Steve Hackett - 'A Genesis In My Bed' - The Autobiography - review and extended interview
Will the real Steve Hackett please stand up ?
The power of Hackett's pen proves to be as mighty as his chords - as his flair for evocative storytelling combines with a wry sense of humour to make this latest book of Genesis a delightful and revelatory read.
Written in the same eclectic and lyrical style as his music, Steve delves deep into his psyche and soul to describe how childhood events shaped his adolescence and adult life.
From his lifelong aversion to salad, being bullied by Amazons then beaten at pool by Chrissie Hynde, to gorging on Crimson cheese to Fripp’s disgust and an early encounter with a Kensington Market trader called Freddie, there’s so much more to this book than a customary career retrospective.
It’s all written with engaging clarity and touching honesty, spiced by the odd dalliance with sex and drugs. Although chronological, with the expected emphasis on his seven years as a sedentary sidesman with the Charterhouse collective, there’s a wealth of insights into his formative years as a musician and his emergence as an upstanding artist in his own right.
The loving attention to detail and a swashbuckling turn-of-phrase makes this indispensable bed-time reading for the Genesis cognoscenti and longtime Hackett acolytes alike. Yet, as a warmly related and intriguing rock and roll tale, it's equally appealing to aficionados of the breadth of musical genres that Hackett has embraced during his expansive and ongoing career.
From gut to steel, from blues to prog, from AOR to pop-rock, from classical to orchestral, Steve's creative achievements are as impressive as his continued dedication to honour the words from that fateful ‘Melody Maker’ advert ….”Imaginative guitarist-writer seeks involvement with receptive musicians, determined to strive beyond existing stagnant music forms". Fifty years on, that's still the trick of this tale.
INTERVIEW:
Decibel Report’s Andy Rawll spoke to this one-time all-Canadian boy, gymnast, bluesman, failed waterskier, world-traveller and author about the life-journey, documented in his book, and the future chapters, that are still to be written.
AR: ‘A Genesis in my bed’, the book and definitive autobiography was published by Wymer on 24th July 2020. It’s taken fifteen years to write. How has it finally come to fruition now ?
SH: I started writing it ages ago, but of course I’ve been very busy with touring and making records. I was doing it in fits and starts. There were some moments when I went to it reluctantly and other times when I found that I really enjoyed the process. It’s a bit like being a first-time painter. It’s one thing writing a song or doing a sketch. You don’t have to write many words when you’re writing a song. They’re vignettes by comparison. So, writing a book, I found it quite difficult. You’ve got to reveal more of yourself - that’s what a book is all about - it’s not about sweeping things under the carpet.
I’ve been surprised so far, by those that have read it, who seem to pick up on the spiritual side of things. I expected that people would just be interested in the Genesis stuff, but far from it. The first thing that people have mentioned is childhood and the other stuff, over and above the music. In retrospect, those are areas where I could have invested more time. My wife Jo encouraged me, saying “you came from a very different background than the other Genesis guys and you need to talk about that”.
AR: At the front of the book you describe it as telling the story of the voyages of an explorer from drab south London. You start off in that monochrome, dark and dingy South London environment and then, as your journey unfolds, colour introduces itself and you end up in places like South America.
Vancouver’s recently reopened art deco ‘Hollywood Theater’ which lies down on 3123 Broadway
SH: Yes, it is just like the Wizard of Oz, but with the black and white part at the beginning extended quite a bit further. For me, the change into sustained colour really happened with my voyage to Canada, when I was seven years old. The journey by train, across the plains, the prairies and the mountains, was just as spectacular as the journey by sea, with icebergs and many other things.
I went to school in Canada and it only took me about two weeks to become the all Canadian kid with the accent and everything else, all set to become a member of ‘Rush’. I wasn’t ready to come back to London. Returning to England was a bit of shock. It took me about a year to become English again. I really couldn’t handle being thrust back into that punitive and almost Dickensian post-war environment. Whereas with Canada, it was like moving to Hollywood. In fact, there was a cinema up the road called the ‘The Hollywood Theater’ and we lived literally thirty seconds from Jericho Beach. As a kid, it was wonderful, with the cinema up the road, a beach around the corner, fabulous weather and my school being very encouraging and fun. Coming back to England and being hit by a teacher in front of the whole school on my first day there, I thought “fuck this for a lark”. Perhaps that’s why I took up rock guitar, later on.
Quiet World (1970) - featuring Steve Hackett and Dick Driver
AR: I’ve read the book a few times now. It describes your perspective on life, the fits and starts, the sideways steps, the reinventions, the departures. Most of all, I’d say it’s a story of happenstance and longstanding friendships, with people like Dick Driver from your pre-Genesis band ‘Quiet World’, with whom you still play, and Anthony Philips, whom you ultimately replaced and became a close friend.
SH: Yes, those things are important. I think that the purpose of long-term friendships is to encourage each other and not just recognize each other’s talent. When I look back at Anthony Philips’ work, I realise that not only was I replacing the guitarist, but I was replacing the foremost writer of that band. He’s the guy that drove them. I became a fan of all of the guys and what they were able to write, but when I listen to ‘Trespass’, the album before I joined, I think that the stand-out songs are really his.
He and I have worked together on a few things. What’s very interesting is that he does something that I don’t do. It’s not about who plays best, it’s the inventive turn of mind. The fact that he’ll tune a 12 string to something that I wouldn’t consider. He’ll do something different that I won’t have thought of.
Dick Driver was very encouraging with my stuff. We lost touch for many years. He put me in touch with the world of classical musicians, some of whom I still work with. There’s a girl called Christine Townsend, who’s a fabulous violinist and viola player. Her Dad was a professional viola player and Christine worked with Neville Mariner for the Academy of St Martin’s in the Field.
AR: She’s not related to Rob then ?
SH: She’s not, but she’ll be on the album that I’m working upon, as will Rob Townsend. It does sound like they’re brother and sister. I think I have introduced them to each other and said “behold thy sister, thy long-lost, virtuosic sibling”. They’re both incredible musicians. I’ve been so lucky to work with such great people. I think that the secret to world domination is having fabulous generals
AR: It’s also about friends and acquaintances. The book provides a fascinating insight into your early doubts and how you came on-board with Genesis. I think that you mentioned that you saw Genesis before you joined. Was that when you had just been chosen by the band, but Mick Barnard was still playing ?
Steve’s fateful “musician available” advert, placed in Melody Maker on 12th December 1970
SH: Yes it was. I can’t remember whether I’d got the gig at this point, it’s a bit hazy, but I saw them on stage and I thought that I could see myself playing with them. I thought I could do something here. I think I saw myself as a fiery player at that time, but I think the work I did with Genesis was probably anything but that. It required me to be more lyrical. It didn’t have that savage edge. In a few places perhaps.
In the main, Genesis really saw themselves as an acoustic band that occasionally went electric, rather than the other way around. Whereas I thought, “I’m an electric player, who occasionally picks up the acoustic”. Of course, since then we’ve turned around 360 degrees. I’ve gone to the opposite end of the spectrum and have done whole albums that are acoustic guitar, but at that time, I wasn’t really a nylon player. I had a twelve string and I had to sell it get my first Gibson and that was a great loss. But then, it was great being in a band. It meant that although we were on very slim pickings, as regards wages, nonetheless we became fully equipped in that first year. We’d acquired a Mellotron, I’d got a Les Paul, a Hi-Watt stack, an array of fuzz boxes and so we were all set. It took a while, like it does with all bands. It wasn’t a meteoric rise to fame. We were, I think, a slow burn. Genesis made its way through the colleges and concert halls
AR: It really comes across in the book. When you think about it, you joined an acoustic-based band that didn’t have a bass player. The thing that’s also remarkable, is that it took some time until the real Steve Hackett stood up.
SH: Until I literally stood up. Yes. It took all that time. I was hired to be a sedentary side-man. Almost like it was part of the contract, that we all sit down to play and Pete stands up because he’s the singer and he runs around and does all the rest. So I thought, fine, I’ll just sit down and get on with the music, just like the rest of them, with the one caveat, when Mike said “we stand up for the encore” which was ‘The Knife’. The idea was that the last song of the main set was “The musical box”, which woke up the audience and then they’d applaud and then we’d come back and do ‘The knife’ which was a real stomper.
AR: When describing your augmentative role in the band, you were keen for the band to expand its sound, in particular with the addition of the Mellotron, so you went along with Tony to buy one from King Crimson.
SH: Yes, I was the main Mellotron motivator. I knew that it would transform the work of the band. We went down and met Robert and we never looked back. Tony became so dexterous at handling it and was enormously creative, but he had a love-hate relationship with the machine. He said to me “imagine starting the set and you don’t know if the first note is going to work on the instrument that you’re playing”. Every night, we waited with bated-breath for that great long Mellotron introduction (on ‘Watcher of the skies’) that opened our set from 1972 onwards. There was just a chance that the thing would just cough and die in the first few seconds, but you have to tough it out and go, “I’m hoping that our Queen is going to deign to sing on the night”.
AR: yes, rule Britannia ! We’re glad that it worked most nights and that you continued your journey and where we sit now is at an interesting moment in time and space. It’s 15 years on from the first Genesis Revisited album and most of the rescheduled dates for the latest Genesis Revisited tour are up on your website (hackettsongs.com). I believe that there’s now 30 dates in the UK, including a third date that’s been added at the London Palladium
SH: It’s rather extraordinary. Who can forget the London Palladium ? Everybody watched Sunday Night at the London Palladium on TV. I saw everything on that, from Bruce Forsyth to Rudolph Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn. The most stunning thing was Nureyev’s leap from one side of the stage to the other. That was extraordinary, I’ve never seen a man fly like that. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a gymnast, because I was in the school gymnastics team. I saw that one leap and I practiced and practiced, but there came a time when I had to admit that some of us are built to fly and others are perhaps built to make a noise for a living. In my case those other things took over from gymnastics.
AR: I love the stories in the book of your attempts at extreme sports, scuba diving, water skiing and more.
SH: Yes, I tried lots of things. Lots of things went horribly wrong. Luckily, hang-gliding didn’t go horribly wrong. Water skiing ? more like high-speed drowning, that wasn’t a good idea, I never managed to stand-up on the skis. I just didn’t have the coordination to do that. I managed to get up on a horse a few times, but that I’m not in Mike Rutherford’s league, as regards controlling an unruly steed. I can canter along a bit, and that’s all. That reminds me of ‘The Virgin and the Gypsy’ by DH Lawrence. I actually read the book after I’d written the song (track 2 on ‘Spectral Mornings’), as I didn’t want to be distracted by it and I wanted it to have my own take on that. There’s a part when the gypsy is saying to the virginal young girl, “you need to be braver in the body” because he’s trying to seduce her. So yes, I did a number of foolhardy things, in my attempt to be “braver in the body”. I wouldn’t do it now. I’m not going to jump off a mountain to see if I can hang glide. I won’t be trying to follow in my father’s footsteps, and parachuting.
Steve Hackett & Amanda Lehmann (2020) - “Where the Small Things Go”
AR: We know that a lot has gone wrong in the world in 2020, but thankfully seem to be heading in the right direction and 2021 looks like it could be great. You’ve got your 10th wedding anniversary and your rescheduled tour dates to look forward to. Most importantly, will there be new studio album, as I know that’s something you’ve been working on during lock-down, including a musical sketch that’s now on YouTube.
SH: I started working on a new acoustic album and it’s actually turned into an orchestral album. We’ve been in lockdown, so I haven’t been able to work with an actual orchestra, so we’ve used orchestral modelling. I have to say that it sounds spectacular. Then we’ve also got the live album from Hammersmith, of last year’s ‘Selling England…’ show. Selling England meets Spectral meets a little bit of ‘At the edge of light’.
This week, I’ve been applying the finishing touches to the acoustic/orchestral thing, which I’m in love with and next I’m going to start work on a rock album. I’ve got a couple of rock tracks recorded and I have a couple of days to organize my thoughts and then I’m going to get back on it. I’m recording a bit of violin with Christine and then probably take the weekend out and then Monday “that’s it, I’ve got a week to write a whole rock album, that’ll be fine. How quick would you like it ?”
‘Déjà Vu’ (2020) from the album "Selling England by the Pound & Spectral Mornings: Live at Hammersmith"
I don’t know, it’s funny, I do seem to be speeding up. But I still can’t work at the speed that I want. When you do a rock album, each part is dependent on each other part. If I do an acoustic album, I’m not farming out responsibility too much. There’s the orchestral arrangements, which Roger does. But all the acoustic work, no-one can do that for me. I write melodies with Jo and with Roger. If I can get my fingers around it, we can have whole swathes of it recorded and I don’t have so much dependency on others. But as soon as you’re doing a rock album the vocals do take a long time; drums also. Other things, I find, tend to come a bit more naturally, but I hope to do something that’s not too predictable for the rock album.
I tend to think of the acoustic stuff as being very emotional, whereas the rock album I hope will be very elemental and surprising.
Back when we were working on ‘The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway’, I think the track was ‘Back In New York City’, Peter Gabriel said “well, if the Stones had brains as well as balls they might have sounded a bit like this”. I also think it was because it was in 7/8 time. If it has heart too, that’s great, but brains and balls, I’ll settle for that.
AR: In the book you describe Genesis as a mix of Shostakovich and Buddy Rich.
SH: Yes, I think so. Those were the influences. That sounds impossible doesn’t it ? But, if you think of the accents and syncopation of Buddy Rich, you might think that it has no relevance to a rock band, yet it does. For both Phil Collins and Bill Bruford, Buddy Rich was their early mentor. That was it. That was the challenge. They were jazz players, as much as anything, but perhaps rock was more kind to them than jazz, that’s where the audience came from. So you get that jazz sensibility.
It’s funny, isn’t it ? Would-be jazzers like Bill and Phil, and a would-be blues guitarist like myself, finding that prog was actually a lot more kind to me than that early music form which had first fired me up. There’s still a side of me that wants to be that young blues player.
AR: It’s great that did you stand-up and it’s great to hear about the new projects that are coming along and the new music that’s coming out. You’ve got a slew of gigs, I think starting in April next year, when you pick-up those US dates onto Australia and New Zealand and we’ll then see you in Europe, including the shows at the London Palladium in September (20-21-22) 2021.
SH: Yes, I’ve no doubt that the world will be open for business by then. Who knows exactly what it’s going to be like by then, but I’ve got great faith in science. The little glimpses that we get, in terms of whether they think they’ve cracked it or not. It does looks as if we’ll all be OK, having been fully medicated, injected, jabbed or whatever we need to do. Perhaps we need to do what the Romans did. Consult the entrails of enough goats and we’ll be fine. Right now, the entrails are looking good for that tour. I’m looking forward to getting back on the road.
The Book: “A Genesis in my bed”
Publish Date: 21st August 2020
https://www.wymeruk.co.uk/webshop/books/rock/genesis/a-genesis-in-my-bed/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Genesis-My-Bed-Steve-Hackett/dp/1912782383
The Live Album and Video: “Selling England By The Pound & Spectral Mornings: Live at Hammersmith”
Release Date: 25th September 2020
2CD+Blu-ray Digipak
2CD+DVD Multibox
Limited Edition Deluxe 2CD+Blu-ray+DVD with Artbook
Limited Edition black 4LP+2CD Box Set
Limited Edition “Lawnmower green” 4LP+2CD Box Set (300 copies - limited edition) through Steve Hackett Online Store
Preview Video: Under the eye of the sun (live at Hammersmith, 2019)
The Tour: Steve Hackett - Genesis Revisited - Seconds Out and more
Rescheduled US tour: 6-24 April 2021
Rescheduled Australia and New Zealand dates: 21-30 May 2021
Rescheduled Japan dates: 4-6 June 2021
Steve Hackett Genesis Revisited 2021 UK Tour (Seconds Out and more): 10 September - 22 October 2022
Rescheduled European tour: 11-30 November 2021
Additional European dates: 6-17 March 2022
http://www.hackettsongs.com/tour.html for full itinerary, including festival dates and other collaborations (incl. Djabe)
The Musician:
www.facebook.com/pages/Steve-Hackett/123101228589
www.twitter.com/HackettOfficial
http://www.hackettsongs.com/news.html
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