In a new interview with Ultimate Guitar, Steve Hackett delved into his thoughts on collaborating with Genesis, working alongside Peter Gabriel, and Tony Banks’ effect and role in Gabriel’s departure from the band.
It seems that Hacket had already realized Gabriel would leave the band right after his last album in the band, ‘The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway.’ As Hackett said, it appears that Banks affected Gabriel’s decision to leave the band. Hackett explained:
“By the time it was ‘The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway’ – Peter’s final album with Genesis – the band was beginning to fragment into factions. It was obvious Peter wasn’t going to stay. There seemed to be a competition between Peter and Tony – to see how much audio space they could fill.”
Along with the problems between Banks and Gabriel, Hackett also touched on the difficult aspects of working with Genesis and what the hardest thing was:
“And it means you’ve got very busy, crowded virtuosic keyboard work and very busy narrative-driven lyrics from Peter. And these two paths seemed to be at loggerheads to a large degree. It became more difficult to define what the other instruments can do – because there was less ‘breathing space,’ as a result of this.”
Hackett’s Works With Gabriel
Formed in 1967, Genesis released six albums until the exit of Gabriel. Two years after Gabriel departed from the band, Hackett too left to focus more on his solo projects.
Contributing highly to those six albums, Hackett seems happy with the way things worked out with Gabriel and himself in Genesis. Not only does he seem happy to work with the vocalist, but Hackett also believes in the strength of collective songwriting.
Touching on the albums they have worked on together, he said of his former bandmate:
“I would say working with Peter Gabriel was somewhat easier in the earlier stages of Genesis’ development. And I think we did some wonderful albums together – ‘Foxtrot’ and ‘Selling England by the Pound,’ I think, are phenomenal albums. I don’t think there’s a weak track on either of those albums. And that’s the strength of the collective songwriting team bringing that together.”
Hackett also added that he loved his former bandmate’s work after he left Genesis.
Banks Thinks Gabriel Era Of Genesis Was Not The Best Days
The keyboardist earlier made it clear seeing the band’s evolution as gradual while dismissing the range between the Peter Gabriel and post-1975 periods of the band. In an earlier Classic Rock interview, Banks emphasized that there were people who thought Gabriel’s era was the glory era of the band, but as opposed to those people, he witnessed slow progress rather than a big change.
Still, despite not being considered trendy, he expressed gratitude for the band’s successful career and the joy of live performances as well.
