Gig review: Mike + the Mechanics at Victoria Theatre
A broken hip cannot stop the former Genesis man and his latest incarnation of the roving supergroup, who deliver fluently wonderful tunes across a two-act performance.
“Halifax, it was all going so well a few weeks ago,” Mike Rutherford tells the town’s Victoria Theatre from where he is perched on a twin-seat black leather high stool, dressed in the most fabulous black-cherry-lavender suit seen on this side of the Pennines in a long time. “And then I went and broke my hip. But the show goes on!”
Indeed, it must. A few months ago, the onetime Genesis bassist-turned-multi-instrumentalist had been putting the finishing touches to the latest material for his side-project-turned-day-job supergroup before an injury threw their touring plans for a nationwide jaunt across the spring into disarray. But with unflappable coolness, the 74-year-old has simply redressed the staging, found himself a seat and carried on regardless.
It has been a solid second life for Mike and the Mechanics, whose dual lines in AOR and soft-pop ballad success at one point rivalled that of bandmate Phil Collins’ own solo domination across the late Eighties and early Nineties.
Rutherford is the lone member retained in this 2010 incarnation which has travelled the world since, fronted by the twin voices of former Roachford frontman Andrew Roachford and stage-trained Canadian Tim Howar; drumming duties have now fallen to Collins’ son Nic, who stood in for his father on the last run of Genesis shows a few years ago too.
Across a two-act show, perhaps in deference to their namesake’s current condition, the band trawl across their back catalogues and more, befitting the shape of this retrospective tour. Walking wounded he may be, but Rutherford is still a fluently wonderful player; he underpins the blue-eyed soul soar of Another Cup of Coffee with aplomb, and puts the propulsive thrust of The Best Is Yet to Come into top gear.
Silent Running conjures a lusty singalong, while side-dives into his old band yield terrific takes on Land of Confusion and I Can’t Dance.
Pulling duties on keys and voice too, Roachford emerges as the focal point star, that velvet voice still wonderfully intact.
On his own Cuddly Toy, turned into a free-form funk workout, he seems to absolutely delight in the call-and-response he earns. It segues into a terrific finale of All I Need is a Miracle, but there’s just enough time for an encore led by Over My Shoulder to lead off to a finish all before 10pm. “Terrific stuff, Halifax,” Rutherford intones.