Jethro Tull the British progressive rock group. Their music is characterised by the vocals, acoustic guitar, and the flute playing of Ian Anderson, who has led the band since its founding, and the guitar work of Martin Barre, who has been with the band since 1969, after he replaced original guitarist Mick Abrahams.
The complete session recorded by Jethro Tull on 16th June 1969 for John Peel on the Top Gear show on BBC Radio 1 and broadcast on the 22nd of that month. Ian just didnt realise the greatness of Glenn Cornick r.i.p and Clive Bunker..this was magic..the other line ups were good. Clive was along with ginger baker and mitch mitchel..the best if their era.bonzo was the best thumper and barlow best technician.
Recording date: 16th June 1969 First broadcast: 22nd June 1969.
Tracklist: Bourée / A New Day Yesterday / Fat Man / Nothing is Easy
John Peel was a great supporter of the 1968 incarnation of Jethro Tull , the band did their first session for Top Gear before their first LP was released. He was present when the band played at a free concert in Hyde Park on 20th June 1968, and both Peel and Tull can be seen in a (silent) British Pathé film clip made at the event. In an enthusiastic account of the festival , Peel wrote: “Jethro Tull had bee preceded to the park by rumours of their goodness. They played with fire and brought out the first rays of the sun…..” In another of his IT columns, a few months later, he praised their debut session: “I wonder did you hear Jethro Tull on Top Gear – they were very good and I look forward to their LP..”
John Peel was a fan of Mick Abrahams‘ guitar playing, which can be heard on the band’s debut single “A Song for Jeffrey”, whose psychedelic-blues style shows the influence of Captain Beefheart’s Safe As Milk LP. But once Abrahams left (replaced by Martin Barre), After he left Jethro Tull, Mick Abrahams‘ own bands (Blodwyn Pig and Mick Abrahams Band) got plenty of airplay on Peel’s shows, and Abrahams did sessions for them.
Peel lost interest in the band. This, apparently, caused a sort of altercation between Peel and Ian Anderson which led to Peel abandoning the band.
Ian Anderson dedicated the 40th anniversary edition (released in 2010) to John Peel, stating that he was regretful that he never had the chance to make up with him. During the months following the recording and release of This Was, our little Blues band featured on a number of BBC Radio sessions, some on the John Peel show, some for other broadcasters (note: all the sessions the band did in 1968 were recorded for “Top Gear”) and the results – amazingly enough – were retained by the BBC in whatever cavernous vaults and audio dungeons line the bowels Bradcasting House in Portland Place, then and now the home of the “Beeb”. These sessions were, as far as I remember, completely live recordings and stand the test of time surprisignly well. Sonically, they are pretty damn fine. […]
But John, who had a soft spot for original Tull guitarist, Mick Abrahams, was not to be so supportive of our next effort. He advised me, at a co-appearance in a Devon club in early ’69, that he didn’t like the new songs of Stand Up and thought it at mistake that we had apparently lost touch with our blues roots and Mick in particular.
Martin and I were a little stung by this and so the mood was not good when we recorded the songs for Peel’s live sessions show four moths later. John Peel, himself, didn’t turn up, which made us feel somewhat unloved! Peel’s producer John Walters reported some of this bad feeling to his master and thus began a long and regrettable period of disassociation from one of the two or three people most supportive and influential in getting Tull’s career started.
The Fat Angel Sings 