Martin Barre Tours with
Willy Porter
Your chance to see two great guitarists
strut their solo "stuff" is quickly approaching. Jethro Tull
guitarist Martin Barre is currently preparing for a mini-tour of the
Eastern / North Eastern U.S. Martin will be traveling and performing with
Willy Porter, whom should be a familiar face to recent Tull concert-goers,
as Porter has opened for quite a few Tull shows in recent years.
The concert format, according to Fuel
2000's Len Fico, will not be the familiar "opening act + main
act" see in many Rock/Pop shows these days. Instead, Porter and Barre
will be teaming up with band members from Jethro Tull to create a single
group that will perform numbers by both songwriters. Martin Barre's newest
release, "Stage Left", will be heavily featured at the
shows.
Barre recently pulled double-duty on a U.K.
tour with Jethro Tull, performing a complete set of solo material, effectively
"opening" for Tull at every concert. Playing two sets a night
was "exhausting", Barre notes, "but very rewarding".
It's tough business when it comes to Martin
getting a tour put together. As he noted in an interview with
Tullworld.com, "the logistics don't work at all, and I would dearly
like to do it, but the only way is to have outside help...or tour with
another band". It looks as if Martin ended up putting both of these
ideas to work, as he has been picked up by Fuel 2000 Records here in the
U.S. and has secured a collaborative tour with Willy Porter.
The tour that is to take Barre and Porter
through the North Eastern states - including gigs in Milwaukee and NYC -
will commence on October 14, and run through the 25th of that month. Most
of the dates are set and can be found on the Tullworld.com Tour
Dates page or at JethroTull.com,
however there are still four venues to be announced, so keep your eyes
peeled.
At this point, while no more Barre solo tours are
planned, If this tour goes well, don't count out the possibility of seeing
more of Martin's solo material going on the road in the near future.
Ian
Anderson Strikes a Chord with Orchestras
Previous outings with
orchestras turned out so well that Ian Anderson will be taking his flute
on the road once again to perform with several orchestras in Europe.
As we noted in a November 2002 issue of
Latest Line, these concerts "seem to be a really great mix of musical
flavors that everyone is enjoying". Ian likes it this way, because he is
really trying to avoid the 'dreaded rock band + orchestra formula' that
has been tried so many times before with other rock legends.
Anderson has been planning to take this
sort of show to the states, but we have yet to see much of it, besides the
one-off Jethro Tull + Boston Pops show last year... which was absolutely
wonderful. Fuel 2000 Records sites cost as the main factor in bringing
such a production to the States. Unfortunately, it is a much more
financially responsible venture to work with European orchestra companies.
However, "never say never" seems to be the mindset here in
America as a U.S. orchestral tour is supposedly something Ian would very
much like to do.
New Studio CD
from Jethro Tull
Just a note that Ian and the
boys should start work on the new Jethro Tull studio album in January. By
the time it comes to market next September, it will be the first Tull
studio album of all new work in 6 years! There are many rumors regarding
what form this album will take and what story it will tell, but none of
them have been confirmed, so I'll leave that part to your imagination for
now.
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Copyright © 2004, Tullworld.com
