STEVE HACKETT : SELLING ENGLAND BY THE POUND & SPECTRAL MORNINGS : LIVE AT HAMMERSMITH

STEVE HACKETT : SELLING ENGLAND BY THE POUND & SPECTRAL MORNINGS : LIVE AT HAMMERSMITH

Disc One (63:18)

Intro
Every Day
Under The Eye Of The Sun
Fallen Walls And Pedestals
Beasts In Our Time
The Virgin And The Gypsy
Tigermoth
Spectral Mornings
The Red Flower Of Tai Chi Blooms Everywhere
Clocks - The Angel Of Mons
Dancing With The Moonlit Knight
I Know What I Like

Disc Two (63:56)

Firth Of Fifth
More Fool Me
The Battle Of Epping Forest
After The Ordeal
The Cinema Show
Aisle Of Plenty
Déja Vu
Dance On A Volcano
Los Endos

Label : Inside Out Music

Venue : Hammersmith Apollo, London, UK

Recording Date : November 29, 2019

Release Date : September 25, 2020

Release information : In November 2019, at a sold-out show in London's Hammersmith Apollo, Steve Hackett performed the legendary Genesis album "Selling England by the Pound" in its entirety. Steve and his band also played tracks from "Spectral Mornings" (celebrating its 40th anniversary), "At the Edge of Light" and "A Trick of the Tail".

Review (ProgArchives) : First a word of warning: "Spectral Mornings", third and possibly best solo studio album by Mr. Hackett, is not played entirely here. Even so, the essential tracks are, and they blend extraordinarily well with materials from his latest, "At The Edge Of Light". After the opening with Steve's live staple Every Day, three compositions from this album show the virtues that have become usual for him: infinite band ductility, amazing guitar craftmanship, and those vocal harmonies so reminiscing of Yes & Steve Howe (listen and compare to Howe's "Love is"). After that, follows the celebration of "Spectral Mornings" where, if I had to choose a cenital point, shines brightly the eponymous track, with a tonal quality closer than ever to the instrumental suite Unquiet Slumbers / In That Quiet Earth, from Genesis' "Wind & Wuthering". Entering the Genesis set, Mr. Nad Sylvan takes the led vocal, doing as always a fine job of it, but the band's interplay cease to be as tight & concerned with the originals as in the previous part, making room to some participation of the audience as well, which is good if you are there, but not so much on a recording. Of course, the focal point in the celebration of "Selling England..." is the missing composition Déjà Vu, left aside when the original album was put together. To be fair, this has been played live (and released) before. I'm not meaning that its inclusion here wasn't worthy, on the contrary, I find it very enjoyable. The ending is also the usual in Steve's concerts: Dance On A Volcano & Los Endos, taken from Genesis' "A Trick Of The Tai", their first studio album with Phil Collins on vocals.

Review (Spirit.Rocks) : Selling England By The Pound & Spectral Mornings: Live At Hammersmith is from Steve Hackett's critically acclaimed 2019 UK tour. The concert was recorded at the Hammersmith Eventim Apollo, the final night of an emphatically successful tour. Steve Hackett was joined by his superb touring band of Roger King (keyboards), Jonas Reingold (bass), Rob Townsend (saxes/flutes), Craig Blundell (drums and percussion) with Nad Sylvan on vocals, along with special guests for this performance, Steve's brother John Hackett on flute and Amanda Lehmann on guitar and vocals. This was a very special tour for Steve Hackett as it brought together his favourite album from his time as guitarist with Genesis - Selling England By The Pound - which Steve and his band performed live in its entirety for the first time, along with selected tracks from Steve's personal favourite album from his extensive solo career, Spectral Mornings, together with tracks from his acclaimed 2019 release At The Edge Of Light. The quality on display on this release is quite astonishing. You might expect the sound quality on a contemporary release to be pristine, and it certainly is that. But the musicianship from Steve and his band possibly eclipses all others at the moment. Steve himself is on brilliant form with his almost typically easy style, which kind of disguises his massive efforts. He is obviously loving what's going on around him! The band themselves are not eclipsed by the main man. They are all supreme musicians in their own right who all throughout the concert give of their best. Roger Kings proves once again what a consummate musician he is. Nad Sylvan is a charismatic performer who has a great range that completely suits the music and lifts it to somewhere special. Rob Townshend on saxes and flutes has great ability and tone. Some of his mirroring of Roger King, for example on The Cinema Show, is quite spine tingling. He manages to bring a liveliness to music that is already quite moving. The new men on the tour are drummer Craig Blundell and bassist Jonas Reingold. They work together as a powerful and rocking unit, but individually they are superb. The drumming is not just a faithful rendition on the studio music but is full of personality and colour. The drum solo at the closing of Clocks could come across as a ham-fisted clatter-bang affair, but here it remains musical and apposite. Jonas Reingold is one of the most under-rated bassists around. His work here is quite phenomenal, with some superlative bass playing and twelve-string work. He plays exceptionally well throughout, but his tone and timing on tracks like Los Endos is dazzling. Guests John Hackett and Amanda Lehmann bring their distinctive flavours to the table and are as excellent as ever. The songs are quite something else of course. It is great to hear The Virgin And The Gypsy getting a first airing for some years on the tour and this version turns out to be quite beautiful. Every Day is always a moving piece, while Clocks, Spectral Mornings, and the more recent Under The Eye Of The Sun and Fallen Walls And Pedestals here are quite emotive. Many of the audience though, will have been drawn to the prospect of hearing Selling England By The Pound in full. They wouldn't have been disappointed either. These renditions are beautifully conceived and played with great verve. The band draws out the essence of the pieces. I Know What I Like is given its joyful feel, The Cinema Show is exciting, Firth Of Fifth powerful but emotional. But the songs are not necessarily presented as done-in-the-studio, but are extended and extemporized. I Know What I Like becomes quite jazzy and jaunty and Los Endos incorporates themes from Steve's own pieces such as Slogans. Also played was Déja Vu, a tune originally written by Peter Gabriel and later finished by Steve, that was originally planned for the Selling England By The Pound album but in the end unused and not completed at the time. All in all, this is an excellent package. It could have been an evening of just pure nostalgia, but Steve and his excellent band of fellow musicians prove that there is vitality in these songs still. They still sound fresh and just as relevant as when they were when penned. The crowd are obviously moved and excited. Beyond the nostalgia they were transported to who knows where. Selling England By The Pound & Spectral Mornings: Live at Hammersmith is released on 25th September, through InsideOut Music in several formats: Limited Edition Deluxe 2CD+Blu-ray+DVD with Artbook; 2CD+Blu-ray Digipak; 2CD+DVD Multibox; Limited Edition 4LP+2CD Box Set and Digital album.

Review (Echoes & Dust) : "Can you light a fire in Winter's face?/Or say why a life has gone to waste?/Pleasure Island was an overcrowded place." Recorded last year to a sold-out crowd at the Hammersmith Eventim Apollo which was the final night of the Genesis Revisited tour on November 29th, Steve Hackett brings everything to a standstill on this 2-CD live set from the InsideOut label. And after listening to the Hammersmith recordings, it is almost as if the flowers themselves are ready to bloomed. It was during that time frame he was promoting his 25th studio release At The Edge of Light. However this recording showcases Hackett at his best. Not only keeping the legacy of the original Genesis alive from 1971 to 1977 when he joined and departed, but to keep the flaming fires burn brighter than ever! The first and second act contains Spectral Mornings, At the Edge of Light, and the entirety of Selling England by the Pound. 'Under the Eye of the Sun' gives Jonas a chance to have his Rickenbacker bass to create these galloping sounds as he follows Craig Blundell's exercise while the vocals continue the search the trails inside the burning sphere's hot plasma. Elsewhere, Rob Townsend's sax fills the reverbing doom inside the Hammersmith as Steve gives him pointers to do these attack modes by eating its prey. 'Déjà Vu' was originally written during the sessions for the Selling England-era in 1973, but wasn't finished. But for Steve who brought the song back in 1996 with the original Genesis Revisited project, but with the live version here, it has given the audience's stamp of approval. Both Steve and Nad have given the warmth of resurrection for the unsung gem by bringing it towards the light at the end of the tunnel. 'The Virgin and the Gypsy' shows that Steve still has that melodic vocals that he brings by returning to the Spectral Mornings period as he plays beautifully with his rhythmic chords on his 12-string acoustic guitar while the band members work together as a team by taking the crowd on their spiritual journey with them. Both 'Fallen Walls and Pedestals' and 'Beast In Our Time' are swarming harder vibes to go into heavier territories that audiences are embarking into. You have the keyboards going into some of the string sections as it goes into the middle-eastern areas of India before entering the classical folk structures of a waltz. But then the cheers and clocks ticking with insanity on 'Clocks - The Angel of Moth' gives the Moog and mellotron into this paranoia state for Roger King by waiting for the right moment to erupt at any second as Hackett goes bat-shit crazy as he makes his guitar go into the towns of arpeggios. Blundell's tidal-wave drumming swings into action as Steve lets him come forward by making his instrument intense. And it is pretty damn good. He keeps marching on before they end into a wildly crescendo end. With 'Firth of Fifth' it's more than just an incredible 9-minute epic, but with some great improvisations done by Rob Townsend. He not only adds a little touch to the piece, but uses the sax instead of the flute. He's not trying to re-write history, but he wants to add that twist of the lemon flavors by adding some Crimson-sque vibes in his midsection segment of the classic composition. It really has taken a new leap forwards for the crowd to clap along to the piano, bass drum, synths, and Steve's tapping textures to keep the golden-era of Genesis alive and well. Speaking of midsections, on 'I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)' the band members walking into a BeBop carousel-jazz sequence thanks to Townsend's improvisation as he and King's organ walk into Monk's territory. They're having a ball dueling it out by racing towards the finish line as they are continuing more and more for Hackett reaching those frets like crazy. Now with Nad Sylvan, I didn't know what to think of his singing. I had no idea if it clicked with my ears or not. He's been around making music since the 1970s between both the punk and progressive rock scene, Unifaun, Agents of Mercy, and his solo albums, I was really impressed with his arrangements on what he's done on Live at Hammersmith. With both Gabriel and Collins' arrangements from 'Dancing with the Moonlit Knight', the folky struggle to carry on with 'More Fool Me', and the thunderstorm killer 'Dance on a Volcano', he hit it out of the ball park with them. Since joining with Steve Hackett's Genesis Revisited in 2012, he makes sure that the flaming fires doesn't hit the salty waters to be burned out. 'Tigermoth' feels like as if you're inside a dream. And in there, it becomes mysterious, surreal, and very dangerous. You have these church organs, mellotron choirs, with crying guitars that delve into an eerie lullaby as 'The Battle of Epping Forest' goes into the march of the battlefields between the rival gang leaders. You can tell Jonas is channeling Mike Rutherford's double-neck guitars before the catchy and brutal scenarios take you into the warzone as Rob uses his sax to play the synth riff sections that Tony Banks had done before. Nad's theatrical movements add the intensity before going into this Victorian steampunk time machine and heading back into the zone once more to find who will own the land of the forest. Live at Hammersmith is an adventurous live journey. I have to say that Steve has kept it going. This was something I wasn't quite sure on the Genesis Revisited project, but I've always wanted to check out after hearing Genesis Revisited II back in 2012 when I was in College. And I thought it was pretty good, and then I had completely forgotten about it. Now here, this was a very interesting recording. And it's not just blown away, but that Steve Hackett has shown no sign of slowing down. So prepare for your front-row ticket to be at the Hammersmith. Okay, where's my Tesco shopping list for English Ribs of beef cut down to 47p lb and Table jelly's at 4p each? I knew I had it somewhere for a giant grocery shopping list to make a hot and delicious meal tonight.