Jethro Tull - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: In Concert, Madison Square Garden, New York City, 10-9-1978

Here's another album of Jethro Tull performing for the BBC. Like Volume 3, it's a BBC concert.

I didn't previously post this because most of it has been officially released as the album "Live at Madison Square Garden 1978." But then I thought what the hell, I want to present a full version of all the good stuff the band did for the BBC, and this is still from the band's best years. Besides, some songs from this concert were not included on the official live album, but I have them here.

Earlier in the year, the band released the album "Heavy Horses." The year before that, they released the album "Songs from the Wood." If you look at the crowd-sourced rateyourmusic.com, those are two out of the band's three best rated albums of their career (at least as I write this in 2025). So the band was doing great at the time. Their fortunes would decline in the early 1980s, however.

Although most of this on the official album, a couple of songs are not: "Pibroch (Cap in Hand)" and "A Single Man." They probably weren't included due to space limits of CDs. The official album without them is 78 minutes long, which is about as long as CDs get. This version is from a bootleg, but in terms of sound quality, it essentially sounds exactly as good as official live album.

At the time, only part of the concert was broadcast by the BBC, for the TV show "The Old Grey Whistle Test" instead of for radio. About 50 minutes was included on the TV version, from "Heavy Horses" through "The Dambusters March." Before "Locomotive Breath," lead singer Ian Anderson announced that the concert was almost over, saying "See you again next year." I thought that was odd, given that a fair number of songs were played after that. But then I realized he must have known how long the BBC broadcast portion would last, and he was saying that for people watching on TV. A couple of songs later, he told the audience to relax, that the broadcast was over.

This album is an hour and 14 minutes long.

01 Sweet Dream Fanfare [Instrumental] (Jethro Tull)
02 Sweet Dream (Jethro Tull)
03 One Brown Mouse (Jethro Tull)
04 Heavy Horses (Jethro Tull)
05 talk (Jethro Tull)
06 Thick as a Brick (Jethro Tull)
07 No Lullaby (Jethro Tull)
08 Pibroch [Cap in Hand] - Songs from the Wood (Jethro Tull)
09 Quatrain [Instrumental] (Jethro Tull)
10 Aqualung (Jethro Tull)
11 talk (Jethro Tull)
12 Locomotive Breath (Jethro Tull)
13 The Dambusters March [Instrumental] (Jethro Tull)
14 A Single Man (Jethro Tull)
15 talk (Jethro Tull)
16 Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll, Too Young to Die (Jethro Tull)
17 talk (Jethro Tull)
18 My God (Jethro Tull)
19 Cross-Eyed Mary (Jethro Tull)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/oTza2SUx

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/slAa9gLAKRXFCsP/file

The cover photo of lead singer is from Madison Square Garden in 1978. But I'm not sure if it's from this exact concert, since the band played there three times in October.

Jethro Tull - Tower Theatre, Upper Darby, PA, 11-25-1987

I've been posting a lot of BBC concerts lately as part of my big BBC project. But sometimes, non-BBC sources are even better. Here's a case in point. 

I wanted a Jethro Tull concert from right after the release of their 1987 album "Crest of a Knave." I'm not a huge fan of this band, but I like that album. In particular, I remember as a kid hearing the songs "Steel Monkey" and "Farm on the Freeway" on the radio a lot, and I think those are very strong songs. Unfortunately, the BBC didn't record a concert for this band in the time period I wanted. But luckily, a local radio station did (in conjunction with the nationwide radio show "King Biscuit Flower Hour").

This unreleased concert has great sound quality and a good set list, including the "Crest of a Knave" songs I was looking for.

This album is an hour and 55 minutes long.

01 Instrumental (Jethro Tull)
02 Songs from the Wood (Jethro Tull)
03 talk (Jethro Tull)
04 Thick as a Brick (Jethro Tull)
05 Steel Monkey (Jethro Tull)
06 talk (Jethro Tull)
07 Farm on the Freeway (Jethro Tull)
08 Heavy Horses (Jethro Tull)
09 talk (Jethro Tull)
10 Living in the Past (Jethro Tull)
11 Serenade to a Cuckoo [Instrumental] (Jethro Tull)
12 talk (Jethro Tull)
13 Budapest (Jethro Tull)
14 talk (Jethro Tull)
15 Hunting Girl (Jethro Tull)
16 Bach Violin Concerto in E [Third Movement] [Instrumental] (Jethro Tull)
17 Keyboard and Drum Duet [Instrumental] (Jethro Tull)
18 Wond'ring Aloud (Jethro Tull)
19 Skating Away on the Thin Ice of a New Day (Jethro Tull)
20 Jump Start (Jethro Tull)
21 talk (Jethro Tull)
22 Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll, Too Young to Die (Jethro Tull)
23 Aqualung (Jethro Tull)
24 Locomotive Breath (Jethro Tull)
25 Thick as a Brick [Outro] (Jethro Tull)
26 Wind Up (Jethro Tull)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/DapXhj7P

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/MUOAHdYqj9K7u12/file

The cover photo of lead singer Ian Anderson was taken at a concert in Chicago, Illinois, on December 4, 1987.

Isle of Wight Festival, Afton Down, Isle of Wight, Britain, 8-27-1970 to 8-30-1970 - 8-30-1970: Part 4: Jethro Tull

The next act to play at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival was Jethro Tull.

Here's what band leader Ian Anderson had to say about the festival: "Things were going around both backstage and front of house that made it a little unpleasant for everybody. It was out of control, and the organizers were struggling to keep the thing from degenerating into something quite horrible. It was perhaps a testimony to the local police, and generally the welcoming residents of the Isle of Wight, that the thing happened at all." 

Regarding the Jethro Tull set, he said, "At the Isle of Wight, we knew we were unlikely to get paid, and we determined early on that this was something that we really just had to go through and try and keep a modicum of a smile on our faces. So we just kind of got on with it and did our bit. It was not a good gig, it was not a bad gig, it was just a little frenetic and a little tense."

Once again, the sound quality is excellent, because the complete set has been officially released. It came out in 2002 as "Nothing Is Easy: Live at the Isle of Wight 1970."

This album is an hour and seven minutes long.

051 talk (Jethro Tull)
052 My Sunday Feeling (Jethro Tull)
053 talk (Jethro Tull)
054 My God (Jethro Tull)
055 talk (Jethro Tull)
056 With You There to Help Me (Jethro Tull)
057 To Cry You a Song (Jethro Tull)
058 Bouree [Instrumental] (Jethro Tull)
059 talk (Jethro Tull)
060 Dharma for One (Jethro Tull)
061 talk (Jethro Tull)
062 Nothing Is Easy (Jethro Tull)
063 We Used to Know (Jethro Tull)
064 For a Thousand Mothers (Jethro Tull)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15596791/IsleofWghtFestivlAftnDwnIsleofWghtBrtain__8-30-1970_Pt4JthroTll.zip.html

The cover photo of Ian Anderson is from this exact concert.

Jethro Tull - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: Sight and Sound, Golders Green Hippodrome, London, Britain, 2-10-1977

I recently posted two albums of the British band Jethro Tull at the BBC. I thought that was all I was going to post, but I had a request to post a little more from them, so here it is. The band's studio sessions for the BBC ended in 1975, at least for many years after that. But they did some full concerts in the late 1970s that were broadcast on the BBC. The 1978 has been officially released as an album, but the 1977 one is still unreleased. So here it is.

This concert took place immediately after the release of the band's album "Songs from the Wood." Naturally, there are some songs from that, as well as favorite songs from earlier albums. Lead singer Ian Anderson is fairly chatty between songs. I've put all such talking on separate tracks.

Unfortunately, this album is only 57 minutes long, which I assume is shorter than typical Jethro Tull concerts. I'm guessing the BBC slotted only an hour for this show, so it was edited down from something longer. But on the plus side, the sound quality is excellent. In fact, it may be better than the official live album from 1978, "Live: Bursting Out," which has had complaints for a less than stellar sound quality.

01 talk (Jethro Tull)
02 Skating Away on the Thin Ice of a New Day (Jethro Tull)
03 talk (Jethro Tull)
04 Jack in the Green (Jethro Tull)
05 talk (Jethro Tull)
06 Thick as a Brick (Jethro Tull)
07 talk (Jethro Tull)
08 Songs from the Wood (Jethro Tull)
09 talk (Jethro Tull)
10 Velvet Green (Jethro Tull)
11 talk (Jethro Tull)
12 Hunting Girl (Jethro Tull)
13 Aqualung (Jethro Tull)
14 Guitar Solo [Instrumental] (Jethro Tull)
15 Wind Up (Jethro Tull)
16 Locomotive Breath (Jethro Tull)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/HM4BRL5j

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/FeZiAsg95K2DEia/file

I didn't see any good photos of the entire band in concert from 1977, but I did find one that I liked that's a close-up of lead singer Ian Anderson, so I used that one.

Jethro Tull - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: 1969-1975

Here's the second and final of two volumes featuring Jethro Tull performing for the BBC.

The first five songs here are from 1969 and 1970, and the last four are from 1975. There's a pretty big gap there of five years. The band did a lot of BBC sessions in 1968 and 1969, and there are a bunch of other TV appearances and well-recorded concerts from those years. Then, for pretty much the entire early 1970s, which in my opinion was the band's creative and commercial peak, it seems the band did next to no promotion. Furthermore, there are very few really well recorded concerts from those years, officially released or on bootleg. 

It's just my speculation, but perhaps the band did so well during that time period that they felt the music would sell itself and they didn't need much promotion. Their albums regularly made the top ten in Britain and the US, and two albums even made it to number one in the US. Then, as their sales started to go down a bit as the 1970s went on, they decided they needed to push harder, so they resorted to doing things like BBC sessions again.

I tried my best to close the gap by finding TV or radio show performances in the early 1970s, but I didn't find much. The first five songs actually aren't from the BBC, but from TV appearances in France, Germany, and Britain. All of them sound fine, but only "With You There to Help Me" is officially released, on an obscure compilation of performances from the German "Beat Club" TV show.

Speaking of what's released or not, the band did two BBC sessions in 1975. Unfortunately, they mostly did the same songs. Tracks 7 through 9 have been officially released. "Requiem" is the one from the other unreleased session that's different, so I added that one. 

These are all the BBC studio sessions, at least until many years later. However, the band played full shows that were broadcast on the BBC in 1977, 1978, and 1980, and have done more occasionally in the many years since then. The 1978 show has been officially released as "Live at Madison Square Garden 1978." My interest in the band's music declines a lot after around that time. But I could post the 1977 show as a Volume 3 here if there's enough interest.

This album is 52 minutes long.

01 Living in the Past (Jethro Tull)
02 Sweet Dream - For a Thousand Mothers (Jethro Tull)
03 Witch's Promise (Jethro Tull)
04 Teacher (Jethro Tull)
05 With You There to Help Me (Jethro Tull)
06 Requiem (Jethro Tull)
07 Minstrel in the Gallery (Jethro Tull)
08 Cold Wind to Valhalla (Jethro Tull)
09 Aqualung (Jethro Tull)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15906470/JethroT_1969-1975_BBSessionsVolume2_atse.zip.html

The cover photo dates from around 1970. I don't know anything more than that.

Jethro Tull - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1968-1969

Next up in my BBC project is Jethro Tull. This is a band I do like, but even though they're a band with a long career, they didn't do much at the BBC back in the 1960s and 1970s. The band was formed in 1968, and they did do some BBC sessions in 1968, and 1969. However, there isn't much after this, so there are only two volumes in this series.

For the time period featured here, roughly the first year of the band, they were more blues based than they would be later, when they had more success. You can see that blues influence here, especially with the cover of the blues classic "Call It Stormy Monday."

All the performances here have been officially released, though rather obscurely. They come from extra large deluxe editions of the band's first two albums. Luckily, none of the songs suffer from the usual problem with BBC recordings from this time period of DJs talking over parts of the music. I'm guessing this is because they were on jazz / blues themed radio shows where the DJs were more respectful of the music.

This album is 49 minutes long.

01 So Much Trouble (Jethro Tull)
02 My Sunday Feeling (Jethro Tull)
03 Serenade to a Cuckoo [Instrumental] (Jethro Tull)
04 Cat's Squirrel [Instrumental] (Jethro Tull)
05 A Song for Jeffrey (Jethro Tull)
06 Love Story (Jethro Tull)
07 Call It Stormy Monday (Jethro Tull)
08 Beggars' Farm (Jethro Tull)
09 Dharma for One [Instrumental] (Jethro Tull)
10 A New Day Yesterday (Jethro Tull)
11 Fat Man (Jethro Tull)
12 Nothing Is Easy (Jethro Tull)
13 Bouree [Instrumental] (Jethro Tull)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15906438/JethroT_1968-1969_BBSessionsVolume1_atse.zip.html

There are surprisingly few photos of the band from this time period, at least ones where they aren't wearing unusual costumes. The one I used comes from their performance in the Rolling Stones led "Rock and Roll Circus" concert in 1968.