Martin Barre

28th January 2026

Backstage at The Green Hotel, Kinross

It is now almost a decade since Ian Anderson reformed Jethro Tull, without long-term former sideman Martin Barre.  And, whilst the pair are each still very active, their snippy comments on the business, I come across on regular YouTube and Facebooks clips, occasionally suggests a divorced couple whose prime aim in life is simply to outlive the other.

Making the most (and why not?) of his Tull back catalogue (as opposed to his solo albums), Martin is presently out and about playing the 1971 Aqualung album in it's entirety.

He still monkeys around with the iconic solo on the Aqualung track - refusing the play it as recorded.  This is not new, and YouTube presently abounds with bootleg recordings of the song from the early Seventies.  And none feature the solo as it should (IMO) be played.  

Elsewhere, whilst we may have had a slightly clumsy guitar instrumental passage replacing Anderson's flute solo on My God, we were presented with some really were some impressively heavy renditions of the likes of Cross Eyed Mary, Hymn 43 and Wind Up.

Singer Dan Crisp also made a fine fist of the three acoustic tiddlers on the album.

The first half of the set had been mainly given over to "More Tull Classics"; the exceptions being Martin's own bluesy Back to Steel, and a rather clunky arrangement of Eleanor Rigby.

As with the previous occasion I had seen Martin, he picked up a flute to tootle out a perfectly respectable rendition of Serenade to a Cuckoo - even ending the performance with one of his old bandmate's trademark snorts into the instrument.

An odd choice to play, perhaps, for like A Song For Jeffrey, these two songs dated from prior to Martin joining Jethro Tull, back in December 1968.

Heavy Horses, which closed out the first set, was just brilliant.

All in all, great fun - even if the Backstage At The Green Hotel audience appeared a rather more restrained and sedate bunch, than I have generally encountered when attending Martin's shows here.

Perhaps we are all now just that important few years older.

   

Terl Bryant

Martin Barre Band - Kinross - January 2026

Dan Martin serenading a cuckoo

Martin Barre

Alan Thompson

Dan Crisp

Setlist

Steel Monkey

Back to Steel

A New Day Yesterday

For a Thousand Mothers

Eleanor Rigby

Serenade To a Cuckoo

Hunting Girl

A Song For Jeffrey

Sealion

Heavy Horses

                                                          Interval

Aqualung

Cross Eyed Mary

Slipstream

Wond'ring Aloud

Cheap Day Return

Mother Goose

Up to Me

My God

Hymn 43

Wind Up

Locomotive Breath

Encore

Teacher

 

We had a guest who ambled on stage for the final three songs.
Nobody introduced him beforehand, although Martin did mumble his thanks after the final song.
 I still don't know his name.