half of the Euro-tour and working on some recording plans of his own for next year.
The Ian Anderson solo acoustic album, “The Secret Language Of Birds” is now due for release on the 7th of March. This slight delay is due to the US record company needing a little extra time to prepare promotion and marketing plans. (The USA is such a big country, you see.) I will undertake a month of promotion in Europe and the US from the last week of February to the last week of March. There will be no concert dates as such to promote the solo album, but several tracks will be featured in the forthcoming tours scheduled for the Spring and early Summer of 2000.
At the time of writing this, dates have now been confirmed for Stockholm, Copenhagen, Helsinki and Oslo, followed by several dates in Poland, Czech and Slovenia. These shows are to take place from the end of April to mid-May. A South and Central America tour is being considered as well as dates in Spain and Portugal in June. Dates in the USA for the period end-of-June through first half of August are likely. The proposed theatre tour of US cities in February/March will NOT take place due to the promotion tour for the IA solo record. Just can’t fit it all in,so I have to prioritize given the available time. Somewhere in the first half of the year, plans must be laid for the gradual remastering of the entire Tull catalogue, as well as some redefined best-of albums, both studio and live. This process will be phased over the next couple of years due to the enormity of the task, but archiving the material as 24-bit 96K masters has to happen soon.
New projects are being discussed during the next few months, so it will be a busy time as always for us humble servants and artistes.
There are always changes to these schedules, so be patient if any of the proposals do not come to pass. It just seems better to let you know of the stuff going on at any time, rather than have you assume that all has gone strangely quiet.
The next few weeks leading up to Christmas are a little easier for us, since we are on home territory and the holiday period offers time to be with our families and friends. The question I am frequently asked is, “What are Jethro Tull doing on the eve of the Millenium?” Well, no concert, that’s for sure. The likelihood is that I will spend the midnight hour in bed, being both a bit of a spoilsport and an early riser. Apart from that, I just can’t shake the mathematical certainty that the new millenium doesn’t start until the old one is properly finished. In other words, 2000 years have to be completed before the champagne corks may justifiably pop. So it will be the dawn of 2001 before I burst into celebratory song and brave the strains of Auld Lang Syne, but of course, as always, from the privacy and comfort of the bedroom: not from a hotel room or the seething masses of Trafalgar Square. Sorry to poop the party but logic and an early night must prevail.
‘Bye for now.
IA
Somewhere on a train in Germany, 30th October.