Steve Hackett will release Live Magic At Trading Boundaries on 17 January 2025. The 19-track package contains track recorded over the years at the Fletching venue, where Steve presents his stripped-down material. These evenings have become almost legendary where, as Steve told MetalTalk, “a greater level of indulgence” is required from the audience.
“I’ve been doing these shows for a few years now,” Steve Hackett told MetalTalk’s Adrian Stonley spoke with Steve Hackett before the show on 21 January 2024. “They seem like a bit of a family outing. My mum comes along. One year she came along and did a speech. Took the mike and went on for about twenty minutes [laughing]. She was the show that night.”
She also did just that this year and stole the show.
Beyond the obvious, you do wonder how, for Steve Hackett, these acoustic shows are different from the standard electric tours. “When you’re doing a rock show, there’s a safety in numbers,” he says. “It’s more robust. It’s more on the ‘rant’ side than the ‘romance’ side. There’s romance within it.
“The power of acoustic music is dependent on getting it right. I always set myself a high standard that I can’t possibly ever reach because I’m always playing outside of my capability when I do nylon things. [acoustic guitars are often nylon strung as opposed to wire strung].
“Little things can affect the playing, like the fingernails being too long on the night. Even the great Andrés Segovia, probably one of the great players of all time. He did a show at the Croydon Fairfield Halls, and he apologised afterwards, saying, ‘Tonight, the guitar was my enemy’ because he didn’t think he had pulled it off.
“But as for me seeing him, I saw him once at the Royal Festival Hall, and just to be in the presence of the great man, playing just for you, was something special.”
Steve says that playing acoustic is much tougher as there is nowhere to hide, even playing Trading Boundaries which holds about 200 people. “I know that I won’t play perfectly and I lament that fact,” Steve says. “When I’m playing from home, I might miss a few notes, and that’s alright. I get back on the horse pretty quickly.
“But live, all the conditions have got to be right. Paco de Lucía said that the temperature has got to be right, and the nails have got to be right. For years, I was a plectrum player, and then I realised there were certain things that I wanted to do that I couldn’t. So, over time, I started to incorporate more fingers into my playing, even using a nail as a plectrum for electric work.
“But in the main, acoustic stuff is much harder. It leaves you more vulnerable.”
The acoustic shows at Trading Boundaries have become an institution. “I did an acoustic tour of America,” Steve says, “You’re chancing your arm there because the American audience wants to boogie, and this is not boogie. So, I think I was very lucky most of the time. They would give me the space to do this.”
This year was another quite remarkable and triumphant evening. For those whom Fletching is unreachable, Live Magic At Trading Boundaries will be the next best thing. Mixed by long-time live sound engineer Ben Fenner, the set contains recordings from these shows from over the years.
There are appearances from regular collaborators, including brother John Hackett on flute, Roger King on keys, Rob Townsend on flute
and sax, and Amanda Lehmann on guitar and vocals. The release also coincides with Steve’s next two live appearances at the venue, on the 18th & 19th January 2025.
The magic of these evenings cannot be overstated and, as Steve explains, the success of these is a shared experience.
“You also require more from an audience, a greater level of indulgence. You hope it will cast a spell on them in the way that acoustic music has done with me.
“If I think back, from 1965, when I was fifteen, listening to Segovia playing Bach, that was it. That was the spell.”
Steve Hackett – Live Magic At Trading Boundaries – Pre-orders are available from stevehackett.lnk.to/LiveMagicAtTradingBoundaries.
Steve Hackett – Live Magic At Trading Boundaries
1 Improv
2 Blood On The Rooftops
3 The Barren Land
4 Black Light
5 Horizons
6 Jacuzzi
7 Supper’s Ready (Excerpt)
8 After The Ordeal
9 Hairless Heart
10 Jazz On A Summer’s Night
11 Gnossienne No. 1
12 Walking Away From Rainbows
13 Poulenc Organ Concerto (Excerpt)
14 The Red Flower Of Tai Chi Blooms Everywhere
15 Hands Of The Priestess
16 Memory Lane
17 Only Happy When It Rains
18 Ace Of Wands
19 The Journey
