Ian Anderson has been on the road for over 30 years with his band Jethro Tull. Lifelong fan KEITH RAFFAELLI tracked down the rock legend and talked to him about his Lancashire roots as he prepared for a return to Blackburn's King George's Hall

REWIND . . . a grammar school blues band takes a Lancashire pub by storm. It's the late 60s and while every other group is worshipping at the shrine of Clapton and Cream this bunch are different.

Fast-forward to the 70s . . . Madison Square Garden, New York. Same group, same charismatic lead singer. Standing one-legged at the mike, blowing histrionically on, of all things, a flute. Unkempt hair like discoloured candy-floss.

Thousands of fans worshipping.

Fast-forward again . . . a stage door in Blackburn on a dark November night, 2001. Same group, same charismatic lead singer.

He's in his 50s now, smart haircut, balding, trim beard. Still blowing up a storm.

The common denominator? Ian Anderson, ever-present frontman of progressive rock legends Jethro Tull. Yes, Ian and the band are still on the road -- he reckons for 100 nights a year at home and abroad -- and they'll be at King George's Hall next Saturday.

It's a kind of homecoming for the globetrotting singer, flautist, writer and sometime Highland laird. "I went to Blackpool Grammar School back in the 60s -- I remember Roy Harper was down the road at King Edward's in Lytham -- and a few of us formed a blues band. We actually played our first gig at the Holy Family Youth Club in town," he recalled, as he prepared for the start of Jethro Tull's new British tour which starts on Wednesday .

Soon, the lads were taking on the Lancashire pub scene, a hotbed then of fine guitar-based groups, But one Saturday, Ian spotted a flute in a Lytham high street music shop. He traded in his guitar, bought the flute, and started a legend.

Dylan, no less, remains at 60 obsessively on the road as if anonymous hotels and dusty theatres were an addiction -- but why does Ian, rich, happily married, with a beautiful home in the West Country, continue to turn up in the downtown Blackburns and Doncasters of this world to ply his trade?

"It's a buzz and it's a responsibility," he said. "And particularly coming back to Lancashire after a long time I feel that responsibility. People remember you and they have expectations. It's actually much more relaxing playing abroad."

"Abroad" has taken the group to venues across the US -- where they are still particularly big -- in August, and into Scandinavia in September. It's a hectic schedule, but he still loves it.

"But travelling and sleeping on the band bus are not for me these days," he revealed. Instead, equally masochistically some might say, he prefers to criss-cross the UK by train. "Although Richard Branson hasn't managed to sort it out yet. It can be a real nightmare," he says.

Jethro Tull -- named after the famed 18th century agriculturalist -- might have started up modestly enough in the hazy, crazy days of '68, but soon they were winning re-bookings at the famous Marquee in Soho, as Ian brought his innovative style of flute playing to a public raised on the guitar bands of the era.

Perhaps two early titles stand out, the hit single Living In The Past and the Aqualung album of 1971. But in the 30 years since Ian and an ever-changing line-up have built an inextinguishable reputation as truly creative exponents of progressive music.

With sales of 60 million albums and more than 2,500 concerts in 40 countries under their belts, Jethro Tull -- and Ian Anderson -- continue to confirm their status as one of the most influential rock bands, lyrically articulate and musically astute.

But when the lights go up at the King George's Hall next Saturday . . . "I'll be taking a really deep breath," says Ian.