John Hackett Band- live Knutsford 25th September 2025
John Hackett Band- Live in Knutsford 25th September 2025
John Hackett Band- Knutsford Little theatre 25th September 2025
This was the 5th time I’ve seen the John Hackett Band in two years, during which time their confidence and onstage chemistry has grown dramatically. They have always been a great live band who balance their indomitable technical skills within the intelligently constructed songs, and deliver a strong presence in their music. In addition the four members who make up the band are each genuinely decent and unassuming people to boot.
So it was with much anticipation that we headed off to this fairly local venue for us to see this band once more.
Well we were not disappointed, except for the low turn out for this fine group of musicians who always deliver a strong live performance, there were about 45 people there tonight, presumably because folks are reticent about rebooting these days and also because there is so much music touring at the moment, and with the ongoing cost of living these days, you can understand that it is not easy. This week alone has seen a concert cancelled due to lack of punters in Devon, such is the state of affairs in the prog world, lots of bands but one cant be at everything. We all have our own issues, mobility, financial health wise etc., but a band of this class deserve a wider reach than they are receiving especially when they are as good as they were tonight.
The evening opened with a short 45 minute set from Amy Birks of the Beatrix players whose set included several Beatrix numbers including 2 new songs along with songs from her solo albums, she was accompanied by John Hackett on various flutes and pianist Matthew Lumb, in a truncated version of their usual 8 member band, Even so they sounded decidedly wonderful, Amy has a truly lovely voice and seemed happy to be in a fairly local gig for her (she lives in Stoke On Trent).
She spoke warmly of becoming a mother recently and how motherhood had given her a new perspective on certain songs, She also spoke lovingly about her husband whom she married a few years ago, for Amy the future is bright and open.
After a brief break the John Hackett Band took to the stage and ran through a strong set that drew mainly on their latest album Red Institution and also celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Voyage Of The Acolyte, the first Steve Hackett solo album that John played a major part in the writing and recording of in 1975.
The set opened with the historical influenced MDLXXX1X (1589) a song that references the Spanish Armada. This is a lively opener, this was followed by Theme and Rondo in which we had the first real guitar solo from Nick Fletcher, its a very jazz fusion influenced track an area that Nick is especially active in with his own solo albums such as A Longing For Home and his soon to be released The Mask Of Sanity due out on 6th October.
After which we were then treated to the excellent penmanship of Duncan Parsons for the very cleverly written song The Committee which is not about the intrigue of a local parish council meeting, it is about the standardisation of Road Signs in the uk in 1963 by the Warboys Committee a highly unusual and little mentioned footnote in UK road safety measures and legislation.
Next, we had the short Burnt Down Trees from John's first John Hackett Band album, We Are Not Alone from 2017,
After this came the first section of the Voyage Of The Acolyte revisitations in the form of Ace Of Wands, Hands Of The Priestess and Tower Struck Down.
These tracks were faithful to the originals in spirit and yet still managed to reflect on the excellence of the John Hackett Band musicians without detracting from the original album recordings. It can’t be easy to capture the feel and nuances of a 50-year-old classic, but this group pulled this off admirably.
They were joined by Amy Birks for Hands Of The Priestess which was a lovely duet between Amy and Bass player Jeremy Richardson and with John Hackett’s melodic flute playing.
After this we had Duncan’s moment of glory with his very amusing Quiz Answers routine, in which he offers answers to a previously poised quiz, Cue some strange answers! The hilarity concluded, the music continued with Dream town another duet between Jeremy and Amy, this was followed by Winds Of Change and thereafter by another charming Duncan Parsons song Who Let The Rain In? With Duncan providing backing vocals from behind his drum kit, whilst playing, it is a very upbeat song even though its subject matter is less so as it is actually about connection with each other being eroded by our attention to technology compromising our quality interactions.
This is followed by another Fusion encounter in the form of Clare’s Tango where Nick Fletcher let fly with more impressive improvisation.
We were then treated to a truly beautiful rendition of King Crimson’s I Talk To The Wind, a song that was hugely influential on John and one that led him to taking up the flute for himself as he was so impressed with Ian McDonald’s flute when he saw Crimson in 1969 at the Marquee club in London’s SoHo. Amy Burks sang counterpart on this as well.
For the next song Red Institution, Jeremy said he wasn’t going to rant about technology and social media destroying the fabric of society but was instead merely going to perform the song , again with Amy in tow.
Then we had an unbelievably fine rendition of Voyage Of The Acolyte albums longest track , Shadow Of The Hierophant. This was truly excellent with exceptional guitar from Nick Fletcher who positively blazed on the extended outro of the song. I’ve seen Steve Hackett play this song live many times and yet this version was even more fiery, and whilst lacking the bass pedals Steve’s bassist Jonas Reingold uses so effectively this version was extremely powerfully delivered.
The final song was the short Red Hair from an earlier John Hackett solo album, it was an extremely strong and enjoyable performance from the band who are usual were very gracious and available to talk with after the show. They head to Colchester and Aylesbury next if you can do try and catch them, they are most definitely worth any journey you make and you will be warmly welcomed.
Author John Wenlock-Smith