A (LA MODE) - THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

In the comprehensive and captivating liner notes we can read that initially the A album was meant as a solo project by Ian Anderson (that explains the A), but in the end the record company decided that releasing A as a new Jethro Tull album was commercially more interesting. And that "A was an attempt to bring Jethro Tull from the farmland into the Eighties".

Well, to me the studio-album A sounds fresh and inspired, with strong contributions by special guest Eddie Jobson. But it is not really a historical musical document, some great tracks, and some mediocre songs. However the A tour was glorious, a stunning blend of Jethro Tull classics, and the visual extra bonus of Eddie Jobson performing the A tracks, with mindblowing soli on his violins, and spectacular use of the mighty Yamaha CS-80 synthesizer, in those days high- tec. I was blown away by Jethro Tull on stage during the A tour, but pretty disappointed about the Slipstream video footage, I consider the band clips as disturbing. So I hoped that this lavish boxset featured unreleased live video footage, as you can see on YouTube, unfortunately this is not the case.

Nonethless this boxset is very interesting, especially due to the excellent two different remixes (by Steve Wilson, CD-1 and DVD-1) and bonustracks of the A album, the entire LA 1980 concert (2 different mixes, on CD 2 and 3, and DVD 2, audio only), and last but not least the remixed Slipstream video (DVD-3).

For me this 3-CD/3-DVD boxset is a very pleasant trip down Memory Lane, back to a concert that featured two great and unique musicians: Eddie Jobson and Ian Anderson (they met each other when UK supported Jethro Tull in 1979), enjoy their sparkling chemistry, embellished with lots of sensational soli on guitar, flute and keyboards.