Steve Hackett

Raised on a diet of classical music, Steve Hackett – born in London, England on February 12, 1950 - discovered the great British blues guitarists of the 1960s as a teenager before becoming a revered axe man in his own right with legendary prog rockers Genesis. Part of the band's classic early line-up, Hackett played on landmark albums Selling England By the Pound (1973) and A Trick of the Tail (1976) but left the group in 1977 after releasing acclaimed solo debut Voyage of the Acolyte (1975).Famed for being one of the first rock guitarists to pioneer the two-handed tapping technique, Steve Hackett went on to work with Richie Havens, Randy Crawford and Steve Walsh on Please Don't Touch (1978) and made the UK Top Ten with Defector (1980) before founding the supergroup GTR with Yes guitarist Steve Howe in 1985. Other hit solo albums include Cured (1981) and Highly Strung (1982). Steve Hackett worked with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on A Midsummer Night's Dream (1997), a neo-classical, instrumental record based on the Shakespeare play. In 2000, he took a different route when he teamed up with his brother John to record a tribute album to French composer Erik Satie titled Sketches for Satie. 2003 saw the release of To Watch the Storms, marking his return to progressive rock. He followed this with the orchestral Metamorpheus (2005), rock album Wild Orchids (2006), the classical album Tribute (2008), and the prog rock oriented Out of the Tunnel's Mouth (2009). Beyond the Shrouded Horizon came in 2011, followed by A Life Within a Day with Chris Squire (2012),  Wolflight (2015), The Night Siren (2017), and At the Edge of Light (2019). Steve Hacket released two albums in 2021 – Under a Mediterranean Sky and Surrender of Silence – before returning with his 30th solo album, The Circus and the Nightwhale (2024), a concept album that features some autobiographical elements.