Ex-Genesis guitarist Hackett has a Dream
By Jane Stevenson (Toronto Sun)

Supertramp and Fleetwood Mac may have dusted off the old microphones to record and tour again this year. But don't expect another rock supergroup from the era -- Genesis -- to be getting back together any time soon.

"I don't think it's going to happen tomorrow. I wouldn't hold your breath," said former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett, 47, in town to promote his latest instrumental solo effort, A Midsummer Night's Dream, made with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. "All I can say is that I've recently asked most of the guys in Genesis to take part in a project that ended up being Genesis revisited, and some of us -- (drummers) Chester (Thompson), and Bill Bruford, and Pete (Gabriel) and myself -- wrote a song for it, but it stops far short of the complete re-formation that you might think it is. "I actually find life to be a great musical adventure right now. I find it at least as interesting as my old school."

"America just didn't understand it at first. Genesis was something that was designed to send the audience to the foyer as soon as we got on stage most of the time," said Hackett, with a laugh.

"Here comes the big moment, the big thrill, we've got the bat wings, we've got the dry ice, we've got the mellatron, the dancing girls in the wings and everyone's gone into the foyer. And it was like that for the first few tours we did in America. People would say, 'Genesis are never ever going to make it.'"

"I think early Genesis tried to sketch in a number of styles," said Hackett. "I think later Genesis tended to become more of a corporation where the rough edges were all ironed out. But I personally think the rough edges are what it's all about."

"This album lacks drums, it lacks vocals, there's no electric guitar, there's no saxophone, what are you doing here Hackett?" he says.

"And indeed in America they've been saying to me, 'Why would you want to do an album like this? What is the marketplace for this?'

"To some people, they will put this on and they'll say, 'It has nothing to do with the modern world.' There's probably nothing in it that could possibly have been written after 1920. But somehow the ghosts of those periods seem to talk to me."

"It's funny isn't it? -- commerical considerations," says Hackett.

"It seems to me, if you do what comes naturally, commerce will follow. It is a nice break from rock and roll. Music to soothe the soul rather than get your heartbeat going too fast."