Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Genesis could well be one of those very unique bands that splits opinion in the wider music world and in amongst their own very loyal fans, the before and after brigade. The question always being, are you a Genesis/Gabriel fan or Genesis/Phil Collins acolyte? Unless you are one of those satisfied with all areas of the bands work from the very daring and dark Genesis To Revelation to We Can’t Dance, then the question can be utterly perplexing.
After thrilling audiences in May 2011, Mike Rutherford, one of the founding members of the classic British rock group Mike And The Mechanics To Tour U.K. In February/March 2014. has announced that he and his band, Mike and The Mechanics will be back in Merseyside and Cheshire next year as they perform consecutive nights at the Floral Pavilion in New Brighton and Warrington’s Parr Hall on the 22nd and 23rd February.
The tour which starts at the Rhyl Pavilion on Wednesday 12th February sees Mike and The Mechanics criss-cross the country to venues in Norwich, Bolton, Gateshead and Birmingham before finally finishing at London’s Hammersmith Apollo on March 16th.
Genesis, especially the classic line up of Tony Banks, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford and Steve Hackett would become one of the U.K.’s favourite Progressive Rock bands on the strength of the 1972 album Foxtrot.
This eccentric band packed to the rafters with burgeoning talent had already broken parts of Europe with Trespass and the charming Nursery Cryme but as had up to that point failed to break the U.K top 20 album chart. Their first album From Genesis to Revelation had failed to convince the British public that their music was worth listening to, Trespass saw them make inroads and Nursery Cryme make friends, it was however the pastoral feel combined with an abundance of British eccentricity that would convince music listeners that these five performers had something worthwhile to say.
Mike Rutherford at the o2 Academy, Birmingham. Picture by Ian D. Hall
Originally published by L.S. Media. July 1st 2012.
L.S. Media Rating *****
Mike Rutherford really needs no introduction, certainly not to the extremely fascinated and focused crowd at the o2 Academy in Birmingham who roared in vocal appreciation at the man responsible for many of Genesis’s hits over the years, and who managed to juggle his side project Mike and the Mechanics with such musical aplomb.