In times when the „news about Genesis“ columns hardly ever change anymore fans may turn to side projects. Unfortunately, there is not much happening here either as opposed to recent years, so the fan turns to the side projects’ side projects. Mike & The Mechanics are taking a break to adjust to the sudden loss of Paul Young. Paul Carrack takes the time to do his own thing. After his recent fine release Satisfy My Soul another album has been announced for September. In the meantime Paul surprises us with a DVD of his most recent tour.
The show was recorded at London’s legendary Shepherd’s Bush Empire. It appears to be a complete set. You have the choice between Dolby surround 5.1, normal PCM stereo and Dolby Digital dts surround 5.1. The DVD can be watched all over the world (Code 0).
Paul Carrack enters the stage with his band and it all resembles the Mechanics ’99 tour. Perhaps that’s because he opens with Silent Running. His voice is of course unmistakeable – and we plunge right into a brief but choice concert. There is not much fancy camera work, so that the interest abates a bit half-way through the two-hour concert, but if you pay attention you will notice many details.
There is no surprise in Paul’s set list which consists of a couple of songs from the new album and slightly older material from Beautiful World and Blue Views. Then there are three of the Mechanics’ greatest hits, Silent Running, The Living Years and Over My Shoulder. It is a pity that Paul does not play anything from his distant past except for Squeeze’s clap-along number Tempted. The show would certainly benefit if he’d play songs like Don’t Shed A Tear, One Good Reason, I Need You, Battlefield or Loveless. A secret wish would be for Déjà Vu or Your Own Special Way, songs he interpreted for Steve Hackett’s Genesis Revisited. There is none of that, so we make do with 114 minutes of the finest mainstream rock. The show and the quality of the songs prove that Paul is one of the most underestimated musicians and songwriters. He can do up-tempo numbers as well as slow ballads. The “wave your bic” moments are in the majority on this DVD.
The DVD medium offers a whole new perspective for concert recordings. In the past one had to go to considerable lengths to obtain a good bootleg. Now many musicians simply release a concert DVD. Paul Carrack gives us a fine present with this one. The set list has, of course, nothing to do with the DVD itself, but it is all perfect sound and great images. Highlights of the show are a grandiose The Living Years, Love Will Keep Us Alive, The Way I’m Feeling Tonight, Over My Shoulder, Together and Tempted.
The bonus material consists of the promo videos for My Kind and Satisfy My Soul. Both videos are straightforward music videos, so do not expect artistic revelations.
To sum it all up, releasing complete concerts on DVD is a fashion the reviewer could happily live with. We are looking forward to upcoming releases by Steve Hackett and Genesis.
The DVD is available from www.carrack-uk.com and amazon. Let us hope that DVD prices will drop.
by Christian Gerhardts
translated by Martin Klinkhardt
Concert film / live album from 2018
Live-Unplugged-Album from 2001 with lots of Genesis-Songs and Rock-Classics.
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