A Rare Performance....

[Southpa]

I don't know what happened but my original post never got off the ground, just a blank space.

Anyway, lets type it all over again, if memory serves.

A few years ago I downloaded some video footage (circa. 1968) of Rolling Stone's "Rock 'n Roll Circus". The general theme was a bunch of guest bands (now well known) in their early stages playing on a stage. The whole theme revolved around the circus, clowns, "little people" etc. all garishly dressed with a good dose of LSD psychedelia thrown in to boot. It was never released until 1996. I guess the whole atmos was too much for England's JQ Public at the time.

The footage I saw featured Jethro Tull playing "A Song For Jeffery" from their album "This Was". It was all very well done, full of energy! Ian Anderson cavorting around the stage like a madman with checkered coat, long stringy hair and his flute. Glen Cornick wearing his signature derby and playing bass and harmonica at the same time. Clive Bunker on drums and a left-handed guitar player, wearing a white fedora, long black coat and playing a left-handed white strat.

Now I've been a BIG fan of Jethro Tull from a long ways back and never really recalled a left-handed guitar player in their historical lineup. It never really clicked until I was doing some research on the early beginnings of Black Sabbath. The guitar player was none other than Tony Iommi! I knew he did a little bit with Jethro Tull and things didn't work out, but only thought it went just a little past the audition stage. The Rock and Roll Circus footage is the ONLY performance on film featuring Iommi playing (well sorta, everyone was miming with the music except Ian Anderson) with Jethro Tull.

http://www.j-tull.com/news/stonesrockcircus.cfm

Edited September 6, 2006 by Southpa

[another doug]

I've been lurking on this board for ever, but I had to finally register to reply to this one!

"The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus" is a strange beast. Some parts are almost totally unwatchable, and others are unmissable! The circus stuff is pointless and mildly irritating, but some of the music is terriffic. I am also a big Jethro Tull fan, but that performance is really only interesting to me because you get to see sixties Jethro Tull. I'm pretty sure it was entirely lip-synched, and Tony Iommi was even "playing" the slide guitar parts without a slide. Wierd, because all the other songs seemed live.

The real gem here is The Who performing "A Quick One, While He's Away." This performance is one of my all-time favorites. If I remember correctly, the movie was never released in the sixties because the Rolling Stones felt that The Who outperformed them. In my opinion, the Who blew the Stones out of the water.

Also interesting is "The Dirty Mac," which was basically John Lennon, Eric Clapton, and some other musicians playing Yer Blues. Not great, but interesting.

I'm pretty sure it's available on DVD and CD.

Now that I'm registered, I'll have to get around to sharing my guitars!