Steve Hackett - Selling England By The Pound & Spectral Mornings Live At Hammersmith

Steve Hackett

Selling England By The Pound

& Spectral Mornings Live At Hammersmith

(Inside Out)

10/10

By Decibel Report

There’s a prevailing trend by bands and artists, especially those with a distinguished heritage, to combine seminal album releases into a setlist thereby sating the ravenous appetites of their devoted following in a wistful trek back down memory lane. Steve Hackett went one further by also including tracks from his most recent high charting album release At The Edge Of Light.

Captured on both DVD and Blu-Ray formats with stereo and surround sound 5.1 options, Live At Hammersmith is like an air-conditioned cinematic dream for all fans of this enduring maestro’s work.

There’s a palpable warm rapport between band and audience as, in celebration of its 40th anniversary, the Spectral Mornings album is rolled out in abbreviated form after a majestic selection of tracks from the aforementioned new album. Yet, the absolute zenith of the evening’s performance is the complete showing of Genesis’ much-adored Selling England By The Pound album. With an audience enraptured by the unfolding beauty of the songs rarely, if at all, played, singer Nad Sylvan exudes charisma in his mad hatter’s costume engaging with the narrative of these cherished songs.

With numerous moments of superb showmanship by all players including guest appearances by John Hackett and Amanda Lehman - even a one hand drum-roll from Craig Blundell, not forgetting Jonas Reingold balancing his Rickenbacker bass between his teeth at the final curtain call - it’s the quality of the film direction which places the viewer in a helicopter mode overviewing the complete show from multiple angles and close-ups of the most important magical musical moments by all players.

As a ticket holder at the concert on the night, the faultless attention to detail of those onstage is captured in the same vein by the film crew presenting a consummate audiovisual recording of a stunning show to forever remember and replay on this multi-format release.