| Steve Hackett |
|
| Born |
12 February 1950 in
 Pimlico, England |
| Genre(s) |
Progressive rock
Classical music
Pop
rock
Hard
rock |
| Affiliation(s) |
Quiet World (1970)
Genesis (1970–77)
GTR
(1986–87) |
| Label(s) |
Charisma, Camino |
| Notable guitars |
Gibson Les Paul
Fernandes Sustainer |
| Years active |
1970 – present |
| Official site |
stevehackett.com |
Stephen Richard Hackett (born 12
February 1950)
is a British
songwriter
and guitarist.
He gained prominence as a member of the British progressive
rock group Genesis, which he joined in
1970. Hackett remained with the band for eight albums before leaving in
1977 to pursue a solo career.
In 1986, Hackett co-founded the supergroup
GTR
with another progressive guitarist, Steve Howe of Yes
and Asia.
The group released a self-titled album that year, which peaked at #11
on the Billboard 200 in the United
States and spawned the Top 20 single "When the Heart Rules the Mind".
When Hackett left GTR in 1987, the group disbanded.
After leaving GTR, Hackett resumed his solo career and has
released albums and toured on a regular basis since. His body of work
has encompassed many styles, such as progressive rock, world
music, and classical. His playing has
influenced guitarists such as Alex Lifeson
and Brian
May.
|
Contents
- 1 Biography
- 1.1 Early
career
- 1.2 Genesis
- 1.3 Solo
career
- 2 Discography
- 3 Notes
- 4 References
- 5 External
links
|
Biography
Hackett was born in Pimlico, London and attended the Sloane Grammar
School, Chelsea.
He grew up having access to various musical instruments, such
as the recorder
and mouth
organ, but did not develop an interest in the guitar until the age of
twelve, when he started playing single notes. By fourteen, he was
learning chords
and experimenting with chord progressions, although he
never received any formal instruction. Hackett's earliest musical
influences were classical (Johann
Sebastian Bach) and opera
(Mario
Lanza). He has stated that his compositions are still influenced by
them.
Hackett also has cited numerous British blues artists as influences,
namely Danny Kirwan, Peter Green, and
various guitarists in John Mayall
& the Bluesbreakers.
Early career
Steve Hackett's earliest professional playing experience came
with two bands — Canterbury Glass and Sarabande — both of whom
performed rock
with progressive elements. His first
recording work came in 1970, as a member of Quiet
World, a band that included younger brother John Hackett on flute. The group
released one album, The Road, but Hackett departed
the group soon after.
Hackett, seeking a new band, placed an ad in Melody
Maker. The ad, in which Hackett stated he was
seeking musicians "determined to strive beyond existing stagnant music
forms," was spotted by Genesis vocalist Peter
Gabriel, who contacted Hackett. The band had recently lost
founding member Anthony Phillips, and was
performing with a temporary guitarist, Mick Barnard. After seeing
Genesis perform, Hackett auditioned for the group and joined in
December 1970.
Genesis
Hackett, who had very little on-stage playing experience when
he joined Genesis, had some initial difficulty performing with the
group. According to Phil Collins, at Hackett's first gig with the group
Collins had decided to see how many bottles of Newcastle Brown Ale he
could drink and still play the drums.
But he soon settled into his role, and his unique stage image (wearing
glasses and seated in a hunched position over his guitar) served as a
counter to the costumed theatrics of Gabriel.
Hackett's first recording with Genesis was Nursery
Cryme, released in November 1971. Hackett made
an immediate impact on the group's sound, as evidenced by his work on
songs such The Musical Box
and "The Return of the Giant Hogweed",
becoming one of the first guitarists to experiment with the tapping
technique normally attributed to Eddie Van Halen.
Although Nursery Cryme was not a
commercial success, 1972's album Foxtrot
was. Included on Foxtrot was the brief classical
acoustic solo "Horizons," which quickly became one of his signature
pieces.
Foxtrot began a trend of increasing
commercial popularity for Genesis. The group's 1973 effort, Selling England by the
Pound, was particularly successful. Hackett
showed continued and perfected use of the tapping technique as well as sweep
picking popularised in the 1980s by Yngwie
Malmsteen. Both these techniques can be heard on the solo to the
opening track Dancing with the
Moonlit Knight.
In 1975, Hackett became the first member of Genesis to release
a solo album when he issued Voyage
of the Acolyte. Assisting with the recording
were Hackett's Genesis bandmates, Phil
Collins and Mike Rutherford. Hackett
enjoyed the freedom he had when writing and recording the album, and
soon became disenchanted with the democratic approach to songwriting
Genesis employed.
Hackett's frustration increased as Genesis prepared to release
1977's Wind & Wuthering.
Hackett was insistent that more of his material be included on the
album, but was rebuffed.
"Blood on the Rooftops," which Hackett wrote with contributions from
Collins, never made it into the band's setlist, and his composition
"Please Don't Touch" was rejected completely. Another song, "Inside and
Out," was relegated to the Spot
the Pigeon EP. Hackett remained with Genesis
through the conclusion of the Wind & Wuthering
tour, but announced his departure on October 8, 1977, one week before the release of the
group's second live album, Seconds Out.
Reunions
Since Hackett's departure, the early '70s lineup of Genesis
has reunited on a handful of occasions. On October 2, 1982, the group
gathered for a one-off performance entitled "Six of the Best". The show
was held to raise money for Peter Gabriel's WOMAD festival. This
was the first and last time this lineup had performed since 1975.
In 1998, the group gathered for a photo session and dinner to
celebrate the release of the box set, Genesis Archive 1967-75.
Hackett also participated in the re-recording of 1974's "The
Carpet Crawlers" for inclusion on the 1999 Genesis greatest hits album,
Turn It on Again: The Hits.
The rest of the group recorded new parts as well, although they were
not recorded together in the same studio.
In an April 2006 radio interview, Phil Collins discussed a
band meeting that took place in November 2005. During that meeting, the
group discussed the possibility of reuniting the classic mid-'70s
roster for a limited run of shows, including a complete performance of
the group's 1974 double album, The Lamb Lies Down on
Broadway.
However, on October
18, 2006 it
was announced that the post-Hackett lineup of Rutherford, Banks, and
Collins were instead reforming.
Solo career
Hackett's first post-Genesis album was Please
Don't Touch, released in 1978. As with Voyage
of the Acolyte, much of the material on the album was in the
style of progressive rock. It did contain, however, much more vocal
work. Hackett, who had never sung lead on a Genesis song, turned over
most of the vocals to a number of singers, including folk
singer Richie Havens, R&B
singer Randy Crawford, and Steve Walsh of Kansas.
He did provide lead vocals for "Carry on Up the Vicarage," but they
were processed using a "laughing gnome" vocal effect.
The album peaked at #38 on the UK charts and #103 on the Billboard
Pop Albums chart in the United States.
A pair of progressive rock albums followed—1979's Spectral
Mornings and 1980's Defector.
They were both Top 40 albums in the UK, while they charted #138 and
#144 in the United States, respectively. Hackett toured Europe for the
first time as a solo act in 1979, and in August performed at the Reading Festival. The Defector
tour brought him to the United States for the first time since his last
tour with Genesis.
Hackett's first major shift in musical style came with 1981's Cured.
Although the album contained some of the progressive and classical
pieces for which Hackett was known, it also showcased a much more pop
approach. The album was recorded without most of the musicians who had
been on Hackett's solo albums since Spectral Mornings
(Hackett handled all lead vocal duties). Only longtime collaborators
Nick Magnus and John Hackett remained. While Cured
did not chart highly in the U.S., it peaked at #15 in the UK, Hackett's
highest charting yet.
In the 1980s, Hackett released his first classical guitar
albums Bay of Kings
and Momentum,
which further enhanced his reputation. The tour for Momentum
drew large crowds in Europe, considered unusual for a classical
guitarist.
On the rock production side, Hackett's work in the 1980s
involve the LPs Cured (1981), Highly
Strung (1982) and Till We Have Faces
(1984). In Highly Strung, more than a nuance of
electronic sound appears, making the album unique and unrepeated in
Hackett's production, and surely one of the most difficult to approach.
Till We Have Faces merges sounds from typical
Hackett's style together with Brazilian percussions: the result is
incredible, but not all the tracks keep up with this.
In 1986, Hackett formed the supergroup
GTR
with then-former Yes and Asia
guitarist Steve Howe. The group
released a gold-selling album. Hackett later left over financial and
management squabbles.
Hackett's solo career continued, releasing a plethora of both
electric and acoustic based albums throughout the 90s to the present
day. One of his most memorable recordings was the neo-classical
influenced A Midsummer
Night's Dream, which showcases his guitar
skills, accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra.
Steve's younger brother John was involved as flute
player and second guitarist in his 1970s bands, and has often appeared
as musician and collaborator on his more recent work, particularly on
the ambitious 'Sketches of Satie' (2000) arranged for flute and guitar.
Discography
-
Main article: Steve Hackett discography
Notes
References
External links
| v • d • e Genesis |
| Tony Banks
| Phil Collins | Mike
Rutherford |
| Peter Gabriel | Steve Hackett | Anthony
Phillips | John Mayhew | John
Silver | Chris Stewart | Bill
Bruford | Daryl Stuermer | Chester
Thompson | Ray Wilson |
| Discography |
| Studio albums: From Genesis to Revelation
| Trespass | Nursery
Cryme | Foxtrot
| Selling England by the
Pound | The Lamb Lies Down on
Broadway | A
Trick of the Tail | Wind
& Wuthering | ...And Then There
Were Three... | Duke
| Abacab
| Genesis | Invisible
Touch | We
Can't Dance | Calling
All Stations |
| Live Albums: Genesis
Live | Seconds
Out | Three
Sides Live | Live/The
Way We Walk, Volume One: The Shorts | Live/The
Way We Walk, Volume Two: The Longs | Gladiators
- Live in Rome |
| Compilations: Turn It On Again: The Hits
| Platinum Collection |
| Box sets: Genesis Archive 1967-75
| Genesis Archive 2:
1976-1992 | Genesis
1976-1982 |
| EPs: Spot
the Pigeon | 3 X 3 |
| Films: Genesis:
In Concert |
