Mike + The Mechanics release career-spanning collection
By Dan Biggane | February 18, 2025
Mike + The Mechanics release career-spanning collection, Looking Back – Living The Years, and tour the UK throughout March and April.
Looking Back – Living The Years is a retrospective look back celebrating 40 years since their debut record. It starts with their debut hit Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground) and showcases the band’s biggest hits from their 1985 self-titled debut through to their latest album Out Of The Blue that was released in 2019 and broke into the UK top 10.
The compilation features all of the band’s vocalists through the years – Paul Young, Paul Carrack, Andrew Roachford and Tim Howar – and includes amongst a plethora of era defining hits, Grammy-nominated single All I Need Is A Miracle ’96, Ivor Novello Award-winning and Grammy-nominated The Living Years, and the international smash-hit Over My Shoulder.
The Living Years
Formed in 1985 by Mike Rutherford “as a side project to Genesis”, Mike + The Mechanics originally featured Paul Young and Paul Carrack as frontmen, and together, they achieved huge commercial success through the ’80s and ’90s gaining No.1s all over the world.
Rutherford said: “It’s been 40 years since the Mechanics’ first album. It opened up another part of me as a songwriter. I’d only ever written with Phil and Tony together in the studio, and it gave me the confidence to branch out and co-write with other people. It also kept Genesis very fresh for me, and I always looked forward to going back with the guys.”
Amazingly, by the time Mike started the band, he had already released 12 albums with Genesis and the idea of the band was initially to be a creative outlet for Mike who, to that point in his career, had only been in the studio with the other members of Genesis.
Looking Back
Mike + The Mechanics ran concurrently with Genesis. In 1985 they released their self-titled debut which included the global phenomenon All I Need Is a Miracle, and the following year Genesis released Invisible Touch. In 1988 Living Years was released featuring one of the Mechanics’ biggest hits, The Living Years, and in 1991 Mike returned to Genesis releasing We Can’t Dance and the harmonious and incredibly prolific period that continued through the ’90s. After Paul Young’s sudden death in 2000, the band went into a period of uncertainty and released one further album, Rewired, in 2004 before deciding to call it a day.
In 2011, Mike started writing songs again and invited Andrew Roachford and Tim Howar to join him – and their chemistry was instant. They released The Road album that year, and the Mechanics began touring again with huge success and have remained together since, playing sold-out concerts across the UK and Europe; the group continues to write new music to this day.
Tracklisting
Double-LP
Side A
Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground)
All I Need Is A Miracle ’96
The Living Years
Word Of Mouth
Side B
Over My Shoulder
A Beggar On A Beach Of Gold
Another Cup Of Coffee
Taken In
Side C
Nobody’s Perfect
Everybody Gets A Second Chance
Nobody Knows
Seeing Is Believing
Side D
The Road
The Best Is Yet To Come
Don’t Know What Came Over Me
Out Of The Blue
CD / Digital
Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground)
All I Need Is A Miracle ’96
The Living Years
Word Of Mouth
Over My Shoulder
A Beggar On A Beach Of Gold
Another Cup Of Coffee
Taken In
Nobody’s Perfect
Everybody Gets A Second Chance
Nobody Knows
Seeing Is Believing
The Road
The Best Is Yet To Come
Don’t Know What Came Over Me
Out Of The Blue
Looking Back – Living The Years 2025 Tour
March
Monday 03 – Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Tuesday 04 – Aberdeen Music Hall
Wednesday 05 – Edinburgh Usher Hall
Friday 07 – Perth Concert Hall
Saturday 08 – Stockton Globe Theatre
Sunday 09 – Manchester Bridgewater Hall
Tuesday 11 – Nottingham Royal Concert Hall
Wednesday 12 – Stoke Victoria Hall
Friday 14 – York Barbican
Saturday 15 – Ipswich Regent Theatre
Monday 17 – Cambridge Corn Exchange
Tuesday 18 – Sheffield City Hall
Thursday 20 – Halifax Victoria Halls
Saturday 22 – Gateshead Glasshouse
Sunday 23 – Llandudno Venue Cymru
Monday 24 – Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
Wednesday 26 – Leicester De Montfort Hall
Thursday 27 – Basingstoke Anvil
Saturday 29 – Bournemouth Pavilion
Sunday 30 – Portsmouth Guildhall
April
Tuesday 01 – Southend Cliffs Pavilion
Wednesday 02 – Northampton Derngate
Friday 04 – Birmingham Symphony Hall
Saturday 05 – Eastbourne Congress Theatre
Sunday 06 – Oxford New Theatre
Tuesday 08 – Guildford G Live
Thursday 10 – Bristol Beacon
Friday 11 – Swansea Arena
Saturday 12 – Plymouth Pavilions
Monday 14 – London Royal Albert Hall
For tickets click here
Looking Back – Living The Years is released via Craft Recordings on CD and digitally on 14 March and as a double LP on 4 April. Pre-order and pre-save all versions here
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