Words: James McNair

With his first proper concept album in almost 50 years, guitarist Steve Hackett transports the listener back to bombsite-littered post-war London, with the record’s fictional character, Travla, telling a symbolic tale of a journey towards self-actualisation. “It’s been extraordinary making this record,” he tells Prog. “I grew up in a time when music changed the world, and I’ve always felt the album can be a really powerful force. I really hope people enjoy listening to this one.”

This is solo album number 30,” explains Steve Hackett. “I suppose if I keep at it there’s a possibility of the John Wayne award for ‘Most Westerns In The Saddle’!”

Pan out for the prairie wide shot, and it seems extraordinary that Hackett has done so much since leaving Genesis in October 1977. Then again, he’s one of prog’s great enthusiasts, passion undimmed. “I still so much enjoy music,” he affirms. “It’s my chosen medium, just as my father’s chosen medium was art. Dad painted the world, but I try and make it a film for the ear. And if ever I made a film for the ear, this album is it.”

Chatting from his New York City hotel room, Hackett is referring to his spectacular latest record The Circus And The Nightwhale. His first ‘proper’ concept album since 1975’s Voyage Of The Acolyte (the story of which starts on p42), it’s partly autobiographical, but Hackett also employs a fictional protagonist named Travla (geddit?) to tell a more symbolic tale of a journey towards self-actualisation.

“It’s the arc of a life that starts literally,” he says. “Then it becomes more metaphorical and we start to embrace story, not just little Stevie Hackett and his guitar exploits.”

Famed for their stylistic breadth and innovation, “little Stevie Hackett’s guitar exploits” have kept us enthralled and entertained for more than half a century now. In recent years, January 2021’s Under A Mediterranean Sky (No.2 in the UK Classical Chart) was the mellower, more contemplative yin to Surrender Of Silence’s symphonic metal yang, the latter Hackett record arriving just months later, in September 2021. Ringing the changes –and often –is Hackett’s way, then, and he has also had the largesse to honour his and his former Genesis bandmates' formidable legacy via the medium of live performance. The Circus And The Nightwhale is something else again, though: a landmark solo album in which he goes the extra mile.

“M usic has to be fun, aside from all the detailed analysis that goes on.”

Roll up! Roll up! Steve Hackett welcomes you to the circus-like tale of a traveller.

Images: Tina Korhonen

“I was considering the hero’s quest that life is,” Hackett explains. “The changes we go through and the challenges we face. I’d also been thinking about Joseph Campbell’s [1949 book on mythical structure] The Hero With A Thousand Faces, and his take on what a life journey is. Homer’s The Odyssey comes into this album; Pinocchio comes in to it. It feels very special and personal, but I’ve tried to make it as inclusive as possible. It’s pan-genre, tapping into rock, blues, jazz and classical. It takes you to different times and different places.”