By Jim Rowland
Another year, another Genesis-inspired Steve Hackett tour – there’s no doubting the work ethic of the progfather, even after all these years. Following on from last year’s excellent ‘Seconds Out’ tour, this time Steve Hackett goes back even further in time to celebrate the 50th anniversary of a true progressive rock classic, the 1972 Genesis album ‘Foxtrot’, with the ‘Foxtrot At Fifty’ tour, along with a whole heap of Hackett solo goodies. Tonight sees the penultimate date of this extensive UK tour hit Bournemouth.
As with previous Genesis themed tours, the show is split into two halves, with the first set comprising various treats from the Steve Hackett solo back catalogue. This time the solo set seems to concentrate a little more on the early period of Hackett’s solo albums, with five of the seven ‘Hackett highlights’ coming from 1975’s debut ‘Voyage of the Acolyte’ and 1979’s equally classic ‘Spectral Mornings’. ‘Ace Of Wands’, the very dark ‘A Tower Struck Down’ and the sublime ‘Shadow of the Hierophant’ all feature from ‘Acolyte’ and all are most welcome and quite superb.
I was wondering whether he may give ‘Hierophant’ a rest on this tour seeing as it’s been a fixture for quite a while now, but I’m certainly glad it remains as it is a quite incredible, and powerful, piece of music that I will never tire of hearing – a true ‘Hackett highlight’ if ever there was one, and gets the first standing ovation from the Bournemouth audience tonight. It’s great to see ‘A Tower Struck Down’ dusted down too, as it is with ‘Camino Royale’ from the ‘Highly Strung’ album, two tracks you don’t get to see that often. ‘Every Day’ and ‘Spectral Mornings’ are of course two you do get to hear fairly regularly, and both once again very welcome additions tonight.
So out of all of those, there’s nothing more recent than 1983 on offer, but as we know Steve Hackett does still regularly put out new albums of great quality, and ‘Devil’s Cathedral’, one of the highlights from last year’s excellent ‘Surrender of Silence’ album, serves as a reminder that Hackett is more than capable of knocking out great new music in the modern age. As ever, a superb set of Hackett solo material that finishes all too quickly.
After the interval it’s time for the main event – ‘Foxtrot’, one of the seminal progressive rock albums of the 1970’s, performed in its entirety and in sequence with no between song chit-chat, just delivered as a work of art, which it probably is. As we know, it’s fifty years old this year, and has nestled in my record collection for not far short of forty of those years. It is of course an album best known for containing the epic masterpiece ‘Supper’s Ready’, probably the greatest of all the twenty minute ‘whole side’ epics that the prog greats of the 1970s all went in for at least once. It’s a track we’ve been treated to on at least two relatively recent Steve Hackett tours – last year’s ‘Seconds Out’ and also the orchestral tour a few years back. Tonight, as previously, it’s performed to perfection and closes the set in euphoric fashion to a standing ovation it so richly deserves.
I mention ‘Supper’s Ready’ (and ‘Horizons’) first because for me, having seen it performed a couple of times in those recent years, and being a huge fan of the ‘Foxtrot’ album, it’s actually the other tracks, the four that fill side one, that are the big attraction for me tonight, ones that are rarely, if ever, performed live. Specifically I’m talking about ‘Can-Utility and the Coastliners’, ‘Time Table’ and ‘Get ‘em out by Friday’, all little gems that were perhaps understandably overshadowed by the huge and majestic ‘Watcher Of The Skies’ and ‘Supper’s Ready’. It’s a real delight to see these performed tonight, and it’s quite possible they won’t be again after this tour.
The encore is a treat as well with the full version of the classic ‘Firth of Fifth’ and a dip back into the solo catalogue with ‘Slogans’ (a nice surprise) blending seamlessly into an explosive ‘Los Endos’ to wrap up another outstanding Steve Hackett show.
Steve Hackett’s band has had a pretty stable line-up for a long time now, and tonight, as ever, they do the Hackett solo material, and the vintage Genesis material, proud, breathing new life into it. Nad Sylvan steps into Peter Gabriel’s shoes with aplomb, and special mention must go to Rob Townsend, whose multi-instrumental skills come in most handy during the intricacies of ‘Foxtrot’. As for Steve Hackett, his virtuoso and unique guitar skills remain completely intact, he proudly keeps the Genesis flag flying, and quite rightly deserves the title often aimed at him as the ‘godfather of prog’. Magnificent.
- The tour finishes at the Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith, tonight (Wednesday 12 October).
- PHOTO CREDIT: Photo by the author.
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