First Aylesbury Friars show booked since pandemic announced - and it's Genesis legend Steve Hackett!

This year is a bit of a write-off for live music.

And while we all keep our fingers and toes crossed that come November we will all be able to go and see the return of punk legends The Damned at Friars, club bosses have wasted no time in booking their first date for 2021.

Following his stunning sell-out Friars date in November 2019, Steve Hackett returns to Friars Aylesbury, the place where Genesis began, for a special one-off show featuring songs from the Genesis live album ‘Seconds Out’ plus other tracks from Steve’s solo albums.

This is the first new Friars date to be announced since the CV19 lockdown, and represents a real sense of optimism from organisers that things will recover for live music.

Friars co-founder David Stopps said: "Seconds Out was the hugely successful double album recorded on Genesis’s 1977 concert tour together with The Cinema Show, from their 1976 tour, and featured Steve Hackett on guitar alongside Mike Rutherford, Tony Banks and Phil Collins who had taken on the role of vocalist following the departure of Peter Gabriel.

"The tour included music from each of the six studio albums from Steve’s time in Genesis and marked his final recordings with the band as he left to pursue his solo career upon its completion."

Speaking about the upcoming performance, Steve said: "I hugely look forward to being back on the road in the UK, bringing the whole of Seconds Out back to life!

"The set features some of the most thrilling Genesis material, this time all numbers played in full, plus additional surprises...”

Steve Hackett joined Genesis at the beginning of 1971 and first played Friars Aylesbury in June 1971.

He quickly gained an international reputation as the guitarist in the band’s classic line-up alongside Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins. Steve’s intricate guitar work was a key element of Genesis’ albums from Nursery Cryme (1971) to Wind And Wuthering (1977) including the classic Selling England By The Pound.

After leaving Genesis at the end of 1977, Steve’s solo career, which now spans more than 30 albums, has demonstrated his extraordinary versatility with both electric and acoustic guitar. Steve is renowned as both an immensely talented and innovative rock musician and a virtuoso classical guitarist and composer and this was recognised in 2010 when he was inducted into the Rock Hall Of Fame. He has also worked alongside Steve Howe of YES in the supergroup GTR.

Steve’s compositions take influences from many genres, including jazz, classical and blues. For his later studio works The Night Siren (2017) and At The Edge Of Light (2019) Steve has explored the influences of world music.

TICKETS go on sale on FRIDAY 9 JULY 2020 10.00am from www.ATGtickets.com, www.seetickets.com and www.Ticketmaster.co.uk.

Presale tickets go on sale on Thursday 8 July at 10.00am from ATGtickets.com to Friars Aylesbury newsletter subscribers only.

Go to www.aylesburyfriars.co.uk for free Friars newsletter subscription.

Tickets limited to a maximum of four per person.

Please note the Waterside Box Office is not open due to CV19.