The months of hibernation are over. Here at Hacktrax headquarters we have dared to poke our noses out into the ether and found that the old adage that March comes in as a lion and goes out as a lamb, may well be coming true…
Before all that, I shall be out and about with the Beatrix Players, Amy Birks, The Book Of Genesis, and teaming up with my old bandmate Nick Magnus on the Trading Boundaries Rhine cruise for my brother’s acoustic show (dates below).
While the rest of the world seems intent on tearing itself apart, we are now getting on with the only way of life we know, namely making music! And so our thoughts turn to the many upcoming gigs, especially the Autumn tour of the John Hackett Band – tickets are already on sale!
As well as playing material from our most recent album ‘Red Institution’, we shall be expanding our dive back into the archives with tracks from the early Steve Hackett albums that I was most involved in (if you’ll excuse the self promotion). We’re also continuing our tradition of sharing the stage with other prog luminaries: EBB, Heather Findlay, Dorie Jackson, Robyn Gair, and Dikajee (recent winner of ‘Best New Band/Artist’ in Prog Magazine!).
It promises to be a lot of fun as we head North, South, East and West and ending with hop-over to the continent for gigs, including a long overdue return to the Boederij after Belgium and Germany.
In other news I have won a prize!
Last year I tried my hand at orchestral composition and spent the summer writing two suites. The Cerqueto Suite, based on scenes from around the Italian village in Abruzzo my wife and I visited last year and where Marco Lo Muscio and I played at the start of their 2018 “living nativity”. And the War Suite based on events of the First World War, telling a story of young love and the horrifying experiences of war.
What does all this have to do with me winning a prize I hear you ask? Well, every few years the Endcliffe Orchestra (here in Sheffield) host a competition open to composers, professional or amateur, who have a connection to the city. I submitted two movements from my War Suite for the Janet Altman Composing Competition (named in honour of Janet, a talented translator who was a conference interpreter for the EU and played as first flute for the orchestra before her death in 2012). I was chuffed to bits when my wife phoned me to say I had won. Part of the prize is for my music to be performed at their Fourth of July concert alongside the likes of Elgar and Beethoven (I’ll try to keep my ego in check).