"Progressive Blues Rock at it's very best"

Tull Stalwarts Go Wild Again.

Jethro Tull’s bass player Glenn Cornick and drummer Clive Bunker team up again for a Northeast gig with progressive blues outfit Wild Turkey.

Three albums that should be in any serious Tull fans record collection are This Was, Stand Up and Benefit which all feature ace bass player Glenn Cornick and demon drummer Clive Bunker. Of course Jethro Tull became a mega band playing the world’s biggest stages, but they also did many gigs here in the Northeast with messers Cornick, Bunker, Anderson and Abrahams playing the likes of the Bay Hotel in Sunderland, Redcar Jazz Club and were you at the Argus Butterfly in Peterlee?

Glenn Cornick is almost a local lad. Well Cumbria is just next door and he’s from Barrow-in-Furness. He joined The John Evan Band with Ian Anderson in 1966, which one year later became known as Jethro Tull with Clive bunker and the excellent Mick Abrahams on guitar. During those incredible years with Tull, Cornick and Bunker travelled the world and became household names.

It was 1970 that Cornick moved on to start Wild Turkey and teamed up with superb Welsh singer Gary Pickford-Hopkins and from 1971 to 1973 they relentlessly toured Europe and America with other leading bands of the time such as YES, Black Sabbath, ZZ Top, Ten Years After and the new Jethro Tull.  They also famously had a residency at the legendary Marquee Club in London and released two critically acclaimed albums.

Their final gig was in 1974 at the Marquee as Pickford-Hopkins had received an offer to perform on Rick Wakeman's Journey To The Centre Of The Earth. That was it so they all went their separate ways until 1996 when Wild Turkey reformed to record The Steeler Of Years album. Ten years further on and they have released a new album and of course are enjoying being back on the road although not in the back of a Transit.

Clive Bunker is a workaholic and was called up by Cornick for this tour. After Tull, he rejoined Mick Abrahams in the fabulous Blodwyn Pig and is always in big demand both as a session player and for live gigs. Over the years he has played and been out on the road with outfits such as Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, Poor Mouth, Steve Hillage, Uli Jon Roth and Steve Howe.

This is a top quality band playing classy blues tinged rock and can be found close-up and cosy at the Royal Hotel, Hexham. That’s just 25 minutes along the A69 from Newcastle or take the train lads. And yes, the photo is circa 1971 and some of us did look like that then, back in the days before beer and baldness