Parlophone’s deluxe series of Jethro Tull reissues continues on May 5 with a book-style 2-CD/2-DVD set of the band’s eighth studio album, Minstrel in the Gallery. This deluxe Minstrel, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the gold-certified album, follows last November’s reissue of Tull’s album No. 7, WarChild as well as expansions of Thick as a Brick, A Passion Play, Benefit and Aqualung. (The latter received a super deluxe box treatment.) Both Steven Wilson and Jakko Jakszyk are involved in this reissue.
When it was originally released, Minstrel in the Gallery became Jethro Tull’s fifth consecutive U.S. Top 10 album. It peaked at No. 7, and at a more-than-respectable No. 29 in the U.K. It’s also notable as the final album to feature the longtime lineup of Ian Anderson, Martin Barre, John Evans, Barrie Barlow and Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond. It was previously reissued and expanded in 2002.
The new Minstrel in the Gallery: La Grande Edition will feature the following:
- Original album (in stereo and 5.1) mixed by Steven Wilson
- Seven bonus tracks (six previously unreleased), all mixed to stereo and two in 5.1 by Steven Wilson
- July 5, 1975 live performance at the Olympia in Paris mixed to 5.1 and stereo by King Crimson guitarist Jakko Jakszyk
- Flat transfers of the original LP mix at 96/24 (plus bonus track "Summerday Sands")
- Flat transfer of the original 4.0 quadraphonic mix of the LP (plus bonus track "Summerday Sands")
- An eight-minute film of the band performing "Minstrel In The Gallery" in Paris from July 1975
As with WarChild, Thick as a Brick and A Passion Play, the new Minstrel is housed in a sturdy, casebound DVD book-style format. Its 80 pages boast an extensive history of the album, track-by-track annotations by Ian Anderson, recollections by roadie Kenny Wylie, Maison Rouge maintenance engineer Pete Smith, and string section member Liz Edwards, plus lyrics, the band’s album tour itinerary, and rare and unseen photographs.
La Grande Edition has been expanded with the B-side "Summerday Sands," studio outtakes, and three recordings made for a BBC broadcast (the album's title track, "Cold Wind To Valhalla," and "Aqualung"). Also included is a live recording of the band performing at the Olympia in Paris on July 5, 1975, a few months prior to the release of Minstrel in the Gallery. The concert has been mixed to 5.1 and stereo by King Crimson guitarist Jakko Jakszyk.
Also on May 5, the new stereo remix of Minstrel in the Gallery will be released on a single CD, as a digital download, and as a limited edition 180-gram vinyl pressing. You can pre-order all iterations of this release below!
Jethro Tull, Minstrel in the Gallery: La Grande Edition (Parlophone/Rhino, 2015)
2 CD/2 DVD Set: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Link TBD
180-Gram Vinyl (New Stereo Remix): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Link TBD
Single CD (New Stereo Remix): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Links TBD
Digital Download: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Links TBD
Album plus Bonus Tracks:
- Minstrel in the Gallery
- Cold Wind to Valhalla
- Black Satin Dancer
- Requiem
- One White Duck / 0 10 = Nothing at All
- Baker Street Muse (Pig-Me and the Whore / Nice Little Tune / Crash Barrier Waltzer / Mother England Reverie)
- Grace
- Summerday Sands (B-side)
- Requiem
- One White Duck
- Grace
- Minstrel in the Gallery (BBC Version)
- Cold Wind to Valhalla (BBC Version)
- Aqualung (BBC Version)
Live at the Paris Olympia – July 5, 1975
- Introduction
- Wind Up
- Critique Oblique
- Wond’ring Aloud
- My God (Flute Solo Suite)
- Cross-Eyed Mary
- Minstrel in the Gallery
- Skating Away on the Thin Ice of the New Day
- Bungle in the Jungle
- Aqualung
- Guitar Solo
- Back Door Angels
- Locomotive Breath
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The cover says that the original album has been mixed into 5.1 by Stephen Wilson. However your article (currently) only mentions a 5.1 mix for some bonus tracks.
Hi Christopher, we'll make a few inquiries to get to the bottom of it. Despite the cover, the press release currently only indicates the two tracks in 5.1; however, that may be in error. Watch this space!
Thanks Joe
Happily, the Burning Shed website states "The original album (in Stereo and 5.1) plus seven bonus tracks (six previously unreleased) in Stereo (Summerday Sands and the alternate Requiem are also available as 5.1 mixes)."
Thank you for confirming! I've updated the above article to reflect the information from Burning Shed.
A huge thanks Joe for the info, have been a huge fan for years, i have bought every issue/reissue/box sets, can't wait for this one
This is great news - now the entire Jeffrey Hammond period has received the Steven Wilson treatment. I'm particularly excited about the Paris concert, which appears to be the only high-quality live recording of this line-up. Other sites have indicated that the live "Locomotive Breath" will include "Hard-Headed English General," which would then take its proper place beside "Tomorrow Was Today" on the roster of re-discovered Tull songs from the 1970s.
Does the CD contain the entire Paris concert, or has it been edited to fit onto one disc? And if it has been edited, will the DVD contain the complete concert? (There is precedent for this arrangement - both the deluxe "Stand Up" and "Live at Madison Square Garden 1978" contain maxed-out CDs and extended, DVD-exclusive content.) I know that the band performed chunks of "Thick as a Brick" during the 1975 tour, and I'd love to hear a live performance with Hammond.
It's rumored that 75 minutes of the Paris concert was filmed - it's a shame that only one song will appear on the video portion of the DVD, but I suppose it's better than nothing. All in all, this looks like another terrific release, and it makes me wonder how far into the Jethro Tull catalogue they will go. (I hope they get as far as "Stormwatch," the last album from the Evan/Barlow core line-up.)