Since quitting Genesis in 1977, Steve Hackett has walked a diverse path, traversing acoustic sounds, blues, classical and world music, but somehow the London-born guitarist is always drawn back to the music he helped create with Genesis.
Hackett’s latest tour follows a familiar format: songs from his latest solo record The Circus And The Nightwhale, plus songs from a Genesis period, on this occasion their 1975 album The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, and also some of that band’s favourites.
This latest tour, titled Genesis Greats, Lamb Highlights & Solo, is up and running. How are things going?
Very good, thanks. We are doing my stuff in the first part of the show, and after the break we celebrate nine tunes from The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway and some other well-known [Genesis] classics. It works well and people like the set.
It would be reasonable to assume there’s an element of the carrot and the stick going on here. The solo songs are the ones you really want to play?
It’s not quite as simple as that. I’m very happy when people respond well to the new stuff, but of course nostalgia is a big part of the story. I’m not looking to be an educationalist – there’s no test later – but it’s nice when people can sing along and participate.
The Circus And The Nightwhale was received extremely well. How did it feel to revisit the format of the concept album after 49 years?
I never used the word ‘concept’ in relation to the new album, that’s something that went out in the publicity. I prefer to call it a narrative-based, autobiographical album. But yeah, absolutely, I enjoyed going back to that older way of working.
Without ruining too many surprises, I’m glad that People From The Smoke, which had the new album’s first video, made the cut.
That one is full of pyrotechnics. It’s a song full of surprises. It has its own energy. It was written to support the narrative [of the album], rather than the other way around, and it projects a lot of visual triggers, setting up a lot of what follows.
Now that Genesis no longer exists, should someone consider you the unofficial curator of their legacy, how would that sit with you?
The cap of the museum curator is largely of my own making. I’ve made my bed, now I must open it to the public [laughs]. I do love polishing off those old exhibits. Shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the Genesis guys, I sweated blood to make them happen, and I’m extremely proud that they became something of a template for the way that progressive music was created.
Have any of the other former members of Genesis given you feedback on these themed tours of yours – good or bad?
Funnily enough, it came from possibly the least likely source. Tony Banks [keyboards] has said a couple of times that I am the guy who is keeping the legacy alive. I like to think what I’ve done [with the themed tours] is create a template that allows artists the possibility of revisiting their older material but also to keep things fresh. Dave Mason [ex-Traffic] has also done it. Any member of any band has the right to reopen the history book again and say: “This is what I’m doing. Here’s the old stuff and the new.” The best of both worlds.
As a conceptual double album, by its very nature The Lamb is, for some, an very ‘difficult’ Genesis album. In a book on the band’s Peter Gabriel-fronted era, by Mario Giammetti you related that it was a bit of a struggle to find room on the record for your guitar playing.
Yeah, but [its predecessor] Selling England By The Pound had been largely guitar-driven. The Lamb was a difficult album, because we were losing our lead singer [Gabriel], who had been largely responsible for the band’s success. Plus we were all getting older. It wasn’t a bunch of likely lads any more. That album was made in a series of derelict houses [Headley Grange], which didn’t always sit well with domestic pressures. Losing someone of Peter’s stature was enormously unsettling, which is what caused a number of us to go off and do solo projects. It was a watershed moment for the band, with our existence very much under threat.
So does putting yourself back in that 1975 headspace feel in any way bittersweet?
Those memories are very mixed. But my view is that taking the best of The Lamb can weather any criticism of the album. I think it’s the right thing to do.
This tour is bookended by four European dates in August, and a pair of solo unplugged shows in January 2025. Who says that men can’t multi-task?
As ever there are quite a number of things going on. I do get involved in lots of different types of music, and that’s just how I like it.
Will there be additional unplugged dates to than the ones at Trading Boundaries [in Sussex]?
Right now I can’t say for sure. I’m still going with rock in its broadest sense. Clearly, you show very little sign of slowing down. I’m not thinking of retiring, far from it. These are extraordinary times, and making music is what keeps me going.
Hackett’s UK tour begins in Aylesbury on October 2, with shows in Italy to follow. For full dates and tickets, visit Steve Hackett's website.
