Steve Hackett - A Brief History Chapter Four

A Brief History - Chapter Four

by Alan Hewitt

Defecting

Fans didn't have long to wait for Steve's next album. Defector was released a little under a year after Spectral Mornings and it seemed that he was taking the words of the spirit Kitumbi from his Quiet World days quite literally in trying to express the idea that the defector from the old Eastern Bloc who forms the subject of the album's title is amazed upon his arrival in the West to find that everyone dreams in colour. The idea is a quite striking and Steve explained part of the rationale behind it ...

"Yes, in fact we found that when we toured later and went to Estonia, in what was then the Soviet Union, there WAS a limitation of colours. The buildings were painted in two colours, and the rest was concrete ... I found that the insides of churches were the only place where there was any imagination and colour ..."

Musically the album was far heavier than previous outings and Steve admitted the change himself in an interview with Hugh Fielder for Sounds in July 1980 ...

"I've felt more involved in every aspect of this tour than I've ever done ... the music, the organisation and the audience,. I want to get closer to them and to be more expansive... With Genesis it wasn't done to come off stage and cry 'Oh yeah' or anything like that. It was always more analytical. Perhaps I'm reacting against that now. I've moved to the centre of the stage now both mentally and physically..."

The change certainly showed in the stage presentation for which Steve dressed in anonymous black jeans and T-shirt discarding the gypsy player look which had been his trademark appearance in Genesis. The album drew very favourable reviews again and retained the sense of musical variety which always makes Steve's albums such a pleasure to listen to including yet another eccentric masterpiece entitled 'Sentimental Institution' for which Steve utilised the Optigan, a wonderful device he had discovered in Holland during the Spectral Mornings sessions...

"I found this machine which was designed for lounge use in Holland at a place called Relight Studios which is where we did Wind & Wuthering. It was an amazing machine ... on one side of the keyboard it would give you pre-recorded riffs with discs that you used to insert in order to achieve them ... I used it on Defector, on Sentimental Institution, doing the 'big band' sound which was produced to sound like an old 78 record. In fact it's one of my favourites because it is a send up of something traditional ... unless you listen to it closely and hear that the lyrics are a total send up..."

The tour also saw Steve's first visit to the USA as a solo artist and the set list drew on all of his albums as well as a playful rendition of the operatic standard 'O Sole Mio' (which apparently was not too well received in Turin!)

The next outing was to be one of 'all change' with a completely revamped band and musical style.

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