Steve Hackett Event 2009 – Making of-Special

Since 1993, we had organised a total of 18 fan club events, one or sometimes two each year. Soon after the 2008 meeting, When in Welkers, we began searching for ideas for the 2009 club meeting. But this time, the decision of who to invite as a special guest or what the next event should be about was taken out of our hands.

In mid-November 2008, Steve Hackett's manager at the time, Billy Budis, informed us that he and Steve would no longer be working together. Our relationship with Hackett's management had always been very good and had existed since shortly after the club was founded. Compared to other management teams, they had always been very helpful to us. In this respect, we regretted this change, but were curious to see what it would mean for our contact with Steve.

Shortly afterwards, we received an email from Steve Hackett himself confirming the change in management and revealing that he and his wife, Kim Poor, had divorced the previous year. This information was also new and surprising to us, as Kim Poor was an important part of the fan cult, not least because of her numerous cover illustrations for Hackett albums. Steve was obviously going through a period of upheaval. In September 2008, he had taken part in the club day of the Italian fan club Dusk, where he played an acoustic show with his brother John. This had never happened before.

We had already asked Steve in 2005, on the sidelines of his concert in Braunschweig, if he would be willing to be a guest at one of our events. Billy Budis had declined at the time. So we were very surprised when Steve asked in his email when the next club day in Germany would be and said he was interested in being the special guest. Of course, we gratefully accepted the offer, and after a few emails to and from England, it was decided to what extent he would be involved in the event and when it would take place. On Christmas Eve 2008, we published this information on our website.

Around the turn of the year 2008/2009, it was agreed with Steve and his new manager Brian Coles that Steve would be present on both days of the event to sign autographs and chat with fans, give a stage interview on one day and play a concert on the other. The conditions were finalised and WiV Entertainment kindly took care of the official arrangements for the event on our behalf. At first, it was still somewhat unclear what exactly Steve's live show would look like. A performance with a full band was briefly discussed, but would have exceeded our budget. In the end, it was decided that Steve would play an acoustic set in a trio with John Hackett and Roger King.

John had not only agreed to perform with the trio, but also offered to play a short solo show on Friday (the day his brother would be giving the stage interview). He would not only showcase his flute playing, but also sing and play guitar on some of the songs. We gladly accepted, as this meant that almost the entire programme for the event was already set.

To make the two days even more interesting, we also thought about inviting other special guests from the Hackett camp. So in December, we contacted Nick Magnus and Pete Hicks, and both were basically willing to come to Germany. However, a joint performance with the Hackett Trio was unrealistic because it would have required too much preparation and joint rehearsals. But they would be there for the fans and sign autographs. A little later, Pete Hicks had to withdraw his commitment due to scheduling conflicts. But Nick still wanted to be there. That's when we had the idea of asking him to support John during his solo performance on Friday. And indeed, after the two had discussed this possibility, John's solo show turned into a duo performance.

At the end of January, Italian cover band The Watch asked if they could also perform at the Hackett event. Our budget allowed for this, so they were booked for Friday evening to close the day after Nick Magnus and John Hackett. John also agreed to play flute on one of The Watch's songs. The live acts were now finalised.

At the same time, Helmut worked on a programme booklet for the event and a poster. The eight-page programme was intended to provide an overview of Steve Hackett's life and musical work to date. The discography section featured covers of all Genesis albums with Steve, all his solo albums and many single and DVD/video covers. Other important projects in which Steve was involved were also listed. The four inside pages of the multi-fold programme were filled with a biography of Steve, written by Steffen Gerlach in both German and English. In between, a picture strip showed 23 portraits of Steve from childhood to 2009. The programme schedule for the two days and the credits could be found on the back of the programme. The front page was adorned with the event logo, which we also had printed as an A1-sized poster… twice! And this is how it came about…

For the announcement of the event in December, Helmut had hastily created a simple motif that showed a recent photo of Steve visually reminiscent of the cover of Defector. However, he had something more unusual in mind for the poster. A few years earlier, it would have been perfectly possible to combine various Hackett cover motifs to create something new. However, as almost all of these were by Kim Poor and the legal situation was unclear in 2009, Steve asked that no artwork by Kim Poor be used. So Helmut designed a motif reminiscent of the cover of Please Don't Touch, but consisting entirely of different motifs and, of course, not painted but created on a computer. Some elements were modern versions of old ideas, such as three different robots instead of the mechanical dolls on the 1978 cover.

Other details were more of an homage to Steve's past, such as the Genesis road case on which Steve places his foot in the central motif, or the marionette from the video for The Show. Everything was consistent and Steve liked it too. But since we were still in contact with Billy Budis, who supported the Hackett event with some exhibition material, we also showed him the poster motif. And promptly, the similarity to the original cover became a problem, or rather the lack of reference on the poster that the original was by Kim Poor. When we were asked to correct this, the 250 posters had already been printed. Well, and so this first edition could not be used and we had another 250 posters printed, this time with credit to Kim Poor.

But we wanted to offer visitors to the event more than just good live music and nice printed materials. On both days, we showed rare video footage of Steve Hackett, which we were kindly provided with for the event from various sources. On Saturday, we also played our popular 'Rudis' quiz with the visitors, with some great prizes to be won. There was also a collectors' market, where Ralf Schudt's huge stand was once again a highlight.

But a very important part of the Hackett event was, of course, the exhibition, which was intended to show as many of Steve's releases, memorabilia, tour programmes, tickets, posters, etc. as possible. The it editorial team's own collections are already quite extensive, but we made every effort to obtain anything that was missing. So Peter and Helmut went on the 'hunt' and filled in quite a few gaps. In the end, the exhibition was as complete as it could possibly be.

But that was basically the lesser problem surrounding the exhibition. Since the event was not taking place in the familiar and tried-and-tested surroundings of the Welkers Community Centre (because the premises would have been too small for it), we first had to explore the possibilities offered by the venue in Remscheid. We knew that, in addition to the very beautiful hall for the live show, there were other rooms for the collectors' market and exhibition. But the exact dimensions and how we might be able to hang picture frames for posters there were only clarified by our crew member Jan Kruse, who visited the venue, measured everything and took photos.

And it turned out that the space for the exhibition would not really be ideal. Fortunately, there was already a ceiling rail on one side of the long room where we could hang some picture frames. But the opposite side was a continuous window front. So where should we hang the many posters? The solution was a nine-metre-long collapsible structure made of six wallpapering tables and several beams, which Helmut designed especially for the Hackett event and on which enough picture frames could be hung. The work on it took place in Helmut's not very spacious basement, and only a test assembly of the complete 'poster wall' – funnily enough in the Welkers community centre – provided the certainty that the structure was stable and would work well.

Everything was dismantled again, the many individual parts labelled, and we trusted that the assembly in Remscheid would be successful. The new 'poster wall' and all the fan club equipment for the events (display cases, showcases, cloths, decorations, etc.) were loaded into a van from our warehouse in Welkers the day before the event and set off for Remscheid, where the crew spent the night in a hotel.

The next day was both set-up day and event day. And although admission wasn't scheduled to start until 5 p.m. and we were allowed into the venue very early, that was a very optimistic schedule. And so setting up the exhibition actually took longer than hoped. And there were other things that needed to be done, such as setting up and testing the technology, preparing the collectors' market and, of course, soundchecking the live acts on that day. Fortunately, the crew was so large and experienced this time that many things ran parallel and everyone knew what to do.

The fact that the exhibition was held in a separate room from the actual hall actually turned out to be an advantage. Nevertheless, everything took time, and the late arrival of the special guests due to a traffic jam was just another reason why the doors didn't open quite on time and visitors were initially only allowed into the foyer. However, the entire schedule was only minimally delayed. In the end, the stress was worth it and everything looked good and worked as planned.

Incidentally, we began each day of the event with a very special intro video. Visitors to the Genesis concerts in 2007 may remember that immediately before the first song, an animated video was shown on the screens, containing snippets of Genesis videos and song fragments. A flashing world map formed, zooming in on the respective venue of the day (whose name then also appeared), and Genesis started the concert immediately afterwards. It was a very nice effect, which we wanted to use in a modified form for our club days. So we asked Genesis management if we could get a copy of one of the German intro videos. At first, however, we could only find a version for the USA, which was unfortunate because Germany was outside the zoom range at the end.

After a long search and numerous enquiries, we finally found an intro from a German show. With the help of club member and video professional Volker Warncke, we created our own version, at the end of which Remscheid lit up as a location. Of course, we also replaced other elements of the original.

A snippet from The Return Of The Giant Hogweed replaced some of the newer Genesis sounds, and the Kennedy quote 'Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country' was replaced by a variation that Steve recorded especially for us, which instead said: 'Ask not what your fan club can do for you – ask what you can do for your fan club'. In our version, the intro was not followed by live music, but by a short video collage from different years of Steve's career, accompanied by an edit of Mechanical Bride (Day 1) and The Show (Day 2). Afterwards, the it editorial team took to the stage for the official welcome of the day. You can watch the first part of this intro video here.

The venue is a very old former church and is ideal for smaller concerts. Not much decoration was needed, as the atmosphere is already appealing. But to spread at least a little Hackett feeling, we brought two oversized billboard posters of Steve's performances in Budapest in 2002 and 2004. The older one from 2002 had been in the club's possession for some time and had adorned the wall behind the it-stand at several previous events in Welkers. We were able to purchase the other one at short notice before the event.

However, it had to be glued together and a structure had to be built to hang it up – not an easy task in Helmut's home with a poster measuring 5.00 by 2.40 metres. It was no less challenging on site when one of the posters had to be hung at a dizzying height. Crew member Hannes Strosche fearlessly took on this task. And so, in the end, the two giant posters adorned the back walls of the hall.

The first day of the event was successfully behind us and, after a short night in the hotel, the next day promised to be stress-free, as everything was set up and prepared. Well, at least it could have been. In the morning, Helmut conducted an interview with Nick Magnus – you can read it here. This was followed at 2 p.m. by the second day of the event – with a colourful programme and the Hackett Trio's show as the highlight. Everything went perfectly, and both the crew and the visitors were very happy and satisfied. The actual stars of the event, the Hackett extended family and The Watch, were also very impressed.

However, the day did not end peacefully, at least not for us and the crew. The original plan was to dismantle the exhibition the next morning. But since the room had been booked for a family celebration the following day and the monastery church team still wanted to prepare and decorate everything for it, we had to dismantle the exhibition immediately after the event ended. Even though experience has shown that this is quicker than setting up, it was still very stressful. Everything was hastily packed into the van and, exhausted and tired, we left the venue at around 1:00 a.m.

The Steve Hackett event was the biggest event in the club's history at the time and still is in many ways today. We had several celebrities from the Genesis family as guests before and after that, and each event was special in its own way. But the two days in Remscheid will remain a novelty because of the very short preparation time, the venue, which was unknown to us, and, last but not least, the nature and scope of the event.

Last but not least: we're sure we still have a few remaining posters and programmes from this event somewhere. In return for a small donation to the club and reimbursement of postage costs, we would be willing to part with some of them with a heavy heart.

Author: Helmut Janisch (2025)
Photos: Helmut Janisch, Peter Schütz