John Evan

John was born on March 28th, 1948. His mother was a piano teacher and John began piano lessons at home so, when at Blackpool Grammar school aged fifteen, he was noticed by Ian Anderson as a likely recruit for the beat group formed out of some of Ian's class mates. Together with Jeffrey Hammond and a older boy Hipgrave (Christian name never used) John offered the use of his mother's front room as a rehearsal place, provided that he could switch to drums rather than play piano.

With the benefit of a few lessons on the drum kit, and the enthusiasm of the others, "The Blades" was born, named after the fictitious club frequented by James Bond in the Ian Fleming novels. Later, with the addition of other members and departure of Hipgrave, "The John Evan Band" became the new name, by way of thanks for the support and kindness shown by John's mother, who had funded the purchase of the group van and Hammond Organ (to which John had now taken).

Although not a singer, John was considered the real musician of the band and earned his prominent position as a result of the instrumentals featuring his organ playing performed by the band.

When John decided on taking up his place at University to study Pharmacy in 1968, the other members left also, with the exception of Ian Anderson and Glenn Cornick who stayed to fulfill the few gigs booked under the Evan Band name.

John rejoined Tull, giving up his studies, in 1970, following the recording of the Benefit album on which he had performed as a session player during the evenings after classes. The music seemed to need the extra instrumentation of piano and organ to be played live convincingly, and so, John was persuaded to join up for touring and future recording, albeit, somewhat reluctantly.

Ian's argument to his old chum was that he could pick up his studies again a couple of years later after seeing the world and earning a few banknotes of varying national currencies. The argument was as convincingly put to Jeffrey Hammond a year later when he also rejoined his previous musical cohorts for the Aqualung album.

After staying on as keyboard player for most of the seventies, John began to become disillusioned with the lifestyle and the music and became somewhat reclusive following the disintegration of an ill-advised brief marriage, taking refuge in the world of classical piano music.

Following the "Great Reshuffle" of 1980, Evans found himself, along with Barriemore Barlow and David Palmer, no longer part of Ian's immediate plans to record and tour with a solo project. Some untimely press statements by the record company plunged the previous Tull members into disarray and bitterness, resulting in Barlow announcing that he had already left anyway, and Evans and Palmer forming a new band "Tallis" to perform classical-based pop and rock music.

After the failure of Tallis to make any headway, John turned, via a contact from a girlfriend, to building work, eventually buying the firm and enjoying several profitable years carrying out building and refurbishing work, mainly around Heathrow Airport.

Although asked by Ian on a couple of occasions to return to the fold, if only for a one-off concert or as a guest on an album, John maintained steadfastly that he no longer had an interest in performing and anyway, his fingers were much too rusty to cope with the offers.

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