Disclosure: I received a review copy of the book in exchange for my honest opinion courtesy of the publisher. Thank you McNidder & Grace for the review copy!
I had a prog rock phase back when I was in undergrad in university, when I was around 18-19 years old. My musical journey up to that point had gone from 60s British Invasion to psychedelic rock to hard rock to prog rock. I was particularly obsessed with early 70s prog rock, albums like The Yes Album, Brain Salad Surgery, Dark Side of the Moon, Nursery Cryme, Focus III, and Aqualung. A couple of prog rock related memories from that time: I got to see Yes play three of their classic albums live in 2013: The Yes Album, Close to the Edge, and Going For The One at Massey Hall in Toronto. Also in Toronto, I remember walking around Honest Ed’s (RIP to Canadian Don Quijote) on Bloor and Bathurst and there was a record store or vintage store nearby and I saw right there an album I was looking for, the classic Aqualung! I was so excited! I bought it and brought it back to my dorm room. Happy days! If you’re from my generation (millennials represent!), you’ll know Jethro Tull from this scene from Anchorman: Easily the first rock band you think about when you’re asked to name a rock band with a flute player (in the case of Jethro Tull, it’s actually two, because Martin Barre can play flute too!).
Prog rock is a polarising classic rock subgenre, to say the least. You either love it or you hate it, there’s no in between. I loved it because the musicians are truly masters of their craft and the songwriting and composition takes you to a whole new world with the lyrics, odd time signatures, and suites with multiple movements. I also love how it’s a bridge to other genres. When I was young all I’d do is listen to classic rock, but prog rock opened my mind to jazz and classical, and I love how prog rock is a fusion of so many genres.
Years ago I wrote two blog posts about great live albums in classic rock. While not an album, I will say that this live version of “Locomotive Breath” is way better than the studio version: that guitar intro by Martin Barre, the keyboards, Ian Anderson’s energy and dramatic presence! The audience jumping and getting into it! It’s faster paced and heavier, same energy as the version of “I’m Free” from the film adaptation of The Who’s Tommy. It really comes alive! Forget about a locomotive, I feel like I’m on a Shinkansen!
When I got the chance to review a new autobiography written by longtime member Martin Barre, I had to check it out! I’ve reviewed quite a few classic rock autobiographies for the blog and I love reading every musician’s story and while there are often parallels, no two stories are exactly alike because everyone has their unique point of view and way of writing about their experiences.
Review: A Trick of Memory – Martin Barre
Martin Barre’s story begins in the second city of the UK, Birmingham. It’s a city that has contributed a lot to British rock and roll history: Black Sabbath, The Moody Blues, The Move, ELO, Spencer Davis Group, The Applejacks, Judas Priest, Dexys Midnight Runners, UB40, and Duran Duran. Of course we can’t forget longtime guitarist of Jethro Tull, Martin Barre. He was born in Kings Heath to parents Lancelot and Evelyn Barre a year after WWII had ended. His father Lancelot, whose father was French, was an engineer who had dreams of playing clarinet professionally in a jazz band, but had to give that up to work in the family business, which is why he was always supportive of Martin’s dreams of being a musician. He introduced him to jazz music and helped him with the hire purchase of his guitar when he was a teenager.
Birmingham at the time was industrial and had suffered from air raids during WWII, so young people were looking for escapism. Escapism for Martin Barre came in the form of skiffle and rock and roll. His first experience seeing a cool musician that he wanted to be like was Mike Sheridan from Mike Sheridan and the Nightriders, a group that Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood would later join. Other early influences included instrumental rock bands like The Shadows and The Ventures and early rock and roll like Gene Vincent, Buddy Holly, and Johnny Kidd & The Pirates. He’d spend hours trying to figure out the guitar parts of their songs. Besides music, a young Martin enjoyed trainspotting. He also loved cars because of his dad and thanks to the success of Jethro Tull, he was able to make his dreams come true and buy cars enthusiasts dream of owning. Like many other British kids of his generation, America was alluring, seen as this exotic place and the dream. The first American tour is a huge milestone for any British rock star.
As a teenager, he started a band that would go through a series of name changes, thoughtfully reiterated at the end of the book, from The Dwellers to The Moonrakers to The Noblemen to The Penny Peeps, and finally Gethsemane. Inspired by Screaming Lord Sutch’s band, Martin Barre and his bandmates went to London hoping to find work as musicians, and while that didn’t pan out just yet, his bandmate saw an ad placed by a group called Beau Brummell and The Noblemen asking for a saxophone player and he claimed that Martin could play saxophone (he couldn’t… yet!). Determined, he bought a saxophone and learnt enough to get through the audition and he got the job. A perfect example of fake it till you make it! In those days, soul music was popular and he wasn’t playing as much guitar as he would have liked, but sometimes you gotta sacrifice if you want to make money and making money as a musician is often a slow burn.
He got his first big break when the notorious promoter Roy Tempest approached him to be in a backing band for American artists touring the UK. An incredible chance, but there was a catch because the band would be worked to exhaustion playing multiple gigs a day with a lot of travel involved (not glamorous at all, by the way), but it paid £20/week plus free rent in a shared flat. But this meant he got to work with Alvin Robinson, The Coasters, and Lee Dorsey. While touring with The Coasters one of the backing band members got into a fight with a rough crowd and they got banned from the Domino and Princess Ballrooms in Manchester as a result. On a more positive note, he had crossed paths with Jimi Hendrix while on tour with them. Next opportunity was playing at the Piper Club in Rome, where he crossed paths with a prince from the Ruspoli family who invited the band to his family’s lavish home. At first, they didn’t believe him and thought he was some straight guy taking the piss because he looked so eccentric!
As you can expect, there are a lot of colourful stories of London in the 60s, with mentions of famous venues like the Marquee and famous hip boutiques on Kings Road and Carnaby Street. Rock and roll is really tight knit, so be prepared for some name dropping!
Now you might be wondering, when does he come into contact with Jethro Tull? Martin’s bandmate Malcolm Tomlinson saw them playing at the Marquee Club and he told Martin all about it, raving about Mick Abrahams’s Eric Clapton like guitar skills and the funny looking flautist/frontman Ian Anderson. Martin saw them for the first time at the Sunbury Jazz & Blues Festival in 1968 and he was impressed because finally, this was the kind of music he wanted to play and it was something different! His band Gethsemane opened for Jethro Tull in Plymouth and while the band were on the verge of splitting up, his guitar playing was so memorable that the band and their manager Terry Ellis kept him in mind when they were looking for a replacement for Mick Abrahams, who departed to form the blues rock band Blodwyn Pig. At this point, Martin Barre was not so confident in his skills as a guitarist and since he’d been playing in the same band for years, he was worried about the competition. After seeing an ad looking for a new guitarist, ringing the number, and finding out it was for Jethro Tull, he became overwhelmed and didn’t follow up. You miss every shot you don’t take! At his last London gig with Gethsemane, he got a business card from Jethro Tull manager Terry Ellis, who had been looking for him for a while, telling him that Jethro Tull were so impressed with his performance and it was so memorable that they encouraged him to audition to be their next guitarist. The story of this reads like a scene from a movie.
One of my favourite genres of classic rock stories is musicians who almost joined a band, and Jethro Tull have an interesting one and if you’re familiar with the story of Black Sabbath, you’ll know that Tony Iommi was in Jethro Tull for two months playing some gigs with them, notably miming on The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus (that was famously withheld because The Who upstaged The Stones).
Jethro Tull initially went with Brummie Tony Iommi because Martin Barre’s guitar wasn’t the best. Barre felt that his audition was weak, but Ian Anderson had shortlisted him nonetheless. Because Tony Iommi had lost his fingertips in an accident at work, he couldn’t play guitar the way Ian Anderson wanted him to so they decided to give the runner up a go, but for a while there he didn’t know if he’d be a permanent member because the band members were kind of aloof towards him and they were telling him these gigs in early 1969 were a trial for him, as this was a transitionary period for Jethro Tull sound wise. After a well-received gig in Manchester, Martin Barre really felt like the job was his! From there, Jethro Tull toured with Jimi Hendrix and they got to socialise with him and he had only great things to say about Jimi Hendrix. The beginning of a whirlwind career!
The book takes you on a decades long journey, tours of the United States and other countries overseas (with lots of name dropping because of the wide variety of acts they’d share the stage with), the recordings of legendary albums Aqualung and Thick as a Brick. Like Gentle Giant, they’re ambitious and always looking to improve and evolve. They constantly pushed the boundaries to make the best music they can and share it all over the world. Throughout the book, there are “Tull Tales”, little stories from over the decades in Jethro Tull. My favourite one has to be the one where he worked with Paul McCartney.
Overall, this is a great book for Jethro Tull fans, a very entertaining read. Martin Barre is a great storyteller and I love how there are a lot of pictures included throughout the book showing his life before, during, and after Jethro Tull. I also appreciate the FAQs section of sorts at the end where he answers the typical questions of interviewers (I’m guilty of asking these questions myself of every musician I interview!) like his inspirations, who Jethro Tull are in a nutshell, the equipment he uses, his favourite albums he’s played on, and his favourite performances in Jethro Tull. The only thing I would change about this book is I wish the book had been organised into smaller chapters as opposed to three sections with headings, but that’s just my personal taste! I would easily recommend this for any fans of Jethro Tull or prog rock and with Christmas around the corner, it makes a great gift!
A Trick of Memory: The Autobiography of Jethro Tull’s Guitarist by Martin Barre comes out on 6 November. You can find more information about the book here on McNidder & Grace’s website. You can visit Martin Barre’s website here, follow his Instagram here, and follow him on Facebook here.
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