Steve Hackett
Thursday, 24 July 2008 band members:
Steve Hackett
band country: EUA
band biography:
Steve Hackett's career has been an on-going love affair with music. Over the last 24 or so years has continued to amaze and delight both his fans and his critics with the breadth and depth of the music that he has produced.
It began with various bands in which he was very much a session player - Canterbury Glass and Sarabande to name but two. Steve's first foray into the world of recording came however, when he joined the band Quiet World in 1970. In a recent interview he recalled the circumstances in which the album came to be recorded ...
"It was three South African brothers, the Heathers, who wrote the stuff. Their father was a medium and they had lived in England and then moved back to South Africa only to return again later. Their father stayed behind in Africa and he used to send them tapes of various characters speaking through him and it was very strange as we used to sit down and listen to these tapes and one of these characters was called Kutumi who claimed to be the spirit of music ... it depends whether you like that album; I think of it more as a product of its time rather than a great album but ... he described the way in which the music could be written and he described it in visual terms ... he said what was going to happen ... there was going to be a mixture of cultures ... the white and black races as it were, were going to merge and there was going to be a kind of hybrid and modern music would include the sounds of the street and I still use it as an influence ... those were some of the things he said."
This album, titled 'The Road', was released in 1970 by Dawn Records and was also reputedly re-issued by that label in Japan.
Photo by Armando Gallo
Steve's career with Genesis has been exhaustively covered elsewhere however it would be inappropriate not to say something about his time with that most influential and enduring of seventies superbands.
Steve joined in early 1971 as a replacement for founder member Anthony Phillips when Peter Gabriel answered his ad in Melody Maker. His first contribution to the band came on the 'Nursery Cryme' album where His complex and distinctive playing developed an elegance and sophistication which have become his trademark. By the time of his departure the band had grown from cult status to have massive following worldwide.
Steve completed his first solo record while he was still in the group and this appeared in 1975 while the band were still in the throes of Peter Gabriel's departure. This album, 'Voyage of The Acolyte', was to give vital reassurance to the band that the fans were still interested in them by charting immediately upon release. Steve remembers the album fondly ...
"Casting my mind back, I think it was during 1974 that there was a slight lull after touring ... anyway, at one point I had the Mellotron at home and I seemed to spend hours doodling on it ... one or two ideas got put together because I began to think without the restriction of the band and I wondered what I could come up with. I came up with one or two things that I was convinced they would hate and that seemed to goad me even further on in that direction and try the things that I felt they would avoid ."
The album featured both Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins and was reckoned by many to be the best album that Genesis never made! Several tracks became favourites in Steve's live set including the maniacal 'A Tower Struck Down' and the lyrically gorgeous 'Shadow of the Hierophant'.
band discography:
Voyage Of The Acolyte
Tracks:
Ace Of Wands
Hands Of The Priestess Part 1
A Tower Struck Down
Hands Of The Priestess Part 2
The Hermit
Star Of Sirius
The Lovers
Shadow Of The Hierophant
Please Don't Touch
Tracks:
Narnia
Carry On Up The Vicarage
Racing In A
Kim
How Can I?
Hoping Love Will Last
Land Of 1000 Autumns
Please Don’t Touch
The Voice Of Necam
Icarus Ascending
Spectral Mornings
Tracks:
Every Day
The Virgin And Gypsy
The Red Flower Of Tai Chi Blooms Everywhere
Clocks
The Ballad Of The Decomposing Man
Lost Time In Cordoba
Tigermoth
Spectral Mornings
Defector
Tracks:
The Steppes
Time To Get Out
Slogans
Leaving
Two Vamps As Guests
Jacuzzi
Hammer In The Sand
The Toast
The Show
Sentimental Institution
Cured
Tracks:
Hope I Don’t Wake
Picture Postcard
Can’t Let Go
The Air Conditioned Nightmare
Funny Feeling
A Cradle Of Swans
Overnight Sleeper
Turn Back Time
To Watch The Storms
Tracks:
1. Strutton Ground
2. Circus of Becoming
3. The Devil Is An Englishman
4. Frozen Statues
5. Mechanical Bride
6. Wind, Sand and Stars
7. Brand New
8. This World
9. Rebecca
10. The Silk Road
11. Come Away
band official website: http://www.stevehackett.com
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