The most intimate Jethro Tull experience I ever had started in september, when a friend from the Netherlands e-mailed me that Tull would be performing in the famous dutch unplugged show '2 Meter Sessies'. I thought about the 'Ohne Filter' show some months ago, that wasn't announced and I just heard about it the day it was recorded, so wasn't able to attend. As I work for a dutch TV production company in Germany, it was no problem to get a phone number from someone from the '2 Meter Sessies'. I phoned them and talked to a very gentle guy, the producer of the show. After 10 minutes or so he told me that this show (I've never seen it before) has no audience, so it wasn't possible to get me tickets. 'Anyway', he said, he would check band/management if I'm allowed to attend the show. 'That's it', I thought, you've done your best, but .... it didn't work, watch it on TV!

When ... in the beginning of october I got an e-mail from the producer Marc, that I would be welcome to attend the recording sessions in the 'Melkweg' in Amsterdam! No surprise that I was very happy! I phoned my big brother Koen from Luxemburg (yes, the land of instant beer and plastic cheese!) if he had to work that day and I think it took 1/10 second that he said 'No, I'm available!', so he was in!

We travelled to the Netherlands on monday 18th, having a nice evening with a lot of chatting, fine food and some beers in a small town near Amsterdam. Next morning, after breakfast, we took the train to Amsterdam and had a walk there, as there was still some time 'til the recordings should begin (12 o'clock).
We found the 'Melkweg' (a music club) just in time and asked at the reception for the recordings, but they didn't know anything about it! Luckily I had the producer's mobile number with me, so we phoned him and he told me that they changed the location to the 'Wisseloords Recording Studio' in Hilversum, which is about 30 km from Amsterdam, he also left me a message about this at home, but after my depart from Cologne on monday.
Anyway, it was no problem to reach the studio just in time ...

We arrived at the 'Wisseloords' -a place where a lot of famous bands recored their albums- and found the producer Marc which was also very gentle as a 'real' person, showed us the studio (where our boys just started the soundcheck) and said something like 'just feel like at home'. After a short coffee break we went into the studio and watched the soundcheck. Just 5 meters in front of us were Jethro Tull checking their instruments and jamming around. There were three cameras in front of the stage area, two of them hand-held and only a few lights. Behind the stage there was only a black curtain, so the atmosphere was really very intimate and a great place to play some 'Very Light Music'.

During the soundcheck it became clear that such gig is fun for fans (that are lucky enough to attend), but hard work for the band, as it takes long until the balance is found, all instruments sound like they should sound, etc.
The set was really 'unplugged', Andy had two keyboards, Martin and Jon only small amps. The drumset was not even a 'mobile drum kit', only snare, hi-hat, bongos, cymbal and Glockenspiel and Ian even didn't have an amplifier or monitorbox, just two microphones!

Later we went into the control room of the studio, it was a good place to see and the perfect sound! The sound engineer taped 'Fat Man' and Ian came into the room to check if the sound was ok, seems that he liked what he heard and I agree with this, what I heard was excellent!

After about two hours, band and production team were ready to go, so the recording sessions started. The '2 Meter Sessies' have their name because the presentator is 2 meters tall. He did an interview with Ian and what I heard (sadly there were some people talking loud in the control room during this) was nice, as he didn't ask the usual questions about how Tull got their name. etc. The interview will later be cut between the songs for the broadcast.

Tull started to play their set, first song was 'Someday The Sun Won't Shine For You', a great opener for such an intimate gig. Brilliant blues harp by Ian and bluesy guitar by Martin. The sound was very clean, maybe a bit to clean for a blues, but anyway ...

Next was 'In The Grip Of Stronger Stuff', I didn't expect very much of this (heard it too often, I think), but it turned out to be absolutely fantastic! Incredible flute work by Ian and ... Tull is such a tight band! The only thing that went wrong was some noise from the guitar after the last chord, when flute and orchestra sound faded out. It was not very loud, but clearly heard, so the sound engineer asked for a second performance to fix the noise. Ian answered 'let's go on with the set and do it again later ... possibly'.

Said, done, next was a beautiful accoustic rendition of Dot Com', which I liked very much, as it wasn't heard like this before. Ian's voice was in an excellent shape, sounded clear and warm and he hit all the high notes.
After 'Dot Com' I noticed a change in the atmosphere in the studio. During the soundcheck and the beginning of the recording, it was obvious who is the boss in Jethro Tull and that being the boss means also being the focus, now -as the recordings went well- everybody seemed to be more relaxed and also Ian was joking a bit.

'Fat Man' was a bit hard for the sound engineer, as he didn't knew about the 'Claghorn' (which is very loud, believe me!), so they checked it and the performance was great. Andy and Jon did all the grimaces and shakers. Hard for Jon that he had to move from the right to the middle of the stage for the bass part, but there was not that much place ... did he really hit the camera with his bass? ;-) Btw, the 'Claghorn' also plays the last note in the song, but Andy wasn't able to reach it (the cameraman ...), so ... the Horn plays out of time! Laughter in the whole studio!

Also 'The Secret Language Of Birds' is a classical song for an unplugged-set, so it was played. Very funny: the bird noises at the beginning were not piped in by a sampler, but whistled by the whole band! Before the performance they did a short soundcheck, it was very funny to hear Martin, Andy, Doane and Jon making birdy noises (and look into their faces while they try to whistle), but then ... we could clearly hear a cow at the second check! Everybody was laughing and the soundengineer said over the speakers 'Never heard of flying cows'. Ian's answer: 'Cows on drugs ...'. *lol* The performance was -guess it- outstanding!

'Bourée' began with the classical intro (they started 3 times) and went into the classical Tull interpretation. The soundengineer didn't knew much about Tull -but he did a brilliant job anyway!-, so he made a small mistake after the bass solo where the bass was too loud in the mix for a few notes and Tull had to perform it a second time, which went perfect then.

Last tune was a medley of 'Thick As A Brick' and 'Locomotive Breath'. Ian's singing in TAAB was excellent, Doane played the Glockenspiel. 'Locomotive Breath' had no piano intro and only two verses with the flute solo in the middle. Ian's 'aaaah ... slow down' at the end came without the big reverb he uses at concerts, which was nice to hear, as his 'natural' voice sounded so beautiful this day.

Well, as the band was in a good mood now, they did another 'In The Grip Of Stronger Stuff' . It went all well and the recording sessions were over.

We went outside the studio -really still not believing what special show we did attend- and met the boys in the bar. Every beautiful day has to find an end and so this one, while I'm typing this report in.

My thanks go to Koen (for everything) and Jethro Tull for making this special experience possible!

Very special thanks to Marc, the producer of the show, he even invited us for some beers at their costs, you're great, man!