8,700 Seconds with Steve Hackett
It's been a busy year for guitarist and composer Steve Hackett. As well as releasing his 26th solo record 'Under A Mediterranean Sky' in January, he put out his follow-up 'Surrender Of Silence' earlier this month. This also coincided with the first date on his rescheduled tour of the UK, 'Seconds Out + More'. Moths and Giraffes caught the last of three dates at the London Palladium, and it didn't disappoint.
Image Credit: Tina Korhonen.
With the band arriving piecemeal, the haunting introduction began to 'Clocks – The Angel of Mons'. Multi-instrumentalist Rob Townsend took up a pair of sticks to strike a drum pad repeatedly while Craig Blundell did the same. Over the speakers, the clack of ticking. A drum fill, and the blast of the full band knocked me back in my seat. Straight away, Steve Hackett sought to impress the audience with his unique sound, prevailing for more than fifty years. The combination of dual guitars from Hackett and Amanda Lehmann was clear and strong.
“Thank you all! Great to be back, it's our last night here at the Palladium, it’s been great, it’s been just like home the past two nights – three nights! Fantastic, so this is the hat-trick, it’s really lovely that you’ve all come out, taking all these risks as we do but you know we thought it was never gonna happen. Finally we’re out here doing our 30-date tour, which is just great, up and down the country, and beyond, into foreign parts like…Scotland! So, of course, on the ticket it says ‘Seconds Out’, so that’s the second half. Our first half, we do…a smattering of things from the new album (a few cheers). Thank you very much - my cousin. (The audience laugh) Mother’s here, again - second night, which is just great! This next one is off ‘Surrender Of Silence’, the new album, and it’s called ‘Held In The Shadows’, dedicated to my wife Jo, the lady who brought me out of the shadows.”
With the Seconds Out + More tour postponed until this point, the showcasing of new material perhaps would've been handled differently had this tour have happened when it was meant to. Consequently, there's been no current outing for 'Under A Mediterranean Sky'. However, with the release of Hackett's latest album occurring at the same time as this tour, this early set is an ideal opportunity to perform some of it.
'Held In The Shadows' is classic Hackett, in voice, guitar and composition - particularly the introduction could’ve been from the early 1970’s. There is some great playing from Rob Townsend on this one too, as he spars with Hackett on woodwind. The studio version features much of the band you see on stage, including Lehmann providing backing vocals. Someone in the audience points out the latter.
“Amanda Lehmann, yes indeed. It’s nice that she’s on stage with us for some of these gigs and of course she has a new album out, plug plug plug. We’re gonna do something that I kind of think of as a bit of an old friend really, it’s hard to get by doing a gig without me doing this one. It’s off ‘Spectral Mornings’, it’s called ‘Every Day’.”
The Lehmann album in question is entitled ‘Innocence and Illusion’ and also features Steve Hackett, Roger King and Rob Townsend. A fan-favourite from Hackett’s solo catalogue, 'Every Day', plus many others from this album, was given a considerable outing on Hackett's 2019 tour in celebration of that record’s 40th anniversary. The band’s performance at Hammersmith Apollo was later released as a fantastic live audio and visual presentation.
“Thank you. This is something from ‘Surrender’…as you can hear the organ start, this one’s simply called ‘The Devil’s Cathedral’.”
The church organ from producer Roger King rang out, massive in sound, towering over the audience, and soon accompanied by Rob Townsend on woodwind. This would be the only song in the first set that Amanda Lehmann wouldn’t be present for, but featured Nad Sylvan on lead vocals for the first time this evening. Also performing the vocals on the album recording, this rendition of ‘The Devil’s Cathedral’ is almost entirely replicated by the people who made it in the studio. In addition, long-time Hackett collaborator Christine Townsend contributes strings on the released version.
“We're gonna do something off of ‘Acolyte’, from all those years ago. This one is called ‘Shadow Of The Hierophant’.”
Still a member of Genesis when Hackett’s debut solo album ‘Voyage Of The Acolyte’ was released, the studio recording is something of an all-star affair. Co-written by Mike Rutherford with drums from Phil Collins and vocals from Sally Oldfield, the latter’s part is performed by Amanda Lehmann in her sole lead vocal of the evening.
The standard tour set-up without Lehmann only features the instrumental section in this part of the show, so to hear this piece in its entirety was a real treat. You could hear a pin drop during Roger King’s musical box section. Never would you have believed in that moment that this room had more than two-thousand people in it. The vastly escalating closing section of this piece increased in volume with every round, a wall of sound unlike any I’d heard since before the pandemic. Just when you thought the composition had reached its peak, it pushed even further, and further still than before.
‘Thank you so much. So, here endeth the first lesson, we’re gonna come back after a thirty-minute break, with a much longer set. Supper’s Up! See you for the second half!’
Image Credit: Tina Korhonen.
Though the general consensus among the murmuring crowd was that a thirty-minute break was excessive, it was worth the wait to hear the music that followed. The band returned without introduction, beginning the Genesis live album ‘Seconds Out’, the very last record that featured Steve Hackett as a full member. The programme for the evening conveyed Hackett’s thoughts on the album, and performing these songs live again:
‘I’m thrilled to be playing the Seconds Out show again now with my own band. Although I was to leave Genesis at the time of Seconds Out (the very title of which refers to my departure) I very much enjoyed the shows which formed that live album.’ (Hackett, 2021)
Indeed, Hackett would leave Genesis during the album’s mixing stage. Though ‘Genesis Live’ had been released in 1973, this double album was a better representation of the band’s live set than their single LP live album. Beginning with ‘Squonk’, a cut from their first post-Peter Gabriel album ‘A Trick Of The Tail’, this, along with the following track, was a more gentle start to the next hour and forty-five minutes.
‘The Carpet Crawlers’, the most enduring piece from the last Peter Gabriel-led album ‘The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway’, was something of a religious experience. Not only for this Genesis fan, the young man to my left raised his fist and passionately sang every word, a display of emotion out of the ordinary in this contemplative and absorbed crowd.
Of course, Nad Sylvan was the lead vocalist for the entire Seconds Out portion of the show as with most Genesis material, but here, bassist and guitarist Jonas Reingold sang the all-important harmony and backing vocals. Steve Hackett had taken a seat, the first part of the song absent of guitar entirely, but later his sustained electric sound rang through this track like the Empire State Building in full illumination. Instead of Sylvan and Reingold alternating vocals at the song’s conclusion as on the studio version, the arrangement opted for the Seconds Out live telling, with Nad performing each part as both Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins had done.
A brief break to set up the next song, a moment lasting too long for one audience member; ‘Hurry up, I’ve got work in the morning’ to laughs from the whole theatre. ‘Robbery, Assault and Battery’ was another cut from A Trick Of The Tail. All of Tony Banks’ keyboard solos were faithfully recreated by Roger King, effortlessly running his hands up and down his keyboards, switching sounds from Hammond organ to analogue synthesizer and back again.
A tom-heavy drum fill from Craig Blundell, then the band went into ‘Afterglow’, the final track on the current Genesis album of the time called ‘Wind & Wuthering’. One of the wonderful things about Genesis is how there are sectors of fans within the band’s entire canon. There are plenty of Peter Gabriel-era fans, as well as a huge following for the trio’s 1980’s radio-friendly records, but there are also fans who believe the four-man Genesis era of 1975-1977 was the band’s very best. Personally, I can’t help but admire the depth of all of it.
As with Steve Hackett’s performances featuring ‘Firth Of Fifth’, the full version is performed here, with the piano introduction by Roger King as omitted on most Genesis renditions. Rob Townsend performed Gabriel’s flute part on clarinet, with the sound having more body to it. Then the band led the audience to clap along during the following piano section, to which everyone obliged. It was wonderful to hear such audience participation again.
It’s baffling to me how Steve Hackett is able to not only play as well as he did almost fifty years ago on a track like this, but also recreate his guitar tone as it was back then. At his feet are a small army of guitar pedals, to which he interacts with regularly, but his electric guitar remains mostly unchanged throughout the entire show, only occasionally switching one out for an acoustic or another electric perhaps in a different tuning. A short reprise of Firth Of Fifth’s introduction from Roger King, which was then followed by the loudest applause of the evening so far.
A familiar drone sounds as Rob Townsend trills on woodwind, Craig Blundell beats around toms, then falls into a pattern. ‘It’s one o’clock, and time for lunch…’ We’re staying firmly with material from ‘Selling England By The Pound’ as the band goes into ‘I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)’. Everyone sings the chorus except for Roger King and Blundell, sounding full with four vocalists taking the part. This song is extended with a solo from Rob Townsend, then one from Hackett. While Townsend takes up a penny-whistle in the next breakdown, Nad Sylvan leads the audience in a clap-along with his tambourine before the last chorus. ‘It’s your show…’
Chimes ring out from behind Blundell’s kit, with Roger King playing the brilliant piano introduction to ‘The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway’. Steve Hackett takes backing vocals during the song’s chorus while Sylvan sings the most passionately of the whole evening. Originally, the Seconds Out + More tour included a VIP package, which, as well as meeting Hackett, also featured a soundcheck set specifically of material from The Lamb. With the band in strict isolation in order to complete this tour without illness, the VIP packages were cancelled, and with it public admittance during soundcheck. I yearn for Hackett and his band to mount a tour playing The Lamb in full, but the chances of him undertaking such a venture are as slim as the amount of guitar featuring on the record.
On a usual night during this tour, ‘The Musical Box’ would be played in its entirety, unlike the abridged version on the Seconds Out album. Curiously, tonight the band reverted to the latter, despite the programme promising the complete rendition. I was sad not to hear the entire piece, but it’s a minor niggle in the face of hearing such great music old and new in one evening. Much of the impact of The Musical Box’s finale is lost when just the finale is played, but the audience loved it all the same.
A man near me said ‘That’s enough of that one’ while a desperate gentleman further afield shouted out ‘Marry my daughter!’ Hackett didn’t speak for much of the second half, but broke his silence to respond: ‘I’m already married!’
A count-in from Craig Blundell, then the band went into one of the night’s most momentous occasions. Supper was ready. Absent from Hackett’s tour of 2019, ‘Supper’s Ready’ was last performed by his band regularly in 2018. From the acoustic guitar, flute solo, and Nad Sylvan singing those lyrics in the first part, the audience settled in for a wild ride.
During the intermittent instrumental pieces, Sylvan left the stage on multiple occasions, appearing to struggle with his in-ear monitoring system. It seemed Rob Townsend had the same problem, who was pulling them out of his ears during performance and also leaving the stage. I must impress though that neither musician’s performance was affected, and anyone not looking out for this probably didn’t notice.
During one of the song’s many connecting sections, the children singing was a re-recording of the original part rather than a sample of the album’s recorded version. At the conclusion of ‘We watch in reverence, as Narcissus is turned to a flower…’ Nad Sylvan gestures to the audience who respond: ‘A FLOWER!?’
Rob Townsend was a chameleon in Supper’s Ready. Darting between woodwind and percussion, he also sang the pitch-shifted parts in the following section by manually adjusting his vocal on a keypad, first up, then down. Though it’s likely Townsend also played keyboard in this composition, he certainly contributed in such a way during other parts of the show.
It’s impossible to convey just how it was, how it felt as my breath was taken away for those twenty-three minutes that seemed to pass by in seconds, but also tell such an extravagant musical story, and do it so well. Steve Hackett’s closing guitar solo was the crowning moment in what was already a magnificent telling of this classic Genesis composition dating back to 1972’s ‘Foxtrot’ album. As the song’s conclusion faded to black, the band received a standing ovation from the audience – not for the last time either.
For ‘The Cinema Show’, Jonas Reingold switched to electric guitar, both he and Hackett taking a seat as the wonderful guitar picking rang out through the auditorium. Roger King’s faux choir filling the sound of the room was one of my favourite parts of this song, undoubtedly a part Genesis wouldn’t have been able to replicate in the 1970’s.
There are many ways Hackett’s band uses modern technology to play these old songs, the more sturdy digital keyboards being one example. Unlike a lot of modern touring outfits who opt for an amp room backstage or the absence of guitar amps entirely, one of the things I enjoyed about this show was seeing the guitar amps alongside the band. And the sound really was all the better for the genuine Marshall cab sound, rather than the amp simulators of today that just don’t have the crunch, or indeed the edge that made pre-digital recordings stand out so well.
Unlike the Seconds Out album, Steve Hackett has opted to conclude The Cinema Show with ‘Aisle Of Plenty’ as on the Selling England By The Pound album. The short piece gently peters out, leaving Hackett playing alone, another instance where the audience daren’t make a sound but for the briefest moment before erupting into applause when his playing ceased.
Steve Hackett thanked the audience, and proceeded to introduce the band, with much appreciation going around from those putting their hands together. Nad Sylvan then asks the crowd to give it up for Steve, who have already risen in a second standing ovation, and remain so as the band leaves before returning again moments later.
In another unexpected change of programme, ‘Dance On A Volcano’ is absent from the setlist entirely. Instead, the encore begins with a wildly impressive drum solo from Craig Blundell as on the ending of that song, which goes into the Seconds Out version of ‘Los Endos’. This is interspersed with a part of ‘Slogans’ from Hackett’s 1980 solo album ‘Defector’.
For the last time that evening, Steve Hackett showed how fluid his playing still is, making the whole occasion look entirely easy. I felt an emotion I hadn’t felt for a long time, I was watching a guitar player so good that a boyish notion rose up in me - ‘I want to play guitar like that…’ The final section from A Trick Of The Tail played out with the audience clapping along, with Nad Sylvan returning to sing the final lines of the show, Collins’ reprise of Supper’s Ready.
And here we came to the third and final standing ovation of the evening. The band, with Amanda Lehmann rejoining, took their bows to an animated audience calling out for more. Almost two years since these shows were announced, they’ve finally come to fruition – and it was well worth the wait. Go and see the remaining shows in the UK or Europe if you can. Or if you’re further afield, Steve Hackett is also touring in Australia and the US. A special thank you must be given to The Publicity Connection for generously allowing me to review this gig. Long live all live music!
Image Credit: Tina Korhonen.
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Reference:
Hackett, S. (2021) Seconds Out + More 2021/2022 tour programme, Andrea Holmes at Moriarty – Merchandise and Webstore Management
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For more information about Steve Hackett and his upcoming touring schedule, visit his official website.
To purchase CDs, vinyl and downloads of Steve Hackett’s latest works, including signed copies, visit his official webstore here.
Follow Steve Hackett on Facebook and Instagram @stevehackettofficial, and on Twitter @hackettofficial.
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