23 Sep 2026
The glory days of 1970s prog rock are coming to St Albans, as The John Hackett Band bring their hair-raising instrumental workouts and intricate guitar riffs to The Horn.
The eponymous John has been a much-loved and admired figure in the progressive music scene for half a century, and is best-known for his flute work with his brother -former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett – on albums such as Voyage of The Acolyte, Please Don’t Touch and Spectral Mornings.
More than a decade ago he teamed up with drummer Duncan Parsons, bassist Jeremy Richardson and lead guitarist Nick Fletcher to fuse pop, rock, jazz, classical, funk and all stops in-between to support the release of his solo album Another Life.
“We started rehearsing in October 2015, and here we are 10 years later,” recalls John, as the whole band congregates in a studio for a chat over Zoom.
“I’d done the album, which featured my brother Steve and also Anthony Phillips, who was the original Genesis guitarist, and I decided to do a little record launch.
“I was going to play some songs on the piano on my own, but that idea got a bit scary. Nick here and I had been working as a flute and guitar duo, and he came round my house and listened to me playing these songs. He picked up a Stratocaster belonging to my son, and started joining in, and I realised what an amazing rock guitarist he was.
“Duncan joined us because he lives in Sheffield where we are, and we formed a trio and did a performance down in London. I think Nick said that we needed a bass player, and Duncan’s friend Jeremy happened to be a fantastic bass player, so that’s how the band came together.”
The quartet all have a hand in writing songs: “We all bring stuff to the rehearsal room to knock about, and sometimes the arrangements stay as written by the person who brings the tune in, or other times there’s a collective decision that it isn’t working so we put together something that suits all of us.
“There was one tune I’d written about the failed Spanish Armada from 1589 with a section that was supposed to be about a guy who had fallen in the water, and was trying to get back to the surface. I’d written this arrangement that was slightly too complex for us to play live, so we improvised the feeling of being underwater and recorded that for the album.”
Does he think that in many ways prog rock as a genre is musically intellectual, in that it’s complicated, and challenging both to perform and to listen to?
“I’m not sure I’d go along with that. I mean, it sort of echoes the classical tradition, in that things can be very composed, but they’re still very moving and emotionally connecting.
“It goes beyond the standard three-minute song. For so many years there was a desire just to break the mould and make make longer pieces of music, so inevitably it becomes a bit more complex, but it can be just as melodic, you know?”
Do they find their audience are largely from an older generation, or is prog rock starting to appeal to younger listeners?
“Last year we were including some pieces written by my brother from his album Voyage of the Acolyte [1975] to celebrate its 50th anniversary, as it was an album I was heavily involved with. Inevitably the audience that would be attracted to that would be mostly an older generation, but when we played Newcastle a young lady came along from the student magazine, and she wrote what in my mind is probably one of the best reviews we’ve had, because it was from a very, very fresh perspective.
“She was particularly taken by the melange of styles, the way jazz interfaces with blues, funk, pop and all the classical elements, and I think she really dug that, so that was a bit of a shot in the arm to be honest!”
You can catch The John Hackett Band at The Horn on September 27, when they will be playing songs from their latest album Red Institution alongside highlights from Voyage of the Acolyte and more. For tickets click here.
