Steve Hackett

25th November 2019

Usher Hall, Edinburgh

For no other reason than I had never done this sort of thing before (me frantically box-ticking before Mr D. terminally pitches up), I decided to shell out £70 for Wife and I to attend Steve Hackett's pre-gig Meet and Greet session.  This was £35 each, I should clarify, on top of the standard ticket price.

Well, what did we get for our hard-earned?  Not a hellish lot, I have to relate.  We were requested to pitch up at the Usher Hall box office at 5:30pm, two hours before the gig was due to start.  Here we were each  presented with a programme, a signed poster (which I gave away to another bod, as they were too inconvenient to carry around), and one of those laminated lanyard thingies.

The group were then funneled into what can only be described as a corridor, and asked to wait in line for our minute of fame, alongside folks who appeared to have brought along all manner of Genesis and Hackett paraphernalia to have signed by the man.

When my turn finally arrived, Steve politely said hello and shook my hand, which surprised me a touch.  “You are a brave man, shaking hands with all these people just before a gig” I suggested.  “Yes, many of my friends (musician colleagues, I assume he meant) refuse to shake hands”, came the reply.  I then burbled on a bit about Richie Havens whilst his Merch Lady took a few pics on my camera, and we were done.

I did sort of wonder how Steve must feel about these events.  For I did see him glance up at the queue at one point during proceedings with what appeared suspiciously like a look of bored resignation on his face.  Given there were 50 or so of us at this shindig, and allowing for our "freebies", I suppose SH (or his organisation) must have made the best part of £1,500 for under an hour's work.  Spread out over a whole tour, I suppose the monies would mount up to a not insignificant sum. 

The lanyard...

...the queue, and...

..the old codger (and Steve Hackett)

The evening's real entertainment opened with perhaps my favourite Steve Hackett tune Everyday, although I have never felt any live performances I have heard ever quite capture the spirit of the original.  It is the bass which always sounds so darned puny - although Steve's solo still astounds.

The first new 'un to arrive was Under The Eye of The Sun, which sounded like nothing so much as a classic-era Yes tune.  Glorious harmonies, a grumbling Squire-esque bass line, and the sort of crisp guitar solo Steve Howe used to coax from his Les Paul.  The fact the lyric rambles on about nothing in particular, whilst simultaneously sounding vaguely profound, cemented the verisimilitude.

The next couple of songs (also from the new album) which ran into each other had, to continue the Yes-theme, a sort of Topographic Oceans vibe.  Not that either would a fitted on that album but, rather like the whole of TFTO, suffered from, what sounded on first listen here, a surfeit of frustratingly underdeveloped ideas welded together with little regard for quality control.

Steve Hackett

Rob Townsend

Craig Blundell

Nad Sylvan

Steve Hackett - Edinburgh - November 2019

The reminder of the first set, was pretty much completely given over to the Spectral Mornings album.  The Virgin and The Gypsy is a beautifully understated composition, but I can generally take or leave much of the rest of the collection.  Clocks is generally fun though.  As it was this evening. 

After the break we were presented with the whole of Selling England By The Pound played mostly note for note.  There were a few bits of additional noodlings during the lead out to Moonlit Knight, but the main deviation arrived with I Know What I Like, onto which was incongruously transplanted a lengthy tenor sax solo.  Fail !!

But the lengthy instrumental passages during both Firth of Fifth and The Cinema Show were (and I cannot be cool here) pretty fucking amazing.  As time passes, these two songs are becoming more and more to represent pinnacles of Seventies Prog for many of us codgers of a certain vintage.

Deja Vu, we learned, was a half-finished Peter Gabriel song from the SEBTP sessions, which SH had subsequently completed.  But it was more an interesting curio, than anything integral to the album experience.

But the brace of Trick of The Tail tunes which concluded the evening had me scurrying around a few days later, to ensure we had decent tickets for Steve's 2020 Tour – a complete rendition of Seconds Out.

Cannae wait.



Set list

Everyday
Under the Eye of the Sun
Fallen Walls and Pedestals
Beasts in Our Time
The Virgin and The Gypsy
Tigermoth
Spectral Mornings
Horizons
The Red Flower of Tachai Blooms Everywhere
Clocks – The Angel of Mons
Interval
Dancing With The Moonlit Knight
I Know What I Like
Firth of Fifth
More Fool Me
The Battle of Epping Forest
After The Ordeal
The Cinema Show 
Aisle of Plenty
Deja Vu
Dance on a Volcano

Encore
Myopia / Los Endos / Slogans / Los Endos

Steve Hackett - Edinburgh - November 2019