Fifty years ago Michael Chapman decided to make music professionally. On this occasion the 76 year old from Leeds points out once again on his new album "50" that he was never the big hit supplier, but an artist who went straight: as a sometimes sarcastic, autobiographical song poet who orientates himself on rock, blues, folk and country. Six of the songs on "50" are reworkings of older pieces by the musician, in addition there are two (LP) or four (CD) new songs. Guests like the exceptional guitarist Steve Gunn, Bridget St. John or James Elkington gather around the jubilarian. A party of great underdogs!

eclipsed: How and when did the idea for the anniversary album come to you?

Anyone who talks to Steve Hackett about music should bring a lot of time with them. The ex-Genesis guitarist has no prepared 08/15 statements ready. The 67-year-old answers all questions in detail, likes to digress and comes from the hundredth to the thousandth. No problem He uses the eclipsed interview not only to promote his new studio album "The Night Siren". The state of the world that he sees on the abyss is of special concern to him. Xenophobia, narrow-mindedness and the autocratic leadership style of people like Donald Trump are horrors to him, and he openly expresses them. And once in motion, also some of his ex-genesis colleagues get one with..

eclipsed: We will reach you in the USA, where you have already done some shows of the current tour. How'd it go?

The inconspicuous row house under the Bayer Cross resembles a hiding place. And even inside, there is nothing to indicate that someone lives here who has spent his professional life with youth culture and rock music: no framed pictures with friends, no golden records, signed instruments or other devotional objects. Not even Billy shelves with LPs. Instead, Peter Rüchel's study is overloaded with books and magazines. Sorted by a system that only he knows. And he likes to sit in the dark or in the semi-darkness. When eclipsed strikes in the early afternoon with him in Leverkusen, it is still light. When we say goodbye two and a half hours later in pitch-black darkness.

STEVE HACKETT - Behind The Smoke (6:57)
Album: The Night Siren (2017)
Label/Distribution: InsideOut/Sony
www.hackettsongs.com

From the album of the month "The Night Siren" comes this majestic song which opens this new HACKETT masterpiece. The piece seems like a mixture of classical quotations, oriental sounds, Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" and theatrical film music. Such a melange becomes favorite songs.

Nadine Khouri was seven years old when her parents fled Lebanon from the civil war. The family left their hometown of Beirut to live in London. At 18, Nadine went to New York to study, but returned to her adopted country to be closer to her family. "As a child, it was my dream to become a cartoonist," says Khouri. It didn't work out. Which is nothing bad, because in England's capital it seems to have found its true purpose: music. That was the end of the '0s. So she recorded a first 5-track EP, "A Song To The City", which was released on July 13, 2010. No less than 16 musicians recorded the songs, which convince with their wide arrangements, but with Nadine Khouri's voice in the foreground. In addition to the usual instruments, banjo, harp, xylophone, cello, violin, clarinet and trumpet are used. Soulige songs can be found on this first album, partly spartanic on acoustic guitar, partly harsh rocking. The British Mojo summed it up as follows: "Meditative, spectral dream images ...

25. April 1967, Rhöndorf near Bonn, Waldfriedhof: It is the day on which the Federal Republic experiences the largest funeral in its history to date. Former Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, who blessed the temporal at the age of 91, is buried. But it is not only the deserving statesman who is said goodbye, in retrospect his funeral also symbolizes the end of an epoch - that of reconstruction, the economic miracle and a stuffy restorative social climate.

Mike Oldfield's reasons for returning to "Ommadawn" lie deeper than at first glance one might think. Even the continuation of his most famous record "Tubular Bells" in 1992 was by no means a purely economic calculation. "When I wanted to release 'Amarok' in 1990," recalls Oldfield, "Virgin boss Richard Branson told me to call it 'Tubular Bells II', but I replied that the second part of 'Tubular Bells' would certainly come sometime, but this album definitely isn't." This anecdote not only says a lot about the then smouldering conflict between Oldfield and his label boss, but also about the fact that the concept of the sequel means far more to the musician than a simple label to be able to turn on any instrumental longtrack to his fans.

The 66-year-old drummer is still very agile. Carl Palmer wasn't only active with ELP either, but had already drummed with Atomic Rooster and The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown at the end of the sixties. He is currently flying between his own band Carl Palmer's ELP Legacy and Asia. Stuck in a traffic jam, the interview has to be postponed by a few days. Once on the phone, Palmer proves himself to be a British gentleman of the old school: he apologizes with impulsion, is polite and accommodating. And he's alive and kicking, his answers coming out of the gun.

eclipsed: After the death of Greg Lake you are the last living member of ELP. How would you describe the legacy of the band?