Mike & The Mechanics: Live at Shepherds Bush, London Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Mike & The Mechanics: Live at Shepherds Bush, London Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 18, 2013

Mike + the Mechanics is (are?) one of those so-called supergroups that tend to get overlooked when supergroups are discussed. Mike Rutherford came from Genesis, Paul Carrack had shown clout as both a solo artist and a member of Roxy Music, Paul Young had had international chart successes with Sad Café, Adrian Lee had hugely impressive credits as a touring and session musician for such artists as Cliff Richard, and Peter Van Hooke had done similar duty for such legends as Van Morrison. But despite some significant chart hits of their own, Mike + the Mechanics have strangely been relegated to an almost second string status by a number of influential music mavens. That seems especially odd when one sees the reconstituted band in concert, for they are musically very tight, with a propulsive rhythm section and absolutely wonderfully fluid vocals (largely) by Carrack. This may be due to a perception that the band is kind of on the "easy listening" end of the spectrum, but this concert proves that the band is able to rock quite effectively, albeit almost always in a very melodic and accessible way.

The band's set list for this concert consists of:

1. Falling
2. Now That You’ve Gone
3. Get Up
4. If I Were You
5. Another Cup of Coffee
6. A Beggar on a Beach of Gold
7. Perfect Child
8. Whenever I Stop
9. All The Light I Need
10. One Left Standing
11. Silent Running
12. The Living Years
13. Over My Shoulder
14. Word of Mouth

Mike & The Mechanics: Live at Shepherds Bush, London Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Mike + The Mechanics + Paul Carrack: Live at Shepherds Bush London is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eagle Vision (an imprint of Eagle Rock Entertainment) with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. This is generally a nice looking high definition presentation, though it suffers slightly from the ubiquitous purple and blue hues that are used to light the band and which rob the image of some fine detail. There are also occasional combing artifacts on display, but there's one very odd anomaly that is captured in the first screenshot accompanying this review: for some unknown reason, for just one moment during this shot, the right side of the image has been cropped somewhat.

Mike & The Mechanics: Live at Shepherds Bush, London Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Mike + the Mechanics + Paul Carrack features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 audio options, both of which sound great. The 5.1 track offers much greater breathing space, and also more accurately reflects Carrack's use of digital delay on his voice, which creates a nice quasi-echo effect which spills through the surrounds. Fidelity is top notch, capturing both the vocals and the instruments with clarity and precision.

Mike & The Mechanics: Live at Shepherds Bush, London Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Promo Videos (1080i; 31:55) include Silent Running, The Living Years, Word of Mouth, Over My Shoulder, A Beggar on a Beach of Gold, Another Cup of Coffee and One Left Standing.


• Interview (1080i; 19:36) features Mike Rutherford and Paul Carrack.

Mike & The Mechanics: Live at Shepherds Bush, London Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Truth be told, I've always preferred Paul Carracks non-Mike tunes a bit better than at least some of the stuff he did with the band (I still think "Don't Shed a Tear" is one of the best singles from the late eighties), but it's great to see him reunited with Mike and the rest of the boys here, and the best news is, he still has the same effortless fluidity that he displayed in his Top 40 heyday. While the bulk of this outing is meant to support the Rewired album, there are enough tips of the hat to nostalgia to satisfy longtime fans. Recommended.