Prog News, Press Releases - Prog Rock (Ian Anderson) Honored By the Queen

Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson Awarded MBE

by Paul Cashmere - December 29 2007
photo by Ros O'Gorman

Queen Elizabeth II has awarded Jethro Tull founder and frontman the MBE.

The 59 year old singer and songwriter was granted the award in the Queen's annual honors list for his services to the music industry.

Anderson has been recording and performing with Jethro Tull for 40 years.

The Grammy Award winning Jethro Tull formed in 1967. The jazz-tinged rock band stood out amongst their contemporaries because Anderson played a flute instead of the traditional rock tool, the guitar.

Jethro Tull perfected the concept album with the release of 'Thick As A Brick' in 1972. They followed that up with another concept album 'A Passion Play'.

Probably Jethro Tull's greatest and least deserved achievement came in 1987 when they won the award for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance award at the 1989 Grammy Awards. They beat Metallica who were nominated for 'And Justice For All'. After much criticism, as a joke, the band took out a press add stating "The flute is a Heavy Metal instrument". Metallica won the Grammy in the same category a year later. Lars Ulrich thanked Jethro Tull "for not putting out an album this year".

At the end of 2006, Tull were listed as having performed 2789 concerts since 1968. That gives them an average of 73 shows a year.

Away from the music industry, Anderson is a successful businessman in his own rite. He has invested his money in salmon farms. His Strathaird farm was worth £10.7 million before he started to sell off parts.

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom - British http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_chivalry - order of chivalry established on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_4 - 4 June http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1917 - 1917 by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_V_of_the_United_Kingdom - King George V . The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions; in decreasing order of seniority, these are:

Knight Grand Cross or Dame Grand Cross (GBE)
Knight Commander (KBE) or Dame Commander (DBE)
Commander (CBE)
Officer (OBE)
Member (MBE)

Only the two highest ranks entail admission into http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knighthood - knighthood , an honour allowing the recipient to use the title 'Sir' (male) or 'Dame' (female) before their name. Honorary knighthoods, given to individuals who are not nationals of a realm where http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_II_of_the_United_Kingdom - Queen Elizabeth II is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_of_State - Head of State , permit usage of the honour as a post-nominal but not as a title before their name. These recipients are classified as honorary members of the Order they receive, and do not contribute to the numbers restricted to that Order as full members do.

There is also a related http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Empire_Medal - British Empire Medal , whose recipients are not members of the Order, but who are nonetheless affiliated with the Order. This medal is no longer conferred in the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom - United Kingdom or its dependencies, but is still used by the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cook_Islands - Cook Islands and by some other http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_of_Nations - Commonwealth nations.

The Order's motto is For God and the Empire. It is the most junior of the British orders of chivalry and has more members than any other.

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The first pop/rock musicians to get gongs were the Beatles (MBE) in 1965 - Lennon subsequently returned his to protest against the Vietnam war.