Steve Hackett

SYMPHONY HALL, BIRMINGHAM

If someone were to say in 1972 – when Foxtrot was released – or in 1977 – when Genesis became three– that Steve Hackett would be the one carrying the banner forward and keeping the Genesis name alive, in 2022…. you would have been called insane! However, this is exactly what he is doing and has been doing since 1996. All of the Genesis albums that include Hackett’s input, have passed their 40th anniversary and now they are starting out on their 50th year around the sun. The first of these is ‘Foxtrot At Fifty’. As is always the way, these concerts include a number of Hacketts’ solo works before the touring Genesis album of choice, is played in full. This tour was no exception.

At Birmingham symphony hall on this particular night, and following a national minute of silent reflection, Steve Hackett and his band came onto the stage in a flood of multi-coloured lights to rapturous applause from an audience who had, from my viewpoint, an average age of 60/70 and were predominantly male. Opening with Ace of Wands from his very first solo album Voyage of the Acolyte, the band then came straight up to date with The devil’s Cathedral from the 2021 album Surrender of Silence. For the rest of the first half with the exception of Camino Royale from Highly Strung, all the other songs were taken from Voyage of the Acolyte, of which there was a rare outing for A Tower Struck Down. Steve was very happy to chat in between songs, having a joke or two and reminiscing of his brother, John’s, input into some of the compositions being played.

After a short interval, the whole band began their performance of Foxtrot. Opening with Watcher of the Skies through to Timetable, Get ’em out by Friday and Can-utility and the Coastliners, Hackett himself commented that he hadn’t played most of these songs for the fifty years since their original release. Finishing ‘Side 1’, he took centre stage with the solo, Horizons, which was extended by a flamenco guitar style opening and then directly into the big crowd pleaser of the night, Supper’s Ready…. During the whole performance of the album, there were nods to the Peter Gabriel era Genesis with costumes and acting out lyrics from all the songs by singer Nad Sylvan… No red dress or foxes head though, unfortunately…

Leaving the stage to people on their feet shouting and cheering, there were grown men, me included, in tears as we remembered perhaps, the first time we had heard Foxtrot or our lost youth that was brought back to us even just for those few hours.

Quickly returning for their encore, cheers rang out as the opening notes of Firth of Fifth began. Then with a call of “Do you want one more?“ …many of the crowd started yelling for The Knife, however an unexpected medley of Myopia from Till we have faces, Slogans from the brilliant, Defector and finally the Genesis stalwart, Los Endos brought this step back in time to a close.

Steve and his band quite rightly stood back, simply looking around the audience and up at the crowds in the circle and upper circles of the symphony hall. The whole band deserve a mention here; along with Steve Hackett who was playing phenomenally well for a man now in his 70s, was singer Nad Sylvan, who is a respected solo artist in his own right. The rest of this outstanding band are Roger King – Keyboards, Rob Townsend- woodwind/percussion/bass pedals/additional vocals, Jonas Reingold – Bass/12 string guitar/ bass pedals/ additional vocals, Craig Blundell – drums/percussion/ additional vocals

For anyone who loves Genesis, seeing Steve Hackett is a must. The memories will come flooding back from a more innocent age and a time when crowd participation consisted of everyone shouting....’A Flower?’