Anderson and Anoushka Shankar, with whom he is collaborating for his India tour, have, however, postponed their November 29 Mumbai show. “We are planning to go to Mumbai later this week for a benefit concert for the survivors,” says Anderson. The two-hour concert in Delhi was dedicated to the police officers and commandos who lost their lives defending Mumbai. Anderson appealed for a minute’s silence to remember the devastation in Mumbai and then went on to play signature Jethro Tull numbers like Living in the Past and an extended version of their hit single, Aqualung. He also played some fusion tracks with Shankar, including an upbeat lounge number called Tea With Anoushka.
The energetic Anderson, 61, is almost always on tour, playing at over 100 concerts a year. “I wake up at six in the morning and eat cornflakes. I’m good to go for another hundred shows,” he grins. He first visited India in 1972 and has come back several times since. “We condemn what has happened but we have to get back to doing normal things, or the bad guys will win. It’s business as usual in India for me,” he says, before flying out for his next stop, Bangalore’s Palace Grounds where he will perform on Tuesday.
