John Evan (born John Spencer Evans; born 28 March 1948, in

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...

, Derbyshire.) is a British musician and composer. He is best known for having played keyboards for Jethro Tull from April 1970 to June 1980. Evans' father was headmaster at a Derbyshire village school and his mother was a local concert pianist and piano teacher. The family moved to Blackpool, Lancashire in October 1949. Evans was educated at Blackpool Grammar School, where he met Ian Anderson and Jeffrey Hammond, and Chelsea College, now King's College London.

Early career

Evans changed his name when his first band, The Blades, changed their name to The John Evan Band.

Jeffrey Hammond Jeffrey Hammond (born 30 July 1946), often known by his former stage name Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond, is an artist and retired musician best known for being the bassist of progressive rock band Jethro Tull from 1971 to 1975. With Jethro Tull, Ha ...

apparently thought 'The John Evan Band' sounded better than 'The John Evans Band'. He participated in the Blackpool musical scene, with most of the musicians that would become Jethro Tull, including Barrie Barlow,

Glenn Cornick Glenn Douglas Barnard Cornick (23 April 1947 – 28 August 2014) was an English bass guitarist, best known as the original bassist for the British rock band Jethro Tull from 1967 to 1970. ''Rolling Stone'' has called his playing with Tull as " ...

and

Ian Anderson Ian Scott Anderson (born 10 August 1947) is a British musician, singer and songwriter best known for his work as the lead vocalist, flautist, acoustic guitarist and leader of the British rock band Jethro Tull. He is a multi-instrumentalist w ...

. Later on, Evan was attending college when he happened to recognize his then future bandmates on the radio with the song " Living in the Past", remarking years later that it stood out to him because of its quite unusual time signature for a pop song ( ).

Jethro Tull

In 1970, he played as a session musician on Jethro Tull's '' Benefit'' album (where his acknowledgement reads: "...and John Evan, who played keyboards for our 'benefit'"), and was eventually convinced by

to leave school to become a full-fledged member of the band. In addition to his many distinctive contributions to the group's overall musical sound and stage personality, it is also notable that Evan composed the memorable piano introduction to "

Locomotive Breath "Locomotive Breath" is a song by British progressive rock band Jethro Tull from their 1971 album, '' Aqualung''. Written as a comment on population growth, "Locomotive Breath" was meant to replicate the chugging rhythm of a train. In addition to ...

", having achieved this task in studio while some of the other band members were out to lunch. Whilst with Jethro Tull, Evan had a penchant for wearing his trademark white suit, along with a yellow shirt underneath and a pink-and-yellow

polka-dot Red polka dots on a yellow background Girl wearing polka dot dress Polish ceramics German ceramics Polka dot is a pattern consisting of an array of large filled circles of the same size. Polka dots are commonly seen on children's clothing, ...

tie. Evan can be seen wearing this outfit in photographs on the album '' War Child'', and the live album ''

Bursting Out ''Bursting Out'' is a 1978 live double album by the rock band Jethro Tull. The concert was recorded at the Festhalle in Bern, Switzerland, on 28 May 1978 during the band's European Heavy Horses Tour in May/June of that year. A spelling err ...

'', while a painted version of him is seen wearing the suit and tie on the inside cover of the '' Aqualung'' album. During concerts, Evan's wildly rendered pantomime gestures would conjure visions for audiences of a cross between

Harpo Marx Arthur "Harpo" Marx (born Adolph Marx; November 23, 1888 – September 28, 1964) was an American comedian, actor, mime artist, and harpist, and the second-oldest of the Marx Brothers. In contrast to the mainly verbal comedy of his brothers Grou ...

and

The Hatter The Hatter is a fictional character in Lewis Carroll's 1865 book ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' and its 1871 sequel ''Through the Looking-Glass''. He is very often referred to as the Mad Hatter, though this term was never used by Car ...

from ''

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a ...

'' (sans the hat). Because of the familiar white suit, Anderson was known to jokingly refer to Evan (during band member introductions) as "everyone's favourite ice cream salesman".

After Jethro Tull

Evan departed Jethro Tull in July 1980, with the "Big Split" of the band. He then went on to form Tallis with fellow departing Tull member,

Dee Palmer Dee Palmer (formerly David Palmer; born 2 July 1937) is an English composer, arranger, and keyboardist best known for having been a member of the progressive rock group Jethro Tull (band), Jethro Tull from 1976 to 1980 (although she had worked wi ...

. He appeared in the 2004 DVD ''Jethro Tull – A New Day Yesterday: The 25th Anniversary Collection (1969–1994)'' (originally released in 1994 on VHS), the 2008 DVD ''Jethro Tull – Their Fully Authorised Story (1968–2008)'', and the 2009 CD/DVD combo ''Jethro Tull – Live at Madison Square Garden (1978)''. In 2018, Evan appeared in a video segment, dressed as a flower, during Ian Anderson's Jethro Tull 50th Anniversary tour.

Album discography

With The John Evan Band

*''Live 1966'' (A New Day Records)

With Jethro Tull

;Studio albums * '' Benefit'' (1970 - as

session musician Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a ...

) * '' Aqualung'' (1971) * ''

Thick as a Brick ''Thick as a Brick'' is the fifth studio album by the British rock band Jethro Tull, released on 3 March 1972. The album contains a continuous piece of music, split over two sides of an LP record, and is intended as a parody of the concept alb ...

'' (1972) * ''

A Passion Play ''A Passion Play'' is the sixth studio album by British progressive rock band Jethro Tull, released in July 1973 in both the UK and US. Following in the same style as the band's previous album ''Thick as a Brick'' (1972), ''A Passion Play'' is ...

'' (1973) * '' War Child'' (1974) * ''

Minstrel in the Gallery ''Minstrel in the Gallery'' is the eighth studio album by British rock band Jethro Tull, released in September 1975. The album sees the band going in a different direction from their previous work '' War Child'' (1974), returning to a blend of e ...

'' (1975) * '' Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young to Die!'' (1976) * ''

Songs from the Wood ''Songs from the Wood'' is the tenth studio album by British progressive rock band Jethro Tull, released on 11 February 1977 by Chrysalis Records. The album is considered to be the first of three folk rock albums released by the band at the en ...

'' (1977) * ''

Heavy Horses ''Heavy Horses'' is the eleventh studio album by British progressive rock band Jethro Tull, released on 10 April 1978. The album is often considered the second in a trio of folk rock albums released by the band at the end of the 1970s, alongsi ...

'' (1978) * '' Stormwatch'' (1979) ;Compilations * '' Living in the Past'' (1972) * ''

20 Years of Jethro Tull ''20 Years of Jethro Tull'' is a 1988 boxed set which spans the first twenty years of Jethro Tull. It was issued as five LPs: ''Radio Archives'', ''Rare Tracks'', ''Flawed Gems'', ''Other Sides of Tull'', and ''The Essential Tull''. It was s ...

'' * ''

25th Anniversary Box Set ''25th Anniversary Box Set'' is a 1993 limited edition box set by Jethro Tull. It includes some of the band's best-known compositions from 1969 to 1992, many of them previously unavailable in the versions presented here. It was the second Jet ...

'' * '' Nightcap'' ;Live albums * ''

'' (1978) * '' Nothing Is Easy: Live at the Isle of Wight 1970'' (as session musician, released in 2004) * '' Live at Carnegie Hall 1970'' (as session musician, released in 2015) * ''

Live at Madison Square Garden 1978 ''Live at Madison Square Garden 1978'' is a concert video and an album by British rock band Jethro Tull, released in 2009. It was recorded on 9 October 1978 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. 50 minutes of the performance were broadc ...

References

External links

Biography on official Jethro Tull website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Evan, John 1948 births Living people English keyboardists English rock keyboardists Jethro Tull (band) members People from Blackpool Alumni of King's College London Progressive rock keyboardists Progressive rock organists Progressive rock pianists 21st-century organists