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House
Band
Tequila
Over My Shoulder (Vocals Paul Carrack)
+ Eric Clapton
Reconsider Baby
Lay Down Sally
How Long (Vocals Paul Carrack)
Willie & The Hand Jive
+ Katie Melua
Crawling Up A Hill
My Aphrodisiac Is You
The Closest Thing To Crazy
House Band, Vocals Fairweather-Low
Lay My Burden Down
+ Roger Taylor
Say It's Not True
These Are The Days Of Our Lives
I Want To Break Free
House Band, Vocals Gary Brooker
This World Is Rich
+ Ringo Starr
Act Naturally
Photograph
With A Little Help From My Friends
House Band, Vocals Gary Brooker
A Whiter Shade Of Pale
+ Eric Clapton & Chris Barber
Stormy Monday
+ The Drifters
Under The Boardwalk
Stand By Me
+ Eric Clapton
Cocaine
All Star Band
I Can't Dance
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Band du Lac DVD:
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Mike Rutherford & Roger Taylor
The Crickets,
Albert Lee & Brian May
Peggy Sue
Maybe Baby
I Fought The Law
Oh Boy
That'll Be The Day
Hank & Ben Marvin
The Rise And Fall Of Flingel Bunt
Sleepwalk
Apache
Theresa Andersson
I'm On My Way
Country Boy (feat. Albert Lee)
Mike Rutherford & Paul Carrack
How Long
All Along The Watchtower
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
I Can't Dance
Gary Moore
Red House
Jamie Cullum
Angel
Amy Winehouse
Stronger Than Me
Paul Rodgers
Muddy Waters Blues
Drinking (feat. Jasmine & Steve Rodgers)
Alright Now (feat. Brian May)
Can't Get Enough (feat. Joe Walsh)
Joe Walsh
Funk 49
Life's Been Good
Life In The Fast Lane
Rock Mountain Way
Phil Manzanera
6PM
David Gilmour
Marooned
Coming Back To Life
Sorrow
Ronnie Wood
Ohh La La
All Star Line-Up
Stay With Me
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Strat Pack DVD
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David Gilmour performing Sorrow
Ronnie Wood: Ohh La La!
Author: Christian Gerhardts
Translation: Martin Klinkhardt
Paul Carrack and Mike Rutherford at two multi-artists Events
Live performances of Mike with the Mechanics have become rare to a point when even the concerts after Paul Young’s death came as a surprise. Mike frequently plays on charity shows, and it is not a rare occurrence that Mechanics vocalist Paul Carrack also performs on these shows. Some of these concerts were filmed and released on DVD. EagleVision, who also published Live At Shepherd’s Bush and the Genesis Songbook, have now released one of these shows, a charity show in 2005. Another show Mike participated in was the 50th anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster guitar at London’s Wembley Arena in 2004.
There
are 23 tracks in the DVD with constantly changing line-ups. The opening
song is a classic: Tequila, and Gary Brooker, head of the
all star band (see photo, left), introduces the musicians of the Band
Du Lac. Two Mechanics songs are played; Over My Shoulder
can be heard early on, while Carrack’s How Long occurs later
in the set. Eric Clapton was present, too. He played a couple of classics,
Reconsider Baby and the atmospheric Lay Down Sally
that was only outdone late in the show by Cocaine. Clapton also played
Willie & The Hand Jive. Katie Melua’s performance
was something for her fans only, as it were, the mood flagged somewhat
during that part of the show. One of the highlights certainly was
the performance by Roger Taylor. He presented a new Queen song (Say
It’s Not True, which he also sang on the recent Queen &
Paul Rodgers tour) and two Queen classics – These Are The
Days Of Our Lives and I Want To Break Free. Roger Taylor,
like Mike Rutherford, is a local hero. In fact, both were neighbours
for a time. What impresses most about Taylor is his very confident
vocal performance; he is, after all, a singing drummer just like Phil
Collins. Gary Brooker played This World Is Rich himself and,
of course, Procul Harum’s best-known song, A Whiter Shade
Of Pale. Andy Fairweather-Low, who plays in both Eric Clapton’s
and Roger Waters’ bands, sang another rock classic, Lay
My Burden Down. He comes across like the maths teacher of the
local grammar school, and his singing, heavily supported by the background
singers, sticks to that likeable naïve style. Fairweather-Low,
unlike Clapton, has a quite agreeable voice, but he will never turn
into a proper frontman. Ex-Beatle Ringo Starr causes a buzz playing,
amongst other songs, the classic With A Little Help From My Friends;
later on The Drifters delight everyone with Stand By Me.
The grand finale is – I Can’t Dance. All the musicians come on stage and chant the Genesis joke song. Rutherford often had it in the Mechanics’ set list while showman Paul Young was still around. This night Gary Brooker does vocal duty. The song is okay as an all-star finale, but it just shows how much this number thrives on Phil Collins’ kind of humour. For once the song is played on real percussion without any drumcomputers. New elements consist of a saxophone solo, a laser show and fireworks. The guitar solo at the end is not played by Mike, but by Eric Clapton.
The DVD is very entertaining and it offers an interesting performance by Mike Rutherford and Paul Carrack. They never take the centre spot, though. Mike never was that great a guitarist and that’s how he plays the whole show.
For sounds one can choose between stero, DD 5.1 and dts surround. The sound is clear but the surround version was mixed a bit carelessly. All speakers provide more or less the same thing – live atmosphere is something else. Not much to complain about the video part. It is usually clean enough though some gadgets like a triple mirroring of the same show are a tad annoying. A documentation about the concert was added as a bonus. Some of the musicians talk about the show while others, like Mike, more or less stand around. The DVD also comes with a six-page colour booklet with some photos.
Mike
Rutherford and Paul Carrack were not part of the house band but played
a brief set on their own. And it certainly was another idiosyncratic
set. Those who expected songs like Over My Shoulder or The
Living Years were surprised by All Along The Watchtower and
While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Add to that the Ace classic
How Long and, again, I Can’t Dance that perhaps
that day celebrated its premiere with Paul Carrack’s vocals.
Celebrated, however, is probably the wrong expression. Their performance
seems oddly uninspired and off-colour. Everybody in the audience who
expected Mike to play the lead guitar on All Along The Watchtower
and While My Guitar Gently Weeps were disappointed.
The solos were played by the house guitarist, Mike just accompanied
him. A meagre effort for someone who has been playing the Stratocaster
for years and who was capable of so much more in the Genesis years.The performance by Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones more than made up for that disappointment. Still many listeners won’t believe their eyes, or rather their ears. It is unbelievable that this performance really was released on DVD. Ronnie Wood plays Ooh La La, a song made popular in a version by Rod Stewart. Ronnie Wood on the other hand does not even try to hit the right note. His capricious performance probably resulted from his being excessively inebriated. At the very least he offered an entertaining show. The all-star line-up then plays an unspectacular Stay With Me, bringing a memorable concert to a close.
The Strat Pack can be heard in stereo, DD 5.1 and dts surround. The mix is somewhat better than on the Band Du Lac DVD. The booklet consists of ten coloured pages. The DVD may not be a feast for Genesis/Rutherford-only fans, but it is an interesting document for friends of good guitar rock.
Band Du Lac - One Night Only DVD - amazon.co.uk | amazon.com | play.com
The Strat Pack DVD - amazon.co.uk | amazon.com | play.com