Title: In sight of the flute player

May 21st 1995, The Volkshaus, Zurich

(to the best of my knowledge, never circulated within any of the old-days trading lists or in current files sharing fashion; was I the only taper on that very night !!??)

Lineage: Sony recorder + external mic (can’t remember which model…) on TDK MA 110 tape -> Philips CD recorder 870 -> Flac no compression/ Nero –> DimeAdozen -> YOU


Tracks list

DISC 1 (49'58")
In A Stone Circle (missing)
In Sight Of The Minaret (first 90 seconds missing, then fade in)
In A Black Box
In The Grip Of Stronger Stuff
In Maternal Grace
In The Moneylender's Temple
In The Defence Of Faiths
At Their Father's Knee
En Afrique
In The Olive Garden
In The Pay Of Spain
In The Times Of India (Bombay Valentine)

DISC 2 (62'58")
Heavy Horses
Life Is A Long Song
Sossity:You're A Woman/Reasons For Waiting/drum&bass solo
Sossity (reprise)
Wond'ring Aloud
Cheap Day Return
Nursie
Dun Ringill
She Moves Through The Fair/Dust Devils
Jack-In-The-Green
Bourée
Aqualung
Locomotive Breath

Musicians
Ian Anderson - Flutes, guitars, Vocals
Andrew Giddings- Keyboards
Doanne Perry - Drums & percussions
Jonathan Noyce - Acoustic Upright Bass
Chris Leslie - Violin




Quality Reference
Some days ago, this tape came by chance under my eyes and I realized I never put it onto CD; quality of the tape was surprisingly immaculate (it was 16 years ago…) and I decided to digitalise it …. before it’s too late!
I own the silver cd bootleg “I’m a just simple flute player” from the show in Berlin the day after: I can tell you my recording is better; vocals are more evident and music is more solid.
I know there is another recording -made by Laufi (hello my old friend!!)- for the same Berlin show and it is graded better than “Simple Flute Player”; I have never listened to that one so I cannot tell you how it is compared to my recording.


Technical note
Here you find the almost complete concert, since the first track and part of the second track are missing; this is due to the fact that, on that night, I forgot my second blank tape on my car.
Tape ran out after Aqualung; those were terrible moments when I had to make my choice: missing the encore or missing the first part of the show.
I choose not to miss the new (at the time) orchestral version of Locomotive Breathe.
So, I taped it on the first two songs of A side of the tape; during the Loco intro (the first 90 seconds) the sound is muffled because I did not note that my overcoat was covering the microphone!

Cover art
Sorry, no cover art.
I am working on it at the moment, but I will not share it here because it will come out with many personal pictures –while there will not be any concert picture which may have a general interest- and it is intended just for my personal use an memo of that night; see the paragraph below– “The History behind the recording”


The History behind the recording (for those interested, LOL… and, please, be generous to my written English!)

Me and my-then-wife arrived in Zurich in the late morning and went to the hotel booked for the night after the show.
My plan was to try to enter into the theatre and meet IAN (this boot is titled after this event), since I supposed that it would have been easier than at a normal Jethro Tull concert because of the more relaxed audience and the stripped-down security service due to the smaller venue.
I was right!
At Around 4 p.m. we walked in through a side door and simply sit down in the audience seats; no one noted us and we listened to part of the soundcheck.
At the end I met Andy Giddings, asked him about the concert, had a picture also with him and Don Perry and, finally, ran to the dressroom to look for IAN.
I knocked at the door with his name on.
I remember clearly that Shona opened the door; I introduced myself and told her I just wanted to say hello to her husband and, possibly, have a picture with him.
She told me. “yes, you can do this after the show. Come back here”.
I remember I was, at the same time, happy to have spoken to her and disappointed because I was afraid that, maybe, "I WOULDN'T SUCCEEDED IN REACHING THE DRESSINGROOM AGAIN after the show….
But in that moment, I still did not know that Shone herself would have been actually my “gate” to Ian.
In fact, after the end of the concert, while people were leaving their seats and running through the front door, we ran in the opposite direction toward the stage and, again, in the dressing room.
A guy from the security stopped me, and I told him: I am waiting for Shona.
After some minutes, I saw Ian coming out from the corridor with Shona and some people. He saw that I was looking for him and, of course, he was just going straight up beyond me, but right in that very moment Shona shouted “I know you; Hello Franco !”.
Ian was clearly surprised that his wife knew me; so he stopped, we shaked our hands, and I had some pictures with him taken by my wife;
he also kindly asked my wife if she wanted to be in the picture and the man from the security was the one who had to take one more picture for us!!
LOL ?
After that, we went out through the backdoor where a short group of fans were waiting for Ian to come out, but instead …. they cought only us!
We walked around the block to reach the parking and we walked again in front of the main door from where IAN (Smart guy!) was coming outside right in that moment!
That was THE night for me, since at the time I was younger and well into TULL from a fan perspective and Ian was my hero; it was also a great concert, the one, I guess, when they performed for the first time that orchestral sound that was used on the Root to Branches album & tour (the LAST great TULL in my view, but that’s another story….).
Last but not least, I remember I was still a little upset at the time because of my father’s death some 10 months before.
I just thought “I would like to go to this concert” and “couple of weeks after I thought “Ok, let’ skip it, too difficult to manage buying tickets from Italy, hotel arrangement and so on…” Remember: it was 1995 and it was not so common to handle tickets on the internet.
Also, definetively, I was not in the right mood.
But my wife said: “we can do it, let’s go!”
And we did.
(so, maybe belated, but anyway) Thanks M. !