On Monday night, my missus went out with her female friends to a part of London called Camden Town. Any of you with a vague interest in record collecting are probably aware of the multitude of second-hand record shops and stalls around the area. Anyway, to cut a long story short, on her return from her boozy night out, she brought me gifts. The first was the new Supergrass CD single. The second, and the subject of this review, was a second-hand copy of the Steve Hackett DVD/CD triple pack “Somewhere in South America”. Now you all know why I married her!
The pack contains one DVD and two audio CDs of the show. This is housed in an elegant slipcase, which folds out to reveal all the discs neatly packed. The show is taken from his South America tour (obviously) and was filmed at the Teatro Coliseo in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The DVD itself is 105 minutes long and contains 22 tracks spanning Hackett’s solo careers as well as his time with Genesis. The footage is not bad, but you won’t get all the whizzy multi angles that you get with other discs (cough – Deja VROOOM). Despite this, the video footage captures the band in fine form as he rattles through songs from his new album “To Watch the Storms” (Serpantine Song & Mechanical Bride – which sounds like Pictures of a City to these ears) as well as classics such as A Tower Struck Down and The Steppes. In fact, there’s a really good mix of old and new material with a healthy sprinkling of Genesis tunes too.
The band itself is remarkably tight and in terms of production values, the show reminded me a little bit of his previous DVD outing “The Tokyo Tapes”. You also get some extra bonus footage of Hackett talking about his career and his current band. Apart from that, there’s nothing else special on the DVD. But this isn’t a criticism, because you get a long 5.1 Dolby encoded show.
I am completely biased when it comes to Hackett so I totally recommend this set and I think the inclusion of the audio on two CDs is a brilliant idea and allows the likes of me and you to enjoy the concert when we are on the move. Of all the Genesis flock, Hackett always continues to develop and grow and this DVD package has whetted my appetite for his UK tour in October.
All in all, well worth a gander if you are a Hackett fan and it could also be seen as a good introduction to live Hackett for those of you who aren’t familiar with his work.
For more information/purchasing details:
http://www.stevehackett.com/somewhere/

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