Steve Hackett – Lamb Highlights spring tour 2025 – report

Background

Steve Hackett’s tour concept has been discussed many times. Since 2013, he has been touring the world with a significant proportion of Genesis songs in his set. In 2013 and 2044, this was even the case exclusively. And now, for around 10 years, he has been playing a split set of Genesis classics, but his programme also includes several solo pieces from his long career.

In addition, Steve is one of the most prolific musicians in the Genesis family. Over the past ten years, he has released five rock albums (Wolflight, The Night Siren, At The Edge Of Light, Surrender Of Silence and The Circus And The Nightwhale last year). There was also the acoustic album Under A Mediterranean Sky. He has also been involved in at least four studio albums by the band Djabe. There are also numerous live albums that document his concert tours.

One Genesis set and one solo set

Thematically, Steve usually focuses on a Genesis album and his current solo album. Accordingly, since the summer of 2024, he has been touring with a selection from his current album The Circus And The Nighthwhale in the solo section (People Of The Smoke, Circo Inferno and These Passing Clouds). These are joined by a few Hackett classics such as Camino Royale, Every Day and Shadow Of The Hierophant. The Genesis part, on the other hand, is a kind of Lamb Stew, i.e. a selection of the work, which was probably the best compromise due to the length of the album.

Steve toured mainland Europe already in the summer, including headlining the very last Night Of The Prog Festival at the Loreley. This was followed by an extensive UK tour in the autumn. We will refer to both tour sections here and there.

Extra shows in Europe

Somewhat surprisingly, an encore tour for Europe was announced last autumn. These 14 shows focused on Scandinavia and Germany. Two shows in Poland were also included. The tour finally came to an end in Tilburg, the Netherlands. Four shows in Japan will follow in July and another seven in Italy in September. And in autumn, Steve will play almost 30 shows in North America with his band.

There was one significant change to the shows in spring 2025: Craig Blundell was unavailable due to the Steven Wilson tour. He was replaced by German drummer Felix Lehrmann. He got the job through the Flower Kings Connection and also has an impressive list of references. Felix has also played with German musicians Dieter ‘Maschine’ Birr, Jan Böhmermann, Helge Schneider, but also with Curtis Stigers or Martin Miller, to name but a few. There is a small Genesis family reference in Nathan East, with whom he has also played. We conducted a short interview with Felix, which we will publish in due course. You can find more information about Felix on his website.

No real change, but still worth mentioning: Amanda Lehmann was only on the UK leg and is no longer part of the spring tour. This has the biggest impact on the song Shadow Of The Hierophant, which the band plays in its entirety when Amanda is around, otherwise only the instrumental second part.

Songs played

As on the two previous tour sections, the first part of the set consisted of solo pieces:

People Of The Smoke
Circo Inferno
These Passing Clouds
The Devil’s Cathedral
Every Day
A Tower Struck Down
Basic Instincts
Camino Royale
Shadow Of The Hierophant

In addition to the three songs from his current album right at the beginning, it is noticeable that Every Day and Camino Royale are becoming more and more integral parts of his set. On the other hand, The Devil’s Cathedral from the album Surrender Of Silence seems to be taking on a similar role. This piece also gives Nad Sylvan the opportunity to play a slightly larger role in the first set. Nad has just released a new solo album, Monumentata.

Shadow Of The Hierophant seems to be a permanent fixture anyway. It’s hard to imagine his set without this piece. It’s his In The Air Tonight and, alongside Firth Of Fifth, probably THE signature solo of his career. Bassist Jonas Reingold has been getting a lot of space for some time now. The Swede celebrates his instrument with a beautiful and varied solo. This part was long called Basic Instinct – and will get a new name on the upcoming live album The Lamb Stands Up Live At The Royal Albert Hall: Low Notes And High Hopes.

It’s also worth mentioning that during the filmed show in London, another track was played that didn’t appear in the spring: Hands Of The Priestess – with special guest John Hackett on flute.

As always, the band then took a break of about 20 minutes before continuing with the Lamb part:

The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
Fly On A Windshield
Broadway Melody Of 1974
Hairless Heart
Carpet Crawlers
The Chamber Of 32 Doors
Lilywhite Lilith
The Lamia
it

As already mentioned, it is not easy to pick out a few highlights or fragments from a complete work of art, like The Lamb is. And so, of course, Steve’s selection is open to criticism. On the other hand, a decision had to be made, so it would have been impossible to please everyone anyway. The selected songs are presented smoothly and ultimately form something of a whole. Of course, one might ask why there is no In The Cage or Counting Out Time, etc. Steve could certainly have varied the set a little more to reflect the different stages of the tour.

Regardless, the band was in great form, and Nad Sylvan sang the songs better than ever before. And on many songs, it becomes clear that he deserves a different position on stage at least some of the time – namely, at the front and centre. It was therefore a very good decision to have him play some songs on a platform between the drums and the keyboard. A very confident and passionate performance from the singer!

The highlight of the Lamb selection is undoubtedly The Lamia. This song is one of the fans’ favourites anyway. In London, Steve Rothery from Marillion helped out with The Lamia and Ray Wilson sang Carpet Crawlers. Even though there were no such goodies on the spring tour, the Lamb part was still a feast for the senses.

And Felix Lehrmann? Even as a non-musician, you can immediately tell that he has a different drumming style to Craig Blundell. He did his job more than well and there wasn’t a single moment when you felt that it didn’t fit. Visually, he also stands out a bit with his sportswear and headband.

After the Lamb part, Dancing With The Moonlit Knight and The Cinema Show / Aisle Of Plenty came next last year. And this is where the only change to the set list occurred. The band played Supper’s Ready again! The piece was part of the regular set before the encores. As is not unusual for Steve Hackett, the band performed with an extended finale in which Steve let loose on the guitar. And the band played the piece with the same passion that the audience showed. It’s one of those concert moments when the performance and the audience seem to merge.

Together with the encores, this resulted in the following final block.

Supper’s Ready
Firth Of Fifth
Los Endos (Slogans)

The audience celebrated the band after Supper’s Ready everywhere during the spring tour. And that remained the case with Firth Of Fifth and Los Endos – the latter again featured the passages from Hackett’s traditional piece Slogans.

Conclusion

It was another two and a half hours of concert at the highest musical level. For years, Steve has been giving us the opportunity to see him live on a regular basis. And he definitely varies his programme. And Genesis can even enjoy different pieces on each tour. In addition, his fantastic band plays very well and exudes an incredible joy of playing. One can only be grateful that we still can enjoy concerts like this.

Author: Christian Gerhardts
Photos: Michaela Ix

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