Saying it loud and clear
FORMER Mike and the Mechanics star Paul Carrack has spoken of his powerful connection with worldwide hit The Living Years that comes following the tragic loss of his father.
The award-winning song written by Mike Rutherford addresses a son’s regret over unresolved conflict with his dead father.
But Carrack, a Sheffield-born singer and songwriter said it was experiencing his father’s death at the age of 11 which influenced his ‘powerful’ connection with the song.
Speaking ahead of his gig at Rhyl’s Pavilion Theatre on February 19 as part of his UK tour, he said: “The Living Years has been a very meaningful song for a lot of people - it has a powerful message.
“The song is about issues with a guy and his father and how he wishes they had both been more open about that.
“That wasn’t particularly a problem for me, but when I was a kid I lost my father.
“I was 11 years old when he had a fatal accident and that had a very profound affect on my whole life and my personality.
“I always felt that I could bring a good sense of what that song was about having experienced a loss.
“If I were just been some bloke who hadn’t had that experience, I don’t think I would have been able to give such a powerful performance.”
The 65-year-old’s most recent album with his seven-piece band Soul Shadows has proved to be a huge hit
Carrack said fans attending the gig in Rhyl can expect a mixture of his biggest hits, as well as a taste of his newer stuff.
“We have quite a repertoire to chose from, but basically it is a mixture of things from my whole career which includes some of the songs I sang with other bands, for example How Long by Ace, Over my Shoulder and The Living Years with Mike and the Mechanics,” he added.
“But the majority of my stuff is from my own solo career.
“I’ve been releasing an album every year for the last 15 years with my own label but my current album has probably been the best received of them all so we’ll be playing a lot of songs from that.”
Carrack first rose to fame with 70s rock band Ace with hit single How Long and has since had his tracks recorded by the likes of Tom Jones, Diana Ross, Jools Holland, The Eagles and Michael McDonald.
And not only has be been dubbed as the man with the ‘golden voice’, huge music stars such as Eric Clapton, The Smiths and Elton John have chosen to sing with him.
But he still remains very modest about his career.
“All these people are just fantastic and I’ve had a fantastic career,” he added.
“It’s been very unplanned and random but it has been incredible.
“To think I started a career out at 15, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing and made a career out of it in front of all those people.
“I still can’t believe eve it myself sometimes. .
“It’s always a real accolade and a feather in your cap when somebody records your song.
“When they’re y’re famous it’s fantasticstic but even if it’s Fred Bloggs, I still get a kick from someone doing my song.
“I wrote a song for The Eagles once which they recorded - that was a tre- mendous boost to the ego because they don’t do many songs from outsideside ofof theirtheir own camp. ““TheThe first ever cover I hadhad was from one of ththe first songs I eever wrote called How Long and we had a hit with tthat when I was in AAce. We had the origoriginal hit and thenthen iti was covered by oneone ofof mmy heroes, Bobby Womack.” In 2013, Carrack toured with Beatles legend Ringo Starr. He said: “He had lots of Beatles stories, but from . the old days from when they were starting out.
“They were just like any other band in that respect.
“He would tell me about the days when they would carry their own gear to their gigs and all that stuff.
“Those were the stories I found the most fascinating because you think of the Beatles as superstars.
“Being on tour with Ringo was just incredible.”