Fallen On Hard Times? How Tull took on the 80s

From the synth-heavy A to the hard-rocking Rock Island, Jethro Tull’s 80s sound developed as the decade went on, with the band embracing new influences and the latest technology – often to the chagrin of followers and critics alike. Ian Anderson reveals how Tull kept their heads above water, and even scooped their one and only Grammy, during the decade that wasn’t always kind to progressive rock.

Johnny Sharp

If you had taken the media coverage of Jethro Tull in the 1980s at face value, you would have believed that these leading lights of British prog had begun the decade in turmoil and acrimony, and then ended it bathed in glory tainted by controversy. In between times, though, there was more good music than is often assumed. When they moved on from the folk-rock triptych of Songs From The Wood, Heavy Horses and Stormwatch to forge a shiny, forward-looking new sound and ruthlessly overhauled line-up with 1980’s A, not all of their fanbase seemed inclined to join them. But by the time they won a Grammy in 1989 (for 1987 release Crest Of A Knave, confusingly) they seemed to have reinvented themselves as an enduringly relevant force in British…

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Prog (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 143

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