ShareMike + The Mechanics performing their Looking Back – Living The Years 2025 Tour at The Royal Concert Hall Nottingham on Tuesday 11th March 2025.
Images and Review by Kevin Cooper
With the exception of a six year hiatus, Mike Rutherford’s Mike + The Mechanics have been an entertaining entity for forty years and were back at the Royal Concert Hall on Tuesday night to deliver a promise of all their hits plus a drop of Genesis.
With Rutherford seated for most of the evening following surgery on his hip it was left to one of the UK’s most successful R & B acts, Andrew Roachford and Canadian born actor and singer Tim Howar to lead the vocals from the front and with Phil Collins’ son, Nic on the drums, the stage was set for two hours of soul and style.
Billed as a greatest hits tour in support of the band’s forthcoming new hits package, Looking Back – Living The Years, they opened with a great version of Beggar On A Beach Of Gold which immediately had the crowd on their feet to begin their first sing along of the night.
With Roachford and Howar sharing the vocals, the likes of Another Cup Of Coffee, Get Up and The Best Is Yet To Come where evenly spaced between a new ballad Song For Me Song For You which showcased Roachford’s soulful ballads and Howar’s up tempo East And West Of The Sun. Land Of Confusion was a real treat before the first set was brought to a close with Silent Running.
Returning to the stage for the second set, the band stood at the front for an acoustic interlude which included Invisible Touch, Follow You Follow Me and Nobody Knows. To liven it all up they brought out the big hitters such as the wonderful The Living Years, I Can’t Dance, Roachford’s biggest solo hit Cuddly Toy and set closer All I Need is A Miracle.
Back for the encore of Over My Shoulder, Howar had the crowd waving their arms aloft for an extended version of Word Of Mouth, and Mike + The Mechanics had ensured that the crowd had been on their feet singing along from the very start and sent them all home with a huge smile on their face.
