All Around the World Live is a 4DVD set meant to give a glimpse of legendary folk/blues/prog/hard rock band Jethro Tull live throughout their career in many different geographic locations. After all, the band has been around since the late '60s and played in virtually every spot on the globe, so a DVD set that highlights snippets of some of the filmed concert events in different locations was not a bad idea. Eagle Rock has done a similar thing here as they did on an extensive Deep Purple set from a few years ago, so what we have is four discs, starting back from the early part of the bands career, and taking us to more recent gigs from just a few years ago. Of course, if you are a die-hard Jethro Tull fan, much of this material will already be familiar to you in some shape or form, but for casual followers this will give you a nice snapshot of Tull over the years in various live settings.
On the first DVD there are two songs from Tull's famous 1970 appearance at the Isle of Wight Festival. Eagle Rock has already released the full concert on DVD, so this little sampling of two of the highlights, "My Sunday Feeling" and "My God", is probably more than sufficient, but shows the band really coming into their own and close to becoming the heavyweight it shortly was. Most will certainly salivate at the inclusion here of the 1976 Tampa, Florida footage, which was only available previously as a bootleg VHS and now on DVD for the first time legally. With perhaps the 'classic' Tull line-up of Ian Anderson, Martin Barre, Barriemore Barlow, John Evan, and John Glascock, this set is superb, despite the somewhat annoying camera work that basically focuses on Anderson for most of the set. The audio is quite good, though the video is a tad grainy, but particularly excellent renditions of "Thick As a Brick", "To Cry You a Song", "Living in the Past", and especially "Minstrel in the Gallery" are included here, showing a band at the height of its powers. Fast forward to 1980 and the Stormwatch tour, and you get a few songs from a Munich, Germany show, including the heavy "Dark Ages", "Home", and "Orion" from that album, along with "Aqualung", "Cross Eyed Mary", "Locomotive Breath", and another fine "Minstrel in the Gallery". David Pegg is on bass this time around, replacing the late Glascock who had recently passed away, and David Palmer is also on board on additional keyboards. This DVD is easily one of the highlights here for vintage Tull lovers.
DVD 2 focuses on the 1980's & 1990's, and features snippets of 2 shows from Germany, as well as a lengthier set from Chile. The Germany footage has previously been available on the Jack in the Green DVD set, but the Chile show might be new to some. This one is taken from the Roots to Branches tour, and is quite good, though Ian's vocal limitations are here really starting to show. On the '80s clips you get a very strong "Black Sunday", as well as "Pussy Willow" and "Heavy Horses". The third DVD takes you through the late '90s in Holland, with a few older numbers as well as some Anderson solo material and a then new "Dot Com" from Tull's last studio album. A few tracks from England in 2001 lead into a couple of tunes from the Montreux set (also released in full on an Eagle Rock DVD), with an interview with Ian from 1999 rounding out the disc.
The fourth DVD is perhaps the sleeper in the whole set, a marvelous performance from the band in Lugano back in 2005. Here Anderson, Barre, along with Andy Giddings, Doane Perry, and Jonathan Noyce dip into the catalog old and new in front of a loving outdoor audience of Tull fans. Highlights are "For a Thousand Mothers", "Nothing is Easy", "Weathercock", "Up to Me", "Farm on a Freeway", "Budapest", "A New Day Yesterday", "Jack in the Green", and of course, "Aqualung" and "Locomotive Breath", among many others. Yes, Ian's vocals are not great, especially on the older songs, but he holds his own and truth be told, the music is so staggeringly good by he and the band that you just have to overlook the weak vocals in spots. This one was expertly filmed and the audio is tremendous.
The whole set is housed in a nice looking digibook presentation, complete with a thick booklet filled with rare live photos of the band (most I've never seen before) from throughout the years. For some this might be worth the price of admission alone, and it comes with a long essay from writer Joel McIver, as well as complete information on all the shows, line-ups, etc.. Though I'm not a fan of how the booklet is attached to the DVD housing, it's a minor quibble on an otherwise lovely package. If you are somewhat new to Jethro Tull this will be splendid introduction, but longtime fans will probably have most of this material in other formats, so it will be up to you if you want to spend the money this time around.
Track Listing
DVD 1
[Isle Of Wight, England, 1970]
1. My Sunday Feeling
2. My God
[Tampa, Florida, Usa, 1976]
3. Quartet (Intro)
4. Thick As A Brick
5. Wond'ring Aloud
6. Crazed Institution
7. Barre (Instrumental)
8. Drum Solo
9. Medley: To Cry You A Song / A New Day Yesterday / Bourée / God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
10. Living In The Past / Thick As A Brick
11. A New Day Yesterday (Reprise)
12. Too Old To Rock 'N' Roll, Too Young To Die
13. Minstrel In The Gallery
14. Extract From Beethoven's Symphony No.9 (Molto Vivace)
[Munich, Germany, 1980]
15. Aqualung
16. Dark Ages
17. Home
18. Orion
19. Too Old To Rock 'N' Roll, Too Young To Die
20. Cross-Eyed Mary
21. Minstrel In The Gallery
22. Locomotive Breath
23. Dambusters March
DVD 2
[Dortmund, Germany, 1982]
1. Pussy Willow
2. Heavy Horses
[Loreley, Germany, 1986]
3. Black Sunday
[Santiago, Chile, 1996]
4. Roots To Branches
5. Rare And Precious Chain
6. Thick As A Brick
7. In The Grip Of Stronger Stuff
8. Dangerous Veils
9. Aqualung / Aquadiddly
10. Nothing Is Easy
11. Bourée
12. In The Moneylenders' Temple
13. My God
14. Locomotive Breath
DVD 3
[Hilversum, Holland, 1999]
1. Some Day The Sun Won't Shine For You
2. Thick As A Break
3. Locomotive Breath
4. The Secret Language Of Birds
5. Dot Com
6. Fat Man
7. Bourée
8. In The Grip Of Stronger Stuff
[London, England, 2001]
9. Cross-Eyed Mary
10. Hunt By Numbers
11. My Sunday Feeling
[Montreux, Switzerland, 2003]
12. Some Day The Sun Won't Shine For You
13. Life Is A Long Song
14. Living In The Past
DVD 4 [Lugano, Switzerland, 2005]
1. Aqualung Intro
2. For A Thousand Mothers
3. Nothing Is Easy
4. Jack In The Green
5. Serenade To A Cuckoo
6. Beggar's Farm
7. Boris Dancing
8. Weathercock
9. We Five Kings
10. Up To Me
11. Bourée
12. Mother Goose
13. Empty Café
14. Farm On The Freeway
15. Hymn 43
16. A New Day Yesterday
17. Budapest
18. Aqualung
19. Locomotive Breath
20. Protect And Survive
21. Cheerio
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