"A Blue Part Of Town" - Steve Hackett live in concert at the Rome Palladium on 29th November 1994. Review by Mario Giammetti.

We Italians were very unlucky when Genesis cancelled their ony show on the We Can't Dance tour because of a lorry driver's strike in France. However, in return we were rewarded with shows by Steve. After a marvellous five electric shows with his band in the summer of 1993, Steve returned to Italy last autumn to play seven acoustic concerts with Julian Colbeck. The tour started on 24th November at the "Sonny Boy" in Conegliano Veneto, continuing on 25th at Teatro CTM in Rezzato; on 26th at Teatro Aurora in Olgiate Comasco; on 28th at Teatro Michetti in Pescara and on 29th at the Palladium in Rome, as well as two other shows after this in Sicily.

During the concert in Rome Steve appeared very relaxed and sometimes the show gave the impression that we were favoured friends watching a show almost in Steve's living room, the atmosphere was that intimate. Unfortunately this lovely atmosphere was spoiled somewwhat by idiots amongst the audience who insisted on shouting out absurd requests for Supper's Ready or Cinema Show. In spite of this, Steve was able to keep his self control and was aware that apart from these few, the rest of the audience were there for his music and not ghosts of his former career.

The set played during the Itaian tour was quite different to the show at Uden in Holland in June. Steve and Julian played six extra tracks: The Skye Boat Song, Time-Lapse At Milton Keynes; Jazz On A Summer's Night (which he used to play on the 1988 Momentum tour along with his brother John); A Blue Part Of Town (the only live track from Blues With A Feeling) and two new unreleased tracks: Beja Flor and End Of Day. The entire set ran as follows: The Skye Boat Song/Horizons/Time-Lapse At Milton Keynes/Beja Flor/Kim/Second Chance/Oh How I LoveYou/The Journey/Baroque/Walking Awy From Rainbows/Cavalcanti/Concerto In D/A Blue Part Of Town/There Are Many Sides To The Night/Ace Of Wands/Cinema Paradiso/Jazz On ASummer's Night/End of Day.

Between Horizons and Time-Lapse At Milton Keynes Steve played some sections from the Genesis era in the form of a medley of bits from Blood On The Rooftops, Cuckoo Cocoon; Dancing With The Moonlit Knight Unquiet Slumbers For The Sleepers and even an extract from The Colony Of Slippermen! Later he also played sections from other tracks from his solo career not heard in a long time such as Two Vamps As Guests and Jacuzzi.

Apart from the obvious applause during numbers like Horizons and Kim and the new version of Ace Of Wands the audience particularly enjoyed some of the newer pieces such as Oh How I Love You; Baroque and A Blue Part Of Town this in particular was new to fans in Italy because at the time the Blues With A Feeling album had not been released in Italy and only a few people had import copies. After ninety minutes of great music and instrumental skill; Steve and Julian finally left the stage re-emerging after about thirty minutes or so to sign autographs for the waiting fans. On behalf of all the fans who saw one or more of these shows I would like to thank Steve and Julian for honouring us with their presence and music we are hoping to see you again VERY soon!