GENESIS REVISITED: LIVE AT HAMMERSMITH

It is difficult to resist hearing a band that plays a tribute to one of your favorite bands, like Genesis, especially when it's their best music in the 70's. We have here only songs of the period were Hackett was in the band, including the beautiful 'Shadow of the Hierophant', who was co-written with Mike Rutherford during the rehearsal of the Foxtrott sessions. Hackett was accompanied by some guests musicians a part from his band. Nad Sylvan sings the majority of the songs, some maybe will be disturb by his mannerism, trying to match Gabriel's voice, but Hackett wanted someone flamboyant, he surely got it. But we can make this criticism to all the singers involved because you can't replace Peter Gabriel voice.

The interpretation of the songs is faithful to the originals, with some revisited and corrected solos, but also with the addition of the saxophone of Rob Townsend, when we can hear him clearly. One thing disturbed me during this concert; the drum sound of Gary O'Toole. The drums were sounding too heavy and noisy, a bit like the guy had cheap drums. I don't know if it would have made a difference if the sound engineer had put his sound down. More impressive is Lee Pomeroy who is a left handed bassist and guitar player that plays on right handed instruments! The keyboards of Roger King recreate with fidelity the sound of those whom we have been used to hear with Tony Banks in the 70's. Steve Hackett is obviously the musician that still characterized with the more accuracy the Genesis sound, because he was in the band with some of the same instruments.

The picture quality is excellent and the 5.1 surround sound is full, not only for ambiance. The visuals are impressive with a nice light show and projections on LD screens. While I had a good time listening to my favorite music of the 70's, you can't stop thinking in this kind of project at the idea that it's only a recreation of music that is owned by other artists. The project of Nick D'Virgilio with "The Lamb Lies down on Broadway" was more satisfying, because he was bringing a little bit more in the music with more new arrangements and instruments. Still, plenty of Genesis fans will want to take a look at this concert, because it's a chance to see our favorite old music with the new technology.

A second Seconds Out

Here's yet another strong live album from Steve Hackett, this time focusing (almost) exclusively on material that he recorded with Genesis. All of the Genesis albums on which Hackett participated, from 1971's Nursery Cryme to 1976's Wind And Wuthering, are represented in the set list. This period is widely considered as the best by fans of progressive Rock, and every one of these albums is a classic of the genre. This period in the band's history culminated with the excellent live album Seconds Out which was released in 1977 and became the final Genesis recording to feature Hackett before he went his own special way (and then there were three). About half of the songs that were featured on Seconds Out are revisited here, including (full versions of) The Musical Box, Supper's Ready, I Know What I Like, Firth Of Fifth, Dance On A Volcano, Los Endos, and Afterglow. The latter is here sung by a guesting John Wetton and is immediately preceded by Unquiet Slumbers For The Sleepers and In That Quiet Earth just like on the studio album Wind And Wuthering.

Other classic songs being performed are Watcher Of The Skies, Dancing With The Moonlit Knight, Entangled, and Blood On The Rooftops. A somewhat surprising, but indeed excellent, choice is Eleventh Earl Of Mar, a song that I don't think has been featured on any Genesis or Steve Hackett live album before. I for one am very happy to see so many selections from the Wind And Wuthering album, which belongs to my top three Genesis albums together with A Trick Of The Tail and Selling England By The Pound. A surprising omission is Horizons, a tune that is practically synonymous with Hackett's name. The only non-Genesis song is Shadow of the Hierophant which originally appeared on Hackett's solo debut album Voyage Of The Acolyte.

Accept for the few songs being handled by guest stars, and Blood On The Rooftops which is sung by Hackett's drummer Gary O'Toole, I really don't know who is doing the lead vocals here. But whoever it is he has a Peter Gabriel/Phil Collins type voice and is clearly up to the task. The audience joins in on suitable occasions. Hackett himself, on the other hand, remains silent throughout this time (except the spoken introductions).

A reunion of the classic line-up of Genesis featuring Hackett is never going to happen, this is as close as it will get. So, if you are a fan of classic Genesis by all means get this one. But don't miss out on Steve's other live releases, most of which feature a judicious mix of Genesis tunes and his best solo material. Hackett has a simply amazing live catalogue with a stunning amount of excellent audio and video releases, (the present one apparently being available on both CD(s) and DVD(s) in a single package, but I have only heard the audio discs on Spotify). My favourite Hackett live releases are The Tokyo Tapes, Somewhere In South America, and Once Above A Time, all of which I own on DVD.

Was there ever a band quite like Genesis? Through their ranks have been some of the most commercially acclaimed (Phil Collins, Mike & The Mechanics, Peter Gabriel) and critically acclaimed (Anthony Phillips, Tony Banks, Daryl Stuermer) artists of the last 40 years. But, to my ears there is one who stands head and shoulders above all these, Steve Hackett. Since leaving Genesis he has pursued many different styles, including classical, and has been in the odd 'supergroup' (GTR, Squackett) as well. His albums are always, without fail, finely crafted pieces of work and always immensely enjoyable. Back in 1996 he decided to revisit some of the Genesis songs he felt most close to, then repeated the exercise last year and toured with a show guaranteed to make any diehard Genesis fan drool at the mouth.

To put some things into context. Steve was with Genesis from 1971 to 1976, recording four studio albums with Peter and two with Phil. From those six (plus one solo song, which was co- written with Mike Rutherford so can justifiably be included) he has produced a live album of 150 minutes in length. Back in 2007 Genesis reformed and performed to massive audiences throughout Europe, but of the set they produced on their 'Live Over Europe' album only two complete songs are the same as here. Genesis moved on when Phil took over lead vocals, and again when they were reduced to just three in the studio, and many fans talk about the Gabriel period or the Collins period being their particular favourite. Me, I'll say that the Hackett period is the one that suits me best thanks very much. Of all Genesis albums recorded with Phil on vocals the first three are easily the best, and I'm not a massive fan of the albums pre- Steve (although 'The Knife' is and always will be an absolute classic).

Listening to this album is at first a blast from the past, as I spent my formative years listening to these songs, but then it turns into something far much more. Musically Genesis has always been controlled by Tony Banks who is an incredible musician (and very under-rated), but although he is also a guitarist he is first and foremost a keyboard player so the arrangements have always put the guitars somewhat in the shade. Now we have classic songs (mostly forty years old remember) given new life by a guitarist in control of his own band, with the additional confidence of always being on the road and proving himself time and again. He has mostly stayed very true to the originals, but when he has the opportunity to crank his guitar out he certainly does. 'The Musical Box' may start gently, but it rips into a version that gives the song much more life and drama than one could ever imagine from the original. Also of particular note is the ending of 'Shadow of the Hierophant' which is intense, powerful, moving and compelling all at the same time.

This album is what I always refer to as a review killer as once it hits the player all I want to do is hit 'repeat' and it takes concerted effort to move on to something else. If I had to ask for one song that isn't on this set it would probably be 'Squonk' but that is picking straws as we have everything else from 'Supper's Ready' (all 27 minutes of it) to 'Eleventh Earl of Mar' from the criminally overlooked 'Wind & Wuthering'. I could play this album all day, every day, and just wished that I had been able to see this performed. But as I live on the wrong side of the world I was unable to do so, so I will just have to keep playing this instead. Superb.

The DVD is better. After putting together the oh-so-enjoyable Genesis Revisted II, it was inevitable that a lengthy tour would follow with a lengthy live album and DVD, and Hackett obliged by putting out a 3-CD+2-DVD set of the band's 2013 show at the Hammersmith Apollo. The DVD (of the show; the second DVD is just some extras) is a blast; it's fascinating to watch Hackett and his small army work so hard to make these faithful-but-tweaked renditions come alive. Nad Sylvan (who sang "Chamber of 32 Doors," "The Musical Box" and "Eleventh Earl of Mar" on GRII) isn't a perfect stand-in for Gabriel, of course, but he's a reasonable Gabriel/Collins hybrid and he does well enough on the whole. Plus, it's a little oversimplified to just call him the vocalist; in the first half of the show, there's a stretch of nearly an hour in which the only song that features him on vocals is "The Musical Box" (the others in the stretch are "Fly on a Windshield/Broadway Melody of 1974," "The Lamia," "Shadow of the Hierophant," "Blood on the Rooftops," and the "Unquiet Slumbers for the Sleepers .../...In That Quiet Earth/Afterglow" medley, which brings out John Wetton). As far as song selection, even a runtime of more than 2.5 hours will inevitably leave out some potentially great inclusions, but on the whole there's a good selection of songs from GRII plus faithful (to the originals) renditions of some tracks that had made it onto the original Genesis Revisited. I regretfully had to miss this tour when it came near Chicago (I only found out about it the day before and there was no way to make the logistics work), and I'm very happy to have this document as a reasonable proxy of what I missed.

As a live album, though, there are different standards to apply, and thus there are some nits to pick that I could overlook with the DVD. I feel like somewhat of an ingrate to note such a thing, but these are the third live renditions in six years (courtesy of the second disc of Out of the Tunnel's Mouth and Live Rails) of "Blood on the Rooftops," "Fly on the Windshield/Broadway Melody of 1974" and "Firth of Fifth," and while I enjoy them plenty they're done pretty much identically to before (except that Sylan sings "Firth of Fifth" here whereas O'Toole had sung it previously). This is also the second rendition of "Los Endos" in four years (Live Rails again), and it's done pretty much identically to before, aside from the way that the "Moonlit Knight" excerpt from before is swapped out (it's unnecessary given that a full version of that song occurs earlier in the show) for an excerpt from "Slogans" (I do take some enjoyment at the fact that Hackett made sure to include a little bit of his non-Genesis solo material in his show, even though much of his audience had probably never heard a lick of it). That said, there is a really nice touch near the end of having Sylvan come back to sing the "Supper's Ready" reprise from the end of the original studio version. The material that appeared on GRII is essentially done here in a manner identical to how it was done on that album, and the one substantial change (using a single lead vocalist on "Supper's Ready" rather than the lineup used on the GRII version) doesn't strike me as an improvement (I like Sylvan plenty, but being the sole vocalist on a version of "Supper's Ready" is a terrific responsibility, and I'm not sure he totally lives up to it). It was a nice touch to open with "Watcher of the Skies," yes, and including "I Know What I Like" and "Dance on a Volcano" (again, close to the original versions, not the novelty versions of GR) helps to fill out the show well, but they don't feel like the most adventurous of choices.

For all of this, though, I feel like I'm somewhat missing the forest for the trees, and the forest is: "Holy cow, it's a Steve Hackett live album with all of this awesome Genesis stuff in 2013!!!" I mean, who would have thought that I'd be so happy to hear half of Wind and Wuthering done in a live setting at this late a date? Who would have thought that "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" or "The Lamia" or "Shadow of the Hierophant" or "Supper's Ready" would come back to the stage at this point with a prominent member of Genesis involved? And besides, Hackett tears it up; he'd always been skilled at adding little improvements to this material back when he'd been with Genesis, and this skill had only improved through time.

Overall, I enjoy this album a great deal when I listen to it, but I feel like I would value it more if GRII didn't already exist. A good comparison for this album, in my mind, is the Roger Waters live album In the Flesh that he put out in 2000, which documented a tour where he played a number of old Pink Floyd songs plus a sampling of his solo work (and which I would love if it weren't for the final song, which I dislike a great deal). Here's the thing, though: Waters hadn't just put out a corresponding album where he'd re-recorded a bunch of old Pink Floyd songs with his touring band, and thus the new renditions had a strong feeling of being necessary on some level. The renditions here are necessary in a way, yes, but with a big asterisk, and that's the main reason I can't rate this higher, even if part of me loves this album. Regardless, if you liked GRII, you'll almost certainly like this, and it's worth getting (especially since, again, the DVD of the same show comes with it).