WUTHERING NIGHTS: LIVE IN BIRMINGHAM

Steve Hackett is now a close family with most of the musicians being in the band for a long time. Only Nick Beggs is back after a few years of absence. This is the second released filmed in Birmingham, the crowd is already sold to Steve Hackett since the 70's. This concert is the celebration of 40 years of "Wind and Wuthering", so the band is performing for the first time "Eleventh Earl of Mar" and "One for THe Vine", plus some others tracks being played before. It would have been better to also include "All in a Mouse's Night". The surprise is to watch for the first time the song "Inside and Out" who was written during the "Wind and Wuthering" sessions". The first half of the show is Hackett solo stuff including tracks from the latest album. It seems that the visuals improve on each release with a nice light show, an excellent sound, and picture. But I can't understand why for the Genesis set in the second half the surround mix is inferior to the first half of the show? Not in terms of clarity but in the fact that guitar of Hackett who was spread out in the back in key moments at first is almost kept exclusively in the front for the second half. The performance of each musician is perfect with some added sax of Townsend and the new version of "Los Endos" that Hackett has adopted a long time ago. Personally, I would prefer to hear fewer Genesis songs and hear more of his solo stuff, but I guess the man and his staff know better than me what are the needs of their public who probably want to hear again as much as possible some Genesis material. So, this is another nice addition to your collection of Hackett releases and prepare for much more as long as Mr. Hackett continue to tour again.

Rise again

Following the formula of 2016's The Total Experience: Live in Liverpool, Wuthering Nights likewise features a two-part live show with the first part being Hackett solo material and the second part Genesis classics. In my review of The Total Experience, I remarked that "I think that Steve has now come to the end of the road with the 'Genesis revisited' concept. Continuing on with this beyond this point would be milking it." But Steve obviously did not agree, and pronged out another CD/DVD package from the next tour. Having that said, Steve and his band are still very much able to deliver top quality performances. The line-up remains basically the same as in recent years.

There is an even stricter separation this time between solo and Genesis with the first CD and DVD of the set being devoted entirely to material from Steve's solo career and the second is 100% Genesis. The solo set features songs from five different decades! From the 1970's comes Every Day and Shadow of the Hierophant; from the 1980's The Steppes; from the 1990's Rise Again; from the 2000's Serpentine Song; and from the 2010's El Nino, In the Skeleton Gallery, and Behind the Smoke. The latter three are from the most recent of Steve's many albums, The Night Siren, released in 2017. The new songs are good, and the most interesting of the older ones here is Rise Again. The rest have been played often, and were included on several previous live releases.

In the Genesis set, there is a special focus on the Wind and Wuthering album, which celebrated 40 years in 2017. But not the whole album is performed, which would have been more interesting. The handful of songs selected from the album have in most cases been performed on previous tours, but the epic One For the Vine is an exception and a highlight of the show. Another pleasant surprise is Inside and Out, originally from the 1977 Spot the Pigeon EP, and written and recorded during the Wind and Wuthering sessions. The only songs here that reach back to the Peter Gabriel-era are Firth of Fifth and The Musical Box. These two numbers, as well as Dance on a Volcano and Los Endos, are all standards in Steve's set by now.

Wuthering Nights is a strong live release in its own right, and better than The Total Experience. Despite not holding too many surprises, it is nonetheless full of excellent music and as such constitutes another excellent addition to Steve's extensive live catalogue.