Hackett Philharmonia

Sunday the 7th of October was supposed to be a fairly non eventful day of mid afternoon rest followed by a trip to Gateshead's Sage in the evening.
A Steve Hackett gig was rapidly becoming a staple with my cousin, a chance to catch up on events and have our usual daft repartee.

All that having been said, we found ourselves on the balcony of level 2 close to the first time we ever saw Steve at the Sage. Shortly after 7.30, the 30-40 piece orchestra apppeared followed by the band and straight into Dance on a Volcano. 
Frankly I wasn't all that impressed at the interraction, maybe I had been expecting more strings and less brass - yes brass, trombone in Dance on a Volcano, really? 

From here on in though everything picked up, a shuffling of Genesis and solo material were, almost without exception, enhanced by strings and the gravitas of the brass section. Can never remember the setlist and would direct you to 'setlist' website for the breakdown but as I recall, we had Firth of Fifth - as good as ever I've heard it and probably now my favourite Genesis track, Serpentine Song (unheard before by me) Dancing with the Moonlit Knight..in that quiet earth/Afterglow, El Nino and the mighty Supper's Ready.

The band was made up of regulars, Roger King, reliably good on keyboards, Gary O'Toole, brilliantly effortless in his compact drum kit area, Nad Sylvan on vocals and seeming to stamp his own authority on each track. Rob Townsend is the multi instrumentalist, filling in on keys and showcasing the flute and finally Jonas Rheingold on bass who was new to me and did a fine job. Steve, well he's Steve and he's ageing very gracefully with his dry wit and fine performance on his gold Les Paul. 

Stand out moments....oh easy, Firth of Fifth and several passages of Supper's Ready which got me to my feet and I was surprised at how much of the lyrics I recalled. Cousin sat tapping away on his thighs like all good drummers, whistling at the end of a particularly good track and accompanying me at the top of our voices near the end, shouting 'More' before they finally returned to finish with Musical Box. Great night, one of the best.