Voyage of the Acolyte

Hackett made it in June and July 1975, a month after Genesis finished touring The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, and finished it in four weeks at Kingsway Recorders in central London. It is his only album recorded and released while he was a member of Genesis. His original title was Premonitions, but Charisma management disliked it and suggested Voyage of the Acolyte, which he accepted.

The concept is loose: each title and lyric draws on a Tarot card, chosen because it had conjured a strong feeling. Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins of Genesis played on it, and Rutherford wrote the ending of Shadow of the Hierophant, which Genesis had rehearsed for Foxtrot. It was the first album on which Hackett worked with his brother John, who is credited as co-writer of A Tower Struck Down, and the first on which he tried playing keyboards. The cover is a Chinese watercolour by Kim Poor, and he dedicated the record to her.

It reached 26 in Britain, where it was certified silver, and 191 in the United States. Rutherford and Banks told him he could not keep making solo records and remain in Genesis. A 2005 reissue added bonus tracks, and a surround upmix is in the Premonitions box of 2015.