Steve Hackett – Recording Compendium, Part 1: 1969 – 1978

Part 1: Quiet World / Voyage Of The Acolyte / Please Don’t Touch! | 1969 – Frühjahr 1978

Last update: 12.02.2025 | Introduction | on to part 2

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Steve Hackett’s career as a musician began at the tender age of two when he was given his first harmonica and two years later he was able to play tunes such as God Save The Queen, Scotland The Brave, The Yellow Rose Of Texas and Oh Susannah. A year later he had a housemate in the form of his brother John, with whom he would share his passion for music in later years. At the age of 12 his father gave Steve an acoustic guitar, but it was not until he was 14 that he was introduced to the electric guitar.

A year later – at the same time as his first love Barbara – he discovered the world of classical guitar through recordings by the Spaniard Andrés Segovia, who was to have a lasting influence on him. His fascination with live music began at the age of 16, when he attended his first concerts on Eel Pie Island and celebrated blues heroes such as Paul Butterfield, Peter Green and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton. From around 1967, Steve took the plunge and gained his first experience with bands such as Heel Pier and Sarabande, of which unfortunately no recordings exist.

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The now 19-year-old Steve’s first experience in a recording studio was with a band called Canterbury Glass, where he was allowed to take on the lead guitar part on at least one track before becoming a permanent band member for a short time afterwards. However, the recording remained unreleased for decades…

On 20 July 1969 – the day of the moon landing – Steve goes to see a concert by the new band King Crimson, which will have a lasting musical influence on him.

In September, brothers Lea and John Heather release a debut single on the Dawn label under the name The Quiet World Of Lea And John. Afterwards, the third Heather brother Neil joins them and they start working on a concept album based on the book The Aquarian Gospel Of Jesus The Christ…

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The line-up expands again to include key man and arranger Phil Henderson, bassist Dick Driver and Steve Hackett! Under the shorter name of Quiet World, the band entered Pye Studios in London in the spring of 1970 under the direction of producer John Schroeder to record their concept work. At the same time they recorded two singles which were curiously released under the project name Greenwich Village.

The spiritual and metaphysical interpretation of the life of Jesus, building a bridge between the historical figure of Jesus and the universal spiritual truths of many religions and traditions, is documented by Quiet World in 14 songs and is a recurring theme on the album The Road, to be released this summer. Steve’s distinctive guitar riff in the songs Star and Loneliness And Grief would be revisited many years later in his songs Fire On The Moon (as a vocal line) and Wolflight.

There are two slightly different versions on the single for the album…

Producer John Schroeder was impressed by Steve Hackett’s skills as a guitarist and harmonica player and invited him to play on various recordings as a session musician. Unfortunately it is not known on which of the numerous Schroeder productions from 1970 he can be heard.

After the summer, Quiet World meets again in the studio to record a new single. Steve’s younger brother John makes his debut on one of the tracks…

During the mixing session for the single, Steve and the others fall out because he is unhappy with the sound. He left Quiet World (who only stayed together for one more single) and put out his feelers again. Many years later his path would cross again with those of Phil Henderson and Dick Driver.

His advert in the 12 December issue of Melody Maker – ‘Imaginative guitarist-writer seeks involvement with receptive musicians, determined to strive beyond existing stagnant music forms‘ – has attracted the interest of a band still looking for a suitable guitarist: Genesis! At an audition in Hackett’s family home, he and his brother John played an early version of The Hermit to an audience that included Peter Gabriel and Tony Banks. Before Steve Hackett joined Genesis, he saw the band at the Lyceum in London on 28 December 1970.

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The time of current Genesis guitarist Mick Barnard ended abruptly on 5 January of the new year, immediately after their concert in High Wycombe. Steve’s first rehearsal with the band took place in West Hampstead and he played the first Genesis concert at London City University on 14 January.

In the spring the first (unfortunately lost) studio recordings for a planned single were made with his new band Genesis, and in August the first album with him as lead guitarist was recorded. For Nursery Cryme, Steve contributes some of his ideas to the already existing, later classic The Musical Box, but also provides compositional input for the new songs The Fountain Of Salmacis, The Return Of The Giant Hogweed and Seven Stones. Of particular note is the acoustic song For Absent Friends, which he co-wrote with the other ‘new guy’ in the band, Phil Collins, giving him his first lead vocal.

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After a single session in mid-May, the next Genesis album, Foxtrot, was recorded in August 1972. On the compositional side, he is involved in Lover’s Leap, Apocalypse In 9/8 and As Sure As Eggs Is Eggs of the 22-minute epic Supper’s Ready, as well as Get ‘Em Out By Friday. Can-Utility And The Coastliners was largely written by him, and his acoustic guitar instrumental Horizons is a true solo track on a band album. Another co-composition with Mike Rutherford did not make it, but will be honoured some time later as the instrumental part of Shadow Of The Hierophant.

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Steve then toured extensively with Genesis until mid-May 1973 – including a single recording at the beginning of the new year, but in the meantime was also invited to record ex-Yes guitarist Peter Banks‘ first solo album, which featured fellow band member Phil Collins as well as the likes of John Wetton and Jan Akkerman. It is possible that this work prompted Steve to register his own copyright and publishing company, ‘Stephen Hackett Ltd’, on 22 March 1973.

The fifth Genesis album, Selling England By The Pound, was recorded in August 1973. Again, he contributed compositions to tracks such as Dancing With The Moonlit Knight, I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) (based on a riff from his Foxtrot days) and The Battle Of Epping Forest. The instrumental After The Ordeal was largely written by him. And the Tony Banks track Firth Of Fifth gave him probably his most popular guitar solo of the future.

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At a traumatic time in his life, following the separation from his wife Ellen and son Oliver, Steve worked with Genesis from August to October 1974 on the concept double album The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, to which he was again able to contribute some of his compositional ideas, e.g. on The Chamber Of 32 Doors, Lilywhite Lilith, The Waiting Room or The Raven from The Colony Of Slippermen. However, his greatest contributions can be found on Cuckoo Cocoon, Hairless Heart, Here Comes The Supernatural Anaesthetist, Ravine and the closing track it.

Shortly before the start of the tour, Steve injured his thumb so badly – by smashing a wine glass in frustration – that the concerts had to be postponed. This forced time out and the low point in his confidence led to the decision to finally record an album of his own in order to regain his confidence and realise his preference for the more romantic sound of the band, which he preferred to The Lamb. Tony Banks’ Mellotron, which had been “parked” with Steve for a short time, helped. During this time tracks such as Hands Of The Priestess and the vocal part of Shadow Of The Hierophant were written. On tour in December he met Kim Poor (his future wife), with whom he immediately fell in love and whose enthusiasm fuelled his plans.

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The Genesis tour ended on 22 May 1975 and with it the chapter of Peter Gabriel as the band’s singer. A studio and producer John Acock are booked for the following month to fulfil Steve Hackett’s wish for a solo album, to be called Voyage Of The Acolyte and conceptually based on tarot cards. For his bandmates Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins, too, their involvement in the recordings was a welcome distraction from the very unclear situation as to what was to happen next with Genesis.

The fact that only an abridged version of one track is on the album was only discovered 30 years later. There is also a shortened version of a vocal track for American radio…

After mixing his solo album, Steve returned to the Genesis writing sessions that had already begun for the band’s next album, A Trick Of The Tail, which was recorded in October and November for the first time without Peter Gabriel as singer, and during which Phil Collins became the band’s new singer due to a lack of ‘alternatives’. Steve contributes the instrumental part of Dance On A Volcano and the leitmotif of Los Endos, and shines especially on Entangled, co-written with Tony.

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In the spring and early summer of 1976 Steve toured America and Europe with Genesis – Phil’s baptism of fire as a singer… with success! So nothing stands in the way of the next Genesis album. The moderate success of Steve’s solo album prompts Mike and Tony to persuade Steve that further solo albums would be counterproductive at this stage.

Material was written over the summer and in September/October 1976 the band went to work in Holland to record a total of 12 tracks, nine of which ended up on the album Wind & Wuthering and three on the EP Spot The Pigeon released months later. His compositional ideas found their way into Eleventh Earl Of Mar, Unquiet Slumbers For The Sleepers…, …In That Quiet Earth, Inside And Out, but most notably Blood On The Rooftops, which he co-wrote with Phil Collins. Hackett’s Please Don’t Touch was rehearsed by Genesis but not recorded.

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Genesis’ Wind & Wuthering Tour 1977 lasts for six months until the beginning of July. They plan to release a live album afterwards. The interest of Steve’s American record companies in particular, and his own inner pressure to let his hair down with solo work, had become so great that during the mixing sessions for the double live album Seconds Out, he was forced to make a decision in favour of a solo career and against remaining in the band, despite the expected uncertainty.

While Genesis are recording their next album as a trio, Steve Hackett is preparing to record his second solo album, for which he wants to involve all kinds of American guests, not only to please his American label, but also to satisfy Steve’s demand for musical freedom: With former Zappa rhythm section Chester Thompson (the new Genesis live drummer) & Tom Fowler, Woodstock legend Richie Havens (Genesis support act in London), newcomer talent Randy Crawford and singer Steve Walsh & drummer Phil Erhart from Kansas, it justifies the move to start recording in Los Angeles in November. Back home, he ends up in hospital on Christmas Eve due to stomach ulcers caused by overwork…

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After recovering, he continued to work on his album in London until February of the new year. The album is now to be called Please Don’t Touch!

An unused track from the American sessions was rediscovered and released many years later. Elements of it would later reappear in the song The Virgin And The Gypsy…

There is also an alternative mix of the album opener and a single version by John G. Perry of the song actually sung by Kansas singer Steve Walsh, as well as Steven Wilson’s stereo and 5.1 surround remixes of all tracks…

Steve’s first solo album after his departure from Genesis is out on 14 April 1978. To Steve’s relief – it will not go unheard…

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Compiled and written by Steffen Gerlach
Header image: Helmut Janisch
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