Steve Hackett - Leeds Town Hall 20 October 2015

In the week when his 14 disc retrospective collection "Premonitions" is released, spanning the early years of his solo career (1975-1983), it was good to spent last evening in the presence of Steve Hackett once again.

After a run of tours in which Steve reworked material from his time with Prog giants Genesis, it was good to come to a show where he (for the first half at least) focused on his own solo material. Indeed the title of the tour - 'Acolyte to Wolflight' - hinted at something more, and maybe, after perhaps over-playing the Genesis stuff, he could have drawn a little wider from his more recent own material. What we got was effectively 'Acolyte to Defector, and Wolflight, with more of the last tour.' Of course, Genesis = ticket sales, as his previous tours have ably demonstrated.

The content of the show wasn't much of a surprise: we knew what we were coming to; the set list for the tour has been pretty consistent throughout, and has been widely circulated, and from his solo material, there was a heavy drawing on the latest album 'Wolflight' - this is in effect the promo tour for the album after all. From his earlier solo canon, (as I've said) only the first four albums were referenced, the first set ending with a tumultuous medley from his debut, 'Voyage of the Acolyte'. Steve was joined just after the mid-point of the first set by brother John, when they played a wonderful cut-down acoustic version of 'Jacuzzi', and by Nad Sylvan, who sang on 'Icarus Ascending' and 'Star of Sirius', as well as for the Genesis material, which filled the second set.

The full set-list was:

• Spectral Mornings (Spectral Mornings)
• Out of the Body (Wolflight)
• Wolflight (Wolflight)
• Every Day (Spectral Mornings)
• Love Song to a Vampire (Wolflight)
• The Wheel's Turning (Wolflight)
• Loving Sea (Wolflight)
• Jacuzzi (Defector)
• Icarus Ascending (Please Don't Touch)
• Star of Sirius (Voyage of the Acolyte)
• Ace of Wands (Voyage of the Acolyte)
• Tower Struck Down (Voyage of the Acolyte)

The Genesis Material

• Get 'em Out by Friday
• Can-Utility and the Coastliners
• After the Ordeal
• The Cinema Show/ Aisle of Plenty
• The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
• The Musical Box

Encore

• Clocks - The Angel of Mons (Spectral Mornings)
• Firth of Fifth

The band was essentially those who have toured with Steve over the past few years: Rob Townsend (keyboards, percussion, flute, saxophone); Roger King (keyboards); Gary O'Toole (drums, percussion, vocals) and Nad Sylvan (vocals), and for this tour they have been joined by Roine Stolt (bass, guitars & vocals). As a unit, the band played wonderfully well together, and the interplay between Steve & Roine, particularly during 'After the Ordeal' was outstanding. There was energy, enjoyment, artistry and virtuosity present in bucket-loads, and the near capacity crowd picked up that vibe and ran with it.

Reflecting after the show, I realised that a large part of the music I'd heard was 35-40 years old (or more). Yet it still (to me) sounded fresh, vibrant and alive. This is timeless Progressive rock! And I couldn't help wondering: how much of today's music will still be being played live in 2050?

But maybe, just maybe, we could have heard a little more from more recently...

Mama - O2 Academy Sheffield 26 April 2014

A number of things happen when you reach a 'certain age'. One is that you become increasingly difficult to shop for for birthdays (there is a limit to how many socks you can own), and another is that the bands you like from your youth are ageing as rapidly as you are and are therefore not likely to be as active as they used to (unless they're the Rolling Stones). Yesterday was my 53rd birthday, and I faced both of these problems head-on as I had suggested to my wife that it might be nice to go and see Mama, an 'all era Genesis tribute band' - which may be the nearest I now get to seeing my favourite band from my teens.

The venue was intimate, shall we say: we were seated at a table near the back and were no more than 10 or 12 feet from the stage. A reasonable crowd for the venue - around 40-50 people - gathered. Most seemed knowledgeable of the original material and could be heard singing along, even when not energetically encouraged to do so by front man and vocalist John Wilkinson. The light show was good for a small venue, though I was a little disappointed by the sound quality in places.

The set lasted 2½ hours without a break other than the obligatory one before the encore, and was as follows:

Duke Medley (Behind the Lines, Duchess, Guide Vocal)
Turn it on Again
The Carpet Crawl (with introduction from Dancing with the Moonlit Knight)
No Son of Mine
Ripples
Solsbury Hill
Land of Confusion
Follow You, Follow Me
Domino
Mama
Dodo/ Lurker
Abacab
Fading Lights
Misunderstanding
Spectral Mornings
In the Air Tonight
In The Cage Medley (In the Cage, Cinema Show, Slippermen)
Afterglow
Encore - I Know What I Like (including That's All, Illegal Alien, Your Own Special Way, Follow You, Follow Me, Stagnation)

Musically the songs were very tight and true to the originals, as one would expect from a tribute band. Brothers Mark & John Comish did admirable work on guitar and keyboards respectively, reproducing Hackett & Banks's riffs and solos spotlessly, and Dave Perry (bass) & James Cooper (drums) provided a solid rhythm section throughout. Vocally John Wilkinson sings Phil Collins's songs very well, with a good range and a powerful voice - he clearly models his own singing style on Collins. This fits well with the choice of material, and this is where my only gripe with the show surfaces.

A cursory glance through the set-list will witness that there was very little material from the Peter Gabriel era of the band: essentially three songs, with the introduction from a fourth, and instrumental sections from a further three. The rest of the material is heavily skewed towards the 80s material of the 3-piece band of Collins, Banks & Rutherford, and what they did sing from the 'classic' period of the band were all songs that Collins had performed on their live albums (and almost exactly as he had performed them, in terms of medleys and vocal improvisations). Now I am willing to concede that what they played was from the more commercially-successful, and therefore better-known albums, and that the Gabriel-era of the band only lasted for 6 of their roughly 40 years of active life, but as a purist I would perhaps have liked to have seen more from those formative years from a 'all-era' tribute band.

Having said that, it was good to see material from Gabriel, Hackett and Collins's solo careers included, and it was to be fair a great night: I was singing along at full throttle with the rest of them for most of the night! If you enjoy the music that Genesis made particularly from the 80s onwards, then check this band out: it may be the only opportunity you get to see it performed live these days.