MINSTREL IN THE GALLERY - 40TH ANNIVERSARY: LA GRANDE EDITION

The La Grande Edition boxed set of Minstrel In the Gallery offers up a perfectly reasonable Steven Wilson sprucing-up of the original album, various odds and ends from the era, plus - perhaps best of all - Jakko Jakszyk's painstaking reconstruction of a July 1975 concert in Paris, in which he has skilfully covered over gaps in the existing tapes using recordings from the rehearsal in the venue that preceded the concert. Can you spot the gaps? Ian Anderson apparently couldn't and that's good enough for me.

This live show came in the window between much of the actual recording of the album being done and the final product being released, so it isn't as heavy on Minstrel-era material as you might think - though the title track does get an airing. In fact, the set list is quite heavy on material from Aqualung - 6 of its songs are offered up here. (By comparison, War Child - the then most-recently released album - only has 3 songs here).

The Paris show reveals just how ferocious a live unit Jethro Tull was in 1975, offering a firey interpretation of most of Aqualung plus selected other pieces here and there, and so is another apt choice for a show to include on this boxed set series.