He is a guitarist/songwriter born Stephen Richard
Hackett in Pimlico, London,
England.He was with the band Quiet World and
then in 1970 he became a member of the group Genesis. He is renowned for his mastery of
guitar techniques such as "tapping" which is used in tracks
such as "The Musical Box" and "Dancing in a Moonlight
Night".He also pioneered
the use of "sweep-picking" which was first used on the Selling England by the Pound album
and his solo on "Firth of Frith" is considered by many to be
one of the great electric guitar solos.He released his first solo album, Voyage of the Acolyte in 1975 and
following its success he left the band in 1977.He formed the group GTR in 1986
along with Steve Howe from Asia and Yes.His brother John is a flutist and
guitar player and has appeared with him in his more recent works.Artists such as Yngwie
Malmsteen and Mike Holmes have cited him as an influence while he has cited
Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Jeff Beck and J.S. Bach as his own.His wife, Kim Poor, is an artist and
has painted the covers for all of his solo albums.On leaving Genesis he made the
statement "I was getting tired of bringing ideas into the group which
I felt they weren't going to do. I felt that the band was heading towards
an area that was becoming very safe."
