GTR

How Howe and Hackett get hacked to shreads. Do you think my play on words go too far or is this just a plain awful album?

I was weary of this as it came out for Howe had been up to Asia , the Yes-no albums and Hackett had made some bad albums of late. Professional gamblers will tell you to keep going with a streak until the streak is over. I waited for friends to buy it and was happy to pass ........ Am I ever happy I did.

This is probably the most disappointing album I have ever bought - the idea of two of the greatest progressive rock guitarists getting together filled my imagination with the idea of soaring guitar solos, epic musicianship, and the best progressive rock album of the 1980's. The actual result was far less than the sum of its parts - basically, this is a watered down AOR album, with high pitched Journey-like vocals; if you like mid 1980's American AOR, then you may find this album worth a listen, otherwise I would avoid this - even the 2 solo pieces by Hackett/Howe are solo-by-numbers

If ASIA was cheesey, GTR was bacon with cheese. The group was centered on the estimable talents (and considerable prog rock cachet) of two guitarists: STEVE HACKETT (late of GENESIS) and STEVE HOWE (late of YES & ASIA). ASIA founder Geoffrey DOWNES produced their eponymous debut (contributing one song as well, "The Hunter"), which also featured (in descending order of fame) vocalist Max BACON, drummer Jonathan MOVER and bassist Phil SPALDING. "When The Heart Rules The Mind" did rule the airwaves for a little while, and there's no question that GTR's debut is superior to ASIA's waning product, but spending HACKETT and HOWE in this setting is akin to using a pair of Faberge eggs for door stoppers. That may be my musical elitism showing through, since both guitarists thought enough of this amalgam to fully engage themselves, adding all manner of mighty riffs to the material. BACON is also a worthy vessel for the vocals, not quite as powerful as WETTON but not prone to his sentimentality either. Like ASIA's first album, there are quite a few songs that find patches of prog rock fertility within the seemingly sterile landscape of arena rock: "Here I Wait", "Toe The Line" (no, not the TOTO song), and "Imagining" among them. The album also includes an instrumental each from HOWE and HACKETT. Howe's "Sketches In The Sun" is warm and agile and idiomatic; HACKETT's "HACKETT To Bits" is a variation on "Please Don't Touch."

Prog fans can take umbrage with GTR's packaging, but the product is pretty good. After a worldwide tour, GTR disbanded, underscoring what prog fans already knew to be an unnatural alliance. Still, their lone album is an interesting detour for fans of Steve Howe and (to a lesser extent) Steve HACKETT, and a logical second course for anyone who feasted on ASIA's first offering.

The best songs in this album are "When the heart rules the mind", "Hackett to Bits", "Imagining", "Toe the Line" and "Sketches in the sun". This was one of the albums of 1986 which showed Progressive musicians playing music more oriented to pop rock and for the Radio (others were: the overrated Peter Gabriel with "So"; Emerson, Lake & Powell`s album; Genesis`s "Invisible Touch"; Kansas`"Power"). Both guitarists play very good, but I don`t like Max Bacon`s vocals very much. The production is noisy, with a lot of echoes added. The songs which are nearer to progressive music are "Hackett to Bits" (which is an abridged version of Hackett`s "Please don`t touch" song from his album of the same name), the superb acoustic guitar intro to "Imagining" (played by Hackett alone), and "Imagining". "When the heart rules the mind" has a very good part played with acoustic guitars. If some people blamed Phil Collins for making commercial music, I think that he wasn`t alone in those days.Even the overrated Gabriel, GTR and others were doing the same things.

After many years, my memory of GTR waned, I decided to give it another chance. As bad as this was on vinyl, it is just as bad on CD. Maybe I was being hopeful that the CD version would have been better when I picked it up the second time. The oh-so-thin production values still rang through, no bottom end at all. The guitars sound as screechy as Max Bacon-n-eggs' whimpy pale voice. The lyrics, insipid in the 80's, are even worse today. Placing your speakers anywhere near a mouse cage would be considered inhumane as the mouse would surely run itself to death trying to escape the putrid noise. Alas, how could such reknowned musicians team up to concoct this utter drivel? Money, eh? Many felt Steve Howe sold out with the first Asia release, but I would hold that album in much higher regard in my music collection than I would the disgrace of GTR.

Let us deduce the meaning of the acronym GTR: Get To Radio. Gone To Rust. Go Try Rogain (for Steve's latter years). Greedy Tangled Rip-off. Geriatric Topographic Rubbish. I'm sure you all can come up with your own meaning, but it all comes down to chasing the cash flow. If I remember correctly, MTV had a preview show that ran nearly an hour and then ran the video clip of "When The Heart Rules The Mind." It featured the two icons spinning about on a platform of some kind. Obviously the stars became dizzy and proceeded to lose any self-respect. At least Bill Bruford didn't play drums on this turd.

The two instrumentals, Sketches in the Sun and Hackett to Bits should rank a full star and a half higher just because they didn't have Bacon on it. Less filling, still nowhere near the potential of the musicians involved.

Having money in your pocket: $15 Buying the GTR CD: Stupid Reading this review and getting something else: Priceless

GTR must have surely have broken more hearts than any other band in the world of prog ... yes, even Asia. Every self-respecting prog-fan has a wet dream like this ... Steve Howe and Steve Hackett, both surely among the greatest guitarists in the prog roster, get together and form a group that saves the musical world, following which the two heroes ride off into the sunset. Well, it didn't quite work out like that.

Prog-fans can't say they weren't warned. After all both Howe (with Asia) and Hackett (some, but by no means all of his solo records) had dabbled in mindless pop-rock music before GTR. But the truth is that when these two men got together, it really was like a dream come true. I know I was practically drooling when I picked this CD up for U$3 at a flea market ... and after seven years, the pain is still pretty acute.

The simple fact is that Howe and Hackett got together to make commercial rock music (they take turns to hold chords on the synth, for Chrissake!). Along with singer Max Bacon and the world famous rhythm section of Phil Spalding and Jonathan Mover, they put together a generally bland set of songs that wouldn't be out of place on a Heart, Starship or even Asia record of the mid-80s.

It's not all that bad, though. Admittedly When The Heart Rules The Mind is a pretty memorable poppy tune, there's a nice solo in the middle of Here I Wait and both Toe The Line and Imagining (a rather Yes-like tune) have classy minute-long acoustic guitar intros. Come to think of it, the whole of Imagining is quite good. One of the greatest tragedies of this album however, is that its two finest songs are the instrumentals Sketches In the Sun (a solo piece by Howe that ranks among his best) and the biting Hackett To Bits which is basically a Hackett solo work. The fact that we are denied a chance to hear proper interplay between the two masters is really too much to take. ... 25% on the MPV scale

Just another proof the eighties had a horrible influence on good musicians. Gtr stands for the guitars of Steve Howe and Steve Hackett. Two famous guitarists in one band ? The result should be breathtaking. Unfortunately it isn't. Their only album is full of streamlined AOR. "When the heart rules the mind" charted in the states and is a perfect example. The melodies are absolute catchy but this stadium rock is far from what you expect from a line up like this. "The hunter" is a mysterious sounding track with moody keyboards, enjoyable melodies and stunning guitar solo's but it could be included on an Asia record as well. Surprise Surprise. A look at the credits show that Geoff Downes was the composer. Ten years after GTR the song would be recorded by Asia for a compilation album. Downes is also credited as producer but he didn't do a great job to my opinion. Never before have I heard an album which sounded so harsh. The sound on the remastered CD hardly improves. Two tracks deliver the kind of music an album like this should have more of . "Sketches in the sun" was a Howe song that was around for some time and finally got recorded. A peaceful and enjoyable instrumental on electric guitar that would sound better on acoustic guitar. True to it's name "Hackett to bits" is basically "Please don't touch" in a heavy outfit but only less appealing. Still two highlights on this record : "Jekyll & Hyde" and especially "Imagining" are full of complex changes in moods and rhythms. My favourite moment on the album is the instrumental part of "Here I wait". Although the song starts very cliché, as soon the second part is announced by virtuous guitar lines, you'll get what you came for. A perfect atmospheric mood, angel voices and Howe and Hackett playing one stunning guitar line after another. Other tracks aren't really bad but too slick and commercial to appeal even if the former Nightwing vocalist Max Bacon has an enjoyable voice. During the recording process the two Steves had an argument which lead to the departure of Hackett while Howe tried to keep the river flowing by replacing Hackett with Robert Berry. This wasn't working out either and within a year the writing was on the wall. However they did record lots of demo's which ended up on a bootleg. Some tracks got an official release afterwards on solo albums from Hackett and Berry.

This album has some excellent guitar lines but on most of the tracks the point gets lost. Generally the album lacks a real soul and the overall format of the song is too conventional. It aged not too well either ; you can tell it is a product of the eighties with the big drum sounds and the dubbed vocals. Not much to tell from the rhythm section either. The bass and drums don't really fit in with the tracks and add no essential elements. Spalding did some excellent work with Toyah and Mike Oldfield before joining GTR proving he's a skilled bass player but here, you don't notice. A missed opportunity. two stars and a half for the stunning guitarlines

This album sounds quite like Asia: Geoff Downes's production and Steve Howe' s guitars give this album another Asia-like sound. The presence of Steve Hackett allows the listener to compare the styles of the 2 famous prog guitarists: it is interesting to notice that their parts have distinctive sounds and styles through the miscellaneous electric and acoustic guitars. The lead vocals are very good, reminding a bit Kansas: recall that this singer worked for Mike Oldfield on his "Earth Moving" record. Like Yes' "Big Generator", the sound here is VERY strident & metallic. The bass is insufficient. There is a good reprise of Hackett's "Land of 1000 autumns" (from the "Please Don't Touch" album). The keyboards are not bad, but they could be more melodic, colorful & elaborated. The songs are not progressive at all; I would even say that they are accessible and rather pop. Globally, I prefer Asia.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Years ago I have rated this album without writing a complete review. Now I want to spend some words about it. There's a thread on a PA forum about "how you understand that your purchase is not prog". I could answer, when there are two guitarists and both are "Steve".

I was very curious to hear what two guitar monsters as the two Steves were able to produce, but few seconds of the first track "When the heart rules the mind" were enough to understand which kind of album it was, and it's not the worst track.

It was 1986 and we all know that 80s were the poorest decade for music (not only prog). However the 80s have seen the birth of neo-prog groups like Marillion or the rebirth of Yes with 90125, so not everything from these years is good for the trash can.

But I really don't know what was ruling the minds of the two Steves when they hired Max Bacon as singer. Not that he's a bad singer, but he sounds like a pop-metal band of that age called "Europe".

"The hunter" wants to sound like Yes, but this is not Jon Anderson, and the song is very trivial from a musical point of view. A track to skip.

"Here I Wait" is another try to emulate 90125. This time they are quite close to reach the target.

"Sketches in the sun" is an instrumental on which the two guitarists give a demonstration of what they could do when they are inspired enough. Unfortunately this is just a 2 minutes track. Too few to save the album.

With "Jekyll and Hide" we are back to the 80s pop. This could have been inserted into Yes' Big Generator, but if possible, this is worse. Trivial in the lyrics, too. "Is the mirror lying, I must decide if I'm doctor Jekyll or Mister Hide"...what a poetry! a quite good guitar riff in the middle of the song is not enough.

"You can still get Through" starts with electronic drums with a typical 80s sound. The singing makes clear the fact that this album is mainly a Howe's idea. You can still throw this disc.

"Reach out, never say no". Is not different from the previous tracks. Some good guitars on a trivial yes-sounding base.

"Toe the line is probably featuring the first real Hackett's contribution to the project. Not a masterpiece, of course. The lack of ideas involves Hackett, too but this is probably the best album's song if a best exists.

"Hackett to bits" is a sort of remake of "The air conditioned nightmare" from Cured. Not too bad, quite interesting, great guitars but just two minutes long.

"Imagining" has a classical guitar and mandolin intro. Is this Paco de Lucia? Unfortunately not. After two minutes we are again on the chords of Big Generator. The strange thing is that Howe was not in the Big Generator's lineup.....

My rating doesn't change. Get it only if you want to own EVERYTHING a Yes or a Genesis member has done, otherwise save your money.

GTR surfaced in the 80s in the context of the most compromised era of symphonic prog. I actually find the material in this sole album better than Asia at their best, since I happen to enjoy (in some way, as a sort of guilty pleasure) the more muscular sound based on the prominence of the dual guitars and the non-intrusive use of keyboard sounds. That's the main virtue, but it cannot hide the unsubstantial attempt by the band's leaders and main writers to sound as 'renewed sons of the era', which proves to be an artistic mistake. The compositions are mostly desgined to provide a nice combination of stylish melodic flavors (this is where the prog ingredient comes in) and AOR-ish hooks (this is where Bacon's polished vocal style comes in as the major factor, but it also applies to the arrangements that forge the musical ideas' final shape). The powerful opener 'When the Heart Rules the Mind' perfectly incarnates this nuclear idea: it is catchy, moderately sophisticated, comprising effective arrangements and atractive guitar leads. 'The Hunter' is a very nice mid-tempo ballad: penned by Downes, it might have become another mellow Asia ballad, but the use of acoustic 12-string guitars and mandolins among the guitar riffs and solos makes it genuinely attractive. From now on, the repertoire will mostly go from mere AOR ('Here I Wait', 'You Can Still Get Through', 'Reach Out (Never Say No)') to prog rock with a poppier twist ('Jeckyll and Hyde', 'Imagining'). I believe that the latter two would have benefited from more expansive arrangements, since the main riffs and melodic shifts show some interesting potential, but that's how it goes. The classical guitar intro to 'Imagining', especially, could have been as an individual number on its own. On the other hand, the acoustic- based ballad 'Toe the Line' and 'Sketches in the Sun' are symptoms of Howe's firm sense of majesty: these two numbers are really inspired. Also inspired are the exciting opening riffs of 'Hackett to Bits', but in the end it is only a reprise of one of Hackett's most archetypical compositions, 'Please Don't Touch'. It is a pity that Hackett's input tends to be surpassed by Howe's: a more balanced equilibrium between the two guitarists might have helped the band to gain a more solid sound had Howe allowed Hackett instill some of the energy of his previous two solo rock albums "Highly Strung" and "Till We Have Faces", but that's how it is, isn't it? "GTR" is an okay album that gives soem decency to the history of 80s prog-pop. At least, more decency than Genesis at the time and most of Rabin-era Yes albums, and evidently, more energy than the Camel albums for the early 80s.

A cruel deception

The band's name is of course a common abbreviation for "guitar". This is intended reflect the fact that this "supergroup" includes two of prog's most accomplished guitarists, Steve Hackett and Steve Howe. The line up is completed by relatively unknown musicians, although the album is produced by Howe's Asia band-mate Geoff Downes.

For one reason or another, GTR did not last long, and on the strength of this offering it's probably just as well. The conversation between Howe and Hackett must have gone something like this: "Fancy making an album together?" "Sure, with our histories including some of the finest progressive rock songs ever made, together we could make some further classics". "Actually, I made a lot of money with Asia, a pop rock band" "Well come to think of it, I missed out big time when I left Genesis prior to their transition to a pop band" "Stuff the prog then, let's make some big selling pop" "Agreed!".

The opening chords of track 1, "When the heart rules the mind" instantly reveal that this is no meeting of the prog giants. Max Bacon's vocals, the catchy melody and the sing-a-long chorus are much more reminiscent of REO SPEEDWAGON or FOREIGNER than Yes or Genesis in their heyday. Producer Geoff Downes does not actually play on the album, but his compostion "The hunter", is to be found here. Tellingly the song, a slightly slower power ballad, was also recorded by Asia. Add a Bob Catley like voice and you would instantly have a standard Magnum song.

It is the two Steve's though who must take responsibility for the pop nature of the songs, since they are jointly or severally involved in all the other tracks. The obvious problem is that neither is particularly good at writing pop songs, resulting in a procession of second rate soulless efforts. No matter how competent the performances and how good the production (and both are faultless), the foundations here are laid on quicksand of the most lethal kind.

Each guitarist is afforded a brief solo guitar spot, which only serves to remind us how cruelly we have been deceived. The only track which caught my attention at all was "Toe the line", which appealed to my weakness for a melodic ballad. The song has powerful instrumentation, which becomes almost symphonic at times. Bacon's vocal performance here is also of a different calibre. Sadly that's it though, and after Hackett's solo spot, we close with a very poor pop rock song. "Imagining".

A wasted opportunity of the highest order.

While fresh prog was happening way underground and the punk/metal crossover scene was beginning to push prog metal out into the open, the 80's were just an absolute train wreck of classic proggers attempting to reinvent themselves. Some were commercially successful, albeit bile reflux inducing (in regards to Genesis' 80's output), but most floundered in obscurity. GTR were among the latter. Featuring the prog royalty virtuoso guitarists Steves Howe and Hackett, the project had an admittedly unattainable standard to reach while simultaneously needing record company buy-in. The result was about as uncomfortable as Steve Howe looks in the GTR promo photo, resplendent in his baggy polyester suit "16 Candles adult guy extra" style. The album encompassed everything single-sliced-processed-cheese-product 80's sound; complete with overly reverbed drums, high wailing vocals that blurted syrupy platitudes, and our prog hero guitar duo defiled with the obligatory chorus pedal's pseudo-scintillation. The song highlights were in fact the instrumental tunes Sketches in the Sun and Hackett to Bits, the latter of which was nothing more than outtake of the title track of Hackett's second solo album, Please Don't Touch!. But even a couple of respites from the shrill vocals of Max Bacon are not enough to make this album even remotely listenable. The songs structures were routine with ultra-straight-ahead pedestrian rhythms. Nothing to hold this listeners ear and frequently aspects that make me want to plug them.

It's been a long time. I can't remember whatever moved me to buy GTR back in the day. Was it the promise of Howe and Hackett together? Did I really enjoy When the Heart Rules the Mind back then? Did a friend give it to me? Was it one of those twelve albums that I got for a penny from the record club? For the life of me, I can't imagine why I'd have grabbed this.

Anyhow, I did own it, and forgettable is probably the best adjective to describe it. There is nothing on it that is really awful (hence I'm not giving it one star) but there is precious littl on here that rises above mediocrity. The only reason I'd listen to it now is to hear the two guitar solo pieces. Sketches in the Sun is a decent Howe composition in a style that we expect from him, while Hackett to Bits makes up in energy what it lacks in originality. The rest of this is slightly substandard AOR.

If you want to get some GTR, get the King Biscuit live album instead. GTR was a decent live band and included a lot of solo stuff from the two Steve's in their show. The KB album includes a decent sampling of that.

2 stars. If you don't already have an idea that you will like this, don't bother.

I don't know what I was thinking back in 1986 when I purchased GTR's self-titled debut (and fortunately only studio release). It must have been that one song they kept playing on the radio, When the Heart Rules the Mind. I don't know what it was about that song. Maybe the catchy hooks? It couldn't have been the vocals, could it?

Now all these years later, I find that this album hasn't aged well at all. Instead of a fine wine, what we have here is a chunk of moldy cheese. In other words, it's not just a cheesy album, it's also pretty bad. GTR were known for their two guitarists, Steve Howe and Steve Hackett. What isn't widely known is that instead of using keyboards, they used those awful guitar-based synthesizers. This basically meant that the vibrations of their guitar strings were fed into a synthesizer trigger pickup which sent MIDI signals to a synthesizer. I've never been fond of the sounds these produced often causing me much irritation.

The other problem with this album is that once you get past the first track, their lone top 40 hit, When the Heart Rules the Mind, the rest of the album is quite a disappointment containing mostly arena rock-styled mediocrity. It almost sounds like a poor man's Asia, and maybe that's because Asia keyboardist Geoff Downes produced this album. I find it unbelievable that these two highly acclaimed guitarists made this stuff. It must have been a sign of the times and a clear indication of what was wrong with music in the 1980s.

GTR disbanded in 1987. And that's pretty much it.

I feel inclined to give this one star because for me it is a difficult listen. But I know there are a lot of fans out there for these two guitarists, and being fans, they'll probably want this. Everyone else should probably avoid. Two stars.

Some reviewers were expecting an old-school Yes or Genesis album because of the people involved here. Any such expectations were however obviously misdirected; this album was released in 1986, about the same time as Genesis' Invisible Touch and Yes' Big Generator. I think this album is very much better than those albums.

Many tend to compare GTR to Asia, probably because Steve Howe was in Asia just before he formed GTR with Steve Hackett, and also because the album was produced by another member of Asia, Geoff Downes. Downes also wrote one of the songs here, The Hunter. However, I don't think that it is a good comparison at all, since Asia and GTR are quite different bands. But let's go on with it anyway and compare these two bands. I think GTR is much better than Asia.

The guitar work on this album by two of my all time favourite guitarists is outstanding. A lot more varied and interesting than on the Asia albums. Both Steves play a lot of acoustic guitars in addition to the electric ones. And both of them also play keyboards! Max Bacon is a very good vocalist with a distinctive voice (and to go along with the Asia comparison) I much prefer him to John Wetton. The GTR album is also much more varied than the Asia albums. Both Howe and Hackett have their own instrumentals here and the there is a well balanced mix between slower and faster material. Even the lyrics are far better than Asia's in my opinion.

The GTR album is also much more progressive and harder rocking than any of the Asia albums. In fact, much of this album is complex hard rock rather than the 80's style pop/rock of Asia.

The are only two things that I can think of speaking in favour of Asia in this comparison. The first is the band name and the second is the cover art. GTR is a really bad band name and the album should have had a Roger Dean cover!

In my opinion at least this album is a lot better than any of the albums by Asia, or anything either Yes or Genesis did during the 80's. I also think this album ranks among the best work either Steve Howe or Steve Hackett ever did outside of Yes and Genesis.

This album is highly recommended for all prog fans and for fans of either Steve Howe or Steve Hackett this album is essential listening.

One truly big disapointment in a decade full of big disappointments (prog-wise, I mean). I believe I was one of thevery few old school prog lovers who actually liked Asia´s first album. I also enjoyed Genesis pop albums and some of Kansas stuff with John Elefante. Even Styx and Yes. After all, it was good prog influenced pop music. But some projects just didn´t work. GTR was an obvious exploitation of Asia´s success. Ok, nothing against it as long as the music was good, prog, pop or whatever.

Alas, tha was not the case with GTR. I didn´t like the album then and I don´t like it now, for the very same reason: the union of two genius prog guitar heroes is not enough to make a good band out of it. Even if the other musicians are very good, they simply don´t gel. And the songwriting is really bad. With two exceptions, the opener When The Heart Rules The Mind and The Hunter, the rest of the songs are just awful. The two instrumentals don´t count, of course, for they are really solo spots, not the work of GTR.

Everything sounds forced and contrived. No wonder there was not a folow up. I guess it was all too embarassing for everyone involved. Very forgetable, at least for me. It would make a nice pop single with the two aforementioned songs. Two stars is the most I can give them based on that. If you want to try it, be warned: listen before you spend your hard earned money based only upon the names involved. This may not be worth it, even for the hardcore Hackett and /or Howe fans.

I have a copy of GTR since it was released, and always hated the album, but his week took my record, placed it in the car's CD player, listened it carefully. and found it much better than I remembered.

Maybe the problem is not the quality of the album because it's good POP stuff, but that we expected so much of a Hackett - Howe release that disappointed all of us when we heard it, specially the Prog fans who of course believed GTR would be a Progressive Rock master`piece and not just a good but not outstanding AOR/POP release.

So leaving behind the prejudice, will try to review it and be fair.

The album starts with "When the Heart Rules the Mind" a song that from the first note reminds clearly of ASIA, something that could be expected because both bands are product of the 80's with key members of Prog bands who decided to go for a more profitable alternative and with that keyboard sound that defined the decade.

But being honest, I don't know why I disliked this song so much when if is at least as good as most 80's stuff, solid guitar, with Howe reminding of YES (Drama era) and Hackett providing some interesting atmospheres. Max Bacon is not Lake or Wetton, but still a very decent vocalist and the interplay between Spalding and Mover was pretty solid. A good track, with 80's sound but enjoyable.

"The Hunter" also presents interesting moments, Howe's guitar again reminds of YES (This time GFTO era) and Hackett does an outstanding job, maybe the only problem is that at some point the drums sound too mechanic, but again a good AOR track.

"Here I Wait" is the lowest point until this part of the album, boring, repetitive, a hybrid between AOR, POP and lame Hard Rock, so lets go to "Sketches in the Sun" which starts with an incredibly beautiful chords interplay between Hackett and Howe, what apparently was only an intro, goes increasing in intensity until it stops and starts again, very nice song, a very high moment, sadly a bit short.

As "Here I Wait" before, "Jekyll and Hyde" is a forgettable boring song, so again will go to the next track which is "You Can Still Get Through" a song that rises the level of the album again, they even dare to make a couple of radical changes, but something is true, the voice of Bacon is boring me at this moment, the guy has very little versatility and lacks of emotion, the synth and guitar break is interesting, again a correct song.

"Reach Out (Never Say No)" starts almost like a 90125 track, but soon the voice of Max Bacon starts to bore me again, not much to comment, except for the bass work, so for the third time I run to the next song "Toe the Line" a song that should had been an instrumental, the guitar work is very pretty, but the vocals are weak.

"Hackett to Bits" alone could pay this album, Steve Hackett does a wonderful work in each moment, heard this track in live concerts and always enjoyed it from start to end, outstanding confrontation between the electric and acoustic guitar, if just all the album was as good as this song.

"Imagining" has an acoustic intro that shouts "Hackett", seems this guys reserved the best for the end, then Howe and the band join to make a very good closer, except for the vocals that by this point are starting to turn me off.

The big question is How bad would we had considered this album if Hackett and Howe were not together on it? Probably the rating would be over 3 stars because it's not bad, the problem is that the expectations were too high for this Aorish but decent album.

Now, I thought ASIA deserved at least three stars because I didn't expected as much from them, but some tracks of this album are superior to anything ASIA did, and the bad tracks are not as bad as the worst from the already mentioned supergroup.

So being an average album will have to give the average rating, three stars, but only if you don't expect a Prog masterpiece at the level of Hackett and Howe.

GTR is one of the hated bands here on PA, only few proggers tried and succeded to have some nice words around this band since it was introduce to data base years ago. Well I will be one of the proggers who like this one, not better not worst then any Asia album , because the comparation in inevitable, musicaly speaking. Releasewd in may 1986, become almost instantly gold in sale numebers, something realy intristing for today standards, if we look at the line up we see some big names in prog world, the contrast between the names and what they play here is huge. Hackett and Howe are for sure the main actors here, the rest of the musicians even are ok and great contribute to the overall sound they are not so well known, at least to me. Anyway the album sounds like AOR with some typical thet special rock of the period, with some good moments, some Yes moments, vague but are, some pop elements added and here we have selftitled GTR. Sketches In The Sun who is a pice wrote by Howe, can be recognizeble his style instantly, beautiful pice, Hackett To Bits is of course a Hackett one, very dark and very progressive, this piece easely is similar with any piece from Defector, same attitude and moody dark atmosphere, very good, the rest of the pieces are ok for me, nothing realy special but ok, each musician did a good job. So, to me is a 3 star album, nothing more nothing less, enjoyble but not very often to be puted to spin.

Just realized that I have not put my words about this legendary album by collaboration of two guitar maestros of the 70's: Steve Howe (of YES fame) and Steve Hackett (of Genesis fame). When I heard about this collaboration it's was natural that I expected something spectacular which in reality did not happen. Well it's probably over expectation as those two gentlemen were coming from prog powerhouse. It's similar with what I expected with Asia in the early 80s. But if I forget who the people behind this debut album, this is actually not a bad album at all even though I do not here something prog related to the work of of Howe or Hackett. Well, it's probably they formed this GTR to do things differently from the bands they were coming from.

The masterpiece is of course the opening track co-written by two Steves 'When The Heart Rules The Mind' which was successful as the track reached number 14 in the Billboard Top 100 and spent a couple of months on the chart. This was of course an achievement by prog musician who could chart their work on Billboard. Composition-wise this is something that you would expect from straight rock or pop rock band. However, as we all know the style of the two guitarist therefore there are pieces filled with their unique guitar style - that what makes this track differs from any music from straight rock band.

The Hinter was the one written by Geoff Downes (Asia) and represents a slower or mellow track of this album. There are good tracks like Reach Out - especially I like the energy of the song and the guitar solo work. Also Imagining, Here I wait, Sketches In The Sun and Hackett to Bits. Sketches In The Sun is an acoustic number was performed with Asia. The "Asia Live In Asia" home video has a recorded version of the song taken from the gig on December 1983. Steve Howe has a number of versions available of this track including a demo on the original Homebrew demo.

Overall, it's a good album with minimum prog elements but still deliver god music overall. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

Like a lot of 'supergroups', GTR has widely been regarded as a disappointment and a wasted opportunity by progressive rock fans. Also like a lot of supergroups, some of the flak it receives is deserved, but a fair amount of it is the result of unfair expectations. Anybody expecting a grandiose symphonic prog masterpiece in the vein of Close to the Edge or Foxtrot from this 1986 collaboration between Steve Howe and Steve Hackett is probably looking in the wrong place, and though their disappointment is likely to be monumental, folks that set more realistic expectations may be likely to find some enjoyment from this decent eighties' rock album. GTR feels rather unadventurous and disappointing considering the stellar lineup, but the end result is still an average effort that is substantially better than anything Yes or Genesis were doing at the time.

In many ways, the music found on GTR's sole album is what we'd expect from progressive rock's 'dinosaurs' during the mid eighties' - commercial oriented and melodic tunes with catchy choruses and approachable lyrics. Fortunately, GTR is a notch above what one may initially anticipate as most of the songs here are not too shabby at all. "When the Heart Rules the Mind" is a decent little pop tune, "Imagining" and "The Hunter" are pretty good rock tracks, and "Sketches In the Sun" and "Hackett to Bits" are nice instrumental pieces that let us know that we are dealing with two legendary guitarists. Lead vocalist Max Bacon has a powerful set of pipes that suits this style of music perfectly, and this combined with the hard rocking AOR compositions should definitely bring Journey and other American rock groups to mind. This 'American' style, however, sacrifices everything that made Hackett's pastoral tones and Howe's frantic fretwork so unique in the first place; the lack of personality is probably GTR's greatest setback, and although it is mightily disappointing to see two progressive rock giants make an AOR album, their failure to leave a unique stamp on the material is what impacts my enjoyment of the music most.

That being said, the material here is still not bad as far as I'm concerned. Does it sound like it was produced through a tin can? Yes. Does it fail to highlight what makes Hackett and Howe such excellent guitarists? Yes. Is it a relatively mediocre AOR album when all is said and done? Also yes. Still, no matter how much I should hate GTR, I find myself singing along to a few of the choruses and enjoying the hell out of the crisp riffs and melodic vocals every time I give it a spin. GTR is a supergroup with a massive amount of missed potential, but for what it is, they put out a decent observation before disappearing for good.

In retrospect, this album never had a chance. While there certainly have been some exceptions, supergroups are generally the kind of idea that seems really great in theory but quickly becomes unbearable, like deciding to eat an entire pizza yourself. So it was with GTR, the short-lived collaboration between Steve Howe and Steve Hackett (with the rest of the group filled out by various anonymous players, including vocalist Max Bacon, who is an embodiment of all of my least favorite stereotypes of vocalists from the 80s). The story behind the group actually had its roots in another supergroup; while Howe was perfectly content with the kind of slightly artsy arena rock being made by Asia, he wasn't happy with the relatively minor position of his guitar in relation to the keyboards, and this helped to fuel his departure from the band. Howe had three main principles in mind for his new project: (1) the music style would be arena rock, (2) there would be no keyboards, and instead any synth-like parts would be handled by guitar synthesizer pickups attached to the guitars, and (3) he wanted Steve Hackett on board as the other guitarist. Hackett was willing to do the project, but he didn't have the same enthusiasm as Howe did; where Howe viewed this as a potential long-term project, Hackett viewed this as a short-term collaboration, and (on the surface at least) it really seems like the main driver for his participation in this project was that his last couple of albums (Bay of Kings and Till We Have Faces) hadn't sold very well.

Very predictably, this setup didn't work out so well. Howe and Hackett never really got on the same page creatively, and anybody hoping for any quality interplay between two of the giants of 70s prog guitar will be extremely disappointed. The guitar playing on this album (rather predictably) isn't so much interplay as it is the two sides taking turns, with one guitarist at any point either dropping from the mix or acting as a synthesizer mimic. Furthermore, while there are some stretches where it's clear which guitarist is currently playing a given part, there are long stretches where both Howe and Hackett disappear behind the wall of generic arena rock they've put up for themselves. Furthermore, even when the parts clearly belong to one or the other, the effect is to call up a nostalgia for when the technique on display was used in a better song. It should also be noted that any parts clearly recognizable as Hackett basically discard all of the advances and experimentation from Faces; it's pretty clear to me that Hackett didn't put a tremendous amount of himself into this project.

The album's big hit was the opening "When the Heart Rules the Mind," but aside from the mildly promising opening (with a nice part clearly from Howe), the track is mostly generic mid-tempo 80s arena rock of the worst kind, and it's only notable for somebody interested in collecting every spare Howe and Hackett lick ever recorded. Much better is the following track, "The Hunter," written by producer Geoff Downes (an aside; if Howe's main drive for leaving Asia was that he didn't like the ratio of keyboards to guitars, then why would he invite Asia's keyboardist to produce this album? Of all the peripheral details of this album, this one still confuses me the most); aside from a pretty decent and compact verse melody, as well as a nice build into the various climaxes ("...only the hunter ... only the hunter ... SURVIVES!!!"), it also has the album's most blatant bit of nostalgia thanks to Howe breaking out his "Your Move" guitar approach in the verses. The song isn't anywhere near great, but it's mildly decent, and that makes for a relative highlight.

The best tracks on here sound the least like the typical material of the album. "Sketches in the Sun" is a solo piece from Howe, with him playing a duet with himself on electric guitar, and it's a delightful use of 2:33 that would have sounded great on one of his solo albums. Of the various "regular" songs, "Toe the Line" is easily the best; the song is a model of restraint in its morph from an acoustic ballad into a slightly louder number, and Howe's brief snippet of slide parts in the last minute is quite lovely. I'm not really sure what role Hackett plays in the song, but whatever.

The other six tracks are absolutely atrocious. The Hackett match to "Sketches in the Sun," entitled "Hackett to Bits" (yup, he's even reusing puns from previous song titles), is a vile bastardization of "Please Don't Touch," but it's still probably the best of the remaining material. The sung tracks might all have different melodies, but they're all built around the same basic formula; mid-tempo arena rock built around disappointingly generic guitar (with occasional bits of individual personality coming through), goofy guitar synths, plodding drumming, and those awful vocals. Oh, those awful vocals. With a better vocalist, some of this material might have been salvagable, but there is no better vocalist to be found.

Anyway, this band wasn't long for the world, and it's just as well. Try and find the best two or three tracks, but stay far away from the rest of this. This isn't the worst project Steve Howe was ever a part of (at the least, it's a lot shorter than Union, and Howe's involvement in that album is much less than his involvement here), but it is probably the worst project Steve Hackett was ever a part of, and that says something.

How to disappoint your loyal followers in 2 easy steps.

I guess it really is no big news how lame virtuoso guitar players can become when forced or self forced to compose. Since I heard Steve Howe's first solo release, I was well aware that his performing skills are opposite to his songwriting ones. Maybe I was expecting more from Hackett, his first solo release is, in comparison to Howe's, far more daring and creative.

Anyway, the more I listen to GTR's "GTR", 1986, the worst it gets (and I am listening to their 2015 remastered deluxe 2 cds edition). The 80's Pop "clean cut" mainstream song style is the least of its problems. This could justify the audiences it expected to reach. No, the big upset is how self-indulgent these extraordinary guitar players can get. Showing off your lack of songwriting skills can turn out to be the best way to dissapont your talented performances followers.

You could gather around like 5 minutes of what is worth listening to, the rest is just expendable as 1000s of the 80's musical productions.

**2 "lame and forgettable" PA stars.

GTR was one of the first records I bought. I was 15, and I knew only by name who the Genesis were (and I did not know who the Yes were). I was drawn to the "When the Heart Rules the Mind" video. That song excites me for the epic melody, the powerful singing, the guitar solo. And yet it is a song that I consider memorable (vote 8,5). I discovered reading a music magazine that GTR meant guitar and that the two founders of the band (and authors of the songs) were two great guitarists. Throughout the 1986 I devoured that record. Actually the other songs I liked a lot less, but I could still find some very interesting pieces for the variety of sounds and musical genres. Over the years, on my advice, some musicians of my small town (a drummer, a guitarist) listened to the record and they said to me to pay attention to the bad sound of the bass (P. Spalding) and of the electronic drums (J. Mover) , perhaps present in all the songs (I think except my favorite). They also made me notice how Max Bacon had a beautiful and powerful voice, but tended to overdo it, to shout too loudly. So, my evaluation of GTR lowered.

Anyway, the two Steves, on synthesizer or guitar, in the prog-pop hit of the Lp, are wonderful. The melody of "When The Heart Rules the Mind" is clear and very inspired, and the progression is engaging. Even the second track, (The Hunter, vote 8), more acoustic, written by the producer Jeff Downes, is very good. It flows like a river, spountanously, without a problem, and reach some epic moments when the voice of Bacon sings "Survives".

With "Here i Wait" comes the problems (vote 7). The sound of the electric drums is horrible, but the refrain and the rhythm are good. "Sketches in the Sun" (vote 7,5) is a classic piece, by Steve Howe, where there are the guitar and the synthesizer. It is a pleasure to listen to the crystalline and symphonic sound of Howe's guitar. Side A closes with "Jekyll and Hyde" whose text was written by Bacon. The song is too much light and repetitive (vote 6,5).

Side B opens with "You Can Still Get Through" (vote 7): characterized by the sound of the synth, tries to touch an epic peak, but it doesn't reach it. It remains an atmospheric song, which has the advantage of changing the sound and the arrangements. "Reach Out (Never Say No) has a good rhythm (it was co-written by Spalding), but, again, it would need a good drum and bass sound, instead... The instrumental code could be very good with brave drummer and bassist, instead... Finally arrived the guitar oriented "Toe The Line", an acoustic ballad with an epic climax (vote 8+). "Hackett to Bits" is an instrumental tour de force. So much Howe wrote a classic song, as Hackett wrote an hardrock song. Very sustained rhythm, inspired and engaging song (vote 7,5/8). After this instrumental rock song, starts a new instrumental song, an acoustic ballad, led by the guitar that then, suddenly, become the last song, "Imagining" (cowritten by Mover). The acostic beginning, conducted by the acoustic guitar acts like an intro for the last song, a very pumped, forced, repetitive poprock song (vote 6+), the lowest point of the album.

GTR is a record that contains good compositional cues and good melodies. It is ruined by the bad production of Geoff Downes, and by the sound of the rhythm section, which presents two musicians (Spalding and Mover) who are not at all the height of Steve Hackett and Steve Howe. The potential of these two progrock genes remains therefore only partially expressed, because the sound of their Gibsons is not at the center of the album, and the melodies are entrusted to a gifted but unrefined singer, Max Bacon. GTR is therefore loved, despite the sound, for the melodies and the presence of "the two Steve of prog".

Medium quality of the songs: 7,35. Vote album: 7,5. Three stars.

Review Nº 227

'GTR' is the eponymous debut studio album of GTR and was released in 1986. It's the sole official studio album released by the short lived super group GTR. The group was founded by the ex-Genesis' guitarist Steve Hackett and then ex-Yes and ex-Asia's guitarist Steve Howe. The group lasted for two years and made two albums, a studio and a live album, and disbanded in 1987. Curiously, Hackett has subsequently been strongly critical of this musical project.

The band's name, anecdotally, comes from the marking on the studio mixing console that indicates the guitar volume control. In comparison to the two leaders' earlier works within progressive rock, GTR's work followed on an album with a more oriented rock format. One of the central ideas for GTR, as a project, was an attempt to create a fully fleshed contemporary band that sound without the use of keyboards and synthesizers. Instead, Hackett and Howe's guitars were outfitted with Roland guitar synthesizers. All the synthesizer sounds on the album was created using this method.

The line up on the album is Max Bacon (vocals), Steve Hackett (vocals, guitars, guitar synthesizer and bass), Steve Howe (vocals, guitars and guitar synthesizers), Phil Spalding (vocals and bass guitar) and Jonathan Mover (drums and percussion).

'GTR' has ten tracks. The first track 'When The Heart Rules The Mind' written by Hackett and Howe is one of the better tracks on the album. Max Bacon is at his best with his voice similar to Dennis DeYoung of Styx and with Hackett and Howe contributing with their customary guitar work duets. It was the first single of the album. The second track 'The Hunter' written by Downes is a track with nothing of progressive on it. The track is saving by those fleeting guitar moments especially Hackett's guitar ending and Phil Spalding's bass playing. This was the second single of the album. The third track 'Here I Wait' written by Hackett and Howe represents a complete contrast to the previous track with its heavy guitar sound. The duet between Hackett and Howe is excellent and a relief and it remind us that these guys can really play when they want to. The fourth track 'Sketches In The Sun' written by Howe is the first instrumental on the album and is Howe's showcase. This is one of the few reasons why we should buy this album. It has one of the best solo performances made by him. This short instrumental track shows that both could have offered something better to this album. The fifth track 'Jekyll And Hyde' written by Hackett, Howe and Bacon see the band returning to the same style of the first tracks of the album. Once again it has a whole load of synthesizers and guitars with a sound very much like the sound of Yes created when Howe left the band. The sixth track 'You Can Still Get Through' written by Hackett and Howe is possibly one of the worse tracks on the album. Once again we have the eighties keyboard sound and it seems that the band have run out of ideas. The seventh track 'Reach Out (Never Say No)' written by Hackett, Howe and Spalding is a track dominated by the guitars. Fortunately the guitar work manages to save this track from becoming another run to a typical AOR track. The eighth track 'Toe The Line' written by Hackett and Howe is a complete different story and it was primarily written by Howe. This is a good track with a nice acoustic guitar work with some delightful guitar licks, making of it one of the better numbers of the album. The ninth track 'Hackett To Bits' written by Hackett can clearly be identified as a track in the Hackett's back catalogue. This isn't a new piece of music but only a revisit of an original version of their album 'Please Don't Touch'. It seems that Hackett was very reluctant to include new material of his own on the album. The tenth and last track 'Imagining' written by Hackett, Howe and Mover is an excellent track and we may say that this is one of the tracks that save the album. This is one of the few rare moments on the album where we can hear real progressive rock music. The acoustic guitar work is a delight while the percussion and the vocals blend in well making this track are one of the few that can be heard without sounding to much outdated.

Conclusion: One of my last reviews on Progarchives was 'Squackett', the other album with a partnership with Genesis and Yes. In reality we can't compare these two albums. Have these two albums the same quality level? No. 'Squackett' is much better than 'GTR' is. Still, we must note that both albums were released in completely different times. Probably the worst thing to 'GTR' was its release in the 80's, those troubled times for progressive rock music. In my humble opinion, basically 'GTR' can be described as a fairly decent AOR album. It has five tracks that save the album 'When The Hurt Rules The Mind', 'Sketches In The Sun', 'Toe The Line', 'Hackett To Bits' and 'Imagining'. The main problem with it is that it was and still is a truly disappointment to all progressive rock fans who felt that the collaboration between Steve Hackett and Steve Howe, considered two of the best and most respected musicians in the progressive music, could possibly lead to a classical 70's progressive rock album. The fact these two guitar legends also succumbed, like so many others, to the whims of the music industry shows the sad state of affairs the music is.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)