Smoke Signals - August 09

I wrote this blogette because Steph Kennedy wanted to know more about the album cover, so this can also been seen on the Turn it on Again Genesis Forum!

Experiencing the Bluebell and the Watercress lines was like timetravelling into past worlds of Brief Encounter and the Orient Express. The Golden Age of Steam is still there for all to see. The detritous of luggage and posters from a bygone age greet you through the steam as soon as you mount the platform at Horsted Keynes on the Bluebell Line. Our transport of delight was on the back of the Dragon Slayer engine, in full cry! Neil Marshall, master of drums at Charterhouse School during the working week, becomes engine driver extraordinaire at the weekend, who kindly invited us into the cab, where for the first time we encountered the inner sanctum... staring into the mouth of the furnace is not for the faint hearted! Emerging from the steam, guitar in hand, felt like walking through the pages of history... my lungs felt like I'd inhaled 200 cigarettes in one go!

Steve Hackett 8th August 2009