{"id":1223,"date":"2025-03-20T21:37:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T21:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hacktrax.co.uk\/?p=1223"},"modified":"2025-04-02T21:42:40","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T20:42:40","slug":"retiring-an-old-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hacktrax.co.uk\/index.php\/2025\/03\/20\/retiring-an-old-friend\/","title":{"rendered":"Retiring an old friend…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The time has come to retire\u2026 after so many gigs, so many miles travelling from one end of the country to the other, limp and lifeless in the back of an old van. No, I\u2019m not talking about me but my faithful keyboard “case”. Such was the emotional heft of its burial that I felt moved to burst into song\u2026 \u201csomeone left a case out in the rain \/\/ I don\u2019t think that I can take it \/\/ cos it took (Katrin) so long to make it\u201d. But out with the old and in with the new. And so, it was in honour of the first gig of this year\u2019s John Hackett Band<\/a> tour that we headed off to Chelmsford Social Club<\/a> last Friday with a brand-new case for my Korg Triton (which is itself in need of a few joint replacements).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Being the first gig where we were to present highlights from \u2018Voyage Of The Acolyte\u2019, there was a certain feeling of trepidation. Fortunately, our host Nick and his excellent team (pictured below) were there to support us all the way. So, when Duncan\u2019s foot pedal fell apart help was immediately on hand (thanks, Roger!). And when Jeremy\u2019s bass guitar also decided it had had enough (is the universe trying to tell us something, I wonder?), it seemed a fitting moment to soothe the band\u2019s nerves with an impromptu rendition of Debussy\u2019s \u2018Syrinx\u2019 for solo flute. It was one of those Cliff Richard at Wimbledon in the rain moments, though I suspect he had more people singing along\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, and I mustn\u2019t forget to inform those of you who are interested in all things JHB that our new album \u2018Red Institution\u2019 is now available to order in advance (or pre-order whichever side of that heated debate you are on) from https:\/\/hacktrax.co.uk\/<\/a> . The official release date is the 11th of April at The Greystones, Sheffield<\/a> where we\u2019ll be launching the album \u2013 tickets here https:\/\/wegottickets.com\/event\/627475\/<\/a> . I\u2019m pleased to say that the stock is already here and all copies ordered from Hacktrax will be signed by the band. Meanwhile, I\u2019m off to Grimsby this Saturday with The Book of Genesis<\/a> so I\u2019d better get back to practising that tricky bit at the end of \u2018Supper\u2019s Ready\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, thanks, everyone, for all the lovely messages (and commiserations) I received on my 70th birthday!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The time has come to retire\u2026 after so many gigs, so many miles travelling from one end of the country to the other, limp and lifeless in the back of an old van. No, I\u2019m not talking about me but … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1224,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hacktrax.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hacktrax.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hacktrax.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hacktrax.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hacktrax.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1223"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hacktrax.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1226,"href":"https:\/\/hacktrax.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1223\/revisions\/1226"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hacktrax.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hacktrax.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hacktrax.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hacktrax.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}