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JETHRO TULL THE LOWRY WEDNESDAY 9TH APRIL 2008.

Starting with their biggest UK hit ("our ONLY ******* one" quipped singer Ian Anderson) - Living in the Past', for a couple of hours a full house at The Lowry certainly lived in the past as Mr Anderson MBE and the latest incarnation of Jethro Tull - complete with long-standing guitarist Martin Barre - treated us to the best of a unique band.

Anderson's singing is an acquired taste, but all attending had acquired it a long time ago. There was a little of everything: blues, jazz, folk rock and a bit of prog rock, and most of Tull's iconic tracks were performed. Thick as a Brick', Witch's Promise', Aqualung', Heavy Horses, and a lot that haven't been done for a long time - if at all. One for John Gee' and Dharma For One' amongst them. Ian's environmentalist side came out on the track 'Farm on the Freeway'; and of course there was the rousing encore of Locomotive Breath'.

A highlight of the show just had to be Serenade to a Cuckoo', where the flute playing (and singing at the same time), showed what a class act Jethro Tull is.

The hair may not be wild and windswept, and the cod piece might have been put away, but the mannerisms, such as playing whilst standing on one leg were intact.

All in all a superb and fitting celebration of one of rock music's premier acts.

Martin Hutchinson

1:35pm Tuesday 15th April 2008

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