Steve Hackett

Steve Hackett at a concert in Braunschweig (2005)

Stephen Richard "Steve" Hackett (born February 12, 1950 in London ) is a British composer and musician.

He gained particular fame as the guitarist of the progressive rock group Genesis , with whom he released a total of six studio albums between 1971 and 1977. In 1985 he co-founded the short-lived supergroup GTR . He has also recorded numerous solo albums with which he regularly tours. Musically he moves in a very broad spectrum, from progressive rock to blues , jazz and classical music . His works influenced guitarists like Alex Lifeson and Brian May .

Life

Childhood and youth

Hackett grew up playing various musical instruments such as the recorder and the harmonica (the latter he still uses occasionally today). At the age of twelve he developed an interest in the guitar . Hackett's musical influences included classical music ( Johann Sebastian Bach ) and opera ( Mario Lanza ), which, according to his own account, still influence his compositions today. Other influential musicians for his musical development and personal style, he named Eric Clapton , Jeff Beck , George Harrison , Danny Kirwan , Peter Green and various guitarists of the Bluesbreakers .

Hackett gained his first experience as a professional musician with the band Canterbury Glass , on whose album Sacred Scenes and Characters, recorded in 1969 (but not released until 2007), he was involved in two titles, as well as in the formations Heel Pier and Sarabande . In 1970 he worked as a studio musician on the album The Road by the band Quiet World , with his younger brother John Hackett also playing rhythm guitar on this project.

While looking for a "real" band, Steve Hackett published an advertisement in Melody Maker : Guitarist / Writer seeks receptive musicians, determined to strive beyond existing stagnant music forms ( guitarist / songwriter is looking for open-minded musicians who are willing to find out more about existing, stagnant ones Overriding musical forms ). The idiosyncratic formulation caught the attention of Peter Gabriel , whose band Genesis needed a permanent replacement for their founding member Anthony Phillips . After being convinced of each other's musical qualities, Hackett got the job at the turn of the year 1970/71.

Genesis careers

Steve Hackett at a Genesis concert (1977)

Hackett, who had very little live experience, had some initial problems with the Genesis performances. But he soon got used to his role, whereby his introverted demeanor (with thick horn-rimmed glasses and crouching over his guitar) formed a strong contrast to the shrill costumed front man Gabriel.

Hackett's first album with Genesis was Nursery Cryme , released in November 1971 . The guitarist's contributions significantly enriched the overall sound of the band, for example in the pieces The Musical Box and The Return of the Giant Hogweed , in which he proved to be a pioneer of the tapping technique. His first contribution as a songwriter was the short acoustic piece For Absent Friends , created in collaboration with Collins . Hackett later rated the spontaneous final solo of The Fountain of Salmacis as his artistic breakthrough in the band.

With the follow-up album Foxtrot , Genesis achieved its first major commercial success in 1972. With the clearly more keyboard-heavy work, Hackett was primarily responsible for various atmospheric embellishments. His indulgent sounds were particularly effective at the end of the Supper's Ready suite , in the middle section of which he also attracted attention with a rapid solo. Horizons is the first and to this day most famous of his acoustic instrumentals. He also contributed the text to Can-Utility and the Coastliners .

On the 1973 album Selling England by the Pound , which Hackett later referred to as his favorite album with the band, the electric guitar moved back into focus. The instrumental piece After the Ordeal was largely a composition by Hackett. The smaller hit I Know What I Like was based on a Hackett riff, while Firth of Fifth offered the guitarist a showcase solo. He was one of the first to use the playing techniques of tapping and sweep picking , the introduction of which is often incorrectly attributed to Eddie Van Halen or Yngwie Malmsteen . Both techniques can be heard in the song Dancing with the Moonlit Knight .

With the subsequent double album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway , Hackett went under in 1974, so that in later years there was always a certain distance to the concept work. Few pieces like Fly on a Windshield , Hairless Heart , The Chamber of 32 Doors , Here Comes the Supernatural Anesthetist and the final solo by The Lamia really gave him an opportunity to get involved.

Not least because of this low capacity, Hackett was the first Genesis band member in 1975 to release a solo album with Voyage of the Acolyte (UK charts: # 26). In addition to his bandmates Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford , his brother John and Sally Oldfield as a guest singer also took part in the studio recordings. The unusual artistic freedom during the sessions was a positive experience for Hackett, while he found the subsequent day-to-day life at Genesis increasingly restrictive.

In A Trick of the Tail (1976) Hackett was still reluctant due to his recently released album and contributed the text and half of the music of Entangled as well as parts of Los Endos and Dance on a Volcano (instrumental part). When recording Wind & Wuthering (1977), however, his frustration increased. In order to accommodate his song material, Hackett wanted to have a quarter of the album allowed, which was rejected by Collins, Rutherford and Tony Banks . His composition Please Don't Touch was also not well received by the rest of the band members. Inside and Out , which he co-wrote , was relegated to the EP Spot the Pigeon and Blood on the Rooftops , which Hackett wrote and composed with Collins, never found its way into the band's setlist during live performances . After finishing the Wind & Wuthering tour, Hackett announced his departure from Genesis on October 8, 1977, a week before the band's second live album, Seconds Out, was released .

Solo career

Steve Hackett in Warsaw (2006)

In 1978 Hackett's first post-Genesis album, Please Don't Touch, was released . Like Voyage of the Acolyte, the album can be assigned to progressive rock and was again recorded with various session musicians. This time he invited a number of prominent musicians such as Richie Havens , Randy Crawford and Steve Walsh to sing. He took over the lead vocals on the song Carry On Up The Vicarage , however, took advantage of this one alienating Laughing Gnome - effect . The album reached number 38 in the UK and number 103 in the USA.

Other prog rock albums followed with Spectral Mornings (1979) and Defector (1980), which were able to advance to positions 22 and 9 in the UK charts (US charts: positions 138 and 144). In 1979 Hackett went on tour for the first time as a solo artist and performed at the popular Reading Festival in August. On the Defector tour he played for the first time since leaving Genesis in the USA. For the two albums and the associated concerts, Hackett had his own permanent band for the first time, consisting of Nick Magnus (keyboards), Dik Cadbury (bass), John Shearer (drums), Pete Hicks (lead vocals) and John Hackett (flute) he then had to dissolve for financial reasons.

The first major change in his musical style came in 1981 with the album Cured . Although the album contained some of Hackett's signature progressive and classical pieces, it showed a substantial approximation of commercial pop music . Hackett recorded the album with keyboardist Nick Magnus, playing guitar and bass while the drum sound came from the drum machine . As a further novelty, the guitarist took over the lead vocals for the first time for all pieces. While Cured had no particular chart success in the USA, it came in 15th in Great Britain. Highly Strung (1982) and Till We Have Faces (1984) were oriented towards rock again. Electronic sound experiments at Hackett could be heard for the first time on Highly Strung (UK Charts: # 16), while the typical Hackett sound mixed with Brazilian percussion elements on Till We Have Faces .

With the intention of making progressive, guitar-focused rock music, the musician founded the supergroup GTR in 1985 together with ex- Yes and Asia guitarist Steve Howe . The following year the band released their debut album of the same name with modern guitar rock, which reached number 11 (UK: number 41) in the US album charts . The single When the Heart Rules the Mind reached the Top 20. When Hackett left GTR in late 1986 after disagreements over finances and management and creative differences with Steve Howe, the band soon broke up.

In the 1980s Hackett also released his first albums of classical guitar music: Bay of Kings (1983) and Momentum (1988) received very positive reviews, and the tour for Momentum found massive acclaim in Europe, which is rather unusual for classical guitar concerts. His outstanding albums also include the neoclassically inspired A Midsummer Night's Dream (1997) and Metamorpheus (2005). The former was an adaptation of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night 's Dream , which he recorded together with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra , the latter revolved around the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and was created in collaboration with the Underworld Orchestra .

In 1992 he recorded a prog / rock album with the Austrian musician Gandalf called "Gallery Of Dreams".

With his later rock albums Guitar Noir (1993), Darktown (1999) and To Watch the Storms (2003) Hackett was able to build on the qualities of his first four solo releases, which were particularly appreciated by the fans. His piece “Timeless” from 1994 (based on a melody fragment from There Are Many Sides to the Night by Guitar Noir ) was used as an advertising jingle by the travel company TUI (“I want cows!”). On To Watch the Storms (2003) the musicians who have accompanied the guitarist live and in the studio to this day were present for the first time: Roger King (keyboards), Rob Townsend (flute, saxophone) and Gary O'Toole (drums). Ever since that album, Hackett's works have been eclectic surprise bags, covering the full spectrum of his diverse musical interests. The subsequent works were able to maintain the level reached, but showed little further development. On the album Out of the Tunnel's Mouth in 2009 Anthony Phillips , Hackett's predecessor with Genesis, made a guest appearance on 12-string guitar. In 2012 Hackett worked again with a musician from Yes , this time with Chris Squire, for the album A Life Within a Day , released under the project name Squackett .

Steve Hackett has a son, Oliver, from his first short marriage to a German. From 1981 to 2008 he was married to the Brazilian artist Kim Poor, who designed most of his album covers. Hackett's current partner is Joanna "Jo" Lehmann, who has been his third wife since June 2011. His younger brother John is often involved in the studio albums as a flutist and second guitarist, an example of which is the Sketches of Satie (2000) arranged for guitar and flute . John Hackett also released his own albums.

2008 brought a radical break in Hackett's life: his divorce went hand in hand with the separation from his former label Camino Records. In 2009 he started his label Wolfwork Records with the eloquently titled album Out of the Tunnel's Mouth . He also cooperates with the Hungarian label Gramy Records and the group Djabe .

Later reference to Genesis and reunions

Since Hackett left Genesis, there have only been a few quasi-reunions of the five-man cast. In 1982 a one-time reunion concert took place in Milton Keynes under the name Six of the Best , in which both Peter Gabriel and - for the encores I Know What I Like and The Knife - Steve Hackett took part. The organization took place under great time pressure; the concert proceeds should benefit Gabriel's financially troubled WOMAD project. A little later, in early 1983, the surprise guests Peter Gabriel and Mike Rutherford turned up at a Hackett concert in Guildford. In 1998 the group met for a photo shoot followed by a joint dinner on the occasion of the publication of the box set Archive I - 1967–1975 , for which Hackett had re-recorded some parts (for example, Firth of Fifth and The Lamia ). Hackett also took part in the (separately recorded) reissue of the classic Carpet Crawlers for the compilation Turn It On Again - The Hits . In November 2005, at a band meeting, a five-man reunion for the duration of a tour was discussed in order to re-perform the concept album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway in its full length. Due to other projects by Gabriel, however, it became a reunion of Collins, Banks and Rutherford in 2007 without Gabriel and Hackett. In March 2010, on the occasion of the introduction of Genesis into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame , the band got together once more, with the exception of Gabriel, who was once again engaged, which again did not result in any joint projects.

Hackett, who always emphasizes in interviews that a Genesis reunion would fail least of all because of himself, has increasingly performed 70s classics of the band live at his own concerts since the 1990s and in 1997 and 2012 he also had his own studio - New recordings of various Genesis pieces published ( Genesis Revisited , Vol. 1 and 2). No longer believing in a reunion, he finally brought these pieces to the stage himself on his successful 2013 Genesis Revisited Tour. The last Genesis singer Ray Wilson , with whom he also recorded a new studio version of Carpet Crawlers , made a few guest appearances . The accompanying box set Genesis Revisited: Live At Hammersmith , released in October 2013, reached number 17 in the German album charts shortly after it was released.

Discography

→ Main article : Steve Hackett / Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1975	Voyage of the Acolyte	-	-	-	UK26 (4 weeks) UK	US191 (4 weeks) US
1978	Please don't touch	DE49 (2 weeks) DE	-	-	UK38 (5 weeks) UK	US103 (14 weeks) US
1979	Spectral mornings	-	-	-	UK22 (11 weeks) UK	US138 (4 weeks) US
1980	Defector	-	-	-	UK9 (7 weeks) UK	US144 (6 weeks) US
1981	Cured	-	-	-	UK15 (5 weeks) UK	US169 (3 weeks) US
1983	Highly Strung	-	-	-	UK16 (3 weeks) UK	-
	Bay of Kings	-	-	-	UK70 (1 week) UK	-
1984	Till we have faces	-	-	-	UK54 (2 weeks) UK	-
2011	Beyond the Shrouded Horizon	DE63 (1 week) DE	-	-	-	-
2012	Genesis Revisited II	DE32 (2 weeks) DE	-	CH80 (1 week) CH	UK24 (1 week) UK	-
2013	Genesis Revisited - Live at Hammersmith	DE17 (2 weeks) DE	-	CH97 (1 week) CH	UK58 (1 week) UK	-
2014	Genesis Revisited: Live at the Royal Albert Hall	DE23 (3 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-
2015	Wolflight	DE49 (1 week) DE	-	CH58 (1 week) CH	UK31 (1 week) UK	-
2016	The Total Experience Live in Liverpool	DE25 (2 weeks) DE	-	CH90 (1 week) CH	UK77 (1 week) UK	-
2017	The Night Siren	DE22 (2 weeks) DE	AT62 (1 week) AT	CH39 (1 week) CH	UK28 (1 week) UK	-
2018	Wuthering Nights: Live in Birmingham	DE25 (1 week) DE	-	-	UK54 (1 week) UK	-
	Broken Skies Outspread Wings	DE89 (1 week) DE	-	-	-	-
2019	At the edge of light	DE13 (2 weeks) DE	-	CH21 (1 week) CH	UK28 (1 week) UK	-
	Genesis Revisited Band & Orchestra: Live at the Royal Festival Hall	DE32 (1 week) DE	-	CH85 (1 week) CH	-	-

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

swell

1. ↑ Alex Lifeson: Guitar magazine. In: Rush Album Info. 1984, accessed July 22, 2008 : “Yes, Steve Hackett is so articulate and melodic, precise and flowing. I think our Caress of Steel period is when I was most influenced by him. There's even a solo on that album which is almost a steal from his style of playing. It's one of my favorites, called 'No One at the Bridge'. " 
2. ↑ Steve Hackett: Interview with STEVE HACKETT. In: LET IT ROCK. January 2001, accessed July 22, 2008 . 
3. ↑ Steve Hackett: Interview with Steve Hackett. In: theMouthPiece.com. Retrieved July 22, 2008 . 
4. ↑ Wind & Wuthering 1977 - Genesis Remember ... In: G2 Definitive Genesis. Retrieved July 22, 2008 . 
5. ↑ Dave Connolly: Review. In: allmusic. Retrieved July 22, 2008 . 
6. ^ Wieland Harms: The Unplugged Guitar Book. 20 of the most beautiful songs for acoustic guitar. Gerig Music, ISBN 3-87252-249-3 , p. 102.
7. ↑ Djabe & Steve Hackett DVD information on the website of the German Genesis fan club. 2011.
8. ^ Thomas Holter: The 'Reunion Concert' program. In: The Path. Archived from the original on January 18, 2010 ; accessed on December 4, 2015 . 
9. ↑ Rockers Genesis plan reunion tour. In: BBC NEWS. October 18, 2006, accessed July 22, 2008 . 
10. ↑ Ray Wilson
11. ↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US

Web links

Commons : Steve Hackett  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Official website