Considering Ian Anderson chose one of the least rock and roll instruments possible in playing the flute, fortune has favoured him strongly.

"I knew that Eric Clapton was a much better guitar player than I was ever going to be, so I thought I'd try something different," explained the Jethro Tull singer, who stands as of the original pioneers of progressive folk rock.

His amazing 40-year career has seen him gain a Grammy award, hang out with the Rolling Stones and tour the world many times over. But, as he explains, performing today is a far more surreal prospect than in his pre-digital heyday.

"There are so many right arms waving phones around these days taking pictures at our gigs that I keep thinking I'm at a Nazi rally," joked Ian, who sounded in fine form ahead of his group's latest UK tour.

Performing live is something that he still gains an enormous amount from and it's refreshing to know he's not become a stickler for slavish detail.

"No two shows are ever alike which I think is important thing it keeping the music fresh and the reason I have never been comfortable playing classical music," said Ian.

"I've played with orchestras before where I've got some disgusted looks when I've tried to do something that's improvised!"

Coming across as a leftfield intellectual character, Ian has taken an almost perverse delight in making a nuisance along the road.

He claims to have made himself about "as popular as the Archbishop of Canterbury is right now", thanks to some of Tull's tours of America in the early 1970s that resulted in several riots breaking out over the band's politically-charged music.

Perhaps the most infamous incident was a Denver gig in which the massive crowd was tear gassed by police. The local force had become twitchy when crowds attempted to gain free access to the packed-out open-air amphitheatre.

Beyond the touring controversy, Ian has also ensured he has stood out for his self-parodying dress sense. This has ranged from donning spaceman suits to appearing as a beggar and Scottish Laird.

His roots were far from being landed gentry, yet were respectable enough. As the son of hotel manager, Ian grew up in Edinburgh before his family moved to Blackpool where he attended the local grammar school.

It was there he formed his first band, Blades with several friends which set him on the path to bigger and better things.

Next came Jethro Tull and it wasn't just their singer's use of the flute that would at first glance work against them – the band's name didn't exactly trip off the tongue.

Their manager was not the most popular person when the group realised that he had randomly selected the 17th century inventor of a seed drill, Jethro Tull, for their moniker.

"We'd had a series of name changes in around 1968 and it got to the point that we would be turning up and didn't know who we were performing as until we got to the venue!"

However, it was to make little difference and by the time Jethro Tull guested at the Stones' Rock and Roll Circus at the end of 1968, they had gathered a solid fanbase.

Sadly it was to take nearly 20 years for this legendary show (which was the last public performance by Stones guitarist Brian Jones) to see the light of day on video. This was due to Mick Jagger's disgust at his group's performance, which was widely thought to be inferior to that of guests John Lennon and their big rivals the Who.

"That was a memorable show. I had been a huge fan of the Stones from having seen them aged 16. I could tell that everyone except Mick found the whole circus thing a bit silly. I especially enjoyed seeing the Who play that night."

As with the Rolling Stones, Tull's shows - characterised by Ian's famous one-footed flute playing - became ever more indulgent during the 1970s. They were renowned for their overblown theatrical performances.

Although they scored three big hit singles with Living In The Past, Sweet and Teacher, their greatest success came in album sales.

Despite their steady evolution into a heavier-sounding outfit, no-one predicated their Grammy Award for best heavy metal performance in 1989. It left favourites Metallica fuming and the backlash against their win resulted in Tull taking out an advert in a music magazine showing a picture of a flute next to some iron bars with the text "The Flute is a heavy metal instrument!"

To date they have put on a staggering number of gigs and are showing no sign of slowing down. Ian assures me that there "no such thing as a sold out gig", so he advises anyone who hasn't managed to snap up a ticket for the band's Folkestone gig to keep an eye on the box office for returns.

Though the band's core middle-age fanbase is unlikely to be at the centre of further rioting, you can certainly bank on it being a night of memorable full-on music.