Ian Anderson tells Charles Hutchinson about the surprising survival of Prog rock, while also introducing some of his assorted characters he puts into his songs.

ON the one hand, Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson has just won the Prog God Award from Prog magazine.

On the other, time never stands still for the fleet-footed, flute-playing frontman, whose new solo album Homo Erraticus is a "folk-rock-prog" concept album that considers our past and future British history. The record entered the charts at number 14 on April 23, another notch on a five-decade career marked by more than 60 million album sales.

New and old come together on his 21-date spring tour that visits the Grand Opera House, York next Thursday, when Anderson and his band showcase the entire Homo Erraticus and dust down Jethro Tull numbers too in a 7.30pm performance "illustrated by video and theatrical settings".

Let's head to the Prog God Award first, surely a fitting honour for the 66-year-old Ian Scott Anderson MBE, musical son of Dunfermline.

"It's kind of rewarding in a way that this magazine [Prog] still exists and people keep it going, so it's the duty of the musicians they write about to support their grand efforts, by going along to the award ceremony," says Ian.

"We've got to play the game and smile and give it some credibility, because for the magazine, it's vital to be taken seriously – though the award has to be slightly tongue in cheek because anyone involved in prog rock knows that there's a self-important element to it.

"After only two years as 'progressive rock', it became 'prog' in 1972 and nails started being knocked into the coffin until punk effectively killed it off at that time, though in reality it didn't. But we have to expect a little poke in the ribs and in that respect we're the pantomime dames of our generation: a little bit kitsch, a little bit silly, but underneath you can be a killer in a bad mood. It's a very good way to seduce people into listening to you making semi-serious points."

Anderson is making points, both serious and semi-serious, on Homo Erraticus, a concept album with its roots in Jethro Tull's 1972 concept album, Thick As A Brick, the one based on a poem by child prodigy Gerald Bostock.

In 2012, as fans wondered whatever happened to Bostock, Anderson explored the different paths his life might have taken in Thick As A Brick 2; in 2014 enfant prodigy Gerald is back for real in Homo Erraticus.

After 40 years in politics, Bostock reunited with Anderson to take the role of tour manager on a string of shows. Homo Erraticus marks his return to songwriting and is based on an unpublished manuscript by amateur historian Ernest T. Parritt (1865-1928).

In Homo Erraticus, Parritt examines key events of British history with a string of prophecies stretching to the present and the future. Visions of past lives caused by the delirium of malaria generate the characters through whose eyes the stories are told, such as a nomadic Neolithic settler, an iron Age blacksmith, a Christian monk, a turnpike innkeeper and even Prince Albert.

It is important to point out that the last three paragraphs were a concept, not a reality. Everything comes from the fertile mind of Anderson – Bostock, Parritt, the turnpike innkeeper – on an album divided into Chronicles, Prophecies and Revelations.

"Back in 1972, Gerald Bostock was a fictitious child poet who wrote the lyrics to Thick As A Brick, though he didn't write them. I did! It 's the tool of the writer, the nom de plume, to say things that I couldn't; to talk about issues as controversial as migration and immigration," says Ian.

"Most of our invaders are not unwelcome, just as when we went venturing across the world, we tended to leave behind good stuff as well as bad stuff. Now we're talking about the migration of aesthetics and how they have enriched our culture."

Anderson expresses concern for our future.

"In Britain we are already beyond our sustainable natural population and we have the second highest fertility rate in Europe. We're a fecund bunch, second only to the French, and we're a randy bunch too, and of course some of us can explore what lies behind that situation."

Homo Erraticus addresses Anderson's thoughts on such matters through a series of stories of diverse characters.

"These are the issues that I have to think about but not to score points like politicians; instead I'm trying to entertain with a smile on my face, though occasionally a cynical one," says Ian. "For some, the songs are something to think about; for others, it's about tapping your feet , so some don't think about the words."

Nevertheless, you sense that words are very important to the ever eloquent Mr Anderson.

"I think you are left to wonder what I mean in what I write," he says. "Distance is the operative word because it could be in the next-door room or at the other end of the planet that I describe. I'm an observational writer and I don't write 'me' or 'my' in my songs. I'm not Alanis Morissette with a flute and I'm not a landscape painter either.

"I want to look at the people around me and that's what I like to write about, which takes a bit of theatre. That's my vantage point, so what I write is 20 per cent me in terms of thoughts and opinions; 60 per cent based on other people, people I know or have researched; and 20 per cent imaginary characters."

Ian Anderson Plays Jethro Tull (and Homo Erraticus) at the Grand Opera House, York, on Thursday, May 15 at 7.30pm. Tickets update: still available on 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york

New solo album Homo Erraticus is available through Anderson's label, Calliandra Records.