GENESIS founder member Steve Hackett kicked off his 15-date UK tour with a now and then show in front of a sizeable and appreciative audience on his return visit to Cardiff's St David's Hall.
Standing centre stage guitarist, lyricist and composer extraordinaire Hackett filled the hall with a host of new and newer songs some from his recently released album The Night Siren as well as a raft from 40th anniversary celebrating classic Genesis album Wind and Wuthering.
Measured, thoughtful Hackett was backed and buoyed up by a quite superb band of expert musicians made up of flaxen-haired Nick Beggs, brilliant on bass and guitars; keyboards supremo Roger King; tireless Gary O'Toole, on drums and vocals; and multi-tasking Rob Townsend on sax, flute and keyboards and percussion.
The inimitable Nad Sylvan 'as' Peter Gabriel commanded vocals for the second 'Genesis' section of the two-and-a-half hour show.
Savouring the newer offerings in the first of the two part performance, including Behind the Smoke, a song centred on the plight of refugees, and Serpentine Song about Hackett's artist painter father, and the never previously performed Rise Again, the mature audience grew more responsive when Hackett and his excellent, tight-as-a-drunk-on-a-Saturday-night band, re-introduced us to some firm favourites in the second section.
It's probably what most of the dyed-in-the-wool Genesis fans had come to experience and they weren't disappointed.
Hackett, superbly backed by the strong and commanding vocals of Sylvan, served up a veritable feast to sate the appetite of the hungriest prog rocker.
Stunning selections from the 1977 album Wind and Wuthering such as One from the Vine and the haunting Afterglow rubbed shoulders with Dance on a Volcano from A Trick of the Tail, magical The Musical Box from Nursery Cryme and Hackett's tour de force Firth of Fifth with spine tingling mid song soaring solo from Selling England by the Pound.
The encore, naturally, produced a breath-taking and hall shaking rendition of Los Endos sending fans home happy that performers of the stature and virtuosity of Steve Hackett and his acolytes not just remain in our midst but they just keep on rocking.
David Barnes
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here