Mike + the Mechanics (stylized as M1ke + The Mechan1c5) are an English pop/rock supergroup formed in 1985 as a side project of Mike Rutherford, one of the founding members of the band Genesis. The band is known for their hit singles "Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground)", "All I Need Is a Miracle", "Taken In", "Over My Shoulder", and "The Living Years".
Initially, the band included Rutherford, vocalists Paul Carrack and Paul Young, keyboardist Adrian Lee and drummer Peter Van Hooke. Carrack was generally assigned to ballads and more pop-oriented numbers, while Young handled the band's heavier work. After a successful decade, Lee and Van Hooke dropped out in 1995, and were not replaced. Follo...
Mike + the Mechanics (stylized as M1ke + The Mechan1c5) are an English pop/rock supergroup formed in 1985 as a side project of Mike Rutherford, one of the founding members of the band Genesis. The band is known for their hit singles "Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground)", "All I Need Is a Miracle", "Taken In", "Over My Shoulder", and "The Living Years".
Initially, the band included Rutherford, vocalists Paul Carrack and Paul Young, keyboardist Adrian Lee and drummer Peter Van Hooke. Carrack was generally assigned to ballads and more pop-oriented numbers, while Young handled the band's heavier work. After a successful decade, Lee and Van Hooke dropped out in 1995, and were not replaced. Following Young's death in 2000, Carrack became the band's sole lead vocalist until 2004 when the band (essentially a duo at this point) went on hiatus, with Rutherford and Carrack both later saying the band had "run its course". The band identity was revived in 2010, consisting of Rutherford and a completely new set of musicians, including new vocalists Andrew Roachford and Tim Howar.
Peak !
The single "The Living Years" (US#1, UK#2) became the band's biggest hit, and featured on the band's second album Living Years. The song was written by Rutherford and Robertson after both of their fathers had recently died, but the lyrics were written solely by Robertson and centered on the unresolved dissension between Robertson and his father. The song was sung by Carrack, who also had an emotional attachment to the song having lost his own father when he was only eleven years old. The album also featured the song "Nobody's Perfect", which was sung by Young and which had received considerable airtime as the music to a successful television advertising campaign for Tennent's bitter.
At this point Carrack began to take a much larger role in the band, joining their stable of songwriters and adding keyboards to his repertoire. The group's third album, Word of Mouth, followed in 1991. It was less successful than its predecessors, particularly in the US, but scored another trio of charting singles in the UK, with the lead single becoming one of their most popular songs yet.
Their fourth album, Beggar on a Beach of Gold, did not appear until 1995. When it did, however, it was met with critical acclaim and yielded both a UK top 40 hit in the title track, and a number 12 hit in "Over My Shoulder". The latter, which was their first hit to be co-written by Carrack, became arguably their most aired song on British radio.
Their run of successes was capped with 1996's Hits, which compiled most of their hit singles with a new reworking of "All I Need is a Miracle" that hit number 27 in the UK, a higher placing than that of the original version. The album was certified platinum in the UK within two months of its release.
