"The red wine had flies in it. The mystery meat caused musicians to head loo-wards. There were bedbugs": In 1972 Jethro Tull retreated to a French chateau to record a new album. It was a disaster

.

For Jethro Tull, 1972 was a bumper harvest year. In June their fifth album Thick As A Brick compounded the success of the previous year’s Aqualung by landing them their first US No.1. By November they were riding high again with Living In The Past, a hefty double compilation album that was another Top 10 hit on both sides of the Atlantic. 

But the year hadn’t quite been the hands-down triumph it seemed. The late summer had seen Ian Anderson and his band of artsy prog-folksters abandon a new studio album after a succession of setbacks. They’d repaired to the faded 18th-century splendour of the Château d’Hérouville outside Paris.