The day Fifer Ian Anderson brought rock band Jethro Tull to Kirkcaldy YMCA

e would return to Fife with his newly formed band with Mick Abrahams on guitar, Glenn Comick on bass and Clive Bunker on drums in their first year as Jethro Tull.

With some dates at the Marquee in London they ventured north to play Kirkcaldy YMCA in 1968 when having examined the venue elected to play upstairs in the small room for some better acoustics and for the intimacy.

That was a busy year for them when they played 108 shows in total around the release of the first album This Was.

The following year their Stand Up album would top the charts, play the massive Isle of Wight Festival, and took the US by storm reaching the top there also and playing 45 shows. In 1972 the concept album Thick As A Brick accompanied by a full local spoof newspaper was a 43-minute suite over two sides of the LP.

This week author Laura Shenton, a music historian, has published Jethro Tull Thick As A Brick In-depth (Wymer Publishing, £14.99).

A great companion to the music she has examined the variations of releases, the groundbreaking artwork, an international discography and even tour dates surrounding the release.

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Accepting that this album was not universally accepted by critics or fans she can analyse this fresh as she was not even born when it was initially released.

Still a favourite though and from what was a stable line up for Tull in a long career of changes.

She examines how they approached the piece in their many concert tours and even how the newspaper content took longer to make than recording the music took

Laura has published three other books this week and all in depth critical appraisals of favourite albums like The Kick Inside – Kate Bush (what a debut), The Gathering – Tears For Fears (innovating synth with dark lyrics) and Stormbringer Deep Purple; the latter perhaps a surprising choice considering the output of the band and the various line ups.

This was the Mk3 line up with David Coverdale coming in as vocalist and the last with Ritchie Blackmore on guitar as he was off to form Rainbow.

All great choices with four more to come in this series soon and a fine companion to the now vintage recorded masterpieces – whereas magazine articles get lost or missing during these times books are for ever and confirms the legacy of the music that becomes a part of our lives.