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.

Part Two.

Following on talking about Steve Hackett, the reason why his music and that of Genesis is very important to you perhaps is your work on T.W.R. (The Waiting Room – Genesis online magazine) and your writing of Sketches of Hackett biography – so much writing must be a labour of love for you?

Alan: “It’s become second nature, I’ve always loved writing even when I was at school, I’ve written a lot of things people don’t know about, written poetry, I’ve written short stories, I even sort of tried to write a sorcery novel but we won’t talk about that! Basically if I stop writing the brain starts working and that’s the one thing I don’t want to happen. I enjoy it, I mean sometimes it hard work when you get a one o’clock email which reads do you have a transcription of all of Steve’s lyrics and you reply by saying yes, and the reply comes back well, can we have it please and at four o’clock the same morning you press the send button because they need them for a Japanese copy of one c.d. or another! Sometimes, it’s not as much fun as you’d think it would be, I still enjoy it, if I didn’t enjoy it I certainly wouldn’t do it again, I’m not that much of a masochist. I don’t know whether it’s the same for you but it’s the creative process that’s involved with it I suppose.

Writing a biography, it’s not just the thought processes, it’s the thrill of the chase, can I get so and so to open up about this, can I get so and so to talk about that. When you actually get them to do that, I mean the disappointing thing is that there aren’t that many skeletons in Steve’s closet unfortunately.  In the three years it took me to put that book together, I don’t think I contacted anybody who turned around and said I’m not going to talk about that bastard! Everybody was very willing to talk about their involvement with Steve and it was the same when I was doing the books on Genesis you know. Nobody actually turned round and said I don’t want to do that, I don’t want to talk about this and the other interesting thing was when I started doing all three books, nobody asked to see anything up front, nothing was censored, the band’s management, Steve’s management, whoever, asked to see the books first, they didn’t need editorial approval of it.

There were some issues with Sketches…simply because that Steve was going through a terrible divorce at the time and I know that I’ve taken some criticism regarding a certain individual not being present in the book as much as they think they should have been but that was, to be blunt, down to legal issues. We had no choice but other than that, if someone was prepared to talk about recording an album or playing with Steve at a gig or whatever, no one said no. The same was true of the guys in Genesis, they all talked to me to one degree or another, either through the pages of T.W.R. or for special interviews done for the books and they are still doing that now.”

With all your hats on, which do you prefer doing? Is it the biographies, delving in and out of musical history or is it the other stuff – what gives you the most personal satisfaction?

Alan: “I suppose that’s where I’m lucky, with T.W.R. and the books do the same thing, if I want to delve into a subject, there’s nothing stopping me and the great thing about T.W.R. being online is that there’s no restriction in space.  We’ve got 24 pages on average in each paper edition, that’s a limitation on how many words you can print on each page. The latest edition of T.W.R. that’s currently sitting with the Webmaster had 92 pages just of text, now basically you could never do that in a paper edition, so if I want to be more exploratory on a subject in T.W.R. I can do it. The great thing is that when I came to write the books, I had a built in reservoir of stuff to use before I needed to speak to X, Y or Z to get that information, nine times out of ten, I already had the information to use and it was just a case of filling in the dots which was great, not everyone has that advantage.”

I realise that we’re both short on time but I’m thinking about several anniversaries that are coming up with T.W.R. now being online, the fact that a particular seminal album is coming up for a major anniversary soon – Selling England By The Pound, it’s 40 years on October 12th of October – one of the four finest!

Alan: “That album and Trick of the Tail” are wonderful; I listened to both of them for the first time on the same night!”

What would be the one song you would play from Trick of the Tail?

Alan: “Without hesitation – Firth of Fifth!”

Well, I’d choose Cinema Show as it delves into The Ovid and all that, I thought they did all that literature stuff superbly.

Alan: “Firth of Fifth for me, purely because of the combination of Tony’s and Steve’s parts they both get to shine without competing against each other, which was they always seem to do on so many other things, that would be the one for me.”

What’s your favourite album?

Alan: “Wind and Wuthering – always has been, always will be because that was actually the first album that I’d heard on the radio. The late, great Phil Easton played almost of it on his show the week before it was officially released and I didn’t know anything about Genesis at the time and I just said there and it was something about the way it was all arranged and I just went oh and the next minute I’d listened to the rest of the album out of interest. At the time I wasn’t interested in all this modern rubbish. I said before to you that I’d been going to the Philharmonic Hall since I was six, that was to see the Orchestra and basically that’s what got me into the band and then when I saw the album cover and everything else I thought I like this and they had everything that I liked about orchestral music all in a band and as they say, the rest is history.”

I prefer Trick of the Tail but I do understand about Wind and Wuthering, it’s a fantastic album and going back to time because we’re talking about Steve coming back to Liverpool for the second time within one year and this was two albums back to back within the space of a year. There are so many bands who try to it but it didn’t work basically. These two albums back to back worked fine.

Alan: “I don’t think it was the first time that Genesis had done that but because I think Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot were released roughly within a year. They managed to cram so much into such a short space of time and so much quality material and no dross. The sad thing there is on Wind and Wuthering one track that I do have issues with and I‘ve always had issues with it, it’s Wot, gorilla? When you realise that Steve apparently gave them Please Don’t Touch for that album and they never played it. They did rehearse it in the studio and Phil said he couldn’t get behind it so it was quietly dropped and that obviously comes down to politics.”

One final question then going back to Steve, which is your favourite Steve Hackett album?

Alan: “I would say I’ve got two and they are from completely different genres. I’m going to be predictable and say my favourite rock album is Spectral Mornings but another album that holds an equally fond place in my affections is A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream – I absolutely adore that album, I even sent a copy of that music to the Director of Music at the Philharmonic Hall with the suggestion that the Orchestra should commission it because that music should be heard in a concert repertoire, it’s absolutely phenomenal.”

You’ve surprised me there as I really thought you were going to say Out of the Tunnel’s Mouth.

Alan: “There are only two Hackett albums that I’ve actually expressed a dislike for and over time, I’ve grown to like one more than the other. I didn’t like Cured when it first came out, I did the same thing with Cured as I famously reported to have done with Abacab and that’s make a Frisbee out of it because I just didn’t like it! It’s grown on me though and the other album of Steve’s that still to this day, I struggle with and I know I’m not alone here and that’s Till We Have Faces – it’s just not, I think he was having a tough time there, it’s not a particularly original album. Two out of 23 is not bad going at all!”

I’ll leave you with this and the answer’s probably going to be in the affirmative. You’ve got to be looking forward to Steve coming around again in a few weeks’ time?

Alan: ”No I’m going to hate it! (laughs) I’m really looking forward to it. Anyone who hasn’t seen the show in May, if you don’t go and see the show in October – when you see the d.v.d. afterwards, you will kick yourselves for missing it as it’s such a special show by such a special artist.”