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Steve Hackett is best known as the guitarist
with Genesis during their best years as both a progressive and
a commercial band, across ten albums of their history. His arrival
in the group's lineup at the start of 1971, replacing original
guitarist Anthony Phillips, provided the group with the last ingredient
that it needed for success. In the years since, while Phil Collins
may have enjoyed pop/rock stardom and an acting career and his
other bandmates their periodic successes, Hackett has come the
farthest as a star performer and composer in his own right.
Steve Hackett's earliest experience in playing professionally
came with groups named Canterbury Glass and Sarabande, doing mainstream
rock with a progressive/psychedelic edge. It was as a studio musician
that he excelled, recording with a band called Quiet World during
1970. They were signed to the Pye Records label and released an
LP entitled The Road on that company's progressive rock-oriented
Dawn Records label. In late 1970, Hackett crossed paths with the
group when he placed an advertisement in search of like-minded
progressive musicians and enesis' Peter Gabriel responded — the
group's original guitarist, Anthony Phillips, had departed and
they needed a replacement. He saw them in concert with a temporary
substitute in the guitarist's spot and approached them about joining.
Hackett was in the lineup in January of 1971 and was quickly established
as an integral part of their sound, though his concert work at
their earliest gigs suffered from the fact that Hackett had little
experience playing on stage, which initially made him nervous.
He subsequently became not only an essential part of the group's
sound, but also of their image; his bespectacled figure, seated
and bent over his instrument in studied concentration helped to
set the group apart from flashier progressive rock outfits of
the era.
His skill and vast range opened up the group's sound in new ways
during their progressive rock phase; coupled with Phil Collins'
drumming in the mix, Genesis was turned into a true virtuoso unit,
as revealed on the albums Foxtrot, Genesis Live, Selling England
By the Pound, and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, all among the
finest progressive rock LPs ever conceived. Then, following the
departure of lead singer Gabriel and his replacement by Collins
and their move toward a more commercial sound, Hackett proved
equally adept; the difference was that their albums were now selling
in the millions instead of the hundreds of thousands, and he was
getting far more public exposure than ever before.
Hackett's first solo album, Voyage of the Acolyte, dated from
1975 and was, in many ways, almost a lost Genesis album, featuring
Collins and Michael Rutherford in its lineup of musicians. Coming
out as it did in the wake of Gabriel's departure from the group,
it was a cause of some strain among the members, despite their
participation, but Hackett stayed with the band through the tour
behind the release of Wind and Wuthering, making his last appearance
with the group on the Seconds Out live album, ironically just
as the band was ascending into the top ranks of concert attractions
and recording acts. Hackett's first post-Genesis solo album was
Please Don't Touch, which deliberately hewed very far from his
old group's progressive sound and departed completely from Voyage
of the Acolyte as well. He also put together his first touring
band, which included Pete Hicks on vocals and John Shearer on
drums, as well as brother John Hackett on flute and keyboards,
with whom he subsequently records the Spectral Mornings album.
Hackett's sound advanced rapidly in the 1980's, through albums
such as Defector — a fascinating musical/political fantasy — and
the pop-oriented Cured. His concert work kept him busy throughout
Europe and the expanding fame of his old band led a steady stream
of listeners to check out the work of the former Genesis guitarist,
whose playing and personality were so prominent on those classic
early albums. He also reunited with Peter Gabriel and Michael
Rutherford and then with all of his ex-bandmates for a pair of
1982 charity concerts. The following year, he enjoyed a very successful
European single in the guise of "Cell 151" off of the Highly Strung
LP, which helped propel that album to hit status. The mid-'80s
saw him broaden his sound to include various elements of "world
music" in his studio work, and he also to begin playing smaller,
more intimate halls where his guitar skills could be better appreciated.
In 1986, Hackett hooked up with Yes guitarist Steve Howe to form
GTR, a progressive rock unit that became a favorite of MTV and
the rock press, and generated a hit single ("When the Heart Rules
the Mind") in America and a platinum-selling album for Arista
Records and followed them up with an international tour. Hackett
resumed his solo career in 1987, but with the momentum of GTR
behind him, he now found crowds of tens of thousands eager to
hear him play classical-style acoustic guitar and was becoming
the arena-rock version of Christopher Parkening or guitarist John
Williams. His next major release was Time Lapse, a live retrospective
collection of his work from several decades of music-making. In
1994, Hackett surprised most of his fans by turning back to his
roots with Blues With a Feeling, an album built around the sounds
of blues guitar and harmonica that harked back to his boyhood.
This pointed up one of the ironies of Hackett's career: as a member
of Genesis, he was presumed by most fans to have been classically
trained, but his music actually derived from a multitude of influences,
to which he's always extended himself in order to embrace and
absorb; thus, although originally a rock guitarist with blues
roots, Hackett has performed with the London Symphony Orchestra
and composed instrumental classical music based on Shakespeare's
A Midsummer Night's Dream for EMI's Angel Records label. Even
as his composing career ballooned in the 1990's, he also began
playing more concerts and turned back to his progressive rock
roots by performing Genesis' classic repertory. Working with a
group that includes such luminaries as ex-King Crimson alumni
Ian McDonald and John Wetton, not to mention Genesis' Chester
Thompson, as well as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Hackett
released a live album entitled Genesis Revisited, which was precisely
that. During the 1990's, he fronted a group known as Steve Hackett/Friends,
including former members of King Crimson, who have revived their
classic progressive rock repertory in dramatic new concert form,
on CD, and concert video.
This bio courtesy www.allmusic.com
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