STEVE Hackett cut his teeth as the lead guitarist of progressive rock giants Genesis during the period of 1971 to 1977, regarded by many as the glory years of Genesis, between the early stage folk music and the pop music that came after Phil Collins took over vocal duties from Peter Gabriel.

Steve left the band during the mixing of Seconds Out, a live album consisting of songs from Genesis albums up to that point such as Selling England By The Pound and The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway.

Now performing solo, on this year’s world tour Steve has been playing pieces from Selling England By The Pound and (Hackett’s third solo album) Spectral Mornings and a couple of things from his 2019 solo album At The Edge of Light.

“Selling England goes back to 1973, the time when John Lennon said we were one of the bands that he was listening to.

“I’m still very proud of that album. There’s lots of my guitar work on it and I was very proud of the way the band functioned into the things that followed.”

The 2019 tour has been Steve’s most successful solo tour to date, selling more than 30,000 tickets in the UK alone.

Next year he will be playing at Brighton Dome, which he describes as “a great venue. One of the best we’ve got in the country, it has its own atmosphere.” He will be playing the whole of Seconds Out. Why that particular album?

“Well I was always very happy with the set we were doing then,” Steve tells me.

“I think it was a particularly good collection of songs and I believe that when I play Genesis numbers with the band that I’m currently working with, it actually sounds better.

“I think it sounds more professional, it has more energy. You have to remember that in those days we were very young players and I think I play better now than I did then, and I haven’t lost any of the fire and the passion for it.

“I like doing it a second time. I’m looking forward to doing Seconds Out, as I’ve enjoyed doing the stuff this year.”

Steve’s recent live performances have seen him playing with a full live orchestra, which satisfies a long-standing passion of his.

“It’s the same songs but they’re enlargements, they take on board many more players,” he says now. “So when the music itself aspires to anything vaguely orchestral or classical, you have the possibility of enlarging it further.

“It goes right back to when I was a kid. The first albums I bought were Ravel’s Bolero and The Shadows. I used to listen to the Rolling Stones as much as I listened to Segovia plays Bach. I thought one of them was a guilty pleasure that would have no place in any future career that I might have, but then music started to borrow as much from baroque as much as it did from blues.”

And how difficult has it been, reworking old songs to suit their new setting?

“Well I think some of the Genesis material was orchestral in spirit and there was a lot of classical influence back in the day so it seems to work well.

“I love doing it, I’m a bit of an orchestral groupie, I follow them around sometimes. Occasionally I’m lucky enough to work with an orchestra like the Heart Of England or the Royal Philharmonic (on his 2014 Live At The Royal Albert Hall album).”

Steve’s departure from Genesis in 1977 following the release of Seconds Out was not entirely harmonious.

“I wanted to be able to make a solo album at that time and the rest of the band basically said you can either make a solo album and leave the band or stay and do as you’re told, so I left.

“I think I made the right decision. I’ve never had any problem with the music of Genesis. I think it was great, the stuff that was group written I think was tremendously strong, which is why I continue to honour it. I fought hard for it then and I fight hard for it now.

“I’ve got a different idea of what Genesis was all about from them. I joined them because it was an interesting sounding band, I wasn’t looking for a band that was going to have a string of hit singles.

“When a band is at its height in terms of hit singles, what tends to happen is that position is you do an album that’s full of potential hit singles, rather than doing a record that functions as an album in its own right.

“I pitch my tent in the other camp. I like albums, I like what albums do, I like the journeys that albums provide.”

With his 25th solo studio album, At The Edge Of Light, coming out this year, it is clear that Steve’s focus remains on albums.

Years after the release of Seconds Out, the lingering tension between Steve and the remaining three members of Genesis resulted in keyboard player Tony Banks joking that Steve had been mixed out of the album following his departure. When I ask him about this now, Steve pauses before he answers.

“Well, you can hear my guitar on that album, and it’s been remixed since. Why would you want to cut off your nose to spite your face? Why would you want to weaken a product that may have been stronger by having everyone heard?

“It’s very strange. Sometimes Tony says great things and he praises me, other times I get denounced. It’s not consistent.

“Genesis was a very competitive band full of brilliant people, all of whom were capable of writing great songs and even hits. We’ve all had our hits. Unfortunately it was riddled with politics.

“When I do Genesis music these days I just do the best music. I love to honour that music that we wrote together. I think that’s my job right now, to take forward the Genesis fans that felt disenfranchised by what it became. It became a very successful pop machine, and you can’t knock that, but I believe the songs were stronger when we were a five-piece with Peter Gabriel, and then as a four-piece. I think the more the merrier, there’s more variety.

“Many might take issue with that, possibly including the three remaining members. For me, I don’t consider what we did in the early days an aberration. We were playing to 60,000 people in London when I left the band and I was very proud of what we were doing.

“My allegiance is first and foremost to music, so as well as keeping the museum doors open to the glorious old exhibits, I still make albums and the last one I did charted in 12 territories. My past seems to be catching up with my past.”