Jethro Tull guitar hero Martin Barre is tuning up for a return to Kinross next week.
The veteran six-stringer is set to play three consecutive nights at the Green Hotel starting next Friday – his first Courier Country shows since he smashed a doubleheader at the same venue in February 2020.
Barre was a key Tull member from late 1968 until the legendary prog outfit’s eventual dissolution in 2014, selling over 60 million albums in that time.
Aqualung anniversary
His exclusive Scottish shows in Kinross will be a belated celebration of the 50th anniversary of the band’s 1971 opus Aqualung.
The Birmingham-born axeman’s instantly recognisable playing earned him a Grammy in 1988 for his work on the classic Crest Of A Knave LP, and he’s also enjoyed stints beside such luminaries as Paul McCartney, Phil Collins, Gary Moore and Joe Bonamassa.
A veteran of the legendary 1970 Isle of Wight festival, where Tull played immediately before Jimi Hendrix, the 76-year-old Brummie has also shared a stage with Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin.
Martin’s live band includes singer and second guitarist Dan Crisp as well as the late John Martyn’s long-term bassist Alan Thomson and drummer Darby Todd.
His most recent studio album, 2018’s Roads Less Travelled, was followed almost four years ago by a career retrospective comprising various reworked vintage touchstones.
Born in Fife
The lasting appeal of Barre’s work with Fife-born Ian Anderson is confirmed by the mammoth A Brief History Of Tull tour of the USA that he’s lined up for later this year – it kicks off in June – and his shows at the Green next Saturday and Sunday are both sold out.
There’s a handful of tickets for next Friday’s extra gig still available from promoters Mundell Music.
More immediately, the Kinross venue has Rush tribute Moving Pictures rocking up on Sunday afternoon.
St Andrews drummer Jamie Dunleavy is a key component in the line-up and is joined by Rushfest Scotland founder Steve Brown on guitar and bass-playing frontman John Power. See them on stage from 2pm.
Meanwhile, the Green also has a set from Aussie blues rocker Rob Tognoni on Monday. Now aged 62, the ex-Desert Cats firebrand’s been cranking out the albums since his 1995 solo debut Stones And Colours.
Meanwhile in Dundee
In Dundee, live music chaos returns to Conroy’s Basement this weekend, starting with a night of dub, soul and roots mixes courtesy of DJs Tackity Beatz, Fu Man Q and xdkrx tonight.
The Make-That-A-Take imprint kicks off its own 2023 programme tomorrow with soaring/melodic alt-rock in the shape of Dundee noiseniks Fractal, lo-fi exponents Kullnes and the more punky Glasgow/Edinburgh outfit Unbegun.
Label boss Deeker Johnston follows that up with a bumper bill of Ecossemo purveyors at the Meadowside venue next Friday.
It is headed up by hardcore favourites Kaddish, plus kindred Dundee spirits Portable Heads, A Place Of Beauty and Concept Car.
Joesef at Church
On a different tack, rising Scots troubadour Joesef is playing an Assai Records-backed gig at Church on Sunday.
The Glasgow-born electro soulster initially created waves online, earning a much-publicised booking at his home city’s King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut back in 2019.
The 20-something moved to London in late 2020 and releases his debut album Permanent Damage today, with fans heading to his Ward Road appearance being given the offer of a cut-price deal on the LP.
Elsewhere, tonight’s inflation-busting gig at Beat Generator features Rudeface, who describe themselves as “four angry, shouty, grungey dudes with too much time on their hands”, plus local metalheads Burn To Ash, Dinosaur Death Pose and Never Under.
Fleetwood Mac homage MacFleet play Beat G tomorrow, while PJ Molloys in Dunfermline has psychobilly cow punk combo Aye Hobos with fiendish support from The Gimme Gimme Gimmes, Birrell Or Biscuit and Panhead Sharps.
