Jethro Tull’s Martin Barre

Martin Barre is the legendary lead guitarist for Jethro Tull and in November, he released his autobiography, A Trick of Memory. The book details his amazing journey from his early R&B days and joining Jethro Tull in 1968, to his solo career and the creative process behind his iconic guitar work, including the famous riffs on ‘Aqualung’. The biography offers fans a first-hand account of his life and career, which includes a Grammy win and collaboration with numerous other artists.

Martin’s outstanding guitar playing has a major contributor to sales of over 60 million for Jethro Tull. They are fine superb albums, but the stand-out has to be Aqualung which chalked up an incredible 7 million sales. Martin’s stunning guitar work on the album has impressed fans and critics alike across the world. Martin’s journey is far from over; he travels to North Shields in January for a momentous evening with his highly talented band.

For this first appearance at the Exchange, Martin has chosen to play ‘Aqualung’ in its entirety, which will be a delight to the legions of Tull fans in the Northeast. Did you know that Martin is an accomplished flute and sax player?  Well he is! The band includes the amazing Dan Crisp, who although he is a leading musician and song-writer, sounds exactly like Ian Anderson. He doesn’t try to sound like Anderson, but close your eyes and it is the same, exactly. On bass, is one of the most well respected musicians both in the UK and USA, the mercurial Alan Thompson. With an impressive career, Alan was John Martyn’s bass player for three decades.

Born in Glasgow in 1960 he came from a musical background with both his father and grandfather being jazz musicians and his mother being a fine pianist and singer. He started (like many other kids) to learn to play the violin at age 5 and then moved onto the piano until at 13 years of age, he finally got a guitar. Along with bass player Neil Fairweather, drummer Tim Brittain, and sax/flute and guitarist David Roy, “The Arthur Trout Band” was formed and played in and around Glasgow from 1976-1980 also playing in the summer of 1980 at Stonehenge and Bristol Ashton Court festivals. An occasional visitor to the band rehearsals was David’s cousin, the now legendary Scottish singer/songwriter and innovative guitarist, John Martyn. Never one to sit still Alan has recorded and performed with Phil Collins, Eric Clapton, Robert Palmer (for whom he wrote the B-side of the hit Addicted to Love), David Gilmour, Linda Lewis and Bert Jansch.

This concert will perform Aqualung to perfection, by a talented band led by Martin Barre who played in Jethro Tull for 47 years. If you are going to go to one gig, this winter, this is the one.