GENESIS REVISITED: LIVE AT HAMMERSMITH

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.

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