01	Gnossienne No 3						02:24
	02	Gnossienne No 2						01:56
	03	Gnossienne No 1						03:18
	04	Gymnopedie No 3						02:36
	05	Gymnopedie No 2						02:52
	06	Gymnopedie No 1						03:55
	07	Pieces Froides No 1 - Airs A Faire Fuir I						02:46
	08	Pieces Froides No 1 - Airs A Faire Fuir II						01:36
	09	Pieces Froides No 2 - Danse De Travers II						02:05
	10	Avant Dernieres Pensees - Idyllee A Debussy						00:57
	11	Avant Dernieres Pensees - Aubade A Paul Dukas						01:11
	12	Avant Dernieres Pensees - Meditation A Albert Roussel						00:54
	13	Gnossienne No 4						02:41
	14	Gnossienne No 5						03:20
	15	Gnossienne No 6						01:41
	16	Nocturnes No 1						03:31
	17	Nocturnes No 2						02:14
	18	Nocturnes No 3						03:36
	19	Nocturnes No 4						02:49
	20	Nocturnes No 5						02:27

Steve Hackett : Guitar John Hackett : Flute
Arranged by John & Steve Hackett
Recorded & Mixed by Roger King
CAMCD20 (P)+(C) 2000 Camino Records


Revelations

Written by John Hackett
Originally published in the Journal of the Classic Rock Society
Reproduced here by kind permission


Round and Round

For some reason when I woke up this morning, I had a Joni Mitchell song going round my head - the Circle Game. And as I hummed it through and gradually pieced the lyric together, with the aid of my ever-failing memory, I chuckled at the words "round and round in the circle game".

It must be over 25 years ago that I was asked to go and see Tony Stratton-Smith (sadly, no longer with us), the founder of Charisma Records and one-time manager of Genesis. Apparently, he and his accountant, Brian Gibbon, had been on a flight discussing the possibility of my doing some kind of flute album on the Charisma label. I duly cobbled together a few demo tracks with the help of Nick Magnus (Steve Hackett's keyboard player at the time) and presented myself at the Charisma offices.

Tony came in and seemed mildly irritated that I'd sent no covering letter with the demo. "Oops!" I thought, "Not a good start". Then he was very complimentary about the music, which was mostly my own work.

"I was sorry when the tape ended," he said.

"That's more promising," I thought.

"Stevie Winwood," he said, "that's who I thought you were, when I saw you up the corridor! Yes, you make things work."

I really had no idea what he was talking about, but nodded politely, assuming Tony had had an early lunch.

"The trouble is," he continued, "instrumental music is all very well, but people want songs. That's what they want - songs. Do you write songs?"

I then made one of the biggest mistakes of my life. I should have said, "Yes, I've got some tunes that would work really well with lyrics. Why don't I go away and record them and pop back to see you in a couple of weeks?"

But no (oh, the arrogance of youth!), instead, I told him in no uncertain terms that I was a flute player, I'd spent my whole life concentrating on the flute and I had absolutely no intention of writing any songs. Smart move, eh?



First Chords "Take me back to days when I was young,
Take me where they say it all began!"

Well, 25 years on and I am at last writing songs. These are the opening lines to a one that features early on the album I am currently working on. So where did it all begin?

For me it was when Steve arranged for me to buy an acoustic guitar off his mate Gordon Greenaway for ?5. Steve taught me to play "House of the Rising Sun". It's a great starting point on the guitar - controlled arpeggios and reasonably quick chord changes that soon give you some plectrum technique. I was 12 years old at the time (so he must have been 17) and in no time, or so it seemed, we were strumming around together. Soon we were playing blues - Steve was heading off to Eel Pie Island to see live bands most weekends and during the week, while he just managed to hold down a series of day jobs, first as a surveyor's gofer and then a spell at the London College of Printing, the records would be on. Lots of blues - Paul Butterfield and John Mayall, Bluesbreaker with Eric Clapton. Steve and I would take it in turns to swap solos. Then Cream, Yardbirds. I remember Steve going off to the Isle of Wight festival and coming back and spending all afternoon in the loo (the facilities had been 'poor'). It was clear that there had been some pretty grown-up stuff going on and boy, did I feel I was missing out (though you could keep the dysentery).

Steve progressed from a Framus semi-acoustic guitar to a one pick-up Gibson Melody Maker - what a difference to the sound. He had started a series of bands that rehearsed in Churchill Gardens Primary school that we had both attended. It was obvious that he only had one ambition. I don't remember them doing gigs, but he was never going to be anything but a musician.

At that time he was into the idea of a band with 2 lead guitarists. I remember one guy coming round who sounded brilliant and said he'd worked with Jeff Beck. Another had a fabulous black Les Paul which he said Pete Green had recorded Albatross on (I've absolutely no idea if this was true). Mark the bass player, Rod on sax, Dave the singer; they came and went and certainly for me as the younger brother, it was a heady environment to grow up in. Steve was always very good about letting me join in when they were jamming around which, considering the age difference (5 years) was, in retrospect, a big deal.


Quiet World It was with Quiet World and the Heather brothers that Steve got his first break into the professional music world. They were 3 brothers (there was a younger fourth brother who later became a millionaire from the aeroplane business, I believe) who had come over from South Africa to live in one room and try to make it in the music business. They already had some success. Not only did they have a record deal, but they were extremely nice people (as were the vast majority of musicians that Steve has associated with over the years).

They were working towards the recording of an album and so, unlike the other groups of musicians Steve had worked with, there was a real focus to their work, They would come over to the family flat in London to rehearse the songs; sometimes we would go over to the drummer's house and as always Steve would let me tag along and occasionally, strum along.

When it came time to go into the studio, they asked me if I would like to play guitar on a track. I was about 14 at the time and to be handed ?8 as my session fee at the end of the evening, by their producer Jon Schroeder, along with the other guys was just about the most thrilling thing you could imagine - a bit like your first real kiss, but more lucrative! The album was called "The Road" and I am told that now it is, on vinyl at least, a collector's item.

There were of course other musicians involved, among them Dick Driver the bass player and Phil Henderson, the orchestral arranger.

I should also mention John Ager who, going back to Churchill Gardens days, although not a musician himself, was always on the scene, passionate about music. He later went on to manage Steve for a time.





Roots It is sometimes assumed that because Genesis was formed at Charterhouse that Steve came from a similar public school background. This is not the case. Certainly until he joined the band, Steve lived with us in a small flat overlooking Victoria Station. The great thing was it was only a few minutes from Kings Road. We both went to grammar schools. Steve was at Sloane in Chelsea and I was at Westminster City in Victoria, both with their fair share of middle-class kids, as well as those from a more working class background, such as ours.

Our Dad, Peter Hackett, at that time was on the verge of chucking in his office job to concentrate on his painting full-time and Mum worked as a telephonist and later in advertising - looking back on it, it was a struggle for our parents but as kids we were not aware of it. There was always a lot of love, a lot of laughs and a relaxed "bohemian" approach to life with ham sandwiches in front of the black and white telly to watch Ready, Steady, Go with Cathy McGowan - what more could you want in life? Our parents had emigrated to Vancouver in 1957, but had returned after realising that, having grown up in London themselves, there was only one city where they felt at home and certainly living just off the Kings Road in the sixties for them was where it was at.

To be continued ...



To read another John Hackett article, please select from the following:

* 'Looking For Someone'
* 'The Gardener, the Clark, his Wife and the Ligger...'

To visit John's website, click here
To visit The Classic Rock Society's website, click here
... or go back to stevehackett.com here