Interview with Mike Rutherford – Leipzig 2025

During the 2025 Mike + The Mechanics Tour, we conducted an Interview with Mike Rutherford backstage in Leipzig’s Haus Auensee. Some things needed to be discussed: 40 years of the Mechanics, new songs, Nic in the band and some stuff about Genesis as well.

The soundcheck has just finished, when the tour manager came and escorted us to Mike Rutherford’s backstage room. As everybody knows, Mike broke his hip prior to the tour but now he moves far better and was in good mood for our interview.

GNC: Nice to see you again, Mike. So, what happened to your hip?
Mike Rutherford: I went skiing with my grandchildren, and this skiing holiday was booked first, then the tour. And on the third day – well, I just broke my hip. I came down, not even that fast, but I came down hard and broke my hip. But the good thing is, with a broken arm – or a leg, you may get a plate and that takes months to recover. But in France I got a new hip.

GNC: So you are recovering on tour now?
Mike: Well, within ten days I was on stage. It is of course not ideal. But I had a physio for a month who helped me with rehab and of course I don’t do too much.

GNC: You didn’t consider postponing the tour after what happened?
Mike: No, it was okay.

GNC: Let’s get straight to the Mechanics. The band celebrated its 40th anniversary this year. Looking back, what were the highlights of those 40 years – what would you say?
Mike: That’s a hard one, since you got mark one and mark two of the band. But The Living Years of course is a special song. And so is All I Need Is A Miracle. I love that song. It’s an interesting and uplifting song. The writing with B.A. Robertson and Chris Neill has always been fantastic and then we have mark two of the band. With Andrew Roachford and Tim Howar, we started touring. Because with the old Mechanics, we never toured much. So all these song were not heard very much. And maybe that’s why it worked.

GNC: Now it’s also nearly 15 years since you have restarted the band with Tim and Andrew. You have played more than 400 shows with the new line-up. So the obvious question is: Are we seeing the last ever Mike + The Mechanics tour? Or is there something planned?
Mike: I have no idea. I think we just do the tour, and it’s been a great tour so far and the I go back home … I have done some writing last year. So I will be writing again as well.

GNC: Last time you mentioned that touring can be exhausting, especially playing three days in a row and you wanted to have more days off. But funny enough, this tour seems to be the same again. So, are you still enjoying it?
Mike: Yes, it’s okay. You find ways to relax. And here I like the German trains. They are great.

GNC: The German trains? We Germans are not fans of our trains …
Mike: If you think your trains are bad, then you try the trains in England. No, at the end of the day we get from a to b and we just had a five hour train ride and it’s relaxing on a train! You read a book, sleep a bit or watch a film – I like it!

GNC: So you have done 40 shows so far …
Mike: Yes, and seven more to come…

GNC: Did you record anything?
Mike: Yes, we record every night!

GNC: So will there finally be a live album?
Mike: I am not sure there is a demand for that? We now have a new sound guy, Steve Carr – he’s really good, very musical. And we will also film the Berlin concert to capture the show. We have these lovely screens, but here in Leipzig there’s this arch at the ceiling so we could not put them all up, so it looks different today. Have you seen those?

GNC: I have seen photos, you are talking about those curtains?
Mike: Yes, those are not really screens, but we usually have three of them and tonight we can only put up two.

GNC: People keep saying that you are such a great live band – and still haven’t released a proper live album. So you are filming Berlin – could that be an opportunity for a concert film?
Mike: Not sure, really, we’ll see.

GNC: Let’s talk about the band. You have replaced Gary Wallis and now Nic Collins is in the band. Is there a specific reason for this?
Mike: The things with Gary is he’s always busy. Nic was available. As it turns out, Gary is on tour again with Tom Jones since April and if I had confirmed the Mechanics tour to Gary, he could not have done it. Tom Jones is a big job, really. So, Nic was available and that’s it.

GNC: You mentioned new songs, I think you wrote and recorded four new songs last year?
Mike: Yes. And we are playing two new songs. And hadn’t I broken my hip we might habe done a third one. The fourth song is not finished yet, it doesn’t work and rather than forcing it, I parked it and will get back to it later. There’s always that one song that takes so much time. It took a lot of work, and it was a lovely idea, but it needs a bit of a re-write.

GNC: So you will be writing again with Clark Datchler after the tour?
Mike: Yes, that’s the plan.

GNC: Is he the only one you are writing new songs with?
Mike: No, it’s with him, Chris Neill and Roachford.

GNC: Tim Howar is not involved?
Mike: Tim’s schedule is very tight and it doesn’t allow him that often to come down. But what I prefer is to write quickly, rather than writing for a long time. It will be like ten or maybe 14 days and I have some ideas, so it will be quick. I prefer it that way. Just do a few songs, have a break, and then come back to it.

GNC: So, the plan is to do another album then?
Mike: I don’t know, I just write some songs and then we will see. An album … not sure it makes sense to do an album, but maybe it is. So I write some songs and see where that goes.

GNC: Do you have other projects besides the Mechanics?
Mike: Yes I have some projects, but I can’t tell what they are yet. I have things to do, yes.

GNC: So is that because you have more time now, or just because you enjoy doing it?
Mike: Of course I have more time for the Mechanics now. I enjoyed writing in November and December. It was just fun to do.

GNC: You did quite a few things together wit Anthony Phillips in the past – could you imagine working on stuff with him again?
Mike: No really, I mean not as a “no”, I just think we had our time together. Things have moved on and I want to do new things.

GNC: People keep asking for rerelease of the Smallcreep’s Day album, possibly including a Dolby ATMOS mix. Is that an option for you?
Mike: Well you know I hadn’t heard this album for years and the other day I heard in on YouTube. And I thought it was quite nice. I’m not sure if there’s …

GNC: I think there’s both interest and demand among progfans…
Mike: Yeah – could be. It sounded good actually.

GNC: If you look back at the last Genesis tour, which surely was a difficult one as it was during COVID time, what were the highs and lows from your perspective?
Mike: COVID was an issue. We had to stop and start, stop again. If there was no COVID, we would have done more touring. We put a lot of work into it, come together, be in quarantine, rehearse etc. And had it been without COVID we would have done more shows. But it was great. I mean yes it was the last tour obviously, but somehow it came out of the blue.

GNC: And you did the tour with Nic behind the drums instead of Chester. Was there a new vibe in the band with Nic?
Mike: Yes, not because he’s very young, it’s just different. It’s not a slight on Chester, he’s just a different drummer, also compared to his dad. So it was fresh. And Phil couldn’t play anymore so it was a good process on stage with Nic.

GNC: Do you regret not having recorded another album after Calling All Stations?
Mike: I don’t. I tell you why, because if we wanted to make this work, I mean the new Genesis with Ray Wilson, it would have meant an album, tour, another album, tour and so on for the next years. It would have meant quitting the Mechanics. And I felt, I’ve done this already with Genesis in the early years, we played endless shows. I couldn’t imagine to build this up again.

GNC: And with Phil after the 2007 tour?
Mike: No, Genesis became something else after that, it was then a different time.

GNC: You sold the rights of your songs to Concord and now we see some rereleases. Are you fine with that? The band always seemed to be very reluctant to rerelease stuff.
Mike: That was also another time. They are nice people and know what they do. They are careful and it’s a natural thing, really.

GNC: Are you involved in those plans?
Mike: Of course they come with ideas to our manager and they ask us if we are ok with this. But in the end it’s up to them, really.

GNC: Ok, Mike – that’s it, thanks for the chat!
Mike: Anytime. Make sure you chat with Tim as well.

GNC: We will do!
Mike: Great, enjoy the show!

Interview and transcript: Christian Gerhardts
Photos: Carsten Hickmann
Thanks to Jo for arranging this!

More interviews (with Tim Howar and the heads of light & sound) will be added soon!