Product Details

• Format: Collector's Edition, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, Special Edition, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Eagle Rock Ent
• DVD Release Date: October 4, 2005
• Run Time: 80 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000B5Y0MI
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #78,972 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Jethro Tull was formed in the late 60’s and released their debut album This Was in 1968. Led by charismatic frontman Ian Anderson, they have been touring and recording almost constantly ever since. Jethro Tull has registered #1 albums on both sides of the Atlantic, achieved a succession of gold and platinum discs and won a Grammy award. They remain a massive live draw wherever they play around the world.

In 1970 Jethro Tull played the Isle Of Wight Festival in front of 600,000 people. Earlier that year they had released their third album, Benefit, which had seen the introduction of a full time keyboard player to the band’s lineup. The set was drawn from across the three albums with popular tracks such as My Sunday Feeling, Dharma For One, Bourée and Nothing Is Easy and also featured My God, a track that would appear on the following year’s classic album Aqualung, probably their most famous release.

Nothing Is Easy is a true concert film, combining the classic performances from the festival with a new interview with Ian Anderson, specially shot for the film, and with backstage footage and original interviews from 1970 with Isle of Wight residents and fans attending the festival. Also included in the film is footage of the band’s appearance in the Rolling Stones’ Rock And Roll Circus performing A Song For Jeffrey with Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath on guitar.

As a bonus feature on the DVD there is a photo gallery of 26 original pictures of Tull’s performance at the Isle of Wight taken by celebrated photographer Claude Gassian.

DVD Tracklisting:
1) Bourée (excerpt)
2) My Sunday Feeling
3) A Song For Jeffrey
4) My God
5) Dharma For One
6) Nothing Is Easy
7) Medley: We Used To Know / For A Thousand Mothers

CD Tracklisting:
1) My Sunday Feeling
2) My God
3) With You There To Help Me
4) To Cry You A Song
5) Bourée
6) Dharma For 1
7) Nothing Is Easy
8) Medley: We Used To Know / For A Thousand Mothers

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is Great!, May 27, 2006

By 

A. Miller "The Master Of Classic Rock" (Durham, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jethro Tull: Nothing Is Easy Live at the Isle of Wight 1970 (DVD)

There is no way this isn't 5 stars. This is live music at it's best. Jethro Tull was never a mainstream classic rock band. But this is whole performance was/is pure classic metal. Clive Bunker (drums) is one of the best ever. Martin Barre (guitar) is better than average. Glen Cornick (bass) who left the band less than a year after this was really the only hippy in Tull. Ian Anderson of course (vocals, flute, acoustic guitar) is incredible. And John Evan (piano) was the main parts of the roots of the band back when he was a drummer in the John Evan Smash and with the album Benefit was back in the band.

These are the rankings of each song in the order of CD listing:

1. My Sunday Feeling-This was there official debut song off of This Was. And this is an extremely good perforance of it. Ian Anderson is late on his flute fills because even he can't sing, dance, and play the flute all in one. 8/10

2. My God-A classic song from the Aqualung album. And this is a pretty good rendition. 9/10

3. With You There to Help Me-The opener for 1970's Benefit. Clive Bunker is very powerful on the drums. But when he's not playing it seems that the band is off beat and Evan plays part of By Kind of Permission off Living in the Past. 7/10

4. To Cry a Song-Also off of Benefit. With a great riff and guitar solo gets a 10/10.

5. Bourée-Released as a single in 1969 is a classical song picked up from Bach. 9/10.

6. Dharma For One-Originally released on This Was. This version is rearranged but why. It was a great song before it was rearranged why change it. But if you look past it Bunker has a great drum solo for his effort it gets 8/10.

7. Nothing Is Easy-The first song off of 1969's Stand Up. This is the title of the album and I can see why. 10/10.

8. Medley: We Used To Know/For a Thousand Mothers-These are my two favorite songs off of the album Stand Up (besides A New Day Yesterday.) Barre doesn't use the wah-wah pedal so the guitar solo in We Used to Know doesn't have the same feel as the studio version. But For a Thousand Mothers is great. The only problem is Anderson sings the verse that starts with "baby" with only John Evan and it doesn't have the same feel. But regardless it still gets a 9/10.

This is a classic live performance during the golden age of rock music.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is IT Tull fans, April 29, 2008

By 

coot veal - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Jethro Tull: Nothing Is Easy Live at the Isle of Wight 1970 (DVD)

I saw Tull for the first time on their first U.S. Tour at the good ol' Fillmore East back in the day. They were so great that I can't even remember who the headliner was (Savoy Brown? Jeff Beck?... oh well)and I became a fan for life. Unfortunately, there is little in the way of concert video of this period when Tull was still young, brash and filled with juice. Well, it's been a (way too) long time but here it is. Yes, they WERE as great as we thought they were. Just know that there's only about 4 or 5 songs on this DVD, it's not a full set by any means, but you'll love it. The rest is padded with some rockumentary stuff about the Isle of Wight festival which was badly run, which you probably won't care about, and pieces of an Ian Anderson interview which is delightful. In my opinion, of the various Tull DVD's floating around (though Montreux is a very good performance by the elder Tull)this is the best.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply a great performance, November 14, 2007

By 

BENJAMIN MILER (Veneta, Oregon) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jethro Tull: Nothing Is Easy Live at the Isle of Wight 1970 (DVD)

In 1970, the final Isle of Wight Festival was held (at least until 2002 when the Isle of Wight festival ban was lifted). Personally, I felt Woodstock was overrated (so did Pete Townshend and Jimi Hendrix), I do understand the cultural impact of Woodstock, but I simply felt the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival had more interesting acts. And Woodstock did not have prog rock acts, Isle of Wight did, like Emerson, Lake & Palmer, of course, and Black Widow, who flirted with occult matters in a prog rock context. But I can understand why prog rock acts weren't featured in Woodstock, it was 1969 America, and many British prog groups at that time were still trying to make it in Britain, never mind America (and King Crimson won't release In the Court of the Crimson King until October 1969, two months after Woodstock). The 1970 Isle of Wight Festival was an event that had more diversity, in my opinion, than did Woodstock, because they weren't thinking all the hippies were of the "flower power" type the way Woodstock did (at least the impression I get), so they had groups that catered to more tastes.

The focus here is on Jethro Tull at the Isle of Wight Festival. Here you get new footage of Ian Anderson stating his opinion of the group's performance there, as well as the social and cultural impact, not to mention how Jethro Tull came to be, as well as footage of the group's performance there. From watching this, you get the impression that the Isle of Wight was a bastion of conservative old people, and it's true the island is home to many well-to-do retirees (apparently not the kind of place to raise a family, and many young people who live there do leave the island for mainland England for better opportunities). And thanks to that, the locals there did not take too kindly to the event, so much so that a ban was in place after 1970, a ban that didn't get lifted until 2002 (by which brand new Isle of Wight Festivals been held each year since). Ian Anderson seemed awfully delighted that this was the end of the hippie ideal, although I seriously doubt he'd want to say that in Glenn Cornick's face, because the hippie image he had (the long hair and headbands, which I happen to sorely miss, even if many other people would think that was very dated). And you'll notice a lot of angry, bitter, and disillusioned people who felt many of their generation had turned against them (you hear this one guy complain to one of the people running the event that she was "the second establishment" and that it was a "big business trip", I can see where some of these people were coming, once they get to see how the music industry was like, say in 1978, it's really hard to not think the music industry by then really was "big business", with disco and AOR groups like Styx and Foreigner making it big). Although I felt many of these people were overreacting over the admission price, compare that to the price they're asking for the current Isle of Wight Festivals (which would put anyone in shock who thought £3 was too much way back in 1970), or of course, Woodstock '99. And of course, I don't blame Ian Anderson or Tull's manager of the time, Terry Ellis, for having a problem with the organizers of the event who were trying to remove people from the premise as the band were doing their soundcheck (neither Ellis nor the band had any problems with having people watch them do their soundcheck).

I completely forgot there was bonus footage of Tull performing "A Song For Jeffrey" on the Stones' Rock and Roll Circus (which was never released at the time, but many years later on VHS, and later DVD). Mick Abrahams had already left the group at the time, and Marin Barre has yet to join in, so on this film, it was Tony Iommi, of Black Sabbath fame. Of course, his stay was extremely brief. It was basically lip synched as it sounded like the original studio recording.

OK, now let's focus on the music. Well, in 1970 Tull was yet to be considered progressive rock. They were a band in transition, moving away from the blues and more of a hard rock direction. While Benefit was their latest album, I am rather baffled why no material from that album is featured on this film (although two songs from that album is featured on the bonus audio CD, "With You There to Help Me" and "To Cry You a Song"). Instead the group focuses on Stand Up and This Was, with Martin Barre no doubt having no problem filling in Mick Abrahams shoes for the This Was material. The songs include "My Sunday Feeling", "Dharma For One", and "Nothing is Easy". They also premiered "My God" which as everyone knows, would appear on their forthcoming album Aqualung. This one has a more extended flute solo, and some lyrics that differed from the eventual studio version. "A Song For Jeffrey" was taken from the Rolling Stones Rock n' Roll Circus (filmed in 1968, but not released until more recently), with Toni Iommi (later of Black Sabbath) appearing (he only appeared for the movie, as Tull was able to get a hold of Martin Barre shortly thereafter). They performed "Dharma For One" much like they did on the live part of the Living in the Past album, that is with vocals, although the drum solo is even more extended (I am certain the band got these ideas from Cream's "Toad", which I'm sure inspired "Dharma For One" as much as it did "Moby Dick" for Led Zeppelin).

This version has an audio CD as well of the complete performance, where you get a couple of songs from Benefit, plus "Bouree", as well as what you heard on the DVD.

Watching it now will obviously bring you in a culture shock. Seeing all the long hair and clothes that no one wears these days. Not to mention how the band looked. Since you see Ian Anderson how he looked in 2004, you might forget he had all that hair back in 1970, not to mention the beard (giving the impression of British outdoorsman, notice I didn't say English, since Ian Anderson is actually Scots). Also it's a big shock that you scarcely see anyone over 25 in that event, but that's understandable, as there was that "don't trust anyone over 30" mentality, and many over the age of 25 were more nostalgic for the 1950s, making it more difficult for them to relate to the psychedelic and prog rock acts featured on the Isle of Wight Festival.

Overall, this was a fantastic performance, despite the bad vibes (the same kind of bad vibes that brought Joni Mitchell to tears). I highly recommend this to all Tull fans.