He said “…as it’s the centre of wild style it is still misunderstood…but give me a bubble letter and put on it a t-shirt and write Banksy on it and we’re all sorted, we’re good…we can sell that, we can make it something else.  No disrespect to Robert I think he’s a brilliant artist.  I think he’s flipped the world of art over.  I think that the irony in that…. (Silence as he realises his gaff).  Um, if jazz…”

By naming Banksy as ‘Robert’ Goldie fuels the long standing speculation that his real identity is Robert Del Naja of Massive Attack.  Goldie and Del Naja are friends. Prior to joining Massive Attack Robert Del Naja was a graffiti artist known as 3D and was active in Bristol in the 1980s as part of a collective known as The Wild Bunch.  He is widely credited with pioneering stencilled graffiti.  Coincidentally Banksy also revealed that he came up with the idea of stencilling in order to paint at a greater speed so that he could more easily evade the police.

There has been speculation based on so called ‘research’ that Banksy’s work tends to pop up in cities when Massive Attack are on tour there.  Although major works by Banksy have appeared totally independently of a simultaneous Massive Attack presence, such as those on the Israeli ‘Security Barrier’ and inside the Gaza Strip.

There has been further speculation that Robert Del Naja may head up a collective of artists who are together known as Banksy.  A number of artists did participate in the live installation Dismaland ‘Bemusement Park’ in Weston-Super-Mare in 2015, but the show was clearly Banksy’s design and brain child.

It would clearly be exciting to find that Banksy has been hiding in plain sight and is an artistic polymath.  But this would literally cramp Banksy’s style and probably end his career.  His art depends upon its subversive nature and the brilliant, insightful social and political commentary he expresses through it.  He doesn’t want to be interviewed or to spend time explaining art that he views as disposable and transient.  It still has to be produced in the hours of darkness away from the police.  Graffiti after all is illegal, even if it is by Banksy.

 Feature by Shirley Ann  on Banksy 23rd June 2017

Nad Sylvan took time out of his busy tour schedule with Steve Hackett to talk with Tim Price from RockShot magazine. His new solo album Courting The Widow has just been released on Inside Out Music. He spoke about family, cats, quitting his full time job and John Wayne.

Nad, thank you for meeting with us here just two hours before you go on stage for the Genesis Revisited Tour. These Steve Hackett show’s sell out year after year, on worldwide tours, so how long how long do you see yourself being active as the front man in this particular project?

As long as he wants me, as long as I have time, at present there is no ending to this story. I don’t really know how long it will go on but hopefully as long as I can perform.

You were recommended to Steve Hackett by a German Tour agent, what is your memory of that introduction?

Yes, I was indeed recommended by Winfried Voelklein, who is the promoter for the Night Of The Prog festival in Germany and I received an email from Brian Coles, Hackett’s tour manager, in April 2012 and he suggested I come over and meet Steve, so we met up here in the UK and decided to work together.

Steve told me that he had heard a recording you made of a version of 32 Doors from The Lamb Lies Down which grabbed his interest prior to that meeting?

Yes, I did a recording of that song for Dave Kerzner as he wanted to use my voice, but ultimately he did not like the recordings, he had thousands of ideas of how I should do it but none really grooved. I sent one of the recordings to Steve prior to our 2012 initial meeting and partly to do with this tape, he took my voice on straight away.

Your voice blends both styles of Gabriel and Collins almost perfectly.

Definitely, but I have to answer that and why that is. I sing the songs the way I have heard them, I could do more with them, but I have so much respect for the songs and also for Steve’s wishes. Also my vocal happens to be in the same sort of range or family of voices as theirs. If you like, my voice does not command the same range as the Yes type of music, my voice just doesn’t go there.

You mean as in singing like Jon Anderson?

Yes, that’s right, I don’t have a tenor voice, I am more like a baritone really, I can stretch down to bass and if need be up to the higher registers, particularly with songs like Squonk, or the highness of Supper’s Ready, When I started out with Steve I was not used to singing in this way, I was very much comfortable in the mid range so I had to very much reinvent my technique, it got better during the first year but still I wasn’t used to it, then after through studies you learn from your mistakes.

Well, I don’t think you can call those mistakes, it is surely development.

Well, development as you say but for me they are mistakes, it is what I should have done technically but I did not have the expertise back then, let’s just say it was growing into it the role.

Nad Sylvan portraits (Simon Jay Price)

Talking about growing into it, your new album Courting The Widow has recently been released to very positive acclaim.

Thank you, it came out in Europe on 16th October 2015 and was released in USA on 30th October

The total eight tracks are very refreshing. In particular, Where The Martyr Carved His Name is one of the most stunningly original pieces of music I have listened to in recent years and has a Burt Bacharach feel to it.

Well, it is funny you should say that, as I have heard someone else mentioning a Burt Bacharach feel, but I would apply that to the first song, Carry Me Home which has more of a Bacharach feel than anything with a sixties sort of vibe, I remember Nick Beggs said it conjured images of sunshine in my hair in the Californian breeze and very la la!

You say your father knew Burt Bacharach? (Nad had talked about this on the way to the interview)

Definitely yes, my dad who was a tennis star back in the 1950s – knows Burt Bacharach and was also very close friends with John Wayne as he played tennis with him from time to time.

Tennis?

Yes my dad was a big player at Wimbledon and Monte Carlo and all that stuff, he was a top player on the world tennis league in the 1950s, which is where he met my mother,

When were you born?

1959

You don’t look anything like your age, I mean you don’t look a day over 40!

That is the best compliment. I intend to stay young; you know, with no wrinkles and the long natural hair, in my case it has to be the genes, which are my father’s genes.

Do you play tennis and coming from Sweden did you meet Bjorn Borg?

No, unfortunately I don’t play tennis and I never met him. I know my dad met him and I do know if I had been raised by my father and lived with him, which I never did, I would probably have been a tennis player, but I was raised in Sweden by my late mother..

She did a very good job on you! I have read that at home in Sweden you had a very healthy upbringing and that you ride horses?

I have been riding off and on since I was 11 and had my own horse in the 1980s. In fact there is a stable close to where I live now which has Icelandic ponies, I made an album a few years ago with the Agents Of Mercy called the Black Forest which is influenced by these ponies.

Moving from the four legged to an eight legged spider theme and your new album Courting The Widow, is this your second solo offering?

No, actually it is my fourth!

Gosh, where have all the other pirate treasure been buried all these years?

Well, I know why the disparity. My very first album was released in 1997 and was called Life of A Housewife but before that I did one in 1995, which is only available on MP3 download and not even out yet as an official release but we are working on it.

What is the background to the character of your Widow album as you portray a very spooky vampirism, haunted house and deathly image on the front cover?

This is a character which developed on stage with Steve Hackett which culminated over the past years with all the clothes and makeup I just thought, wow, this is a natural progression, an evolution. I didn’t even have to think about it too much, as I was already looking like a vampire, but also rather more a ships pirate, and so I am a Vampirate!

So, the new album is not necessarily about the Vampirate in entirety?

Actually, my Vampirate story is contained in the sleeve notes with ships log numerals I – V (5 parts) it is a metaphorical musical journey; the Widow is the symbol of death. In fact, the whole album is about death in one way or another, even Ship’s Cat.

Nad Sylvan sings with former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett, songs from Acolyte To Wolflight with Genesis Revisited. (Simon Jay Price)

Ship’s Cat, the first time I heard this track it knocked me out, almost a blow-back to old traditional sea shanties, which were sung in Cornwall & Devon in the South West of England, where the first pilgrims sailed from to America.

Cornwall, I have never been there, I don’t know what a shanty song is, I have not been in that part of the world yet but to be in those kind of places is in the spirit of the last song I worked on, which was Where The Martyr Carved His Name, so I really would like to go and experience it all.

What, then, is Where The Martyr Carved His Name all about? It is compelling.

Martyr is about a man who is about to be beheaded and his journey after his death.

Did you write all the songs on Courting The Widow yourself?

Yes, everything, yes.

Turn The Other Side is the longest track at some twenty two minutes, the early parts of which are incredible, then it goes off in places as an extended progressive piece.

Yes, very much with the long wandering bass chords sequence as compared to Yes and some Gentle Giant chords aswell. It is bringing everything I have listened to in my life into that one piece.

Bringing in guitar works by Steve Hackett you have added incredible depth and real quality, but you also play guitars on all of the songs, can you expand?

Steve provides enspiring tailor made solos on Carry Me Home, To Turn The Other Side and the last track Long Slow Crash Landing where he is heavily soloing in the middle section and ends with a gospel type feel but it is actually me starting the piece. On the entire album I play all the guitars, but I’m not a guitarist, in fact I am a shit guitarist!

Tell me about Echoes Of Ekwabet as there appears to be an underlying Native American theme?

It is inspired by a statue which I saw on the River Fox, in St Charles, just outside of Chicago, where we were playing on tour. I had no idea at the time that three and a half years later, that I was going to make a solo record, I just wanted to write, including music for Agents Of Mercy. I just had to write.

So, when I was at St. Charles I decided to study the history of what happened with the Potawatomis Indians at the time of the Civil War. They named the statue Ekwabet, (meaning watching over) in order to give it protective spirit and it has such a rhythmic sound to it, EK-WA-BET, coupled with a melodic sound, and that is what I am into as an artist.

I then recorded all the sounds myself including the guitar which I always had in mind Steve Hackett would play for me with his own final touches. When it came to it Steve decided the tape was as good as it could get, he could not improve on it, and so my guitar work on Ekwabet stands on the album, which is an ultimate accolade for me.

However, it now stands that Echoes Of Ekwabet is a studio recording and I just could not go on stage and repeat that guitar in the same way as I would just have to practice a lot. I am not a stage guitarist, I am a writer, composer, singer and interpreter.

Nad Sylvan portraits (Simon Jay Price)

Do you envisage then, that you can take the studio material of the Courting The Widow album and your Vampirate character into a live environment on the road?

That is a very good question. I realize now with Courting The Widow I would love to tour the world but it has to do with many things, how could I find a way to get the “widow” on the road? I would have to employ people and maybe take on a Kickstart type of thing which scares me in a way.

It can be scary, even for established stars. As an example, Jon Anderson and Luc Ponty went out last July to raise $99,000 for their campaign to stage their inaugural gig and live album in Colorado. With any Kickstart campaign you need to be certain that the fans will be patient after pledging funds as projects take time, and if they are not patient they will ask what has been done with that money.

That is one aspect, I do not want to upset anyone and the time available is also the stumbling block as that by end December I will return home again from the States after the completing the present tour with Steve and by the end we will have done sixty-seven shows.

So. Who looks after your cat when you are away for these extended periods?

N: One of my best friends looks after Skrut and takes care of her, she is very sweet.

Is Skrut actually Ship’s Cat or was that about any cat which came to mind?

N: Well Skrut, she always lies on the top of my keyboards when I am recording, purring, I let her do this and she always lies on my tummy, making noises, so I decided to record them and let her appear on the album.

So, obviously then you have a studio at home, is that where you recorded most of the Widow album?

Yes, mostly at home studio, but the drums are recorded either in America or England by Nick D’Virgilio and I used Gary O’Toole. Nick Beggs recorded his bass on the road through the internet. When it comes to the vocals he has soft quality to his singing which did actually come over well on the internet. I used a lot of his voice and blended it together with my own as well as with Jade Ell. Nick also sings lead here and there as well as backing vocals on Martyr. I recorded the background vocals mostly myself so you can call it egotistic, but I know what I want.

Nad Sylvan singing with former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett, songs from Acolyte To Wolflight with Genesis Revisited. (Simon Jay Price)

I think you are now making a name for yourself with what you have been doing with Steve Hackett for the last three years but this solo album could make a nice break for you in order to take your career to the next rung of the ladder ?

Well I just quit my day job in the last five months.

You quit your day job?!

Yes I was working in a surveillance centre on evening and night shifts in Sweden.
So, I gave up my job and I realized that this was little bit scary as all the revenue I now have is touring with Steve and my music. I do have an agent looking at future projects which may possibly work alongside existing commitments, but this is now my career.

What quantity run would you be looking at first pressing for your album?

I don’t know, I have never asked them, I am, in a way, too scared to know.

 I have all the answers from you about what we wanted to ask, you have been very forthcoming and a breath of fresh air with your engaging approach.

There is one thing I would to add though, I have seen a lot of reviews that say my new stuff is just like a take on Genesis but I have to say that this was never intended. Early Genesis are certainly one of my inspirations, but these negative critics have not really listened to, for example, the first track of my album, Carry Me Home, where I am a lot more of a soul singer than anything I sing from say Selling England By the Pound.

Absolutely, and also more blues and even folk, you have a chameleon voice.

In a sense, I am a chameleon; in so much that I can adapt my voice into many different styles. I sing in a way I think my voice is required, accommodating changes.

Finally, with the recent news that Phil Collins is coming out of retirement and making noises about reforming with Genesis, where would this leave you if the original Genesis did decide to reform?

I tell you what. Steve has always been there for me and the band but if they wanted him in Genesis again he would go and do that, he would do it now and that would be the real thing. When it comes to Genesis, as it stands I am just an interpreter of the songs, but if I was ever asked to sing with the original Genesis, in any form, I would say no,

I don’t want to see myself in that original band at all, no, not never, ever and I don’t think the fans would like to see me in that role. They like to see me as interpreter. So, as regards Genesis I am just an interpreter of their material, I do not copy Peter Gabriel in my own music, I like to do it my way, in my own style,

For me the show must go on and so from mid December until the end of March 2016, I will be working on my follow up album to the Widow. .

It has been a pleasure meeting you. According to your concept maybe death is not such a painful experience after all as the album is a very enjoyable listen!

Nad Sylvan Online:
www.facebook.com/Nadsylvanartist
www.nadsylvan.com/
www.twitter.com/SylvanOfficial

Interview with Nad Sylvan on October 30 2015

Tim Price interviewed Nad Sylvan at The Birmingham Hotel assisted by Shirley Ann.

Portraits by Simon Jay Price www.simonjayprice.com

Former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett plays songs from Acolyte To Wolflight with Genesis Revisited. (Photographer Simon Jay Price)

Designed by specialist architects in the 1980s and officially opened in 1991 the Birmingham Symphony Hall was purposely constructed to create acoustics of exceptional sound quality, so unique that Steve Hackett expressed in his introduction that simply rehearsing there is a pleasure. It was no accident that this venue was chosen for the penultimate concert for the Acolyte to Wolflight and Genesis Revisited Tour 2015 by Steve Hackett and his band.

Tonight was a voyage from Acolyte to Wolflight as the latest line up of the Hackett band launched into the first set of solo material with Spectral Mornings, this being the title track of his third solo album released in 1979. This instrumental embodies the total uniqueness of Steve Hackett’s fundamental sliding guitar style technique, highlighting the power and majesty of his music.

Former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett plays songs from Acolyte To Wolflight with Genesis Revisited. (Photographer Simon Jay Price)

Turning to an acoustic guitar Hackett breathed life into the title track of his latest album, Wolflight, released in April 2015 and brings his impressive tally to twenty-four albums of solo and Genesis Revisited work, spanning a career outside of the official Genesis ranks which now celebrates thirty-eight years.

Hackett takes the lead vocal on all of his latest material, his voice velvety and capable. Wolflight draws on very dark and heavy chords and is a complex and continually changing piece which the whole band played with great precision in the spirit of Hackett’s self-cited Russian composer influences such as Alexander Borodin.

Former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett plays songs from Acolyte To Wolflight with Genesis Revisited. (Photographer Simon Jay Price)

After Everyday, the crowd gave their first standing ovation. Steve Hackett spoke for the first time and introduced the band.   He was simply dressed in grey jeans and a black t-shirt with a gold logo, as with the set design there was no over embellishment. The lighting show continued to astound as the players exhibited their skills to a willing audience.

Rob Townsend plays with former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett plays songs from Acolyte To Wolflight with Genesis Revisited. (Photographer Simon Jay Price)

Rob Townsend delivered soprano saxophone and wind instruments, the drums were mastered by Gary O’ Toole who also supplied backing vocals in the higher tones and range of Phil Collins. Meanwhile Roger King set the orchestral effect on keyboards with bass being pumped by Roine Stolt who was introduced to Hackett by Nad Sylvan after the two Swedes formed Agents of Mercy in 2009.

Roine Stolt plays bass with former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett who plays songs from Acolyte To Wolflight with Genesis Revisited. (Simon Jay Price)

Love Song For A Vampire is a lavishly dark creation from Wolflight, the studio recording featured the late Chris Squire on a Hackett owned bass guitar which was resurrected from his massive archive collection. This was the possibly the last new song Squire worked on and this was a fitting tribute by Steve to his friend. The duo had only recently collaborated on the project drawing from their surnames, Squackett.

Nad Sylvan sings with former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett plays songs from Acolyte To Wolflight with Genesis Revisited. (Photographer Simon Jay Price)

Further into the show Hackett deemed it appropriate to pay homage and a fitting tribute to Richie Havens who passed away in April 2013 as Nad Sylvan was introduced to perform Icarus Ascending. This song was originally released on his second album of 1978 under the title of Please Don’t Touch. Havens sang the emotional lead vocal on the studio recording of Icarus, a song which before this tour had never been played by Hackett in a live environment.

The song is based on Greek mythology about a man who, wearing wings of feathers and wax, flies to close to sun and falls as they melt.  But ascension was the spirit of this song. In the original Richie Havens uniquely combined the natural feel of soul, blues, folk and gospel in one incredible gravelly vocal range and it comes full circle that Sylvan’s own voice perfectly recreates all of these attributes, after all, these are the very qualities which Hackett sought out for his leading singer, it seems he got his man.

Former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett plays songs from Acolyte To Wolflight with Genesis Revisited. (Photographer Simon Jay Price)

Steve took the time to mention his mother was in the audience that night and so it was a proud family moment as he introduced his brother John to play flute on a classical duet from his album Jacuzzi. On the song Tower Struck Down (co-written with Mike Rutherford) Hackett played his heart out and this turned into very heavy stuff, where at the end he scraped his knuckles along the floor in a gesture to the audience that he could not have given any more.

As the audience headed to the bar for the interval it was apparent that no one had seen Hackett play better, he was on fire and clearly this was a special night, musical magic was in the air. This was no normal gig and we sincerely hoped the sound was being officially recorded.

Former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett plays songs from Acolyte To Wolflight with Genesis Revisited. (Photographer Simon Jay Price)

The second half set, which focused on Genesis Revisited material, the lighting design was in the style captured on the cover of the 1973 Genesis Live LP.   Simply hung gantries at the sides of the stage providing colour changes synchronized to the music creating spectacular effect. Get ‘Em Out By Friday is the opening song here with Nad Sylvan showcasing his vocals and he was unable to resist some playful miming during the instrumentals.

Former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett plays songs from Acolyte To Wolflight with Genesis Revisited. (Simon Jay Price)

Hackett then introduced a further track from Foxtrot and proudly explained that Can-Utility And The Coastliners has never been played before on a Genesis Revisited tour.  This was also the case with the evenings pièce de résistance, the classic track Cinema Show from selling England By The Pound.  Sylvan melted hearts with his interpretations of chocolate surprises, scented flowers and pretty smells.

Land Of Plenty led us back into two tracks from Voyage Of The Acolyte both Star Of Cirius and Ace Of Wands performed in full on Hackett style setting us up for the set finale of The Musical Box, which saw Nad Sylvan waving his microphone stand around in the style of Roger Daltrey.

Former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett plays songs from Acolyte To Wolflight with Genesis Revisited. (Simon Jay Price)

Genesis’ music has woven webs of intrigue, fantasy and incredible stories over the past five decades and is now being passed down to a younger crowd to absorb.  But cutting through all this background it is soul lifting that a certain rock legend still is proud of introducing his mum to one and all in the audience and takes comfort in the fact that she supported the band and cooked their meals in the heady days of the those London studio sessions in the mid 1970’s. Bless.

The encore commenced with the ticking of Clocks taking us into another dimension for a moment.  Then Gary O’Toole took the lead with the drum solo and his beats reverberated through the floor and the seats.  The vibration continued to work its frenzy and built up to the only logical encore, Firth of Fifth.  Townsend’s soprano saxophone replaced the original flute and was sublime, as that formidable Hackett guitar sound expanded to create the most intense solo music beyond our dreams.

Former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett plays songs from Acolyte To Wolflight with Genesis Revisited with Nad Sylvan as vocalist.(Simon Jay Price)

After the ordeal both Nad Sylvan and Steve Hackett personally told us that the energy of the crowd urged them on to achieve the best concert of the tour.  Steve’s mum had attended five of the shows and confirmed that this one had been outstanding.  Sadly the gig had not been officially recorded for prosperity, so, in the end an evening of pure perfection had to be committed to memory.  Oh, but what memories!

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Live Review by Shirley Ann Williams and Tim Price.

Photography by Simon Jay Price

Steve Hackett  at Birmingham Symphony Hall. October 30th 2015.

 TP:  It is incredible how Genesis do not seem to have any long disputed fall outs. The recent BBC TV documentary Together And Apart (accompanied by the release of the Genesis R-Kive Triple CD) demonstrated how well you still all get on together and have a very gentlemanly spiritual relationship after all these years. Would you agree with that?

TB:  Yeah, you know there was not real any falling outs when anyone left it was to further their career in a different way I just suppose and then I still see all the guys reasonably regularly and consider them all friends,

And that comes across. Incidentally I just read Mike Rutherford’s book The Living Years…

Rubbish…

Oh, Right! (Laughs from both sides) …..shall I put that in?

Yeah, put it in, but what I mean I think he takes me for granted a bit and it is only a book.

It is only a book, I agree, but what I thought interesting is that it appears to be sometimes brutally honest and is the only autobiography which has been written by a member of Genesis so far, is that right?

Yes, he is the only one to have written autobiographically  but when it originally started it was supposed to be more about the concentrated relationship with his father and how he was related but then ended up  being his autobiography of life with Genesis, more than he originally intended.

Yes, I believe so, but do you have any plans of your own to write such a book?

Not really, no, I occasionally think about it but then I think, what is the point, really? As far as I am concerned the most interesting thing about my life is the music, I can write words, but I am not sure I really approve about these biography books of people that much. I don’t really like them and so it does not grab my attention there.

Absolutely agree. So, tell me all about your new box set, which is what this particular interview is all about, as there are 49 pieces of music we can choose to talk about…..

Well, we have four CD’s within this box set which is a combination of the various seven rock and film score albums I have done over the years and the two orchestral albums. I think some of these releases did not make a very good impression and so I wanted to give them another fresh airing, particularly for those people who have liked Genesis over the years, so there is quite a lot of back material for them to like, many pieces of which they will not have heard. The first one did OK and the later orchestral albums did OK but in between some of them got lost a little bit.

So, aligning your solo work history to the recent Genesis R-Kive 3 CD release, wherein each of the five mainstay members were given only three choices each of their solo works for inclusion on the album , how exactly did you come up with your own three selections from your extensive repertoire?

For A While, I thought, was a good pop song from Curious Feeling, I was looking for tracks which were not too demanding and had a good feel which would sit smartly on the R-Kive project in order to help them flow into the other Genesis tracks on the album. My second choice was Blue Day On Blue Street which features Nik Kershaw on vocals and is from the album Still, he has a good voice in that context, and Siren from the 2012 Six Pieces for Orchestra album was the easiest to latch on to as it has atmospheric melody and so this is why I put those three pieces on the R-Kive to attract attention.

Fish, Jayney Klimek, TB, Nik Kershaw, Andy Taylor 1991

Yes that’s right.

So, without being rude here, but fill in the gaps for me, what have you been doing for the last 20 years on solo rock material as your last solo rock album was from 1995?

Well, the next thing, I had the Genesis project Calling all Station’s which filled a couple of years and then I did the orchestral album called Seven and then a Genesis tour which took a couple of years out and then I did the album Six Pieces For Orchestra 2012. I just don’t sit down writing rock albums all the time, I think what is the point,  I love making them I can put rock albums out but they can get all a bit depressing.

I did Strictly Inc which I thought is as good as anything I have done, I put my head above the parapet but it was impossible to get a single hit out of that, so I decided I would probably not do that anymore. Then after came the Genesis Calling All Stations period, which did OK, but obviously didn’t light up the world as much as we would have hoped.

So then I thought it was time to call it a day really, but I still had this idea in the back of mind to do something orchestral, having done Wicked Lady soundtracks some 20 years before and I then just found how the main theme sounded better with an orchestra as opposed to the way I just tinkled on the piano. So, I tried to write one or two pieces for the orchestra or even adapt one or two pieces we had for the orchestra and see where it led.

Fantastic, I feel that vision carries your musical writing somewhat full circle in bringing this orchestral experience to the fore as when Genesis started out you were very classically inspired.

Yes, very much, I like the idea that when we started out it was very much using more classical form and harmony within the rock context, which had not been done very much at the time, and that was quite exciting to me. Particularly in the phase of early Genesis albums with the orchestrations, we were recreating a feel of instruments which simply weren’t available to us.

In particular Steve was a very imaginative guitarist, and in terms of what I had available to me such as the melotron and that kind of thing we could build up an orchestral picture, which was great fun to do , and so when I came back later on with a humble sort of orchestral feel where you don’t have to worry about that repetition feel of words and choruses and then your chords can go on for a while, my hands weren’t tied and I just enjoyed doing it and was what I wanted to do all along really. I mean I love writing pop songs as well but it is a different discipline to writing a sonnet as opposed to writing a poem, I suppose. There are times you have to do what is required but then there are times when you just have to throw off the shackles and do what ever occurs to you naturally.

Well, exactly, you are the master of utilising the creative effect of using repetition chords, which will forever go down in history as masterpices of music such as Ripples? Everywhere in the world this melody is recognised and adored.

Yeah, sometimes you want it to be more straight ahead but sometimes you don’t want it to be so. In the early Genesis days we experimented with a total lack of repetition with songs such as Musical Box, where we would be in pains and purposely just play a piece once and then suddenly just go somewhere else. I enjoyed, treating it as special journey whereby normally we would come back to a chorus, which was fun to do aswell, but a different way of working.

Going back to the Mike Rutherford book (which I now know you think is rubbish!) one of the things I thought was fascinating from your early Genesis days was how you all carried that heavy Mellotron up the steep path to that rented cottage in order to endlessly rehearse and perfect your game. It is great to recall that in those early days you had to lug all your own very heavy gear about, which probably would not happen with that same discipline in these modern times!

[clickToTweet tweet=”was that he couldn’t drive! So, Mike and I shared most of the driving and Peter did a bit. ” quote=”was that he couldn’t drive! So, Mike and I shared most of the driving and Peter did a bit. “]

We had two guys who helped up us when we first got on the road, the roadies, but the main guy ended up being on his own after a bit and the main problem with that situation was that he couldn’t drive!  So, Mike and I shared most of the driving and Peter did a bit. In terms of moving the gear about we obviously took part in that, and all the guitar string changing, the electronic making up of leads and everything, at that time you didn’t go out and buy jack plug leads you made them yourself, which was all a lot of fun really and we had a value to everything, mostly homemade, as money was fairly tight and you had to make the most of what you had, and our enthusiasm carried us through.

Moving on a few years, once getting your heavy equipment on stage, you always seemed to position yourself to be far right of stage looking out directly over the band, rather than into the audience. Was this considered to be your natural position as if you were the conductor?

Not really, not from that point of view, but I did do one tour in the middle of the two drummers, and that was a nightmare, because it was so bloody loud. That was ACACAB live and it worked from a visual point and so I went along with it but I didn’t feel right up there at all. I had always just got used to a certain position so I could look across at the group, I like to watch the band and take the cues from the singer and the drummers, and taking cues is what it’s all about, so you’ve got to be able to see each other. As you said facing the audience you can’t really see that, and sometimes when something’s wrong you can come in and do what you have to fix it. Then in the later days with earphones you could cheat a little bit with the extra stuff in the technology but back in the old days you came in the same time as the drummer….

Your legendary concert tours and how the roadie activities were micro managed draw apparel with today’s cutting edge technology with parallel to Bernie’s Formula One road show. Everything is so slick and the timing is always immaculate. Do you agree?

Yes, but we spent a lot of time on it, and we had good players, but the key is having the drummers to knit things together and once you have them in place to play along with it just makes life so much easier.

So, do you think there will be any more Genesis live shows now or is it all exhausted due to Phil Collin’s back problem?

I think it is highly unlikely but we never say never or that were not going to do it. There is nothing planned so I don’t think its going to happen, if something was to happen I would probably be up for it but I don’t think its going to happen.

So, is this the end of Genesis live, and is now effectively retirement from Genesis?

Well, for the group, possibly yes, but we all do stuff on our own, and I suppose as long as that carries on it doesn’t stop anyone from playing Genesis material as Steve Hackett is still doing.

Well, yes and he does a fantastic job doesn’t he? Those Hackett Genesis Revisited tours get sold out and I have done a few reviews, he makes his band play just like early Genesis forcing them to learn the twelve string guitar exactly as Genesis performed.

Well, its an approach and I had no doubt that he would do it again, I mean he wrote a lot of it, and there is always a lot of dialogue concerning tribute bands doing the Genesis stuff but you mentioned we couldn’t play with Phil’s back problem, and we simply couldn’t do the songs like we used to, and if we did they would have to be in a different style.

So perhaps this bodes well for an acoustic Genesis set?

Well, all I can say is that we never say never!

When I interviewed Steve Hackett this time last year I asked a question that Fly On A Windshield is perhaps one of the heaviest Genesis guitar tracks he had ever played on. He explained it was written as an ensemble rather than just for guitar and he cited Respighi’s Pines of Rome as a major influence. Are there any instances of classical pieces which have given you influence on any of your own songs and compositions?

Not directly, I suppose there are influences in all the stuff you write but I don’t know where Respighi comes from for Fly On A Windshield really. For that track we had set ourselves out for writing a piece having designs of Queen of Sheba coming down the aisle, so we did an improvisation on that theme. Phil played a slow heavy drum solo and I played slow heavy Mellotron chords and so, going back  your question of classical influences, yes, on that piece I had the idea on that to play one key as long as I possibly could with one key change in the middle, just as Ravel’s Bolero without any key change for 20 minutes, that was my thought on it to give it an Egyptian feel, so that is where it came from really. We all improvised together so, yes, on this particular piece Steve may be right, it is an ensemble.

Looking at the classical aspect of your own new box set is their any significant usage of the numbers Seven and Six for your orchestral pieces?

Well, it happened to be seven pieces of music on the first and six pieces on the second.  I wanted a title which did not have any particular name so I gave them numerical titles but not just one, two, three; we are not supposed to use those anyway.  Then with the demo tracks from the new release I prefer to use inspiration of the Four Seasons and stuff like that. I am not one of these sorts of people who get influenced by fashion. I like music for music sake and making chords fit together is what I do and I like chords which move me directly rather than just leaving a window to view the music through. So I settled on using numbers in the main but there are also hints of rising and falling of the tide and horizons, all phrases which I like and had used in the past, and so that was the idea.

What about the title for this new box set album A Chord Too Far? Does that not sound a little apprehensive, or even daunting?

Well, I don’t know I always felt that a lot of the time with my music, people just feel that I use one or two too many chords, you know, and often when writing with the others even they would sometimes give me a look as to say that is not really there and would hold me back a little bit but over the years and through my solo albums I was allowed free reign, but I always knew what I was doing, You make music to give pleasure and lift the spirit and be user friendly really, so for the people who do like it, they like it more because of these qualities, just like the introduction to Watcher Of the Skies, and from this box set tracks such as Black Down, which is my favourite orchestral piece from Seven: A Suite for Orchestra, where the chords are quite exotic at times, but there are also many sequences of three of four chords which is where most pop music is written around, or three or four discords even.

You just half answered my next question, so what was your favourite piece of your works carried out with an orchestra?

Black Down, which was originally released in 2004, I thought I would give it a go, when I wrote it I thought this is ideally suited for a proper orchestra where some of the others are just orchestral arrangements.

 Six Pieces For Orchestra came out in 2012 so do you have plans to make another classical album in the near future in this style?

Last year I was commissioned to do a piece for the Cheltenham Musical Festival which I performed down there which was quite fun to do and was a 15 minute piece, and using that as a starting point and expanding from there I have another couple of pieces I have completed and some others I am thinking about and working on, which should be recorded later this year, and released next year hopefully.

Did you not take the Six Pieces for Orchestra recording live in the Royal Albert Hall?

No, apart from that Cheltenham Festival in 2014 nothing I have written for the orchestral world has ever been done live, I have thought about doing it but am not sure I want to go down that road.

This new box set release includes music from your four film score soundtracks albums comprising of Shout, Wicked Lady, Starship and Quicksilver, which you can see clips of on YouTube…..

You would rather not I think! (Laughs)

Yes, they are mainly from the 80’s, but what about going forward with more movie scores? As an example, Trevor Rabin went on to make a career in that genre, is this not an area in which you see yourself operating in future years?

Well, I tried to do it back in the day really, especially as Genesis went through our regeneration period, but with those film scores I did, none of the films, unfortunately, were very successful and so they did not give me any platform to go forward with my ideas. I was quite keen on it in those days but today I am more happy working with artists who tell you straight away if they like it or not.  Film scores took a lot of effort, you can take a month doing all of that and then it gets edited to a three minute video out of your control and that kind of thing.

It is probably only Vangelis, from the keyboard perspective, who got an Oscar for a film score isn’t it?

Well it was a great film and he wrote a great theme for it, so there is a combination. The first thing you have to have is an acclaimed film, you can make an incredible score but if the film then flops you are left with nothing, to end up with a the combination of a great film and great score together, well, that’s just rarer.

 Wrapping up then, what does the future for Tony Banks hold, is this perhaps a classical direction?

Well that probably is my future but I would just like to mention a couple of the tracks from the box set  which I believe have real merit. When you mention people who like Genesis, there is a 15 minute piece called An Island In The Darkness which is on the album Strictly Inc and recalls the early playing style of my career.

You may also want to mention the track just before it called Charity Balls, which was written in the 1990’s but is about people having dark secrets which they try to hide and then these things come out in the future. If you read the lyrics, which you can’t because they are not on this album, but the words relate very closely to things which have been in the news in only the last 5 or 10 years or so concerning the Jimmy Saville’s and the Rolf Harris’s and all the rest of it. Some of the lyrics did raise questions at that time concerning these kinds of relationships and stuff.

There are also some artists on the record which I like to refer to. People like Fish, who appears singing on three tracks and Nick Kershaw, who also has three, Toyah Wilcox, who has a very strong voice and  I even appear on some tracks as a vocalist.

That was actually a question I had in mind, what does your lead vocal hold, as you actually have a very good singing voice. Could you not do the lead vocals?

I don’t know about very good. I can do it but it is one of those things in life. I wanted to do it, and did some on a Curious Feeling, and on the next record The Fugitive I decided to sing all the tracks myself. But the thing really is this: If you are going to be the lead singer you have to carry it off after that, all the time, as the leader, you have to perform in videos and all that and I found that is not really what I want to do.

Tony, many thanks for this interview, it has been an absolute pleasure and I feel we have uncovered some very classical territory for both new and old listeners to explore.

Interview by Tim Price with Tony Banks June 22nd 2015 between Wolverhampton and Tony’s Home office nearby the Farm Studio

A Chord Too Far. A Special Edition Four Disc box set of Tony Banks solo career released on Esoteric Recordings,  hits the stores on July 31st 2015 http://shop.cherryred.co.uk/shopexd.asp?id=5095

Steve Hackett, Genesis Extended Tour, 2014 (Lee Millward)

Steve Hackett selected the  Symphony Hall Birmingham to be the final date of his third year of Genesis tours, all sold out, time and time again. The bar area of the hall pre-show featured a mature and pleasant audience with an expectant buzz in the air, many are here with the knowledge that this year is the 40^th Anniversary of the release of Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. Fittingly, the large window structures look out over a bustling Broad Street, this is not New York Broadway but parallels of a bustling and darkened street are drawn, so would the Lamb Lie down yet again for Steve Hackett on Broad Street?

It was often the case on the final night of an extensive European Tour the musicians become tired and jaded from the previous months travel and performance schedules, the show commenced with some dark classical Russian classical themes. However, have no fear of dark nights; this unit was tight as a nut, polished and professional to the last note. Hackett dressed all in black took the centre stage as his fellow players joined the set and bursting into Dance on a Volcano.

Nick Beggs plays with Steve Hackett, Genesis Extended Tour, 2014 (Lee Millward)

Nick Beggs delved into the 12 string guitar which was a signature tune of early Genesis absorbing the bass into a guitar role; meantime the lightshow was working overtime, resulting in a performance which bought rays of sunshine, creativity, and lengthy music and sometimes bewildering lyrics: all subjectivity which sum up the brand of Genesis.

Carrying on with the Trick Of A Tail scenario Squonk saw drummer Gary O Toole working away believing he was both Phil Collins and Chester Thomson in one person, with modern technology, he pulled it off, producing massive rhythm and some great vocals. Also producing a massive sound, deep from within his soul, was vocalist, Nad Sylvan, seemingly Dancing With The Moonlight Knight throughout the 2 ½ hour show.

Steve Hackett, Genesis Extended Tour, 2014 (Lee Millward)

When I interviewed Steve Hackett in July I asked if Fly On A Windshield was one of the heaviest tracks he had written, incredulously the answer came back that this was never intended to be a heavy guitar piece but was written more as an ensemble with inspiration being born from Respighi’s Pines of Rome. With this knowledge now in my head this piece of music was listened to with new ears and a real sense of satisfaction as some source of the Genesis classical roots had been revealed.

Digging up further cultivated roots Hackett recited some of the events of 1971 which lead to the Return Of The Giant Hogweed. On the previous 2013 tour this song had been accompanied by a massive background of three visual screens beaming entertaining cartoon graphics but those visual effects were not utilized at all this year.

Steve Hackett, Genesis Extended Tour, 2014 (Lee Millward)

The Fountain of Salmacis recites the story of Greek mythology where the nymph Salmacis attempts to rape Hermaphroditus, joined as one in the same body. Again listening with new years it is remarkable how many riffs and melodies from this early Genesis song from the album Nursery Cryme appear much later in adapted forms on both Suppers Ready and in parts of Lamb Lies Down. Nursery Cryme was recorded and released in 1971 and is the first Genesis album to feature Steve Hackett and Phil Collins.

I Know What I Like featured a very effective sax solo from Rob Townsend which turned into a jam of raucous jazz quality. Fittingly Townsend has forged a successful jazz career over many years and even played with Bill Bruford’s Earthworks, Bruford being the initial drummer who Phil Collins entrusted the kit to when he went centre stage on the first Genesis live shows without Peter Gabriel.

Steve Hackett, Genesis Extended Tour, 2014 (Lee Millward)

Some of those tracks where Bruford drums for Genesis are featured on the 1977 Double Live Album Seconds Out, the light shows of which go down in music history as groundbreaking. In Genesis Extended 2014 Steve Hackett replicates those light shows magnificently and the Birmingham Symphony Hall sucked up all the rays and spewed them back out at that the spellbound audience during the impressive 2 ½ hour set

The acoustic set leads into Firth Of Fifth. This stunning guitar piece was written by Steve Hackett and he plays it sublimely, seemingly not moving an inch as his fingers, arms and entire body extract a depth of continuous sound which is uncanny. Indeed, this guitar riff remains cemented as the number one Progressive Solos of all time, time and time again. It is little wonder then that the Hackett camp feel short changed that in a recent BBC Documentary on Genesis, the producer chose to concentrate 4 minutes of film showing how Daryl Stuermer (the American live session Genesis guitarist who is not allowed to be on any of their Studio recordings) can play this outstanding piece, composed by Steve Hackett.  Faux Pas for the BBC.

Steve Hackett, Genesis Extended Tour, 2014 (Lee Millward)

As the lamb lay down on Broad Street for Steve Hackett and his bunch of troubadours their highly accurate renditions of Genesis songs transfer to the real Broadway as Steve Hackett hits New York, USA at the start of a 4 month USA and South American Tour, catch them if you can, this format may never be repeated as next year sees a return to his solo projects.

Review by Tim Price and Photography by Lee Millward. Symphony Hall Birmingham 4th November 2014.