Steve Hackett - Wuthering Nights: Live In Birmingham album review

High-class Windy conditions

By Malcolm Dome
( Classic Rock )
published
Cover art for Steve Hackett - Wuthering Nights: Live In Birmingham

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This is a celebration of Steve Hackett’s legacy, both with Genesis and also as an accomplished solo musician. Filmed at the Birmingham Symphony Hall, it captures the aura of the occasion.

The first part of the performance concentrates on his post-Genesis career, with material that includes songs from current album The Night Siren, as well as earlier material. The second half is centred around Wind & Wuthering, his final album with Genesis, marking its 40th anniversary. In all, there are five tracks from that often undervalued record, plus noteworthy classics such as The Musical Box and Los Endos.

The whole presentation is brilliant, and gives you an insight into how special that tour was for everyone. And the double-disc DVD also features behind-the-scenes footage, plus three promo videos filmed for songs on The Night Siren.

Essential for all Hackett/ Genesis fans.

Malcolm Dome
Malcolm Dome

Malcolm Dome had an illustrious and celebrated career which stretched back to working for Record Mirror magazine in the late 70s and Metal Fury in the early 80s before joining Kerrang! at its launch in 1981. His first book, Encyclopedia Metallica, published in 1981, may have been the inspiration for the name of a certain band formed that same year. Dome is also credited with inventing the term "thrash metal" while writing about the Anthrax song Metal Thrashing Mad in 1984. With the launch of Classic Rock magazine in 1998 he became involved with that title, sister magazine Metal Hammer, and was a contributor to Prog magazine since its inception in 2009. He died in 2021.