Forty years on, Mike and the Mechanics are still going strong

The early indicator at Mike and the Mechanics’ concert at the Ipswich Regent Theatre was not positive: the band’s founder, Mike Rutherford, shuffled on stage with a crutch before gingerly settling himself into a seat.

“Things were going so well, then three weeks ago I broke my ****ing hip,” he said, with the crowd – mostly aged 40 and above – both amused and taken aback by the way that Rutherford had turned the air blue. But his injury, it turned out, was not to put a damper on proceedings: this band, while it was founded 40 years ago, is still full of energy, in no small part thanks to the ongoing addition of new personnel.

Nineties hits Beggar on a Beach of Gold and Another Cup of Coffee opened the show before one of the two lead vocalists, Andrew Roachford (who replaced Paul Carrack when the band was reformed about 15 years ago) showcased the as-yet-unreleased new track Song for You, Song for Me.

The other main singer, Tim Howar (who has taken on the mantle of the other original lead vocalist, the late Paul Young) then presented the first Genesis track of the evening, Land of Confusion, before there was a second new Mechanics song, East and West of the Sun.

The new material was catchy on first listen, although perhaps not as arresting as some of the band’s biggest hits.

Throughout the evening Roachford was superb, his seemingly effortless vocals moving between silky smooth on the quieter verses through to soaring and soulful during energetic choruses. Sometimes he sat behind his keyboards, at others he moved around the stage with a rubber-limbed frenzy.

Howar too, moving between singing backing vocals at the rear of the stage and taking on the lead role at the front, was wonderfully energetic. Sometimes he even acted out the words he was singing.

After an interval the band returned in a stripped-down, acoustic series of songs before they moved back to their regular set-up for a final run of hits.

And what a run it was: Roachford’s performance on The Living Years was quite exceptional, Howar was excellent while singing Genesis’s I Can’t Dance, and Roachford got the crowd cheering as he sang his own hit Cuddly Toy.

For the encore the band chose Over My Shoulder and Word of Mouth, with Howar swinging his arms around during the latter song to indicate the four points of the compass (“From the west side to the east side, from the north side to the south) just as this reviewer saw the late Young do during a mid-1990s show.

Word of Mouth provided a chance for each of the band members to showcase their talents with some impressive solos, including Phil Collins’ son Nic, an excellent drummer who was much appreciated by the audience.

As the final song came to a close, most of the audience were on their feet, having enjoyed this fine show from a band that is as popular as ever, and deservedly so.