Stormwatch is the twelfth studio album by progressive rock band Jethro Tull, released in September 1979. The album is often considered the last in a trio of folk rock albums released by the band at the end of the 1970s, alongside Songs from the Wood (1977) and Heavy Horses (1978). The album's themes deal mostly with the environment, climate and seaside living, and were heavily inspired by the Isle of Skye in Scotland, where frontman Ian Anderson had recently purchased property.

Stormwatch was notably the last Tull album to feature the "classic" line-up of the 1970s, as drummer Barrie "Barriemore" Barlow and keyboardists John Evan and Dee Palmer all left or were fired from the band in the months after the album's tour concluded in April 1980; further, bassist John Glascock had died from heart complications in November 1979 during the tour. Glascock's playing is largely absent on the album as a result of his medical issues, with Anderson playing bass on all but three tracks. On the tour, Dave Pegg (from Fairport Convention, which had split up in August 1979) stood in for Glascock; he later joined full-time.

Recording

Stormwatch was recorded over a series of sessions lasting from August 1978 until July 1979, although the majority of the album's tracks were recorded in the later 1979 sessions. The initial series of sessions in 1978 only produced one track which would appear on the album ("Something's On the Move") with guitarist Martin Barre mentioning in a 1979 interview that "we completed an album's worth of material, then we went away to America-- and when we got back, we listened to it again and it was not there at all. So, we decided to start again." In early 1979, the band recorded for the album while Ian Anderson, keyboardist/arranger David Palmer (now Dee Palmer) and Barre simultaneously wrote music for The Water's Edge, a commissioned program for the Scottish Ballet. Some of the music written for The Water's Edge would later develop into tracks on Stormwatch, such as "Elegy" and "Dark Ages".

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Certifications

References

  • Stormwatch at Discogs