Ian Anderson: The Pied Piper of Jethro Tull Quiz

Answer: Dunfermline

Ian Anderson was born in Dunfermline, Fife. His early childhood was spent in Edinburgh. His family then moved to Blackpool, Lancashire, where in 1959 he enrolled in Blackpool Grammar School. (For those not familiar with the British educational system in those days, this was a school for those aged 11 and up, who had passed certain examinations to qualify for the higher academic levels.)

Little is published regarding his family, other than that his father managed hotels.

Answer: Bill Haley and the Comets

As stated in the tour booklet for the 2007 World Tour, Anderson's brother sent him a Bill Haley record. He claims he was disappointed with it, as it "seemed a little bit showbizzy and not very hard-edged".

Answer: vocals/harmonica

Ian met Hammond and Evans (as he then was, he later dropped the 's' to be different) at school in Blackpool, England. Michael Stephens played guitar, Jeffrey Hammond was on bass, John Evans played keyboards and Barriemore Barlow was the drummer. Ian sang and played the harmonica. In his words (from the published tour notes for the 2007 World Tour), "The John Evan Band was kind of a split between a bluesy thing and a jazzy thing... but we weren't very good at it...."

By 1965 the group had expanded and renamed itself the John Evan Smash. Mick Abrahams, a new member, lived in Luton so the entire band moved in to take advantage of its proximity to London. That didn't quite work out - three days later, Barlow and Evan and the sax players departed for home.

Answer: no

Apparently they were not, shall we say, at the quality level we have since come to expect... In fact, they were so bad they kept having to change their name in order to get a second night at a venue! Their booking agent(s) often were tasked with finding them a name, and one was into history. The rest is history - they were named after the inventor of the seed drill, Jethro Tull.

Answer: Date of death

While written records state that Tull, born in 1674, died on 21 February 1741, his gravestone states that he was buried on 9 March 1740. Let's hope one of them is wrong!

Jethro Tull was born in Basildon, UK. He attended Oxford University but there is no record of his having obtained a degree. Later, while travelling Europe to find a cure for an illness, he took an interest in agriculture and how it could be improved. While some of his ideas turned out to be false, he did revolutionise farming with the seed drill, invented when he was 27, and he also made improvements to existing implements.

Answer: Fender Strat

The Strat had once belonged to Lemmy, of Hawkwind and Motorhead fame. The trade? A Selmer Gold Seal flute. While the flute would never reach the value of the Strat (around $10-15k today), without the trade we may never have heard of Jethro Tull - after all, it is Ian's distinctive playing that made Jethro Tull stand out from the crowd!

Answer: Switzerland

Having finally started making money on their record contract, according to the 2007 World Tour booklet, they moved to the Swiss canton of Vaud. Vaud is one of 26 cantons, with its capital at Lausanne. For the music world, it is best known for the town of Montreux. Montreux holds a famous music festival and is also where the Montreux Casino burned down, which became the subject of one of the most well-known songs by Deep Purple, "Smoke on the Water".

Answer: Standing on one leg

When Ian played the harmonica, he developed a habit of holding the mike stand while standing on one leg. A reporter wrote, in error, that he did it while playing the flute, and Anderson decided to try it. Now during concerts he will do his signature position, standing on one leg with the other leg bent at the knee, numerous times, and also will kick out the lifted leg.

No flautist in his or her right mind would try to play bending over, it constricts the lungs. Most orchestral musicians play sitting down, which still isn't ideal for full lung inflation. Standing straight as an arrow just somehow doesn't seem possible for someone who is one with the music, does it?

Answer: Skating Away on the Thin Ice of the New Day

Anderson states in his January 2007 blog on www.jethrotull.com, "When I wrote about climate change in the song 'Skating Away On The Thin Ice Of The New Day' back in 1974, the scientists of the day turned out to have got it wrong." This is in reference to the belief at the time that we were heading for another ice age. Today he remains very much on board the ecology train - his introduction in the 2007 World Tour booklet talks of carbon footprints and his determination to do his part - and then some - to save the Earth.

"Meanwhile back in the year One --- when you belonged to no-one ---
You didn't stand a chance son, if your pants were undone.
`Cause you were bred for humanity and sold to society ---
One day you'll wake up in the Present Day ---
A million generations removed from expectations
Of being who you really want to be.

Skating away ---
Skating away ---
Skating away on the thin ice of the New Day.

So as you push off from the shore,
Won't you turn your head once more --- and make your peace with everyone?
For those who choose to stay,
Will live just one more day ---
To do the things they should have done.
And as you cross the wilderness, spinning in your emptiness:
You feel you have to pray.
Looking for a sign
That the Universal Mind (!) has written you into the Passion Play.

Skating away on the thin ice of the New Day.

And as you cross the circle line, the ice-wall creaks behind ---
You're a rabbit on the run.
And the silver splinters fly in the corner of your eye ---
Shining in the setting sun.
Well, do you ever get the feeling that the story's
Too damn real and in the present tense?
Or that everybody's on the stage, and it seems like
You're the only person sitting in the audience?"

"Skating Away on the Thin Ice of the New Day." (lyrics from www.lyricsmode.com)

Answer: 2008

Twice each year the Queen awards 'gongs' (to use their colloquial term) to those who have achieved something above and beyond the norm. There are several different awards. The MBE, Member of the British Empire, is the lowest level, followed by the OBE (Officer of the British Empire), CBE (Commander of the British Empire), KBE/DBE (Knights/Dames Commander of the British Empire). Then come the Royal Victorian Medal, Royal Victorian Order, Order of St Michael and St George, Order of the Bath, and Knights Bachelor. The two Queen's Lists are the New Years and the Birthday lists, issued on January 1st and on the Queen's official birthday in June (as opposed to her actual birthday in April).

Anderson was given his MBE for services to music. He had previously been awarded an honourary Doctorate in Literature from Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, and the Ivor Novello Award for International Achievement in Music.