Jethro Tull rocks the Tower Theater on the Crest of a Knave tour! Songs from the Wood and Living in the Past – November 25, 1987

0:05 SPEAKER_00: Hey everybody, welcome back to the concert room. Inside the Philly Concert Experience. I'm your host, Bob Hill. The Concert Room is a podcast session dedicated to all the great performances and performers who played on the stage at the legendary Philadelphia Spectrum Arena. The Spectrum held numerous events and concerts over its 40 plus years of existence, earning the nickname America Show Place. The Spectrum was a special place for music fans and bands. And thanks again for tuning in. I appreciate it.

0:37 SPEAKER_00: And uh just want to kind of go over something real fast um regarding uh my podcast. Um I don't want anybody to get kind of confused. We do have, and I've mentioned, many other venues in my past podcasts. And one of them was the Tower Theater, and that's located in Upper Derby PA. Upper Derby is in Delco, and it is uh, you know, just outside the city limits of Philadelphia. Uh so a lot of the groups that came through the spectrum or played the spectrum also played the tower. Big names. Uh David Bowie, Springsteen, and um to name a few.

1:25 SPEAKER_00: And before a lot of times before they played the spectrum, you know, they can move into a nineteen thousand seat concert hall arena. Uh they played a s a smaller theater. Uh their tours um that were more um intimate, like the Tower Theater. Yes, the concert room, my podcast is dedicated to the Philadelphia Spectrum. But it is all dedicated also dedicated to all the great concerts and performers and performances over the uh past couple of decades in the Philadelphia area. So if I find a great performance from a band that I want to feature, and there's really not a great recording out there uh you know, from the spectrum, then I will look around for a different venue in the Philadelphia area.

2:14 SPEAKER_00: So I just wanted to kinda you know, reiterate that the concert room, my podcast, encapsulates everything about the Philadelphia area, the Philadelphia concerts, specifically the spectrum. Um that's the main focus. But, you know, a lot of great venues in the area and rock clubs back in the day. Uh so I just wanted to kind of point that out so nobody's kinda confused and thinking like, well, this podcast is uh, you know, dedicated to the Philadelphia Spectrum. However, here's a performance from uh, you know, the Tower Theater or a different venue.

2:55 SPEAKER_00: So, okay, enough of that. Um that's where we're at. And so that is going to actually the reason why I brought that up is because I'm going to feature uh one of my all-time favorite classic bands here on this podcast session. And that is Jethro Toll. Jeez, where to start with Jethro Toll? Um hopefully you saw Jethro Toll back in the day because they're really one of the great live bands. I don't know how they recreated all that intricate prog music that they recorded uh live. Um just outstanding uh musicians uh and musicianship from from from this band.

3:40 SPEAKER_00: Made me think of Jeff Ratall's as of the recording of this uh my podcast here. Mick Abrams, uh the original guitarist for Jeff Ratall, uh, from 67 to uh 1968. Uh he recently passed away on December nineteenth, two thousand twenty-five. I believe he was at the age of eighty-two. Uh big loss, uh Mick. Very imp influential, um great, great guitar player, and uh he he would be sorely missed. I've talked to a lot of uh friends who play guitar around my age, and uh Mick Abrams is uh definitely mentioned as a top influence to their guitar playing.

4:32 SPEAKER_00: You know, again, it just when I read the news I thought, you know, I'm gonna I haven't done Jeff or at all yet, so I'm I'm definitely going to uh to get a toll session up here. Um much needed. We're in season two in the middle, and I think it's about time. God bless Michael Timothy Abrams, rest in peace, Mick, and um thank you for the music. Uh so let's get to Jethro Toll. Um quick background. Obviously a British uh rock band. They were formed in Blackpool, Lancashire in 1967. They kind of mixed a lot of the uh sixties British blues, they uh developed a distinctive progressive rock sound, they blended uh rock, hard rock, English folk music, and classical music.

5:22 SPEAKER_00: They underwent numerous stylistic shifts throughout its history. And again, that just circles back to how great these these guys and members were as musicians. Um the band was founded and has been continuously led by Ian Anderson. He is the band's principal composer, lead vocalist, and a multi-instrumentalist, best known for his flute playing into this band's prog music. It really kind of sets them apart with uh with with that so in that genre. After gaining attention on the London Club circuit, Jeff Rutal released their debut album, This Was in 1968, with the only album with Mick Abrams.

6:04 SPEAKER_00: He re was replaced uh with uh Martin Barry, and uh the band achieved their first major success the following year with uh the folk-influenced second album, Stand Up. It did reach number one in the UK. Aqualung in 1971 kind of marked the band's international breakthrough, became their most commercially successful album, while um releases such as Thick as a Brick in seventy-two kind of fully established um their progressive rock identity. So you can see how they kind of form that's a great run, by the way, of albums.

6:43 SPEAKER_00: That's absolutely phenomenal. Um so throughout the 70s the band maintained an intense schedule, uh touring, recording, expanding their musical scope, um, through uh through concept albums and complex arrangements. In the late seventies the band shifted towards more like folk rock, and then later on they had a lineup change. And so for a period they were kind of influenced by electronic rock in the uh early eighties, and the band returned to uh more hard rock sound with the crest of a knave in 1987, which actually earned them a Grammy Award.

7:26 SPEAKER_00: And um if I'll talk about the Grammy Award real quick. So they won a Grammy Award and it was kind of controv uh not kind of it was controversial, um because they were nominated in the what was it, the best hard rock performance. Um, along with a lot of uh heavier acts such as Metallica. So they really didn't kind of belong into that um category. So under the advisement of their manager, um no one from the band turned up that night at the Grammy Award because you know, they had no chance of winning.

8:06 SPEAKER_00: But they did win. You know, everybody seemed to be pretty sure that Metallica didn't win. Good for them. They won in 1992 and they they were really happy about that. So let's get back to Jeff Ratoll. They've sold an estimated sixty million albums worldwide, eleven gold, five platinum albums. Let's talk about the Spectrum shows. Uh, because this Jethro Toll did play the Spectrum many times. Their first show was July twelfth, nineteen sixty-nine. Uh the Spectrum in nineteen sixty-nine and July, they um they had a festival which was called the Spectrum Summer Music Festival.

8:49 SPEAKER_00: It was held on July eleventh and July twelfth, and it featured a mix of uh rock, blues, and jazz acts. Um July twelfth, nineteen sixty-nine, the festival included Al Cooper, Buddy Guy, Vanilla Fudge, Ten Years After, Johnny Winner, Led Zeppelin, and uh Jeff Rotoll. And I believe Jethro Toll uh followed Led Zeppelin that night. What a show, what a festival. And uh I think uh, you know, in 1969, the spectrum is off to um a great start as far as concerts. So Toll went on to play a total 13 more times, and the last show was April 27, 1993.

9:36 SPEAKER_00: That was a concert celebrating rock radio station WMMR's twenty-fifth anniversary, and if you have listened to my past podcasts, you will be reminded that WMMR was tied to our concert lives throughout its early history. Um in fact, uh I'm going to tie WMMR in our show here um with our featured performances. So for me personally, I saw Toll of the Spectrum in 1982, and then later in 1989 at the Mann Music Center, another great music venue here in the Philadelphia area. It's an outdoor music venue located in the Fairmount Park section of Philadelphia.

10:23 SPEAKER_00: Um, and Toll was just absolutely on fire that night. Beautiful evening, under the stars, Jeff Rotal outside, and it was just one of my all-time favorite uh concerts, and of course, Toll is uh one of my all-time favorite bands to see live. Um, so let's circle back to Crest of a Knave. So Crest of a Knave is the 16th studio album released in 1987. Kind of had the band returning to a more hard rock sound, and uh the album was their most successful since the nineteen seventies, and the band kind of enjoyed a resurgence on radio, uh broadcast appearances in music uh specials, MTV, and um also uh music videos.

11:16 SPEAKER_00: And uh it was also a critical success because again, they won the nineteen eighty-nine Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance, and the album was supported by the not quite the world, more the here and there tour. So which brings me to our performances. Let's get to them. I think you have a good history of Jethro Tal here and the Philadelphia area, and um I picked out two really great recordings. November twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth in nineteen eighty-seven on this tour uh for Trust of a Nave.

11:54 SPEAKER_00: They rolled into the Tower Theater for a two-night stand, and the twenty-fifth, uh November twenty-fifth show was recorded and simulcast live on the King Biscuit Flower Hour. Of course, it was broadcast locally here in the Philadelphia area on Rock Radio Station WMMR. So again, we're gonna tie all that together. So I've uh cued up two great tunes from the show. It's considered, you know, one of the best on the 1987 tour. The tower shows were considered among the finest. It was deemed by fans and critics alike as one of Toll's best concerts of the eighties.

12:30 SPEAKER_00: They were crisp, they were tight. Now we'll start with speaking of WMMR. Um the introduction to the band that evening with WMMR disc jockey Michael Pearson. He's going to introduce the band in the recording. Toll opened the show with a crisp and tight version of Songs from the Woods. So we're gonna start with that. And then a little later in the set, I chose a song from their beginnings, Living in the Past from 1969. So here's Jeff Ratoll in the Tower Theater Stage, November 25th, 1987. Michael Thierson of WMR introducing the band.

13:13 SPEAKER_00: They go into songs from the wood, and then we're going to hear Living in the Past.

13:19 SPEAKER_01: Michael Tearson from 933, WMMR Philadelphia's original, rock and roll radio station. We are right now live all around. You like that, do ya? That's not all. That's not all. We're also recording tonight for King Biscuit Flammer Allen.

13:42 SPEAKER_01: So hey, we're in for a great show. An amazing show, and in just a moment, we'll have Jeff Rotoll right here on the screen.

14:32 SPEAKER_03: Let me bring you love through the field puppies and red and roses, too.

18:59 SPEAKER_02: Our listeners are good people out there who will listen to the recording of this sometime later.

19:20 SPEAKER_02: When we had a moderate accidental hit with this song before we returned to the underground from whence we came, living with the worms. This is an old that we utterly loathed for 15 long years, but it's now resurrected in a slightly more tricky form to make it a little more fun to play. It's called Living in the Past.

23:42 SPEAKER_00: Hopefully you were able to see Toll live and uh you have favorite memories. If not, I hope my podcast session helps you uh kind of understand and hear how great uh of a band Toll is uh in the studio and live. Um so that will wrap it up here. Thank you for listening. Please subscribe, leave a rating, and a comment if you have any ideas for a future podcast session. Thanks again. I'm Bob Hill, and I'll see you again in the concert room.