Brighton Conference Centre was the venue for the recording of Steve Hackett’s new live album Foxtrot at Fifty + Hackett Highlights: Live in Brighton.
It’s an album which captures in its entirety one of the great Genesis albums, an album from the golden era of Genesis pre-video, pre-hit singles.
It’s an album which captures in its entirety one of the great Genesis albums, an album from the golden era of Genesis pre-video, pre-hit singles.
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FunTranscript
00:00 Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. What a fantastic
00:06 pleasure to be speaking to Steve Hackett no less. Now Steve, you've got a wonderful sounding
00:10 new album out, it's 'Fox Trot at 50' and 'Hackett Highlights' live at Brighton. Now live at Brighton,
00:18 that's interesting, why Brighton and where in Brighton?
00:21 Brighton Conference Centre this time rather than the Dome because it's got better camera angles,
00:27 so I think Paul Green who shot the thing and directed it wanted to have as many camera angles
00:34 as possible so simply because you know it's basically a box that gave him greater flexibility.
00:42 That's why we chose Brighton. Also I think it was at the back of my mind I thought oh this would be
00:47 nice if there's any extras and they can film on the pier and all the rest. Those things,
00:55 there's just something about Brighton isn't there? It's exotic isn't it? It's curious.
01:00 It's exotic, yeah, it's beautiful.
01:02 And on the album you are doing 'Fox Trot', that great Genesis album. Now what does that album
01:09 mean to you nearly 52 years on from being part of it? Well I think there was a golden era of Genesis
01:15 that was pre-video, pre-hit singles and I'd say you know really when you look at the era of 1972
01:24 to 73 you had 'Fox Trot' and then followed by 'Selling England by the Pound' and for me I think
01:31 the best of those two albums makes up the absolute best of Genesis. I know that there are lots of
01:38 other wonderful tunes on each Genesis album but for me there's something about the concentration
01:46 that happens and I think it was, I'm trying to remember now, a certain journalist who said
01:53 you know that Genesis were at an interesting point just before they were about to break big
01:58 and that's what he liked about this particular era of the band. So 'Fox Trot' took things to the
02:07 next level then? I think so yeah, the idea that you know this is obviously going to, this is
02:13 something special that was perceived outside of ourselves. I suspect each band when you're doing
02:18 something the struggle is so all-embracing that you don't really have time to sniff the flowers and
02:24 see the wood for the trees. You're just so engaged with you know the massive effort that is
02:30 you know mounting something as complex as that. We had our own light show for the first time,
02:36 we were in a disastrous position financially but then in every other sense, spiritually perhaps,
02:43 we felt we were getting somewhere and we were gaining an audience and this album went to number
02:49 one in Italy. And so here we are, here's a band hasn't had any hit singles, imagine that you know
02:56 so that was heady stuff for us and we were still in the hole financially but at least you know there
03:01 was this idea of 'ah okay yes, Rome has fallen to us, this is good'. You started conquering.
03:07 Yeah that sort of yeah, it sounds like Leonard Cohen isn't it, first we take Berlin etc etc.
03:14 But interesting that you get a clear sense of how extraordinary the album was at the time
03:20 and what you were doing then, you're so much in the thick of it.
03:22 Yeah I've had much more time to reflect on it now of course, you look back and you go 'oh you know
03:30 this is extraordinarily interesting stuff' and I think it still stands out very well but I think
03:37 that the live version that we've just done recently, my band, I think that it knocks
03:46 spots off the original because I know that the precision of the playing, the technology that
03:53 accompanies it, the experience of the players, guitars that sustain, you know I mean I've got a
04:00 Fernandez guitar which has got feedback on board on the guitar so I hit the switch and if I want
04:06 a note to sustain it, it will. I don't have to kill anyone with the tyranny of volume standing
04:11 up against the stack, deafening myself and everyone else just hoping that it'll you know
04:16 sustain the right note. Those days have gone whereas at the time I was recording the album
04:22 with a little tiny Fender Champ amp and so when I listened to the original recording I think 'oh it
04:29 sounds you know very boxy and small and doesn't sustain' and for all those reasons others may
04:34 love it but I'll be thinking how do we improve, how do we improve? So the technology has changed,
04:40 I don't use the same gear, I use something that looks like a Les Paul but it's not, it's a Fernandez
04:45 and it sustains wonderfully for instance and then the Mellotron that live sometimes the Mellotron
04:52 would die because the technology is so unstable live but of course we use the guts of the Mellotron
04:59 without actually taking the beast on the road so Mellotron samples plus other samples added to it
05:07 to smooth it to make it more symphonic, every bit as powerful and edgy as the original but
05:16 with extra subtlety in it and more reliable technology. Wow it sounds a fantastic project,
05:23 really looking forward to hearing it and Steve as ever always really lovely and really interesting
05:28 to speak to you. Thank you very much. Lovely, thank you so much. Thank you. Wonderful, thank you.