25 years ago, the album The Living Years was released by Mike & The Mechanics and now it’s recently been treated to a deluxe re-release to celebrate. And what other way do you celebrate? Why, you go on tour of course! It seems that this time around that the team are visiting locations not previously visited on their last two recent tours.
Although celebrating 25 years of The Living Years, this tour would sample tracks from across the 29 year catalogue so there was something for everyone. Opening with the 1995 track Beggar On A Beach of Gold, those who have attended in previous years will be familiar with the line up: Andrew Roachford on vocals & keys, Tim Howar on vocals, Luke Juby on everything except the kitchen sink (or maybe he plays that too), Anthony Drennon on guitar & bass, Mechanics veteran Garry Wallis on drums and of course, Mike Rutherford on guitar. From the same album, it’s straight into Cup of Coffee before finishing the opening trio with Get Up.
Rutherford begins by welcoming everyone to show but saying it’s Perth, which for the most part, the audience believe is a deliberate joke, until it pointed out that by fellow band mates, it’s Aberdeen. Realising his mistake, he quickly moves onto introducing the band and then the next song, which has Howar in stitches because of the title, 2011 Try To Save Me. Seeing Is Believing and Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground) up next before delving into the The Living Years album for Don’t.
Andrew Roachford is an artist himself and tells Aberdeen (this becomes a running joke throughout the night) it’s time to delve into the Roachford files for the next track This Generation. Though he does manage to mess up the opening, which he blames on karma. Of course, Mike & The Mechanics was a project set up to do between Mike’s other band’s album. That other band being Genesis and it’s from this catalogue that the next track comes from in the form of Turn It On Again. It’s time for a bit of self promoting from Mike with regards the deluxe version of The Living Years, his book and of course The Singles album, that contains a new song written by him and Roachford called When My Feet Don’t Touch The Ground.
More older songs in the form of Everybody Gets A Second Chance and Nobody’s Perfect. Time for another one from Roachford and it can only be Cuddly Toy. During the last few tours, it’s become almost a tradition for Roachford to try and catch drummer Garry Wallis off guard with beats with the line If I told you once / I told you three times but he changes the number. Tonight, they’re going for 22…and Wallis snares it perfectly. Tonight’s lesson; you need to get up early in the morning to beat Wallis! Another song from the Genesis catalogue in I Can’t Dance.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Mike & The Mechanics tours without THAT song, and of course we’re talking about The Living Years. Who needs a backing choir when you’ve got the audience to sing that part for you? The final song from the set is All I Need Is A Miracle which gets the audience up on it feet…and of course Tim decides to challenge the audience with a chanting session to see if they can keep up with him….it’s Scotland, we’re known for our ability to sing back!
It’s not the end though, as after just a few short minutes they’re all back on stage and it’s into Over My Shoulder. And the finale comes in the form of Word Of Mouth which shows up who’d been to the previous concerts when there’s arm waving and people don’t need prompting.
This is the third time that we’ve seen the group and it’s always been a great night out. There was more variation in the set list than the previous shows (201? show mainly featured songs from the then studio album, The Road with a few classics thrown in, 201? introduced some Genesis, and now in 2014 it’s a mixture of songs from across the entire catalogue) meaning that there was something for everyone no matter what age or where you came in of the fan range. The question is whether or not more of The Living Years album might have been more appropriate (there was 4 out of a 18 song set list) but when you have that re-release and the singles collection to contend with coupled with a 29 year back catalogue, it must be difficult know how to ensure that there is a mixture for everyone. That small point aside, there’s never a dull moment here.
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