(Update below, the simple answer being NO Jethro Tull has not cancelled their concerts, and has made a statement on why he is playing Israel which can be read HERE)
some fans”
| AUG7Saturday 7 August 2010 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Jethro Tull | Caesarea… Caesarea, Israel | 36 people attending | |
| AUG8Sunday 8 August 2010 | |||
| Jethro Tull | Binyeney Ha'Uma Jerusalem, Israel | 8 people attending | |
This is the updated as of June 21 official schedule off of Jethro Tull's website. (notice that no where on the schedule which is through November 24, 2010 does any Israeli concert appear):
| AUG | ||
| 11 | Zofingen, Switzerland | Heiteren Festival |
| 18 | Bergen | Grieghallen |
| 20 | Kristiansand, Norway | Ravnedalen |
| 21 | Gvarv, Norway | Kartfestivalen, Farstadparken |
| 22 | Oslo, Norway | Sentrum Scene, Arbeidersamfunnets Plass |
| 28 | Bahrenfeld, Hamburg, Germany | Classic Rock Festival, Trab Arena Front page of his website, left upper corner, no where is Israel mentioned |
Hmmmmmmm, this article from Haaretz dated June 22, one day after the update on the official Jethro Tull Website it reads as follows.
The British rock band Jethro Tull is to perform three concerts in Israel in August: On August 7 at the Ra'anana Park Amphitheater, on August 8 at the Shuni Fortress in Binyamina and on August 9 at Jerusalem's International Convention Center. The band, which has performed in Israel five times, was last here three years ago. Jethro Tull, founded in 1967, is known for its blending of blues, jazz and classical tones. (Noya Kohavi )
So someone tell me or find out, according to Haaretz a concert has been ADDED and according to the official website there is nothing scheduled in Israel. Interesting,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
| Just found this forum where in there is an email from David Coursey the webmaster for the Jethro Tull web site posted on June 19 which puts the concerts still up in the air at that time. Read that entire thread HERE THIS blogger claims to have sent off an email to the same webmaster of Jethro Tull's website on June 9th and gotten an entirely different reply. UPDATE with info concerning Ian Anderson: |
People expected much too much of Ian Anderson. His musical lyrics have never matched his actions. In interview after interview he tells people he will not get into politics, he will only tell people to VOTE.
http://www.cliffordmeth.com/ianandersononwarreligionan.htm
Anderson: My music is not going to address issues in a direct political way. You wouldn’t find me on stage in the last run at the election joining Bruce Springsteen and calling for the mobilization of civilian troops, as it were, to place their vote in the box next to the name Kerry. I wouldn’t be up in the stage doing that. But you would get me on the stage campaigning very simply with the word VOTE. That I’m very much dedicated towards. I wouldn’t be partisan. I would certainly encourage people to vote and in my small way I did try to do that when I was last doing concerts before I went on tour because I do think it’s very important from a moral point of view, as well as a political one, to take advantage of that democracy that I’m afraid so many Americans and British take for granted.
Politically, I’m an angry man. But the answer isn’t “pull the troops out.” We’re stuck with this now. We can’t abandon these people. We’ve brought notions of democracy to a country where they’ve been used to, at best, a patriarchal and tribal leadership. In Iraq, they were used to the tyrant dictator, but nonetheless, it was a stable country, for the most part throughout most its very complicated length and breadth, with all of its tribal and religious divisions. And when you go blundering in there as a Western Democracy with tanks and guns, you’re taking the lid off the hornet’s nest. And that’s unfortunately what seems to have escaped both Bush and Blair and their rather dodgy crew of advisors.
It just seemed so patently obvious from the word go that this was just going to result in a lot of tears that it’s beyond me that they could have done it. I mean, it just seems so incredibly naïve, if you give them the benefit of the doubt, to have gone in their guns blazing thinking all you do is take out the government, replace it with a friendly military force for a few months, then get them all to go to elections. How could they ever believe that given the complexities that existed in Iraq? And this was pointed out in countless articles by countless learned journalists from all over the world reporting from Iraq for the last ten years. It was pointed out time and again that the result of removing Sadam Husein would not be a simple one. That is what is so extraordinary! However, we don’t want to waste the entire interview talking about that, but yes, I’ve got my opinion, and the answer is that it’s far too late to pull out—far too late for people like me to be putting in music or in song any clear cut political message.
The job I do as a musician is to travel— not to Iraq, thus far, but to certain other places where we have seen the suicide bombers and the tragedy of war in the last 30 or 40 years. I go to places like Israel; I go to Turkey, to India, to places where people do blow each other up. But as a musician, I’m allowed to cross those boundaries in the worlds of art and entertainment; I cross boundaries that politicians can’t–even if they want to. So I think I’m rather happy to keep my message a generally uplifting one of music and song. If there’s a political or religious comment being made, I do so with a degree of, I hope, subtlety and artistry, which I hope does not make me appear partisan and does not allow for misunderstanding, although I’ve been at the end of misunderstanding before, choosing words in my lyrics perhaps not so carefully as I might have done back in 1971.
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There you go, Ian Anderson the civics teacher, VOTE, but he won’t be caught being political because in his own small way he can do what politicians cannot do, play music wherever he wants to and then look magnanimous in donating to “peaceful causes” I gave at the office.
Kum-ba-yah.
Yet another interview:
http://www.jambands.com/features/2008/09/23/ian-anderson-this-was-and-always-will-be
““I’m an American taxpayer but not a voting citizen of the United States. So I have to leave it up to you guys, just as the Germans, French and the Italians do. It’s interesting times and the world is watching. My message to the American people isn’t to vote for John McCain or for Barack Obama or even for Hillary Clinton next time since it looks like she’ll take another crack at it. My message is simply – vote because you can’t afford to be one of the 40% of the people who sit on their behinds and can’t be bothered to go to the polls. Democracy is what young men and women have fought and died for in Afghanistan and Iraq. If anything we owe it to them to use our democratic right to show the rest of world how democracies work. That’s my message. Hanging chads notwithstanding,” he adds with a laugh.
****************************
There you go, our young men and women have fought for democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Doesn’t that pretty much say it all to this man’s level of understanding?
I say expose him for what he is and that this is the very type of person that plays Israel, someone who is an AIRHEAD when it comes to having any spine whatsoever.
Oh and last but not least, his hobbies are growing chili peppers and saving endangered cats!
Watch this interview, he talks about his US tour when things were unpleasant here along political lines and the audience messed with his music!!
Oh those darn hippies that made it hard for him to perform! It was all so damn unpleasant.
Enjoy the concert Israel, Ian Anderson the school marm civics teacher will be "giving at the office", to who he will be "giving" he's not even willing to announce at this time!
So, I decided many months ago not to profit from my work in this troubled region and hope that interested parties on all sides will understand and respect my decision and resolve. The details of recipients of my charitable donation will be posted for the benefit of the doubters, as usual, on this website later in the year.
No backbone WHATSOEVER.