Despite Rutherford’s age and recent physical issue (“I broke my f*cking hip”, he mentions at the start of the concert) he still knows how to put up a good shows with his Mechanics colleagues. On April 29th I went to see Mike + The Mechanics at the Mitsubishi Electric Halle in Düsseldorf, together with my lovely wife. She hadn’t really heard any of the Mechanics stuff before, so to her it was a baptism by fire. And fire it was!
The title of the tour sums it up nicely: “Looking Back – Living The Years, all the hits & a drift into Genesis.” So, we got what we wanted: Beggar On A Beach Of Gold, Another Cup Of Coffee, Get Up, Silent Running, All I Need Is A Miracle, Over My Shoulder and ofcourse The Living Years. But also Let Me Fly, The Best Is Yet To Come and Out Of The Blue. The band even played two brand new Mechanics tracks! One wonders how and when these new tracks will be released. In between the Mechanics hits Rutherford played famous tracks from his other little band. The audience got up on their feet and sang and clapped along to Land Of Confusion, I Can’t Dance, Invisible Touch (acoustic) and Follow You Follow Me (acoustic).
The band ended their set with Word Of Mouth and a long intermezzo featuring solos of all the band members. I had never seen Mike Rutherford do an improvised solo on stage before! Nick Collins’s drum solo was recieved with great enthousiasm. I enjoyed every single moment of the Mechanics concert and Rutherford and his collegues left me in awe. Will he be back any time soon? In Rutherford’s case it’s always “never say never!”