This weekend's family-focused A New Day Festival will see more than 30 acts perform over three days at Mount Ephraim.

Friday, August 5, will be headlined by Wilko Johnson, on Saturday, August 6, it’s Ian Anderson and on Sunday, August 7, it’s the turn of the Stranglers. The band emerged via the punk rock scene in the late 1970s. They have had 23 top 40 singles and 17 top 40 albums during their four-decade career.

Also playing will be the Blockheads on the Friday, Steeleye Span on the Saturday and Nine Below Zero on the Sunday.

We caught up with Ian Anderson ahead of his visit to Kent...

I am the only original member left of Jethro Tull...

We have had 27 members over the last 48 years. At the moment I play as Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson and I include songs I have written over the years, with and without the band. But I wanted to put my own name in the mix and I want people to know my name before I die. It all started back in the 1960s in Blackpool with Glenn Cornick and I, before meeting some other members in London. We got together to become a blues band. We were so bad that nobody wanted us back so we kept changing our name so we could have another go at venues that had already chucked us out.

I didn’t think I came from a musical family until a few years ago...

My older brother and I were in Manchester at a gig and he told me that my mother had performed on that stage. He said she was a dancer – a modern ballet dancer and she also played the violin. He assumed all this time that I had known but she never once mentioned that she had a background in the arts. When she got married she put that life behind her. She just closed that chapter. She followed my career and it seemed that she was living her musical ambitions through me. It makes me feel emotional. It’s poignant to me that she never told me that before she died.

I was lucky enough to acquire a beaten up Spanish guitar which was virtually unplayable when I was 12...

It cost about a fiver, which was actually quite a lot of money back then. I started playing in a way that allowed some sort of semblance of a simple harmony. It wasn’t the correct chords but it was in the era of the launch of skiffle music – homemade music that anyone could play, regardless of your skill. I didn’t pick up a flute until I was 20. I wanted to find an instrument that was not in the rock genre. There were lots of guitar players and there was really no point in me trying to catch up with Eric Clapton. But luckily, none of them could play the flute to save their lives – and I could.

Although there is a lot of electronic music these days, pop and rock have changed remarkably little in 50 years...

It appeared in the 1960s and it’s innovative, straight to the point, easy on the ear. Each track seems a bit different but the human voice, melody and harmony stay the same and lyrics haven’t changed. Status Quo sound as relevant today as they did when they played their first boogie music.

I have played the New Day Festival before...

But I have never been to Mount Ephraim. I’m looking forward to it. The name is close to my heart as there is a Jethro Tull fanzine called New Day. The festival is very family-orientated and I like that. I haven’t performed in Kent a lot but we have played in Canterbury Cathedral twice.

DON'T MISS CARAVAN

Also on the bill for A New Day Festival is Canterbury’s very own Caravan, who’ve been around since the 1960s but are still going strong.

Lead singer Pye Hastings said: “We played at Mount Ephraim around 10 to 15 years ago and it is such a great place to play. We are very much looking forward to returning there.
“The gardens are fantastic and there is usually a great atmosphere.”

The group’s first gig was at the Beehive in Dover Street, Canterbury, now a Chinese restaurant. I was 16 when I first picked up a guitar, which is quite late for musicians,” said Pye.

"It was great for finding girls and when we saw bands playing on TV it looked so cool. I looked up to the Rolling Stones, the Who and the Kinks. Being a rockstar was every man’s dream.

“The name Caravan was my idea. There was a jazz song which I loved called Caravan and it just stuck.

“I suppose we have made it this long because we never made it to the No.1 slot. If you’re never in fashion, you can never go out of fashion!”

Caravan play at A New Day on Saturday, August 6.

FESTIVAL DETAILS

A New Day Festival is at Mount Ephraim Gardens in Hernhill, between Faversham and Canterbury, from Friday, August 5 to Sunday, August 7.

For tickets and the programme of acts visit anewdayfestival.com