Paul Carrack

December 2012

I LIVE just outside London on the Hertfordshire/ Buckinghamshire border, which is an ideal location for us as we can get into London quickly

by train or tube in less than 30 minutes.

It's also close to the M1, M25 and M40, so it's very handy for getting to gigs.

It's quite green with a fairly mixed, close community and has been a good place to bring up our family.

I have been married for 40 years and we have four children aged 33, 26, 24, 22. Jack, the 24-year-old, is now a permanent member of my band playing drums and percussion.

In our business there is no weekend really.

Saturday depends if we are working and where Sheffield Wednesday are playing. I still get to as many games as possible (including the recent one at Forest and last season at County).

It's more of an effort these days but I made a rod for my back by indoctrinating my eldest son, who is still fanatical and sees almost every game.

Sunday could be tea cup of tea in bed with the Sunday papers depending who gets up first.

When the boys were younger I had to get up in the rain and snow and stand on the touchline watching them get hammered every week with their various teams.

Most Sundays my wife cooks a lovely Sunday roast and, if we're not working, I'll open a bottle of wine.

My doctor always says 'eat like a gourmet, not a glutten and drink the best wine you can afford’. I try to obey the second bit.

When I was a kid I would hardly eat anything but I was constantly on the go. I was like a stick. My ribs stuck out and my folks were really concerned. These days I'm the opposite. Good food and wine is my only remaining vice, if you exclude the football fanaticism and like a lot of men my age I am overweight.

My wife cooks so we try to eat fresh stuff and rarely eat processed foods. I do a pretty good spag bol.

Most of our touring is in the UK and we try to get home as many nights as possible. I usually have porridge (with fruit of some kind) for breakfast. I try to have my main meal just before we leave for the gig. And I might have a banana sandwich after the sound check or show.

Unlike my wife, who likes all the drama stuff on TV, such as 24 and the ones about psycho serial killers, I don’t watch a lot. If I do it’s usually comedy, like The Mighty Boosh or Peter Kay.

I can never follow the plot of a thriller as I read about one page a day. My son gave me the Alan Partridge autobiography which is quite funny.

I'm ashamed to say I hardly listen to any music at home. It's hard to do it objectively unless it’s a classical symphony, which I find soothing. Bringing up four kids, the house was quite chaotic so I always appreciated a bit of peace and quiet.

A perfect weekend would involve a Sheffield Wednesday win, fish and chips, Match of the Day, tea and papers in bed, a long dog walk, roast beef, Rioja, a big chair, more footy on TV and falling asleep.

Yes, I’m Mr. Interesting!

Paul Carrack plays the Royal Concert Hall on Thursday, January 10. Tickets are £27.50 and £37.50 from the box office, call 0115 989 5555 or go to www.trch.co.uk.

His latest album, Good Feeling, is out now.

Mike and The Mechanics

April 2011

THERE were never any plans for Mike and The Mechanics to return. Then again, there weren’t any plans for the Genesis reunion either. “Looking back over most of my career, I’ve never made long terms,” says Mike Rutherford, who created Mike and The Mechanics in 1984 as a side project for when Genesis were idle.
“I think it’s why Genesis lasted so long. We’d do an album and that was it. With long-term plans people worry about things too much.”
That said, he’d thought Mike and The Mechanics were done with after the release of their last album, 2004’s Rewired.
“After Paul Young died,” he says of the former Sad Café singer who suffered a fatal heart attack in 2000, “I did one more album with Paul Carrack and it wasn’t the best album. I think we’d lost something there in the chemistry. It was average, not good enough really. So I thought we’d stopped.”
But then he was asked by a friend, Grammy Award-winning producer Brian Rawlings, what The Mechanics were doing.
“He suggested we go back to the format of the first album, using four or five singers, different writers. I thought ‘what is there to lose?’”
That was at the end of 2009 and the result, The Road, is released this month, featuring new vocalists Andrew Roachford, who had the hits Cuddly Toy and The Way That I Feel in the late 90s with his band Roachford, and Canadian born actor and singer Tim Howar, who played Rod Stewart in the West End musical Tonight’s The Night.
The pair are now a permanent fixture in the band.
“We’ve always had two singers,” says Rutherford.
Originally that was Paul Young and Paul Carrack and with them Mike and The Mechanics sold more than 10 million records worldwide, including the hits Silent Running, All I Need Is A Miracle, Over My Shoulder and The Living Years, the latter written by Carrack.
“Carrack does a lot of solo stuff now, he felt it was time to move on, I think,” says Rutherford.
Although he’s not committing to another Mechanics, he suggests it is likely.
“In the early days we’d alternate; we’d do a Mechanics album, then a Genesis.
“But there are no plans for any more Genesis. And the kind of band we have now, it’d be great to start an album with them. They weren’t really on board at the start of making The Road. They sort of came along while I was already on the journey.”
No plans for Genesis? But that doesn’t rule out another jaunt around the world which he, Phil Collins and Tony Banks spent much of 2007 doing.
“I really enjoyed it,” says Rutherford of the tour. The last time we’d toured was around 1993 so it was nice to be able to appreciate it.” He adds: “I’ve said never say never for years, because who knows? I don’t really believe in making sweeping statements.
“Phil’s got problems with his wrist but who knows in a few years’ time.”

Royal Concert Hall, May 5, £40/£35, 0115 989 5555, www.livenation.co.uk