The most reliable man in pop, Paul Carrack didn’t miss a beat as he embarked on the post-holiday stretch of a British tour that began in October and continues until March. His singing voice and songwriting skills have steered him through a long career of many distinguished parts, both as a solo act and as a member of groups including Squeeze and Mike and the Mechanics, and his show was a classy, relaxed affair that did not push either artist or audience out of their respective comfort zones.
Accompanied by a six-man band, who were all turned out like chairmen of the board — black suits, white shirts and neat haircuts (where applicable) — and the backing singer Lindsay Dracass, Carrack sang in a warm R’n’B voice, stylistically located somewhere between Detroit and his home town of Sheffield. He also played guitar, piano and organ, switching between all three during Better Than Nothing, a brilliant funk workout that recalled the insouciant rhythmic touch of Ian Dury’s Blockheads.
But for all his talent and welcome lack of pretension, Carrack continues to wrestle with an image problem. His middle- market brand of blue-eyed soul music has echoes of Phil Collins and Van Morrison, but as a performer he lacked the distinctive personality — or towering ego, if you prefer — of either. The quality of the performance was never in doubt, but songs such as Eyes of Blue and Nothing More Than a Memory had an air of wedding-party schmaltz about them.
The undemanding nature of the show was thrown into sharp relief by the unexpected arrival on stage of Timothy B. Schmit, of the Eagles, who duetted with Carrack on I Don’t Want to Hear Any More, a song of Carrack’s that the Eagles recorded on their reunion album Long Road Out of Eden. Suddenly, the audience were on their feet, applauding or swooning — and even Carrack looked awestruck as Schmit threw back his mane of hair and applied his tremulous lead vocal to Love Will Keep Us Alive, another Carrack song recorded by the Eagles.
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With the bar thus raised, Carrack rolled out a bunch of old favourites, including Squeeze’s Tempted (which he sang on the original recording) and Ace’s evergreen hit from the 1970s, How Long, the song that introduced this curiously self-effacing man to the pop audience all those years ago. Clearly, he’s still in no hurry to depart.
Winding Wheel, Chesterfield, tonight; Palace Theatre, Newark, tomorrow; Lowry, Salford, Sun