Mike & the Mechanics started as a side project by Genesis bassist/guitarist Mike Rutherford while Phil Collins was pursuing a solo career. The band consisted of Rutherford, Peter Van Hooke on drums, Paul Carrack and Paul Young on vocals, and Adrian Lee on keyboards.
Their self-titled debut, released in 1985, reached #78 in the
UK
and #26 in the
US and
eventually went gold. They also had hits with the singles “Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground),” which was the theme song to the movie
Choke
Canyon ,
“Taken In”; and “All I Need Is a Miracle.” They also began a
US
tour.
The next album by Mike & the Mechanics was the 1988 release The Living Years. The album reached #2 in the
UK
and #13 in the
US
, and the title track, which was inspired by the death of
Rutherford
’s father, was a #1 hit. They also found success with the single “Nobody’s Perfect.” In 1989, they started a European tour.
1991’s Word of Mouth was their next album, and it reached #11 in the
UK
. Its singles “Word of Mouth,” “A Time and Place,” and “Everybody Gets a Second Chance” all charted.
Meanwhile,
Rutherford
continued to record and perform with Genesis, and Mike & the Mechanics didn’t release another album until 1995’s Beggar on a Beach of Gold. Lee and Van Hooke had both left the band by then, and
Rutherford
and Carrack took over duties on the keyboards while Carrack played drums. The album and the singles “Another Cup of Coffee,” “Over My Shoulder,” and “Beggar on a
Beach
of
Gold
” all charted in the
UK
. The following year, they released a greatest hits album that also charted.
In May 1999, Mike & the Mechanics released their fifth studio album which, like their first album, was self-titled. It reached #14 in the
UK
and their single “Wherever I Stop” also charted.
On
July 15, 2000
, Paul Young died of a heart attack. The surviving band members released an experimental new CD, Rewired, as Mike & the Mechanics and Paul Carrack in 2004. They played a concert at Shepherd’s Bush Empire in September that year, and in 2005 they released that concert’s DVD.
