"Seeing Is Believing" - Mike & The Mechanics Live at the Royal Albert Hall, April 19, 1996. Review by Frederic Martin. Photo courtesy of Jon "Armando" Guntrip/TWR.

This concert was my third of the tour; as a recent convert to the ranks of TWR readers I enjoyed the opportunity to see The Mechanics in the UK; especially as they were not touring in Europe (especially my native France).

I had already seen shows in Manchester and Liverpool in the company of our esteemed editor [Who? Me? - AH.] and had enjoyed them immensely. The Royal Albert Hall is a special venue and the show the band played there lived up to its reputation.

As they had done elsewhere on the tour; the set opened with the classic "Silent Running" followed by "Seeing Is Believing" and "Get Up" to open the show in a suitably up-beat manner. The first track from their most recent album was next and it gets better each time!

The tempo was slowed down for the next two numbers; "Another Cup of Coffee" and "Someone Always Hates Someone" with both Paul Carrack and Paul Young sharing the vocal honours by delivering stunningly powerful performances.

The rest of the show drew upon the full repertoire of Mechanics songs and demonstrated very well that this is a class act with a lot of mileage in them yet. The rest of the band are equal to the task of putting on an excellent show. Tim Renwick blended his guitar style perfectly with Mike's and the powerhouse drumming of Gary Wallis gave several tracks an unexpected edge.

The tour is over now but I am sure that the band will be on the road again at some stage and hopefully next time in France!