Jethro Tull:
"Last Stand at
the Boston Garden"
October 11, 1980
Ian Anderson- vocals & flute
Martin Barre- guitar
Eddie Jobson- keyboards and violin
Dave Pegg- bass
Mark Craney- drums
1: black sunday
2: crossfire
3: songs from the wood
4: hunting girl
5: pine martin's jig
6: working John, working JOe
7: heavy horses
8: band introductions
9: skating away
10:
11:
12: keyboard solo Jobson
13: batteries not included
14: uniform
15: bungle in the jungle
16: encore break
17: guitar solo Barre
18: aqualung
19: encore break 2
20: locomotive breath
21: black sunday reprise
Tour: "A"
Performance quality: A (same as the studio release of this and the tour)
Recording quality: B (would be B+ except for
a fair amount of loud and enthusiastic crowd
noise, but everything comes through clearly)
Source: master audience tape (1st time I've seeded)
runtime: 105 min. (2 CD's)
lineage: AKG-D140E microphones >
Sony TC158SD stereo cass. deck (dolby B)>
master tape (Maxell XLII) >
soundforge 4.5 (played on Naka. BX-125, dolby off) >
FLAC > torrent
It's also a 3-step torrent for you:
1- download. 2- FLAC to WAV 3- burn CD's. No further editing of
audio files is required on this recording. I spent about 6 hours doing
ICPVR (individual clap peak volume reduction, mostly between songs)
This was to maintain and preserve the continuity of the recording.
No EQ or other noise reduction was used to make this torrent, although
I tried using Dolby B for the master tape recording, partly because
Boston Garden acoustics are notoriously boomy and bassy. In this case
it may have been a good choice, because this recording is not bass heavy,
the instruments all come through clearly, surprisingly well for this
venue. The Boston Garden is far better respected for its hoop and puck
tradition than its acoustic quality, but this is one of the few recordings
I've made there that I would want to upload (because of sound quality)
and one of my personal favorite Tull shows. Setlist is almost complete,
not sure about a couple of titles. Tull almost always plays one or two
songs on each tour that either aren't on any album, or only in some
collection package release. there are no interruptions in the recording,
from 1st note to the very end you hear it all (including encore breaks).

comments:
this show was recently seeded with some uncertain lineage, we think
it's from this source too but this is likely from another "new transfer"
(if it sounds like I say those words alot more than I want to there's a
very good reason for that and I think you all know what it is by now.)
A very nice and complete show from the A tour from someone who
has seen Tull 12 times (different tour each time). This was my
second successful recording of Tull in concert. The 1st of those
is my best, the year before this but this is close to that in quality
and comes to you 3-step-torrent style from the original tapes.
I am still looking for the Boston 78 show, no unusual songs there but
a very good (typical Boston Garden Tull concert) that I saw from 17th row,
recorded and for whatever reason my usually reliable TC-48 gave me an
inaudible recording of it (couldn't even tell what band it was!).
Fortunately this tour was alot better result with the recording I got.
This is not the 1st this recording has been heard, but it is the 1st
post from the new transfer. There are a few more Tull shows I want
to post but this follows my last Tull post which is also an
October 11 Boston show from several years later (but not too many...)

This was the very last of what was a great legacy in
Jethro Tull lore. I'm sure there are several other places
where Jethro Tull shows are especially good shows, more often
than not, but I got to see Tull at the Boston Garden 6 times:
73 (maybe it was 74, A Passion Play tour), 75, 77, 78, 79 and
finally this show, which for reasons mainly of the (then new) Centrum
in Worcester, would be Jethro Tull's last Boston Garden show ever.
Every one of those shows I saw was a very electrifying performance.
The Boston Garden served for over 60 years as home to several of
Boston's greatest public moments- Elvis Presley, the Doors (?), the
Jackson Five, Frank Sinatra, U-2, the Beatles, the Who, the Rolling
Stones and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young are just a short list of
great musical performances given in this rusted out garage,
and partly in tribute to the legendary, recently passed former
president and virtual brainchild of the Boston Celtics NBA franchise,
Arnold "Red" Auerbach, (who was a huge part of 16 NBA championships
in the Grand old Garden) I feel compelled to share some of the great
concert moments I captured in there on tape. As host of the Glasnost
Radio show (1991-2001 on WCUW-Worcester FM radio) I named Jethro Tull
as the Boston Garden's most enduring consistently hot playing live
band to perform there in the time I've been seeing shows (then, almost
20 years) because having heard many other shows on tape, I grew to feel
there are 2 kinds of Tull shows: regular Tull shows, and Boston Tull
shows. At least until (and including) 1995, and especially at the Boston
Garden. Tull played 5 shows in Worcester after this, from 1982-1991,
all surely would have been Boston Garden shows if there was no Centrum,
and the Tull Boston electricity of the 70's was basically carried over
to Worcester for the 1980's. I believe Tull's 1st Boston Garden show
was about 9 years before this one, the Thick as a Brick tour, and the
1st Tull tour with Barriemore Barlow. This tour was the 1st by Tull
after Barlow left the band. They had to do 2 nights almost every time
they played the Garden. One was not enough for Boston, except the last
2 or 3 times (including this one). As Tull began their Boston Garden
legacy of great concerts, they left it much the same way. Strong. In
1979, Eddie Jobson was playing the violin and keyboards for U.K. as
opener for Tull, and sounding good. I guess Ian must have liked what he
heard too because the next year, Eddie was playing the violin and
keyboards for Jethro Tull, and sounding even better. The opening band
in 1980 was Whitesnake, with Deep Purple keyboardist Jon Lord. I thought
they were quite weak. Decent performance, but not good music. I'm not a
fan of them anyway.
I've been a very big fan of Jethro Tull since first hearing songs on the
radio like we used to know, teacher, to cry you a song (boy does that ever
make me feel old... those were the days...) even though I never got to see
any of their fine shows at the Orpheum or Music Hall or Tea Party before
they became so popular that Boston Garden was the only place they could
play in Boston area, but their playing at the Grand old Garden did alot
to sustain my interest in going out to see Tull concerts. This was the
only tour with Eddie Jobson and Mark Craney in the band, and they sounded
tight, like they'd been doing this for 5 years or so. Martin Barre has
always sounded excellent (never any less) in Boston/Worcester shows, and
Ian Anderson continued to prove in this show that he will always put on
a hot performance here, no matter who else is with him at the time. This
is a truly professional live band, one of the very best of this vibrant
time for rock music (70's and 80's). If all works out with uploading I
hope to up a few more 80's era Tull shows. I wish I had more of the
earlier (70's) Boston Garden shows because I saw most of them and they
were all great shows, but I do have the one previous to this, the last
Barriemore Barlow Boston show. That is a good recording and the full
Stormwatch show. Another fine Boston Tull performance. If you want to
wait for that you could put this and that on 3 discs. This and all my
torrents have and will have fadeins and fadeouts at start and end of
each disc, otherwise seamless/gapless, FLAC files , setlists as much as
I know them, fortunately I know most Tull song titles. Jethro Tull is one
of my all time favorite live rock bands.
In 1979, Ian Anderson had Eddie Jobson in the warmup band, U.K. I guess he
must have liked Eddie's playing (with good reason) because here he is
with Tull, adding a nice flavor never heard in any other Tull tour or album.
Do not sell this recording.
Trade freely and losslessly.
40 years of Jethro Tull.
The diehards of rock.
(and not just on WCUW 91.3 FM Worcester's Glasnost Radio show either.)
That's something very special.
Congradulations Ian and Martin (and their friends)
for such great music for so long.