Legendary Prog Rock icon Ian Anderson has announced a 2014 22 Date U.K. tour, which will follow the release of his new concept album to be recorded early next year and released around Easter.
The U.K. tour begins in late April and goes through May; the show will feature a selection from his new 2014 release concept album – which he defines as ‘Folk-Prog-Metal’ together with a selection of Jethro Tull highlights. The upcoming record release will feature heavier, less acoustic guitar sounds and more of Anderson’s trademark flute. The tour will also take in Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall on May 2nd 2014.
Anderson will also be recognised as one of the foremost influencers of rock at this year’s Progressive Music Awards, by being honoured with the Prog God Award on 3rd September in London.
Ian Anderson said “After winning the Grammy for best “Hard Rock/Metal” album back in 1988, this seems like an opportunity to justify that strange and misplaced accolade with a new album to celebrate the more forceful, full-on rock credentials which are found in many of my songs over the last 45 years. It’s not an end to the acoustic and gentler moments but more of an emphasis on the louder aggressive flute style which marked me out from the earliest days of Jethro Tull.”
The Prog God Award celebrates the innovators of rock. The people who have inspired generations and have carved a way for others to be at their creative best. There is no one who has pushed the boundaries more than Ian Anderson, who to this day remains immersed in his love for the music.
On winning the award, Anderson continued, “The innocent voyage of restless souls: that’s prog rock. Sometimes bombastic, self-indulgent and worse, it is also an honest, gut-felt reaction to the often simplistic and repetitive nature of much of pop and rock.
It is, indeed, an honour to receive this illustrious Prog award and dwell in such lofty heights amongst the good and the great of the last forty-plus years. I remain very happy to inhabit the progressive rock world, as both performer and listener.
And where else could a self-taught, mediocre but extremely loud flute player make a decent living? Not in country and western, I would suppose. But, hey: if the boots fit and the buckskin-fringed coyote crooner calls, then count me in Cowboy! Brokeback Mountain could never sound sweeter.”
Following the great success of his current ‘Thick As A Brick’ tour, including a one-off performance at the iconic Royal Albert Hall, tickets for the 2014 shows are expected to go fast when they go on sale on 4th September. The tour starts on the 28th April at the Brighton Dome and visits venues such as the Salisbury City Hall, Birmingham’s Symphony Hall, Newcastle’s Sage Theatre and London’s 02 Shepherds Bush Empire.
Tickets for the night at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall go on sale at 9am on September 4th. Tickets are available from the Booking office, by telephone on 0151 7093789 or from www.gigantic.com