Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Mellotronists

----- Original Message -----

From: Brian Stanbrook

To: Prog (E-mail)

Cc: Adrian Jankowski (E-mail) ; Charles "Sir Burnt" Kemp (E-mail)

Sent: Friday, January 23, 2004 12:55 PM

Subject: more about tull weirdo

JETHRO TULL STAR'S SEX-CHANGE OP

Jan 23 2004

EXCLUSIVE

By Gary Jones

FORMER Jethro Tull rock star David Palmer has become a woman called Dee. The 66-year-old keyboard player with the legendary 70s group proudly revealed yesterday that he's had a sex-change. With long blonde hair and wearing make-up and black leggings, she told of her transformation. She said: "I want to be judged on my musical ability alone, and nothing else." Speaking from the Spanish resort of Lanzarote - where she is recording her first solo album - Dee acknowledged that many fans may be shocked. She said: "Yes, you are speaking to the person you thought I was - the keyboard player in Jethro Tull, for many years, one of the biggest bands in the world." But the former soldier in the Royal Horse Guards and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music has no plans to give up the rock'n'roll lifestyle she loves. Next month she plans to launch a British tour under her new persona. She said her desire to change sex had been an "open secret" in the music business for years. But it was only since the death of wife Margaret nine years ago that she felt at liberty to pursue it. Dee, based in Hove, East Sussex, said: "I've felt like this since the age of three. "It's not just wimps who want to do this. To be a girl, it goes a lot deeper than that." She claimed everyone has been supportive of her decision. But a close family friend said: "That's not true. It is not that anyone is prejudiced at all, it's just the way he's gone about things. "He doesn't seem to appreciate the massive effect this is going to have on his family." Last night Ian Anderson - the guiding force behind Jethro Tull for three decades - backed his ex-bandmate's sex-swap. He said: "I found it difficult to understand at first. But I fully support his decision." He said he finally accepted the news when David rang him to say: "There's something I need to get off my increasingly ample chest."