Ian's Foreword for the CD

It has been ten years since the last live Tull album, A Little Light Music - a mainly acoustic performance of Tull songs taken from various locations. Before that, there was the Bursting Out album in 1978. Live material was also featured in the 1971 album, Living In The Past as well as the 20th and 25th Anniversary collections.
All of these recordings feature the different line-ups of the band at their best. Well, maybe not their very, very best, since the tape never seems to be rolling on that particular night………. dammit!

The tracks for this album have been culled from a November 2001 concert at London's Hammersmith Apollo as well as other live performances. Some of these have been acoustic sessions for Radio and TV, which occasionally produce some sparkling and intimate moments. So, rather than simply mirror the audio track of the now released Jethro Tull DVD, also titled Living With The Past, we tried to broaden the mix of material to satisfy the intrepid (and rich) fanatics who might actually buy both!

We welcome back Dave Pegg as well as Mick Abrahams, Clive Bunker and Glenn Cornick from the original Tull 1968 line-up who feature in guest performance.

We actually have recorded every Tull show for a couple of decades. Sometimes the recordings live only long enough for one or two of us to check out the following day before re-using the tapes or discs. Sometimes they find their way to the shelves of my studio, to gather dust and dung beetles before being hauled out so we can relearn some long forgotten arrangement from previous years.

They are recorded from the front of house mixing console and represent the audio signal going into the PA system, thus sometimes being an unflattering representation of the sound - being without the ambience, audience response and sometimes appalling echorama which besets many shows. Listening to these tapes is often like seeing ourselves, all tousled hair (shouldn't use that word), in the bathroom mirror first thing in the morning - before we chaps have put on our faces for the day and pulled the tummy in a bit. However - with a bit of a shave, sh*t and a h**rcut, we can sometimes transform these bald (shouldn't use that word either) and stark recordings into something often quite - well - average. There are a few real winners 'though. Never mind - all of these dusty-shelf tapes knock any bootleg I have ever heard into a cocked h**rpiece.

I hope you enjoy these recordings, which represent the last few years of Tull's work. I know there will be many favourites missing - some of my personal bests are absent here - but perhaps if you are good, promise to brush your teeth and not stay up too late, there might be some more of this stuff available before too long. The future benefits of a good e-commerce website may allow us to market product that would not be suitable for the conventional record company or traditional retail outlet where increasing competition for space favours the latest boy band or plastic diva.

So sit back, relax, put your feet up, close your eyes and listen to the music. And put your seat belt on first.

Regards,

IA