STEVE'S BLOG - Latest muses from Steve
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was originally Ahmet Ertegun's brainchild. The idea was to give
notable musicians and music business people recognition...
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Although now I'm practically teetotal I wasn't always so abstemious.
I was able to turn in a passable stage performance most nights in my young Genesis days, but once
off stage I would head for a drink...
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In the mid seventies the Holland Park area of London loomed large as a
backdrop against a life of relentless touring...
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This biting cold winter in which we're stuck was highlighted for me
in Helsinki, where amidst the snow on the edge of a frozen sea it wasn't hard to imagine we were in
the grip of the Snow Queen's magic...
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When I was a child in the mid 50's living at 40 Sullivan House, Churchill Gardens an awesome
site confronted me very night from my bedroom window - Battersea Power Station, belching out fumes
sometimes from all four smokestacks...
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It's been a bumper year for guitar solos. Fifteen billion notes clocked up on my patented
fretometer designed to thwart any attempt to enter the hallowed portals of the Guinness Book
of Records...
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Blessed are the cracked for they shall let in the light...
whilst it's sleeting down outside the window, be of good cheer...
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One of the many salubrious pals on Out of the Tunnel's Mouth was Chris Squire, which made for an
interesting approach to the tracks he contributed to - specifically Fire on the Moon and Nomads...
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Whilst the Prog genre is currently being reappraised to the extent where it's arguably hip
once again to admit to having had a record collection that included a Yes album or two, not to
mention the occasional Procul Harem (or was it Progul Harem?)...
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Amongst the group of people we spent the evening with after Marco's concert at Westminster
Cathedral was Jo Cummins, who had been active that day in supporting a walk for Lynn's Bowel
Cancer Campaign, Live Longer Walk in Hyde Park...
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When I was a nine year old kid I remember being chased out of Westminster Cathedral with a
bunch of other little urchins for making too much noise...
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This year has been full of problems turned into unique solutions
and triumphs out of disasters.
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There must be something significant about great guitarists rarely making it past the age of
94. Witness the death of Andres Segovia, still active into his 90s. Now the passing of Les Paul
at the same age...
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I wrote this blogette because Steph Kennedy wanted to know more about the album cover...
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Many moons ago in the early '60s Dad painted an intriguing picture entitled Rooftops of
Dubrovnik...
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Once again I've become a proud father of... a new album!
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Just to put you in the picture regards recording progress, my
album's reaching that stage when the team gets to do all of the things that change it from a
sketch into a proper painting....
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As reaction to the website has been so positive of late, I thought it might be a good time to glance
back at an event which took place a short while before hackettsongs.com was up and running...
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Hard on the heels of the band’s recent Italian visit where we once
more enjoyed the warm hospitality and enthusiasm of all our Italian friends, it was sobering to
watch news reports of the L'Aquila earthquake and see the terrible tragedy unfold....
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With the passing of John Mayhew it seems as if the book of Genesis has all of a sudden become a
slimmer volume...
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On 4th March the new thoroughly electric band convened in Darkest Putney...
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Having just participated in the Organic Art Life Festival with Djabe, my Hungarian
pals, I’m trying to get a feel for what life must have been like during the siege of 1992 - 1995....
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As Rock itself gets older, the obituary column gains more entries than we'd all like.
I know I recently mentioned John Martyn and our brief encounter at the Townhouse, but how to pay homage to all the
fallen, let alone do them justice?....
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In 1981 I was lucky enough to be in the Townhouse Studio with both
John Martyn and Phil Collins just as Phil was playing John the latest mixes of 'Glorious Fool'....
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There are three books featuring characters that made very
entertaining company recently, between recording sessions.... More...
TOUR BLOG
From the moment our plane arrived somewhat perilously on the ice-covered
runway at lunch time Friday 5 Feb, it was obvious that we were in a land of snow palaces and tinkling
sleigh rides...
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The Train on the Road tour pulled in to our two final UK
destinations, the Brook at Southampton and the Assembly in Leamington Spa, with many familiar
faces dotted around the audience...
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Last night was Leamington Spa... the last show of the 2009 Train on the Road Tour, and what a great
night it was!...
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Our unforgettable tour of extremes continues through Britain... extreme rain,
the heaviest ever recorded in some parts, but with wonderfully undampened enthusiasm from fans
throughout the land...
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The whirlwind tour continues... days off feel like a thing of the past!...
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As the tour bus hurtles meteorically towards tonight's show at Buxton, I'm recollecting our first UK
gigs in Falmouth, Exeter, Shepherds Bush, Norwich and Milton Keynes...
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The Train on the Road tour really kicked off under the railway
arches of Putney, whilst we were still in training for a substantially new set featuring most
of the new album Out of the Tunnel's Mouth...
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Rehearsals, meetings
Red stop, Green Go
Red stop, Green Go...
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It's really great seeing this whole thing grow on the road. I only
started working with Steve in March (09) after he took a sabbatical from live work and already
there is a palpable sense of excitement and anticipation from the audience before each show...
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Dear Bloggee, I am delighted to be curator of the Hackett "Olde Curiosity Blog" for a little bit...
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Hamburg was magnificent. We are, of course, unbounded in our gratitude to the good Hamburgers
who made the gig what it was - a raucous, energetic affair in a former munitions factory...
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Back together again for four days beneath the rattle of trains
in a dark corner of Putney, the band and I emerged into the light with a new set...
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It was the day of the Summer's End Festival in Lydney, Gloucester, a beautiful area between
the Forest of Dean and the River Severn...
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A whirlwind visit to Inowroclaw, pronounced Enovrotzlav, in central Poland three hours from
Warsaw...
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Italy isn't just sunny in postcards. From the point I arrived to the moment I left the sun
shone continuously...
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Our Italian shows ended in Tivoli in an old Roman amphitheatre overlooked by medieval fortifications...
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After a swift flight from Milan to Naples we pass the apparently benign grey mass of the killer volcano, Vesuvius...
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It was 42 degrees centigrade on stage during soundcheck for last night's gig in beautiful Casel Maggiori...
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I might not have had time to imbibe the local Asti Spumante, but all the fizz was in the gig!...
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Loreley, set in the heart of the Rhine valley, for me is the German landscape at its wild dramatic best...
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After an hour or so travelling from Milan by road alongside some of the world's most spectacular
scenery on a perfectly cloudless day Lake Lugano suddenly blazed into view...
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Las Palmas in Gran Canaria lies off the West coast of Africa, just across the sea from the Sahara -
an unusually exotic location for a gig, but like I’ve always said, "have guitar, will travel!"
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A human whirlwind passes through Holland tearing the air with the sound of a thousand furious
blowers at the Hague Jazz Festival...
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Congratulations to all who organised the Remscheid Klosterkirche show last weekend and to all who
attended from far and wide...
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In Pordenone the tour turned into a family outing. I was due to meet the most outrageous groupie of
all time downtown - my mother June....
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At last we were out of rehearsals and heading off towards the culture that originally
gave us roads, viaducts, irrigation and of course... pizzas....
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Buongiorno Italia! What more fitting a place for a rousing finale than magnificent Rome?...
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Great music at the CRS Awards... really enjoyed Majenta and Frost...
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The invitation to play Kuala Lumpur and Penang Island came from Attila Egerhazi of
Djabe a few months ago...
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ALAN HEWITT
Shepherds Bush Empire Theatre London.
A busy day this one. Spent the afternoon in the convivial company of Anthony Phillips giving him a
severe grilling about his recent work including, of course, his participation on Steve's latest album
before making my way in the company of TWR's very own web master, Stuart Barnes to the Empire
for the first of this year's extravaganzas...
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The story of how I got involved within the machinery of Steve's tours seems to have become more apocryphal
as time passes, so here for the benefit of those of you who may not be familiar with it, here is the
TRUE story in brief...
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To the unitiated, the fascination that fans of a particular group or artist have for the assorted
ephemera that are attached to their careers must seem nothing short of deranged. Funnily enough,
my bank manager thinks exactly the same about my collecting "habit".
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THE WELL - Hackett related reflections
Where does a certain Stephen Richard Hackett get his ideas and how do his songs
take shape?
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Just walked past Steve's old house in Princedale Road in Notting Hill, dropping off some borrowed
Chelsea season tickets, lent by a kindly eye surgeon - I suppose that's one way of ensuring you get
a good view of the game.
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MARIO ON STEVE
Introduction to the book 'Steve Hackett- The Defector' Translated from Italian.
By Mario Giammetti. Edizioni Segno, Italy, 2005.
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