Jethro Tull guitarist: ‘We bought a house for £125k, and sold it to buy five rentals’

‘The things I love the most are my family and my guitars’, says Martin Barre – Dale Cherry

Martin Barre, 77, was lead guitarist of Jethro Tull from 1968 to 2011, selling more than 60 million albums. Seven singles and 25 albums (including their 1969 Number 1 Stand Up) reached the UK Top 40. As well as solo albums, Barre has shared the stage with Paul McCartney, Phil Collins, Jimi Hendrix, Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin. He still plays in a band and lives in the South Hams, Devon with his wife Julie.

What attracted you to Devon?

We’ve lived in Devon for 50 years and this is our second house here. In the 1970s I got married and we lived in a Georgian house near Marlow, Buckinghamshire for four years. I wanted to start a new home and we started looking in Devon because I knew the area.

People were so welcoming. Some people thought we were mad: there were no supermarkets, cinemas or restaurants. We bought a beautiful Elizabethan farmhouse that was derelict when the family before us bought it. It had lots of land and we fell in love with it.

We were there 35 years then realised it was going to suck us dry, so moved. Now in the South Hams, a bit closer to Plymouth and the coast, we live in a more sensible house, though still suitably big and impressive. We live in a small thriving village, unlike a lot of South Devon that has become very second home-orientated. The population doesn’t change summer or winter. It’s got a pub, doctor, grocery store, everything you need. It’s established and a lovely cross-section of people.

People know what you do but they don’t care. That’s the way I like it: I’m more interested in what other people do.

‘The Devon village where I live is thriving – not a second-homes black spot’ – Dale Cherry

Did you need to repair your home?

It needed complete renovation. We spent a lot on renovation and still do. It took us a year to do up the inside; the outside was in quite good condition. It’s a lovely family home to live in because it has everything: enough rooms, bedrooms, space and contrast in the different rooms, a room for every occasion.

Foolishly I like to think I know enough about building that I don’t need a survey. I don’t do DIY – I’m a terrible dodger. But I know enough about trades to know how it’s to be done. I’ve been lucky with friends that are amazing builders and I’ve worked hand-in-hand with them.

‘The Georgian part of the house is bright and airy, the back is darker and cosy – it’s a lovely family home’ – Dale Cherry

Do you have a favourite room? 

The house is Georgian. The back is a lot earlier and quite cosy, a bit dark like a Devon longhouse. That’s where we spend cosy evenings watching movies. But the Georgian part is all airy, lots of space and light, tall ceilings and I love having space and all that light coming in.

I move around the house all the time. I have a radio system on my guitar so I can walk round and play; the amplifiers are in the studio at the back.

I put speakers round the house that I play through so I can play anywhere in the house. We’ve got a large Georgian dining room and its ambient sound is perfect for a flute. My wife has an art room; I’ve got my studio. We often have the band staying there and we rehearse in the house, which we love filling with people.

‘We watch movies in the cosier part of the house but I love moving from room to room playing guitar – I have speakers around the house’ – Dale Cherry

Do you garden? 

My wife is an amazing gardener and does all the work herself. She’s incredible with plants; we grow all the vegetables. It’s three acres with a large lawn, shrubs and masses of trees. That’s the bit I love. We’ve got a holm oak, beech trees, maples, you name it.

I don’t do weeding, I hate it. I love mowing the lawn three times a week. I bought the biggest ride-on mower I could afford and in my mind it’s the best lawn in the South West. In reality it isn’t, but I find it therapeutic. I’m a great tidy up-er and love clearing out sheds.

‘In my mind I have the best lawn in the South West; in reality I find just find mowing it therapeutic’ – Dale Cherry

Where was your first home? 

I’m from Birmingham, brought up in a semi-detached suburban house on the outskirts. When my engineer dad retired I bought him a workshop and he started making model steam engines, which is one of my hobbies. He loved making music and was really pleased I was able to do what he’d always wanted to.

We moved around a bit. Then I went to uni and was doing architecture. It taught me how much I hated 1960s buildings and how much I loved historic architecture.

A holiday work experience stint at West Bromwich County Council gave me the excuse to drive around to country houses, National Trust properties. They’d teach me about building from that point of view because even they weren’t interested in concrete blocks.

What was the first property you bought?

Jethro Tull started in 1968. We did a lot of American tours and never gave money a thought. We took a wage and were there for the fairground ride.

In 1969 the manager said, “You’ve done really well” – we’d been doing headline stadiums by then. He said: “I think you all need to buy a house.” We were dumbfounded. In the late Sixties nobody bought a house. You rented a flat. I remember looking through the adverts in the London Evening Standard and finding a tiny muse house on Putney Heath. I only ever saw one house and loved it the minute I saw it. I paid £12,000. Looking to buy in London 20 years ago, it was for sale for £150,000.

Jethro Tull often rehearse in Barre’s Devon home studio – Dale Cherry

Have you kept a connection with London? 

I used to stay at one of the guy’s houses when we were working in London because travelling from Devon wasn’t always practical. So we went back to Putney in the mid-1980s and found a terraced house near the rowing clubs for £125,000. I love running, and there was a towpath. That was a great investment: we sold it for £2m-plus three years ago and bought five lovely properties in Exeter: houses and flats that we rent out.

How many places have you lived in?

Five. Everywhere I’ve lived I’ve been passionate about. I had one on the edge of Dartmoor – a beautiful historic house that King Charles II visited – the estate included part of the moor. It was Lustleigh Cleave, a gorgeous area but I hardly lived there because we were on the road. Something happened there – every couple that lived there before us and the people who bought it off me and the people that bought it off them all got divorced. I bought it just before I met my wife!

The elegant entrance hall in the Georgian part of the house – Dale Cherry

Have any of your houses been haunted? 

In 1970 Jethro Tull played the Isle of Wight Festival and we stayed in a large manor house where this couple made us welcome. At breakfast, one band member and his partner, who’d shared a separate bedroom, sat facing each other visibly upset. We said, “What’s wrong?” Reluctantly they said that night the bed started moving away from the wall. They tried to go back to sleep but it happened again.

Fast-forward 30 years, I’m driving up the M4 half-listening to a Radio 2 DJ interviewing a lady from the Isle of Wight talking about that festival and how she had bands stay at her house. I’m like, “Wow, this is me!” And it’s the lady who put us up, telling the DJ, “I never told them our house was haunted.”

I visited my parents in their Herefordshire bungalow once. Awake all night, I had an uncomfortable feeling about it, but never told them because they loved being there. Two years later I’m in America on tour and my very straightforward dad called and said he’d been waking up at 5am.

He said, “Last week I was waking up at 5am and at the end of teh bed was a woman staring at me. She had long red hair and was pretty. It lasted quite a few seconds. I can’t tell your mother because she’d worry.” I said, “Tell me if it happens again.

He didn’t call again, but six months later I visited them and my mum said she’d been talking to the gossipy old lady across the road who’d lived there a long time, who’d said, “You do know what happened at your bungalow, don’t you? Before you moved in a young lady lived there, a beautiful invalid who took her own life.”

My mum told me not to tell my dad as it would upset him. I asked if she’d described the girl. She said, “All she’d say was that she had long red hair.”

What are your most prized possessions?

Barre’s 1956 Jaguar XK140 won best in show at the Lyneham car show – Dale Cherry

The things I love the most are my family and my guitars. I’m also a keen car enthusiast and I’ve got a 1956 Jaguar XK140 that I’d dreamed of owning since I was a teenager.

For a car like that you’re paying around £100,000, restored, after which they still need a lot of work. I bought every book on mechanics you can find and like to know how it works. Basic maintenance I can handle but Devon is full of people with old cars, tractors and Land Rovers. If you need help they come flooding in to help and share their knowledge. Last year my car won best in show at the Lyneham car show out of about 300 classic cars.

How many cars have you got?

Five in different places. The only one here is the Jaguar in the garage with a dehumidifier. My other extravagance is guitars but by default guitars have become great investments. Nothing’s precious: I play them all. Whereas the cars that should have been great investments cost me a lot and I never make any money at all.

How does home life compare with travelling life?

When you’re away from home for long periods, living in hotels, it becomes more important to have a base that’s your special place. Julie always travels with me, works on the road with us, drives, does merchandising, guest lists: she’s the sociable one. I just shut up and play.

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