Steve Hackett – "Wolflight" Album Launch Events 2015 – report

In the run-up to the release of Steve Hackett's album Wolflight, we received an enquiry from his record company at the end of 2014. They were considering holding one or two album launch events in Germany with the press and fans and wanted to get the German fan club on board.

Background and planning

After a few discussions with InsideOut and Steve Hackett, it was decided that there would be two events. One in Dortmund and the other in Berlin. Both events were presented by InsideOut and the German German Genesis fan club it, and we had the honour of hosting both events in their entirety. Two venues were organised through WiV Entertainment, and fans were able to purchase tickets for two intimate events for 16 euros.

The short notice was a logistical challenge for us. Helmut worked quickly on the poster design, and we had several printed for both events. Unfortunately, he was unable to attend the events himself for logistical reasons. Peter and Bernd were in Berlin, and Christian, who also moderated both events, was present at both. Thomas Waber from Inside Out was also there.

Inside Out had produced a limited edition of 200 clear blue vinyl copies of the album Wolflight especially for these events – and indeed, this version was only available for purchase in Dortmund and Berlin.

Christian had a moment of shock a few days earlier on a business trip. He took a rather unfortunate fall and suffered a bruise on his face, which was clearly visible on his right eye at both events and, of course, provided ample opportunity for humorous comments.

Dortmund, 27 March 2015 (Blue Notez Club)

The Blue Notez is a relatively alternative club that wasn't necessarily in the best condition, but served the purpose of the event well. The ceilings were low, there was a kind of Persian carpet on the stage, and so the atmosphere was cosy and special. Doors opened at around 6 p.m., so we had enough time to prepare everything we needed from around 4 p.m. We had extra helping hands and Wolfgang Stolt helped us with the logistics on site.

At 7 p.m., there was a brief welcome. This was followed by the first public screening of the previously unseen music videos for the songs Love Song For A Vampire and Wolflight, giving the audience a first treat. The album was then played in its entirety, allowing fans to listen to it while getting autographs from Steve. Steve Hackett then took to the stage to answer questions from Christian and the audience. The audience was quite international, with fans travelling from France, Belgium and the United Kingdom.

We couldn't resist a little joke and showed a fictional, alternative album cover right at the beginning, which made both Steve and the audience smile (see picture). After that, Steve answered many questions about the album, but also about his music in general and, of course, about the Genesis-heavy tours. The setting in Dortmund was very intimate, as the audience was standing right next to the stage and could have asked questions without a microphone.

After the question and answer session, Steve played a few songs solo on his acoustic guitar, and the evening came to a close with cold drinks and autograph sessions.

The next morning, we continued on to Berlin…

Berlin, 28 March 2015 (Maschinenhaus)

During the day, there was a small editorial meeting with Peter, Bernd and Christian. We shared our experiences from the previous day and assigned a few tasks to Bernd and Peter to improve the process. This mainly concerned the book signing and the general contact person for visitors.

The Maschinenhaus (like the Kesselhaus) is part of the Kulturbrauerei on Schönhauser Allee. The event room was ultra-modern with a raised stage and offered plenty of space. The Inside Out PR team was also present in Berlin. In the afternoon, we met with Steve to briefly go over the schedule for the stage interview.

The event in Berlin proceeded in a similar manner to the one in Dortmund, but was perhaps a little more 'dignified' and, of course, we were able to draw on the experience of the previous talk. The only really significant difference was that Steve's wife Jo joined him on stage for the stage interview. Steve's resident photographers were also there in Berlin (Angela and Maurizio Vicedomini, who also created the album cover art for Genesis Revisited II and Wolflight and who published the book Genesis: In Our Flight Of Fancy).

Compared to Dortmund, there were more members of the press present, but this did not affect Steve's interaction with his fans in any way.

For a better overview, here is the programme for both events again:

6:00 p.m. Doors open
7:00 p.m. Welcome / Promo video
7:20 p.m. Wolflight presentation (autographs)
8:30 p.m. Steve Hackett stage interview
9:45 p.m. Steve Hackett live solo
10:15 p.m. Closing (photos, autographs)

All in all

It was a special experience for us and probably also for the fans in general to be able to hold such an event. We had a lot of fun and are delighted with the many positive messages we received afterwards.

Author: Christian Gerhardts (February 2025)
Photos: Michaela Ix (Dortmund) and Peter Schütz (Berlin)

Post Script

Steve Hackett reported on both events in his blog, and Michaela Ix made a few videos in Dortmund: Acoustic Improvisation | Interview – Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

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Photo Gallery (Dortmund & Berlin)