Steve Hackett Charisma box set detailed

Steve Hackett’s first six albums on the Charisma label are to be reissued in a remastered vinyl box set next month.

The Charisma Years (1975-1983) will be released on May 27 and features 1975’s Voyage Of The Acolyte, 1978’s Please Don’t Touch, 1979’s Spectral Mornings, 1980’s Defector, 1981’s Cured and Highly Strung from 1983.

The set will also include a double LP of a concert recorded on the Spectral Mornings tour at Oxford’s New Theatre, an EP of his set at the 1981 Reading Festival, along with the EP I Know What I Like, featuring the Genesis track and live cuts recorded at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, in 1979.

Hackett says: “I’m pleased these early albums, rarities and 5.1 mixes are to be released now in this set on vinyl. Vinyl is still a very exciting listening medium.”

In addition, Please Don’t Touch, Spectral Mornings and Defector will be issued on the same day on separate 2CD/DVD packages.

Please Don’t Touch and Spectral Mornings have been mixed in 5.1 surround sound by Steven Wilson from the original multi-track tapes. Defector includes a remaster of the album, a CD of Hackett’s set at the Reading Festival in 1980, and a DVD featuring a pseudo 5.1 Surround Sound Up-mix derived from the original stereo masters.

The Charisma Years (1975-1983) is available for pre-order, with the first 100 people purchasing before the official launch receiving a signed A3 poster.

Steve Hackett: The Charisma Years (1975-1983) box set contents

Voyage Of The Acolyte

1. Ace Of Wands
2. Hands Of The Priestess - Pt. I
3. A Tower Struck Down
4. Hands Of The Priestess - Pt. II
5. The Hermit
6. Star Of Sirius
7. The Lovers
8. Shadow Of The Hierophant

Spectral Mornings

1. Every Day
2. The Virgin And The Gypsy
3. The Red Flower Of Tachai Blooms Everywhere
4. Clocks - The Angel Of Mons
5. The Ballad Of The Decomposing Man
6. Lost Time In Cordoba
7. Tigermoth
8. Spectral Mornings

Please Don’t Touch

1. Narnia
2. Carry On Up The Vicarage
3. Racing In A
4. Kim
5. How Can I?
6. Hoping Love Will Last
7. Land Of A Thousand Autumns
8. Please Don’t Touch
9. The Voice Of Necam
10. Icarus Ascending

Defector

1. The Steppes
2. Time To Get Out
3. Slogans
4. Leaving
5. Two Vamps As Guests
6. Jacuzzi
7. Hammer In The Sand
8. The Toast
9. The Show
10. Sentimental Institution

Cured

1. Hope I Don’t Wake
2. Picture Postcard
3. Can’t Let Go
4. The Air Conditioned Nightmare
5. Funny Feeling
6. A Cradle Of Swans
7. Overnight Sleeper
8. Turn Back Time

Highly Strung

1. Camino Royale
2. Cell 151
3. Always Somewhere Else
4. Walking Through Walls
5. Give It Away
6. Weightless
7. Group Therapy
8. India Rubber Man
9. Hackett To Piece

Live At Oxford (1979)

1. Please Don’t Touch
2. Tigermoth
3. Every Day
4. Narnia
5. The Red Flower Of Tachai Blooms Everywhere
6. Ace Of Wands
7. Carry On Up The Vicarage
8. Acoustic Medley:Etude In A Minor / Blood On The Rooftops / Horizons / Kim
9. The Optigan
10. Spectral Mornings
11. Star Of Sirius
12. Shadow Of The Hierophant
13. Clocks
14. Racing In A

Live At Reading (1981)

1. The Air Conditioned Nightmare
2. Every Day
3. Ace Of Wands
4. Funny Feeling
5. The Steppes
6. Overnight Sleeper
7. Slogans
8. A Tower Struck Down
9. Spectral Mornings
10. The Show
11. Clocks - The Angel Of Mons

Live EP 1979

1. I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)
2. Ace Of Wands
3. Sentimental Institution
4. The Red Flower Of Tachai Blooms Everywhere