Mike + The Mechanics: Update on “The Singles”

Based on information obtained from interviews in 2012, the original plan was to release an anniversary edition of the album Living Years (1988) this fall. We can now confirm that this release will happen later and will coincide with the anniversary tour for Living Years, which came out 25 years ago (see also info below).

Meanwhile, as most of you will be aware of, there are plans to release the hit-collection THE SINGLES: 1986-2013 in early 2014. As the title suggests, the collection will also contain new material. The album will have two CDs, one with the
familiar singles and one with B-Sides and new material. There is a new
song on the firct CD, called When My Feet Don’t Touch The Ground, sung by Andrew Roachford and an unreleased duet between Paul Carrack and Paul Young, called One By One, on the second disc of the 2CD-set. Mike has mentioned this duet in our interview with him in Dresden 2012. It was a bit strange that the album should be called 1986-2013, since the very first Mechanics-single Silent Running was released in 1985 and then the album was put back to 2014. It has now been confirmed that the new and final title of the album is THE SINGLES 1985-2014. Furthermore, the tracklist has also slightly changed:

CD1

Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground)

All I Need Is A Miracle

The Living Years

Word Of Mouth

Over My Shoulder

A Beggar On A Beach Of Gold

Another Cup Of Coffee

Now That You’ve Gone

Taken In

Nobody’s Perfect

Everybody Gets A Second Chance

Nobody Knows

Seeing Is Believing

A Time And Place

Whenever I Stop

Reach Out (Touch The Sun)

Try To Save Me

When My Feet Don’t Touch The Ground

CD2:

One By One       

Nobody Told Me

I Think I’ve Got The Message

Too Many Friends

You Never Change

Always The Last To Know

You Don’t Know What Love Is

Boys At The Front

Perfect Child

My Crime Of Passion (Acoustic Version)

Little Boy

Help Me

Revolution

I Get The Feeling (Live)

Taken In (Live)

Word Of Mouth(East West Mix)

Too Far Gone

Compared to the first version of the tracklist, the song Perfect Child(originally from Rewired) has now been moved onto the second disc to give the new track When My Feet Don’t Touch The Ground space to be on the first disc. The reason is obvious – since there will also be a single-CD version without the B-sides, it was important to include the new song and new single on the first CD. It may be odd to find a regular single and album track like Perfect Child among the B-sides, but that’s what it is now. The album will be released January 20th (January 17th in Germany) and the 2CD can already be preordered at amazon-uk.

In 2014, Mike + The Mechanics will be on tour again to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Living Years.
UK dates have already been announced, German dates will follow shortly.
At this time, there is no information about tour dates in other
territories, but further dates are likely to be added at a later date. Also, the long awaited anniversary edition of the Living Years album will be released when the tour happens. Mike’s new book will also be released in early 2014. More information about that will follow when we have it. Click here to see our 2014 tour dates page.