STEVE HACKETT : GENESIS REVISITED - LIVE AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL

STEVE HACKETT : GENESIS REVISITED : LIVE AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL

Dance On A Volcano
Dancing With The Moonlit Knight
Fly On A Windshield
Broadway Melody Of 1974
Carpet Crawlers (with Ray Wilson)
The Return Of The Giant Hogweed (with Roine Stolt)
The Musical Box
Horizons
Unquiet Slumbers For The Sleepers
In That Quiet Earth
Afterglow
I Know What I Like (with Ray Wilson)
Firth Of Fifth (with John Wetton)
Ripples (with Amanda Lehmann)
The Fountain Of Salmacis
Supper's Ready
Watcher Of The Skies
Los Endos

Label : Inside Out Music

Venue : Royal Albert Hall, London, UK

Recording Date : October 24, 2013

Release Date : July 8, 2014

Length : 135 minutes

NTSC : 16:9

Review (ProgWereld) : Er zijn talloze tribute-bands die het werk van Genesis levend houden, maar wat is er nu mooier dan de meesters zelf aan het werk te zien? Helaas ziet het ernaar uit dat Genesis definitief met pensioen is. Heel Genesis? Nee! Eén man blijft dapper weerstand bieden aan de tand des tijds. Al een paar jaar vertolkt hij met veel succes het oudere Genesis-werk waaraan hij zelf in grote mate heeft bijgedragen. Want als er een ding opvalt aan deze "Genesis Revisited"-serie dan is het hoe groot eigenlijk de stempel was die Hackett in zijn tijd op de muziek drukte. Ik vraag me wel af of Hackett het 'Revisited'-concept nu niet teveel aan het uitmelken is. Na "Genesis Revisited" uit 1996, en "Genesis Revisited II" uit 2012, plus de live-registratie "Genesis Revisited: Live At Hammersmith", is er nu alweer een tweede live-uitvoering, opgenomen in de Royal Albert Hall, no less. Onvermijdelijk dringt de vraag zich op wat dit album dan nog toevoegt. Op beide albums staan de usual suspects als Supper's Ready, The Musical Box en Afterglow. In totaal verschillen ze in vijf nummers. Of dat voldoende is om ze beide aan te schaffen, moet iedereen vooral voor zichzelf bepalen. Heb je "Hammersmith" gemist, dan kun je deze overwegen, omdat hiervan ook een Blu-ray versie verschijnt. En verder maakt het allemaal niet veel uit. Al die nummers van de"oude" Genesis zijn stuk voor stuk meesterwerken. Niet voor niets dat de Genesis-coverbands nooit een versie van pak em beet Land Of Confusion spelen, grote hit of niet. Hackett heeft inmiddels een puike band om zich heen verzameld. Een indrukwekkende dienende rol voor Rob Townsend, die op de juiste momenten de 'tweede gitaarpartij' invult met de sopraansax, of de fluitpartijen van Peter Gabriel foutloos neerlegt. Een glansrol is er voor Gary O'Toole, die net doet alsof al die fabuleuze drumpartijen van Phil Collins niets voorstelden en naast achtergrondzang hier en daar zelfs lead vocals doet. Dat doet hij bijvoorbeeld op Broadway Melody of 1974, met bepaald geen simpele drumpartij onder de lead-zang. Roger King doet precies wat we van Tony Banks ook zouden verwachten: hij speelt zijn partijen prima, maar is verder een wat kleurloze figuur. Lee Pomeroy is een uitstekend bassist, die opvallend genoeg linkshandig is, maar zijn gitaar gewoon heeft omgedraaid, met de lage E-snaar dus onderaan. Lead-zanger Nad Sylvan kan mij niet bekoren. Hij is het net niet, hoewel zijn stem best wel wat weg heeft van die van Gabriel, maar ik vind zijn maniertjes niet prettig om naar te kijken. En zijn uitspraak is af en toe wat houterig, wat te maken zal hebben met zijn Zweedse achtergrond. De nummers spreken voor zich en worden 'volgens het inmiddels beproefde Genesis Revisited-concept' van voor tot achter gespeeld zoals ze ooit op de plaat zijn gezet. Gek is dat: dertig jaar geleden verwachtte je dat Genesis de nummers als medleys achter elkaar plakte met fantastische overgangen ertussen, nu klappen we onze handen lam als ze er niets aan veranderen. Maar dat is kennelijk wat we willen: nostalgie. De locatie is natuurlijk wel bijzonder. De prestigieuze Royal Albert Hall is het domein van de grote klassieke werken en de Last Night Of The Proms. Ik heb altijd al in de Albert Pub willen spelen, grapt Hackett. En: welkom bij de Last Night Of The Prog. Natuurlijk is het terecht dat dit 'modern klassieke' werk inmiddels zijn weg naar de concertzalen heeft gevonden. Maar het doet toch een beetje vreemd en klinisch aan, de mensen in de zaal en op de enorme balkons te zien zitten. Hoe dan ook, Steve slaat zich met zijn vrienden door een prima set Genesis-werk met alle bekende hoogtepunten (The Musical Box, I Know What I Like, Supper's Ready) en minder vaak gespeelde (Fountain Of Salmacis, Watcher Of The Skies). Naast Ray Wilson (Carpet Crawlers, I Know What I Like), en Amanda Lehmann (Ripples), zijn er ook gastrollen voor John Wetton op Firth Of Fifth en Roine Stolt op The Return Of The Giant Hogweed. Zoals gezegd: heb je"Hammersmith", dan moet je zelf bepalen of je die vijf andere nummers voldoende vindt voor de aanschaf van dit album. Anders is dit een leuke instapper in de Genesis Revisited-serie, maar ga dan voor de Blu-ray.

Concert Review (Genesis News) : It was not just my dream of seeing a show at the Royal Albert Hall, London, that came true, but also Steve Hackett's own dream of playing there - as he has never played there before, and in a way so have the dreams of his band also been fulfilled. On October 24, 2013 Steve Hackett brought his Genesis Revisited II show to the Albert Hall. Band1 Steve Hackett with Ray WilsonYou could see that this would be an extraordinary evening. As far as I know the show was sold out, but there was a long queue at the box office that would not diminish for quite a while. Did all these people want to pick up their tickets? Not quite, they were all queuing to pick up their after-show passes. Steve Hackett and his musicians were very liberal in handing those out. In the end so many people turned up that they had to rent a larger room for the after-show party on short notice. Fortunately that is not a problem at the Royal Albert Hall. So I joined the queue because the Hacketts had promised passes for the after-show party and for taking photos. Finally the queue moved forwards and I received my passes. The seat in the fourth row from the stage was something I had procured in the regular manner months before. Armando GalloBefore I took my seat I went to the bar to have a drink. As I sat down there Armando Gallo, the legendary Genesis photographer, arrived. I had met him before at a Genesis fan convention in Guildford in 1999. He told me that he had been at the two Gabriel shows in London earlier the week and taken some 3,000 photos. Then he took out his iPad and showed me the newest app he was working on. It accompanies the So boxset, shows all the tracks and videos and photos from the boxset and additional exclusive content. It is interactive, too. In one place there is Gabriel's So face from the album cover but without the proper face. You can use the iPad camera to take a photo of yours that shows up in this frame; of course, you can save it, too. Armando had met Gabriel at the London shows and taken a photo of him in this app. He showed me a grinning Gabriel of today in the face of the Gabriel of 1986 - I do hope this particular montage is used in the final version to show what this app has to offer! Then it was time for us to take our seats. If you have a seat in near the front you will have to climb up a set of stairs towards the interior of the venue, which makes the entry even more impressive, and still more so if it is your first time there. From my seat I could see the gigantic PA right above me and the impressive round of the venue behind me. First there was an opening act. Alan Reed (ex Pallas) played some of his own songs on the acoustic guitar. A few minutes later the proper show began. It is basically the same show as the German shows in May, albeit with a few changes in the set and more animations on the screens. The October shows kicked off with Dance On A Volcano instead of Watcher Of The Skies, which became the first encore. The Return Of The Giant Hogweed and Fountain Of Salmacis were added. The special thing about this show was not just the venue but also the guests onstage. Ray Wilson was the first as he sang Carpet Crawlers. For Steve's shows he had to sing in the original key, which one could hear brought him to his vocal limits. This time around he sounded better, though, clearer and more natural. Later he told me he had found a better way to hit the high notes; one could really hear that. Amanda LehmanRay was followed straightaway by the second guest, Roine Stolt. The head of the Flower Kings from Sweden added his typical guitar sound to The Return Of The Giant Hogweed. Ray then returned for I Know What I Like, which he shared with Nad. John Wetton joined the band for Firth Of Fifth; it was his second guest performance on this tour, for Afterglow, as can be heard on the Live At Hammersmith DVD. He did a good job on Firth Of Fifth, though I suspect he might be more comfortable on bass. The next guest was Steve's sister-in-law Amanda Lehmann. She sang Ripples, a song that did not belong to the regular set. While she sang in a slightly rougher voice on the album, her vocals at this show were clear and bright throughout. The audience were thrilled and there was lots of applause. The lightshow was excellent, too. It is not only in the way the shine into the audience from the stage, but also in the way they tint everything all around in different colours. I was also happy to see that the impressive organ behind the stage had not been covered, as has been known to happen for other shows. Ronie StoltThough the show ended with Los Endos the numerous holder of an after-show pass went into one of the bars int he basement. It was very crowded there so you had only a few moments to talk with other people. Apart from Steve's mother, who apparently attends all his London shows, Nad's father was there, too, and I also met Steve's brother John and his wife. I guess there were more than 100 people there. For some reason the bar closed after less than an hour and the staff began to usher us out soon after. Thus a fantastic evening ended shortly before midnight. It was a definite highpoint of the Genesis Revisited II tour, not just because of the concert but also because of the venue and the people one may see there - which probably happens only in London. The trip to London was very worth it, with the two Gabriel shows and this big one.