16 Facts About Martin Barre

Martin Lancelot Barre is an English guitarist best known for his longtime role as lead guitarist of British rock band Jethro Tull, with whom he recorded and toured from 1968 until the band's initial dissolution in 2011.

Martin Barre has played the flute and other instruments such as the mandolin, both on stage for Jethro Tull and in his own solo work.

Martin Barre was born in Kings Heath, Birmingham, England, on 17 November 1946.

Martin Barre's father was an engineer who had wanted to play the clarinet professionally.

When Martin Barre bought his first guitar, his father gave him albums by Barney Kessel, Johnny Smith and Wes Montgomery to broaden his musical perspectives.

Martin Barre bought a tenor saxophone, and after two days' practice was able to bluff his way through the audition.

Finally, in mid-1968, they became a blues band named Gethsemane, and played in pubs all over England, with Martin Barre playing the guitar and flute.

Martin Barre was so nervous that he barely played; however, he arranged a second audition.

Martin Barre spent the Christmas holidays of 1968 learning material that was to become the album Stand Up.

Martin Barre embraced the new Jethro Tull sound on the album Under Wraps, despite its foregrounding of synthesisers and relegation of his own guitar work to the background.

On one track of 1994's A Trick of Memory, Martin Barre plays a guitar given to him by friend Mark Mancina.

Martin Barre commenced a tour of the US in the spring of 2019 to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of his joining Jethro Tull and the release of Stand Up.

For 2020, Martin Barre had planned to celebrate 50 years of Jethro Tull music with a world tour.

Martin Barre once said that he tried not to listen to other guitarists so that he would not be influenced by them.

Martin Barre said he never took guitar lessons so that he would not sound like other players.

Rush's Geddy Lee mentions the "great guitar sounds" of Martin Barre when remembering the album Thick as a Brick.