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Liner Notes: Two of the Best

Back in the fall of 1985, a special announcement was made through the music press that stunned progressive rock music fans the world over. Two of the greatest and best known guitarists from the progressive era of the seventies were to join forces for the first time and form a new band, GTR. Steve Hackett, the discrete man with the chilling guitar sounds, had played with Genesis from 1970 to 1977, at which point he elected to leave the band and start a solo career. Steve Howe, the flamboyant and energetic axeman, had first made his mark with the group Yes from 1970 to 1980 before moving on to form the band Asia with Geoff Downes, John Wetton and Carl Palmer in 1981. Both men had played with giant bands of the early progressive rock era and were now regarded as two of the best guitarists in the world. Their paths had crossed a few times over the years and a mutual respect existed between the two musicians despite the fact that Genesis and Yes were largely considered as rival bands. Now, in the middle of the eighties, both Steves would embark, for the first time, on the same ship.

“It was a chance meeting, really”, Steve Hackett once said, “Steve (Howe) and I met for lunch one day and began discussing music in general, and we were both very much disenchanted with the fact that, in the eighties, the guitar had been largely put aside in favour of synths, drum machines and sequencers. Pop music had become a quite frustrating environment for a skilled guitarist to work in!” This meeting paved the way for more meetings and, pretty soon, Hackett and Howe decided to put a new band together, determined to bring their instrument back into the spotlight. Hackett and Howe set out to write the first GTR album while looking for suitable musicians to complete the line-up. Phil Spalding, who had previously worked with Mike Oldfield, was brought in to play the bass guitar, Jonathan Mover, who once played with Marillion (once being the right word since he performed only one concert with them), to play drums. As for the lead singer part, Hackett and Howe cast their vote for Max Bacon, an energetic young man with a stunningly powerful and versatile voice. Everything was set; GTR was ready to take on the world.

The eponymous album was released in the spring of 1986, and the song “When The Heart Rules The Mind” became an instant hit the world over. Its accompanying video clip only increased the band's popularity, and pretty soon GTR was much in demand for live concerts everywhere. The album itself earned an enviable spot on the US and European charts, but received some harsh criticism from music fans and press alike who stated that two such fine progressive musicians and songwriters could have done better, musically. The disenchanted lot claim that GTR was formed in an attempt to re-capture fame and fortune, and that Hackett and Howe had sacrificed their musical integrity for the almighty dollar. Yet, in an era of punk, hard rock and the last vestiges of disco, GTR was seen by others as progressive rock for the modern era. Regardless of the preconceived ideas, many Yes and Genesis fans were curious to see what the two masters could do together and eagerly awaited the upcoming tour.

Since GTR had only one album to promote, Hackett and Howe decided to realize a long-time dream of theirs by presenting an acoustic set as the opening act. Hackett and Howe would, in turn, take the stage alone and offer us a few of their best acoustic guitar pieces. In the end, they would join forces and present us with a brand new duet acoustic piece, “From A Place Where Time Runs Slow”. Then after a short break, the GTR set would get under way, a generous mixture of GTR material and choice selections from both Steves' past experiences. To have a chance to see and hear them perform some of their respective solo works as well as snippets of Genesis and Yes songs was alone worth the price of admission. Unfortunately, as often is the case with supergroups, the clash of ideas from two such strong personas led to friction and frustration, and Hackett elected to leave immediately after the world tour. Steve Howe did try to carry on and even started work on a second GTR album with a new accomplice, but the project was dropped. GTR had lived. Usually, PRRP will uniquely devote its efforts to progressive rock, and GTR was never considered a progressive act as such, but we thought it was important to offer you this particular release nevertheless. The union of two such historically important figures in the progressive rock history was quite unique and deserved that much. It was an all too brief encounter, but well worth a listen. Enjoy!

PRRP Staff

Notes from the Re-Master

We began this project with the two original master tapes. They were still in good condition after all these years and played quite well. Both tapes were digitized in 32 bit format for the remastering. At first listen, there was an obvious volume dependent excess in the midrange tones so a dynamic, frequency specific compression was used to smooth this out. Bass was also added in selected sections. Hiss and other noises were excessive so multiple techniques were used to cut this back a bit. Mild peak distortion was present and some tricks were needed to minimize this, where it was found.

The recorder obviously had auto-volume circuitry. After audience yells or whistles, volume suppressions were found that needed repair. Loud clapping also suppressed music volume and needed repair. Finally, the balance was off and needed correction. Speed was checked against known sources and found to be right on target. No speed correction was therefore needed. Tracking the songs was fairly obvious except for parts of the acoustic medleys. For those, new tracks were started at natural break points.

PRRP Staff

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