The Steve Hackett Story - Listening to The Night Siren And Beyond. Photographs by Alan Hewitt, Mike Ainscoe, Peter Blight. Memorabilia : Twr Archive.

 The new album, The Night Siren was eventually released in February 2017 by which time Steve was already on the road with yet more shows.

The Night Siren continued where its predecessor left off. Steve had now emerged from the shadows and was growing in confidence to speak out about issues which were of concern to him. Behind The Smoke for instance, which opens the album, is a brilliant evocation of the plight of refugees … "It's about refugees and it was intended to be controversial and contrasting the situation my family found themselves in in the 1800s fleeing religious persecution in Eastern Europe, in Poland, so really Behind The Smoke addresses that…"

Martian Sea is another guarded reference to Steve's failed relationship with his previous wife, whilst El Nino, which is Steve's first instrumental track for quite some time, addressed environmental concerns. Others such as Inca Terra reflect Steve and Jo's love of travel. The album's only weak link as far as I am concerned is Another Life. Hackett meets Rob Roy via Braveheart. A pastiche which sadly falls flat on its face as far as I am concerned and has one moment which for those with long memories, will definitely recall Spinal Tap.

That aside, the album was another consistent one which gained healthy chart positions both at home and abroad which was even more impressive. The conveyor belt of touring just seemed to go on and on for Steve with tours running for months instead of weeks and spanning continents including Steve's first visit to Australia and New Zealand. With occasional breaks, the tour continued into the summer of 2018 before a break was taken. But when Steve and his band returned it was with a series of performances which were to take everyone by surprise.