Paul Carrack
Paul Carrack’s recording career began as the keyboard player with Warm Dust, who released three albums between 1970 and 1972. After the group broke up, Paul and the bass player, helped to form Ace, who would have a 1975 hit with Paul’s song, How Long. After the group folded in 1977 Paul went on to play with Frankie Miller, Roxy Music, and Roger Waters in the mid-eighties singing on the latter’s Radio K.A.O.S. In 1980 Paul released his first solo album, Nightbird and the following year Squeeze recruited him to replace Jools Holland, the group then having an internationally successful album with East Side Story and Paul singing on what was their biggest US hit to date, Tempted. He left the band in 1982 and released a second solo album, Suburban Voodoo. Paul also played with both Nick Lowe and Carlene Carter. He worked with Lowe for some time before being approached by former Genesis bass player, Mike Rutherford who was putting together a new group, Mike and the Mechanics.
From the mid-1980s to the late 1990s Paul was one of the two lead singers with the band, the other being former Sad Café front man, Paul Young. Paul Carrack would sing on several Mike and the Mechanics hits, including Silent Running, The Living Years and Over My Shoulder, which he co-wrote. Following his successful third solo album One Good Reason and the top ten US single, Don’t Shed a Tear he managed to have a solo career alongside his work with Mike and the Mechanics. 1990 saw him working with Roger Waters again on The Wall… Live in Berlin in front of 250,000 people and singing on stage with Joni Mitchell, Cyndi Lauper, Van Morrison and Bryan Adams. In 1993 he returned to work with Squeeze for a year, being part of the album, Some Fantastic Place and re-recording Tempted for the film Reality Bites. Paul moved on to work on a project with Eagles members Timothy B. Schmit and Don Felder and although the project didn’t come to fruition, the re-formation of the Eagles for the Hell Freezes Over Tour saw Schmit and Felder take one of Carrack’s songs to the band. Love Will Keep Us Alive was recorded by the Eagles and won an AACAP award for The Most Played Song in the US during 1995, and the following year there was another Paul Carrack solo album, Blue Views. After the untimely death of Paul Young in 2000 he remained the Mike and the Mechanics’ sole lead vocalist until 2004. Paul was probably the first artist to perform on TV’s Crimewatch in an attempt to recover stolen equipment and a rare Hofner guitar given to him by Ringo Starr. He continues to tour and write songs, with I Don’t Want to Hear Anymore featuring on The Eagles 2007 album Long Road Out of Eden which went to No.1 in several countries, including the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand.
In 2012 Carrack was the subject of an hour-long BBC Four television documentary Paul Carrack: The Man with the Golden Voice. In the same year, Carrack was one of the recipients of the BASCA Gold Badge Award in recognition of his unique contribution to music. Paul’s songs have been recorded by many artists, including Tom Jones, The Eagles, Diana Ross, Linda Ronstadt, Michael McDonald and Jools Holland and he has toured or played sessions for many others, such as Elton John, Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Ringo Starr, The Smiths, Madness, Simply Red and The Pretenders.
Between 1997 and 2018 Paul has released another twelve albums and is touring the UK in 2018. It was during this tour that Paul was presented with his J-45 copy at Sheffield City Hall, where Buddy Holly and the Crickets appeared on March 4th 1958 on their only UK tour. The guitar is ‘Work with Me Annie,’ a 1954 Hank Ballard and the Midnighters’ song that was covered by Buddy. Paul talked about his new guitar and the BHEF on stage and then played a great version of Raining in my Heart.
I was absolutely blown away to be presented with the Buddy Holly guitar. To be in such esteemed company is a real feather in my cap. I am really honoured. Thank you.
