Alan Hewitt leans back on the chair in FACT and smiles, a man wistful with memories of gigs and stories which culminated in his book on Steve Hackett, the Genesis guitarist who has carved out perhaps the most productive solo career of all those that made Genesis one of the finest Progressive Rock bands to hail from the U.K. being enjoyed rightly by the multitude. Sketches of Hackett is a book of immense value and warmth and just chatting to him, time seems to lose its meaning as the 20 minute time limit we set ourselves becomes muddled and extended until we have broached the subject of almost every Steve Hackett solo album and his contribution to the richness of the second and third period of the Genesis era.

Steve Hackett is our focal point because the legendary guitarist is making his way back to Liverpool for a second time during October to give his fans a second taste of his critically acclaimed Genesis Revisited II album. There can be no doubting the air of expectancy that surrounds the upcoming gig as the first night was so well received, so admired it seems by all who went that to have a musical maestro come back and offer a second helping is almost unheard of.

Mr. Hewitt certainly knows his stuff about the band and about Steve Hackett in particular and with the gig nearing it only seemed right to catch the writer of Mr. Hackett’s biography and ask him his thoughts on both gigs and Steve’s contribution to music, both as a solo artist of considerable note and his time with Genesis.

The gig that Steve Hackett did in Liverpool earlier this year, to my mind, it was probably the finest gig I personally have ever seen. It was astonishing. As an older Genesis fan, how did you see it?

Alan: “I was enthralled by the fact that he was doing these gigs in the first place as I never thought he’d look back at his Genesis stuff again. Suffice to say, any band putting that stuff on in such detail and having a member of that band which wrote it as well, it was top notch, it couldn’t be beaten.“

Coming on the back of the album Genesis Revisited II, it must have been thrilling for the man who wrote his biography?

Alan: “Put it this way, it didn’t do sales any harm! I didn’t know that he had two albums planned until I actually sat down and listened to it, he never coughed he was doing it. It was really a surprise. Personally, what I think, given everything that’s gone on with Genesis and everything else over the past few years, I think this album was effectively Steve’s repost to Genesis, saying if you won’t do it, then I will and he’s gone out and proven just how well he can do it and also if it makes a lot of people think well maybe it’s about time instead of re-evaluating Gabriel’s contribution to Genesis, it’s about time we re-evaluated Hackett’s.  Then that can’t be a bad thing really, I don’t think so anyway.”

I can understand your sentiment because the entire night was, if you include the build up from your book coming out – Sketches of Hackett in the last year, along with Out of the Tunnel’s Mouth coming out and Beyond the Shrouded Horizon, leading up to this gig. It seemed to get bigger and bigger all the way through.

Alan: “What you had to bear in mind of course was that he was going through an absolutely horrific divorce in the middle of all of that. It took three attempts to get Out of the Tunnel’s Mouth released and when it actually came out, it was the best album he’d ever done since Spectral Mornings. Where did that come from? I don’t know, I used to travel round with him when I sold his merchandise at gigs for him, he’s always got a notebook with him, he’s always writing. I’d love to see one of those notebooks, I really would, he’s always got ideas. Even in the gap in the last tour and this one, he’s been back in the studio working on new stuff, he’s not been on a holiday, and he’s been back in the studio recording. So I imagine there would be another new album out early next year. I don’t know where he gets the energy from or what drugs he’s on – but I want some! He’s been amazingly prolific so that’s all good stuff, there’s nothing you’d say was a bit substandard, it’s all been top notch material.”

As the writer of his biography, do you think Steve’s undergone a resurgence in his popularity if not Genesis as well?

Alan: “I think Genesis are possibly going the other way but having said that, these shows and their popularity proves that the audiences are still there and we knew that but the trouble was the promoters and the people who are in a position to do something about don’t seem to realise that so maybe that if next time Steve goes out on a solo tour he can actually get a proper U.K. tour with gigs in places that haven’t seen him for a while like Scotland. I get asked a lot by fans up there why Steve didn’t play up there and I actually asked his old tour manager why and he was quite honest it and he said that the promoters in Scotland would not back a gig. Now after seeing all this, they may change their minds.”  

You say that but we were both at the gig in Edinburgh in February 2012 and that was a very special night.

Alan: “You look at those Scottish gigs though and it’s always a gig in Edinburgh or Glasgow, never anywhere else. You know as well as I do, that there are plenty of excellent theatres and concert halls in Scotland – like Aberdeen for example, why don’t they get a night? It must be down to the promoters as Steve will play anywhere – I’m booking him to play my living room next year but that’s another story entirely! So hopefully if this tour proves nothing else it will be that there’s a big audience out there for this music and that will hopefully translate into more people thinking this Hackett guy – let’s go and explore! So if that means a resurgence of interest in his own back catalogue then he’s won both ways really which is what he deserves.”

He’s coming back to Liverpool again, the first time since 1980; this is the first time he’s played the same place twice – the Philharmonic Hall, in the same year, that’s quite astonishing for an artist of his high calibre and of a different generation.

Alan: “Absolutely, I can’t think of anybody who’s played the Phil twice in one year, in the recording rock genre, with one exception, Paul Carrack has done it a couple of times. However, in terms of this, I’m just astonished at the places that he is playing on this tour and the places that he isn’t that I thought he should be! Like Manchester, he’s doing the Apollo; I think he should be doing the Bridgewater Hall, now why? The Apollo is well, I’ll not repeat what I think about the Apollo but the Bridgewater Hall would be in much better keeping with this kind of presentation, maybe they were booked, maybe the promoter didn’t look, I don’t know. I’m claiming the credit that he’s playing the Philharmonic Hall because I basically took him to the Philharmonic Hall a few years ago to see the Orchestra and I think that stuck in his mind but to have him twice there in one year is amazing.”

The Philharmonic Hall really lends itself so well to rock and progressive music.

Alan: “It can do anything the staff put their minds to; it’s just a great place to go to. I’ve been going there since I was six years old. It’s great he’s coming back, I just hope this time the Hall isn’t half full like it was previously as people might think it’s the same show in October, it isn’t, it’s slightly different but enough to make it interesting without giving the game away.”

That gig I maintain was the best gig I’d ever seen in my life purely because of the dynamic onstage, the presentation and the way he’s changed the music was very cool – for example, Supper’s Ready – what a splendid way to transform that song. I hope it’s the same this time in terms that the audience gets it.

Alan: “There shouldn’t be any reason why not, I mean it’s the same people involved!” 

To be continued.

 Ian D. Hall