Review: Steve Hackett – Symphony Hall, B’ham 7th Oct 2024

Steve Hackett – 7th October 2024 @ B’ham Symphony Hall

Well, here we are again. Lost count how many times we’ve see this man, but now into his 70s, he just goes from strength to strength and with highlights from “Lamb Lies Down On Broadway” included in the setlist (the finest Genesis album ever made I hasten to add), tonight’s show was only ever going to be nothing short of Prog Perfection !!!

Pretty much a stable lineup for the past few tours, Steve certainly knows who to surround himself with, a stellar cast of players including Nad Sylan (vocals) who totally NAILS it throughout the entire set, Jonas Reingold (Bass, Bass pedals, twin neck and vocals), Craig Blundell (drummer to the stars and beyond), Roger King (Keys, a very longer serving member of the Hackett troupe), Rob Townsend (Wind instruments, keyboard and vocals) and finally the beautiful Amanda Lehmann (Guitar and vocals).

The show was in two parts, first hour was all solo work, after a 20 minute break we had a healthy dose of TLLDIB and finished with some classic Genesis to see us on our way home, fully content and happy.

In the solo section, the new album “The Circus And The Nightwhale” was featured heavily, as to be expected, a wonderful album. In fact, this dude’s output of late has been exemplary and when you think this is his 30th solo album !!!! Kudos indeed.

There were some classic Hackett tracks, as you’d expect – “Everyday” and the mighty “Shadow Of The Hierophant” (full version with Amanda taking on Sally Oldfield’s role) and “Tower Struck Down”, again, from his timeless debut album “Voyage Of The Acolyte”. During this part of the show we had a wonderful bass solo from Jonas and I love the way the band go “off on a tangent” and extend the original from time to time– more of this please and before all you 70s purists start kicking off – yes, we know there was no saxophone on the original album(s) !!!!!!!

After a 20 minute break, we launch straight into the title track from TLLDIB and it has to said at this point, that Roger King absolutely NAILS it when it comes down to recreating the original keyboard sounds including some rather wonderful mellotron washes, oh the memory !!!

“Fly On A Windshield” is a mighty track and when the guitar and ‘tron kick in, goosebumps my friend, GOOSEBUMPS !!! Straight into “Broadway Melody” and overall, very satisfying selection of tracks from this incredible album concluding with the inevitable “It”. Back in the day, I had tickets to see Genesis performing TLLDIB in its entirety, only to have my hopes dashed when Steve H injured his hand (on a wine glass I believe !!). We had to return our tickets for a refund and when the tour was rescheduled, we found out too late and the show was sold out before we could repurchase tickets, one of the biggest regrets of my life, so it was good to hear some standout tracks from the album LIVE again, revamped for the new millennium. Sublime.

Then came a heavy dose of “Selling England” including an encore with a superb drum solo from Craig proving one and for all he is one of the finest drummers in Prog (let’s face it – endorsed by the two Steves, Wilson and Hackett and the heartbeat behind Frost*) and a nice lead in to “Los Endos” with a hint of “Slogans” thrown in for good measure…and when the entire audience stood for several minutes of full-on applause at the end, I think it’s very safe to say that this was one 2 ½ hr show that will live in our memories for a very long time………Total perfection from start to end and some nice humour thrown in too – what more d’ya need. Gigs don’t get much better than this.

Steve Gould