The music of Genesis has always been grandiose in scope, but guitarist Steve Hackett has taken things one step further with his latest Genesis Revisited tour with a full 41-piece orchestra. Metal Express Radio's Mick Burgess called him up to talk about the tour and the progress of his forthcoming solo album. Following is an excerpt from the interview.

Q: Have you toured with an orchestra before?

Hackett: "I`ve played odd shows in the past with an orchestra but I`ve never done a tour with a rock band and an orchestra before so there’ll be the regular six-piece band with a 41-piece orchestra called the Heart of England Philharmonic orchestra."

Q: It must be a logistical nightmare to coordinate everything.

Hackett: "It is. The first thing we had to decide upon was who was going to count everybody in, was it the conductor, the drummer or me?  Brad (Thachuk / conductor) was great and he told Gary, the drummer, that he would count in and everyone else would follow him.

Q: It`ll be pretty expensive, too?

Hackett: "Nobody takes an orchestra out on the road to make money and thankfully a lot of shows are sold out, so that`ll mitigate some of the costs. So I don’t think I`ll have to sell my house."

Q: What songs will you be working on with the orchestra for the shows?

Hackett: "I`ll be doing some classic Genesis stuff like 'Supper`s Ready', 'Dancing With The Moonlit Knight' and 'Firth of Fifth', which work wonderfully with an orchestra. They`re great tunes. I`ll also be doing some solo stuff and maybe doing 'Shadow of the Hierophant' if we can fit it in or at least the crescendo section. We may do the whole song if Amanda Lehmann is available. Some of these songs were just made to be played with an orchestra."

Read the complete interview here.

The decision to undertake this tour was cemented following the critical success of last year’s one-off US performance of the Genesis Revisited music with his band and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by the charismatic Bradley Thachuk. It went down a storm with the audience and sounded amazing, with the orchestra adding even more texture and colour to these classic tracks, prompting Steve to want to perform more shows in this way. Such was the gusto and verve brought to the performance by conductor, Bradley Thachuk that he will fly over to the UK to conduct the October shows. This show promises to be a transcendent experience!

Get tickets here, and watch a trailer below: