NOTHING IS EASY: LIVE AT THE ISLE OF WIGHT 1970

Kicking off with a powerful take on My Sunday Feeling to remind everyone of Jethro Tull's bluesier earliest days before launching into more progressive material (including, in the form of My God, a teaser of Aqualung), this live set is derived from the legendary 1970 Isle of Wight Festival, where Tull shared the stage with the likes of the Moody Blues and Jimi Hendrix. In the early 1970s we'd lose Jimi and the Moody Blues, whilst they'd keep going, would cease to be at the spearhead of progressive rock - it would be the likes of Tull who'd end up on the front line there, and with this set they proved their ability both to be progressive AND to rock - a balance which few bands of the era would strike as effectively as Ian Anderson and company. If some of the lead progressive acts of the 1960s were laying down their crowns around 1970, Tull were in the process of forging their own.

If you have the recent expansive Benefit boxed set with the live sets from Tanglewood and Chicago, you already know how hot the band were live at this point in time - but if that set is too pricey for your pockets, or you already have it but can't get enough of the sound Tull had in 1970, you'll likely want this. And if, for whatever reason, you've been snoozing on live Jethro Tull... wake up! Tull were one of the greatest live acts of the prog age and the only disadvantage this set has over the likes of, say, Bursting Out, is that Bursting Out came later, so the band had a much larger repertoire of absolutely top-notch songs to choose from than when they put this out.