Mike + The Mechanics - Mike + The Mechanics
Written by: Moti Kupfer
Release date - 21.10.1985
In February 1984, following the end of their North American tour, "Genesis" took a break from making music together so that the members could focus on their solo careers.
Phil Collins released "No Jacket Required" in 1985, establishing himself as a successful solo artist in his own right, apart from his band. It would later become clear that Collins's success went hand in hand with a slowdown in "Genesis" activity, but that is a story for another time.
Mike Rutherford, who served as the bassist of "Genesis", released two solo albums in the early 1980s that left him feeling insecure. He struggled to write songs and, beyond that, felt that the singer's chair was so far removed from who he was.
Left to find his own way out, during that break in early 1984 Rutherford set out to record new melodies of his own while, at the same time, finding a range of singers to suit them, along with a lyricist who would translate the music into words.
That path led Rutherford to the musicians and songwriters Christopher Neil and BA Robertson, who joined him in a lineup that took shape on the fly under the name "Mike + The Mechanics", whose debut album was released on October 21, 1985.
Rutherford recalls: "We enjoyed doing the individual projects, me, Phil and Tony. And it worked well. We'd make a Genesis album, then tour, and then do a solo album.
"But then I thought to myself, I really like writing together with other musicians around me. I'm not necessarily a solo artist, and I'm not a singer, so I thought, I'll write a few songs and see where that takes me."
Rutherford, who was not tied to any one vocalist, approached several of his favorite singers and tried to match a singer to each melody as he saw fit. Among them were Gene Stashuk of "Red 7", whose debut album Rutherford produced; a singer named John Kirby; and two musicians who had already put some miles behind them: Paul Young (not the solo singer), who had found success with the British soft-rock band "Sad Café", and Paul Carrack, a keyboardist and vocalist whose distinctive playing style made him a sought-after sideman for a long list of artists, among them "Roxy Music", "Squeeze", John Hiatt, "The Smiths" and "The Pretenders". Carrack also enjoyed transatlantic success as the singer of "Ace", with the hit "How Long" in the 1970s.
"Up to then, musically, I'd been involved with material that was rough and ready," Carrack said in an interview.
"I went in to sing the song, put the headphones on, and there was this rich, modern synthesizer sound, and I was really excited by it."
The song Carrack was referring to is "Silent Running", which became the debut single of "Mike + The Mechanics" and, surprisingly, climbed into the Top 10 on the American chart.
It was one of the first songs to emerge from the songwriting partnership of Rutherford and Robertson, written to test the results of their collaboration. When producer Christopher Neil heard the song on a demo tape that Rutherford played for him, he recommended using it on the album.
According to Rutherford, the song is about a man who has traveled light-years from here, somewhere out in space, and has gotten ahead of time. As a result, he knows what will happen in the future to his wife and children back home on Earth, and he tries to warn them so that they will be ready.
That same year, the film "Back to the Future", starring Michael J. Fox, was released. One wonders whether it had any influence on the idea behind the song.
Right after it comes the band's second single, "All I Need Is a Miracle", sung by Paul Young (not the "No Parlez" singer), who sings lead on five of the album's nine songs, while Paul Carrack sings three, one of which is a duet between the two.
The song tells of a man who treats his girlfriend terribly and now wishes she would come back to him. It is a study in dissonance, since its cheerful beat conceals the dark story.
In the video, directed by Jim Yukich, who made many of the videos for "Genesis", the band's manager needs a miracle to raise a little money so that he can pay the club owner. In 1987, the song was nominated for "Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal" at the 29th Annual Grammy Awards.
On "Par Avion", a ballad built on a drum machine, we hear the soothing, velvety voice of the third singer in the emerging lineup, John Kirby, whose voice can also be heard on another mournful and wonderful ballad, "You Are the One".
"A Call to Arms" began as an unfinished fragment from one of the sessions for a "Genesis" album. Since none of the other members liked it except Rutherford, he received approval from Phil Collins and Tony Banks to use it. Rutherford developed it into a full song with the help of Christopher Neil and BA Robertson.
The song features a kind of dialogue between Paul Young and Paul Carrack, who both act as lead singers, yet each delivers a restrained vocal, as though they were sharing classified information.
They sing of chaos reigning all around and of crumbling buildings, and of the need to tell everyone the truth, young and old, speakers of the foreign tongue, asking whether they are ready to fight, delivering it all like someone sweetening a secret.
"Par Avion" was used as background music in the episode "Yankee Dollar" of the crime thriller series "Miami Vice", starring Don Johnson.
"We were never really a band until the first album was finished," Rutherford recalled. "Then I realized we had to go on tour, and we had to put the puzzle together," Rutherford says, adding, "I think our luck was in releasing 'Silent Running' as the first single and not revealing who the musicians behind the song were. I had a great opportunity, midway through my career, to be perceived as something unknown, which in those days was particularly hard when I was so completely identified with 'Genesis'."
In the end, the debut album by "Mike + The Mechanics" reached the Top 30 on the American album chart, on its way to gold-album status. Rutherford did the obvious thing and cemented the group as a quintet with Carrack, Young, Adrian Lee and Peter Van Hooke.
For Listening: Spotify, Apple Music
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