Can't help feeling they have a private joke going, "How ridiculous can we make ourselves look in our concert promo photos, and the fans will still fall for it?"
Hmmmmmmmm! (From their latest tour promo!)
Posts by foxfeeder
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On the air, Wonderful day and Home Sweet Home. DIY just missing out.
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12 from me. Apart from Mama, the only track on here I like.
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Steve being interviewed about the album (pt 1 of 2):
External Content www.youtube.comContent embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.I'm sure it links to pt 2.
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Roger King is quite an "average" keydoard player but a mediocre producer. Even in Darktown - praised by many here - the record sounds like it was recorded in a cellar. It's just awful, and the songs barely hold together. Fortunately, TWTS and Wild Orchids improve things a little. King is better as a producer on Steve's classical albums. What do you think?
I think you need your ears syringing! I'd say he was a very good keyboard player, and up until BTSH the production was great (and this includes Squackett, which was already in the can.) The question is, is it Roger or Steve who have lost direction since then? Maybe both?
I assume the question at the end is not one you were directing at Steve, but maybe the thread could stick to serious questions for Steve, I can't imagine Christian asking Steve some of the ones listed above face to face. Maybe the originators would like to go and ask them of him themselves?
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I wonder what Steve would think if he knew how a lot of the fans here talk about his recent work...
I imagine he must have a clue. But sadly, I think the relative chart success of the new stuff compared to the old will be what holds his attention, and keeps him on that path.
And I get it. He spent years in the relative wilderness, while his old colleagues peddled stuff like shapes and IT and saw the cash roll in. Ultimately, he has bowed to financial pressure. Shame, but there you go. -
A real Curate's Egg. First 2 minutes are boring, then it takes off, for 1 minute! It then flags again until 4m 30s, when it finally gets going properly. Some great guitar, Mellotron and drumming make it a gem from that point on, but frankly, I think I prefer Battle. (tbh, most of my interest in the lyrics, when I really got to know the album in the mid 80's, came from the fact I was orbiting around a spectacularly beautiful girl called Juliet.
)Given the amount of time that it drags for me, I'll say 8.
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Just played this on "the system!" - might be a 16! The ending guitar sound, which he first used on "Wonderpatch" (Live in Nottingham 1990) is absolutely superb, a Roland GR500 I think. Haven't played this album in a while, but am doing so now, and am reminded why it was almost permanently on in my car from 1999-2002!
Just looked this up on Youtube, live version: Steve Hackett - In Memoriam Live (youtube.com) - And it is the same guitar used on Wonderpatch. I assume it's the GR500, no visible writing on it, but it seems to use a parallel port connector rather than a quarter inch jack plug, and the GR500 doesn't use a jack plug.
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I think it's her (but I'm French, so I can't relate to this sad news very much unfortunately, I never saw her on TV)
External Content www.youtube.comContent embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.That is her, yes!
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And, who is that? Honestly have no clue.
Wild Orchids is all over the place musically, but for the most part each individual song maintains a mood. Recent albums of his, there are really abrupt changes in a lot of songs. Abrupt changes by themselves aren’t necessarily bad, but what he’s been doing recently just doesn’t work for me. At all.
Well, principally Steve, but Roger King is also hugely involved in the sound. He is engineering it and doing all keyboard, most drum sounds and most of the bass too. In the early days of his presence (GR 1 & Darktown) he was a real asset, so much better than Julian Colbeck who he replaced, but as time has worn on he has become more heavy handed and stuck in a rut. And I agree, Up to Beyond... the songs were consistent throughout, but different from each other, now it's all one long slog through the same stuff.
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One Life. Take some tissues with you!
Anthony Hopkins is still on top form.
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Not sure I could pick 3 favourites. Mostly on the same level to me, though it wouldn't include Family Snapshot or Lead a Normal Life.
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Annie Nightingale: Trailblazing Radio 1 DJ dies
Back in the mid 70s, along with John Peel, one of the few DJs on Radio 1 worth listening to
More an Alan Freeman man myself, but yes, such a shame. Remembered by me mainly for the 4 one hour episodes of "The Moody Blues Story" to coincide with their reformation and upcoming UK tour, where I finally got to see my heroes live. For some reason, my mum was always a follower of hers. Not a match I ever understood entirely, but all good.
RIP Annie!
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Hmmm! Still a bit in the post-Wolflight vein, not too bad, but I'd still rather have something a-la Twice Around the Sun or In Memoriam. I've always quite liked Steve's voice, post Cured at any rate, but there's something about it here where it just doesn't quite work.
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Same experience for me: hearing the August '81 Reading Festival performance which I think was maybe on the Radio 1 Friday Rock Show with Tommy Vance?
Just hearing Every Day ("a cross between Mantovani and Weather Report, bit of a mixture....") for the first time got me hooked.
I'm a huge fan of everything (rock, acoustic, classical) Steve has done up until the point that Roger King went berserk on the overproduction i.e. Wolflight onwards, in my view.
Would love for Steve to get back to a simpler and more melodic style.
Twas the earlier Reading gig (79) that hooked me, but it was also Tommy Vance that aired it. Twice!
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Got into him via the BBC broadcast of his Reading festival performance, which I taped, and still have. Strong stuff from Voyage through to Beyond, and Squackett, but, like you, his recent stuff is a disappointment, He seems trapped by the commercial success of Wolflight and GR2, I understand it, but it's a shame.
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Just played this on "the system!" - might be a 16! The ending guitar sound, which he first used on "Wonderpatch" (Live in Nottingham 1990) is absolutely superb, a Roland GR500 I think. Haven't played this album in a while, but am doing so now, and am reminded why it was almost permanently on in my car from 1999-2002!
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Help me out here, please.
SAHB? SAW?
I'm guessing SAHB might be Sensational Alex Harvey Band. No clue on SAW.
Sahb - Correct.
SAW - Stock, Aitken and Waterman - a British thing, so maybe outside your ballpark (Lucky you!)
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It's one of his very best albums, quite out of character in it's sound and style, and this track is one of the highlights. 15!
(Worth noting, Mae McKenna, sister/cousin of members of SAHB, was his support act in 1988, and her 2 albums from that era, Nightfallers and Mirage & Reality (the latter featuring Steve) are very good. She was a backing singer for many SAW acts, and did a lot of the heavy lifting in chorus's for some of their acts).
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Sometimes, when I think about all this social media thing, I wonder if the Internet world would be the same today if, instead of like/dislike buttons, "Agree"/"Disagree" buttons had been implemented on Youtube, Facebook...
It sure sounds like a small detail, but I think it would have induced some discussion in people's minds rather that this kind of primary (or even... "primal" ?) reaction we often get everywhere (mouahh, look at this, I "dislike", no question, it's a "piece of sh**"), that tends to depreciate people.
Anyway, too late now.
I think that is just semantics, but here's a thought: Imagine if Twitter had a like & dislike button when Trump was president. His received likes could be clearly quantified, but the dislikes were just seemingly endless rantings by too many people to count. If ther'd been dislikes, we, and he, could have seen exactly how popular or not his views were. As it is, I've no idea if he was liked by more or less people than he was disliked!
But certainly, I'd rather have agree and disagree buttons than just a like one!
