Steve Hackett - The Circus and the Nightwhale reviewed by Alan Hewitt

A new album by Steve is always a delight but when I heard that his latest effort; The Circus And The Nightwhale was to be…a CONCEPT album then I paused for thought. OK so Steve is no stranger to the concept album tag. After all he was involved in the creation of one of the most (in)famous concept albums of all time: The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, as well as his first solo offering; Voyage Of The Acolyte. More recently still, concepts and ideas have flowed throughout his albums but to create a full blown concept at this stage of his career?
Well we shall see…

Like its predecessor, The Lamb…The Circus And The Nightwhale has a central character: “Travla” and if you peruse the sleeve notes before listening to the album you will immediately realise that this character is in fact, Mr Hackett himself.

Getting under way with People Of The Smoke which is a vivid evocation of the post war London of Steve's own childhood, a grey landscape befogged and besmirched by war and industrial grime both of which had left their toll on Britain. Steve does not pull his punches here and I love the lyric: “Dirty look, do what you're told/Bow to your betters/Empire of old/a hanging at dawn while a baby is born…” the times they are a-changing, as another wordsmith once said.

These Passing Clouds is pure Hackett in his element. A vast panoramic soundscape which gives way to the dramatic paranoia of Taking You Down - a frighteningly vivid evocation of youth and the temptations which are ever present for the unwary. Bad influences - always present and always dangerous.

Redemption is never far away however and Found And Lost shows our hero in love but only briefly. Here the twin musical. passions of the blues and the acoustic guitar meet and entwine like two lovers but the union is all too brief as our hero Enter(s) The Ring and succumbs to the temptations of what is to become his all-consuming passion: music and the world becomes full of “kaleidoscopic thrills and spins/Carousel waltz don't touch the ground/Faster turns the merry go-round” superbly evoking the world in which the musician lives and so brilliantly etched as: “Sleep by day and fly by night…”

For me the most telling track is Get Me Out! Without doubt one of Steve's most vivid and personal statements of what his life became as he fell under the charms of the fame game where everything you do is under scrutiny. He unleashes ferocious salvoes of guitar licks like a beast in its cage.

Ghost Moon and Living Love is, as its title suggests, a homage to love and more specifically the lady who has undoubtedly brought Steve the happiness he has sought for so long: Jo. It is a painful examination of the trials and tribulations he had to go through to reach this happier place. Lyrics and guitar soar above the darkness on this one and, as we shall see in the next track, Circo Inferno , the demons of the past don't give up easily. This Middle Eastern- tinged romp is darkly dramatic a total contrast to its predecessor and like the following track, Breakout which for me has echoes of Riding The Scree in it, perhaps it's positioning in Travla’s story is why. Rampaging riffs abound on this one and Satan and all his little stomp boxes are clearly having a field day! All the while though the call of the Nightwhale can be heard as Travla finds himself All At Sea on the sea of life.

Travla, like Jonah of old finds himself within the belly of a whale - his darkest nightmares have swallowed him and are in danger of overpowering him once and for all but he finds the strength to overcome them and emerge the stronger. The references here are clear, the nightmare that was Steve's previous relationship is banished and light and love prevail as we discover in the affirmative Wherever You Are and the truly beautiful White Dove both of which bring the album to a suitably positive close.

Musically The album contains some very strong work indeed. The story is obviously Steve's own from the dark streets of post war London to the position he finds himself in today. A story that is still very much in the telling. Travla’s journey isn't over yet.