1970s: Warm Dust, Ace and Roxy Music Warm Dust Carrack's recording career began with the
jazz-rock band
Warm Dust, which released three studio albums of original material between 1970 and 1972. Carrack served as the band's keyboardist and occasionally played other instruments. The band's lead vocalist was Les Walker. In addition to Carrack and Walker, the line up also included David Pepper, Alan Solomon, Terry Comer, and John Surguy. The original line-up was made up of Les Dransfield Walker on lead-vocals, harp, guitar, Carrack on organ, piano, guitar, Dave Pepper on drums and Terry Corner on bass, guitar and recorder. While playing the Top Ten club in Hamburg, they met up with John Surgey who played tenor sax and Alan Solomon who played baritone sax who subsequently joined the band. They played at venues in Germany and their appearances in the UK were considered rare. It was on the continent that they fared better. They even appeared to have upstaged
Fleetwood Mac at a concert. Three of their performances were recorded for
Beat Club. They were " Indian Rope Man", "Worm Dance Part 1" and "Worm Dance Part 2".
Ace After Warm Dust broke up, Carrack and Warm Dust bassist Terry "Tex" Comer helped found the
pub rock band
Ace. In 1986, Carrack became a member of
Roger Waters' newly formed backing band,
the Bleeding Heart Band, recording tracks for the soundtrack of the animated film
When the Wind Blows. The following year, Waters (still accompanied by Carrack and the Bleeding Hearts) released a solo studio album,
Radio K.A.O.S. and toured the US and Europe. Carrack often filled in as an unofficial support act on the tour, usually playing "Tempted" to warm up the crowd. Building on the success of Mike + The Mechanics, Carrack was able to reestablish his solo career in 1987 with the hit studio album
One Good Reason, and the accompanying hit single "
Don't Shed a Tear", which reached number nine on the
Billboard Hot 100. The same year, Mike + The Mechanics scored yet another top 20 hit, "
Over My Shoulder". It not only featured Carrack on lead vocals, but was the first Mechanics hit to be co-written by him. In 1996, Carrack resumed his solo career with the studio album
Blue Views. He also recorded a song called "Déjà Vu" on
Steve Hackett's album
Genesis Revisited. This song was co-written by ex-
Genesis members Hackett and
Peter Gabriel.
2000–present Carrack maintains an active solo career, as well as his career as a session musician and songwriter, touring solo in 2002, mostly opening for bands such as
Supertramp. He also served as the sole lead vocalist for Mike + The Mechanics following the death of
Paul Young in 2000. In 2003 Carrack toured with
Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band performing his hit songs including "How Long?", "Tempted" and "The Living Years". In 2004, Carrack left the Mechanics following the release of
Rewired, their only studio album with Carrack as sole lead vocalist. After a lull in Carrack's career, in 2007 the Eagles covered Carrack's "I Don't Want to Hear Anymore" on their long-awaited reunion album
Long Road Out of Eden. The album went to number one in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand and several other countries. In September 2004, Carrack joined with other notable artists for
The Strat Pack concert at Wembley, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the
Fender Stratocaster. Carrack delivered vocal performances on "How Long?",
Bob Dylan's "
All Along the Watchtower",
the Beatles' "
While My Guitar Gently Weeps", and Genesis's "
I Can't Dance". In May 2009, Carrack embarked on a tour of Germany, supported by Canadian artist
Brendan Croskerry. In 2010, Carrack released the studio album
A Different Hat, with the
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, arranged by David Cullen. Two years later in 2012, Carrack returned with the soul-inspired studio album
Good Feeling. In 2012, Carrack was the subject of an hour-long
BBC Four television documentary
Paul Carrack: The Man with the Golden Voice. In February 2013, Carrack helped to kick off
Eric Clapton's 50th anniversary tour, "Old Sock", celebrating the 50th year that Clapton had been a professional musician. Carrack sang lead vocals on "Tempted", "How Long", and closed the show with "High Time We Went". He also in 2013, took part in the
BBC Four programme
Please Please Me: Remaking a Classic to celebrate 50 years since
the Beatles debut studio album, where he recorded his own version of
"Misery". In May 2015, Carrack helped Clapton celebrate his 70th birthday with a concert held at
Madison Square Garden on 1 and 3 May, along with the other members of Clapton's band. The birthday celebration continued later in May at the
Royal Albert Hall in the UK. In 2019, Carrack played Hammond organ and sang on Clapton's
Live in Concert 2019 world tour, playing their first-ever concert in
Dresden, Germany as part of the
Dresden Music Festival. On 19 February 2021, a new single "You're Not Alone" was released across all digital platforms via Carrack's own independent label Carrack-UK. It was also announced that a new studio album,
One on One, would be issued in June 2021. After Carrack contracted
shingles in the spring, delaying the album's completion, the release date was pushed back to September 17. On the BBC's 2024 ''
Jools' Annual Hootenanny'' he performed "Over My Shoulder" with
Jools Holland and the band. In July 2025, Carrack released his first country album, titled
The Country Side of Paul Carrack Vol. 1.
Session work Carrack's distinctive voice and keyboard skills have kept him in demand as a session musician on many projects. Some of his credits include: • Synthesizer, organ, and piano on
Roxy Music's studio albums
Manifesto (1979),
Flesh + Blood (1980), and
Avalon (1982) • Piano on
the Pretenders studio album
Learning to Crawl (1983) • Keyboards on
the Smiths' eponymous debut studio album,
The Smiths (1984) • Lead vocals on
Roger Waters'
Radio K.A.O.S. (1987); keyboards and vocals on its subsequent tour • Organ on
Elton John's
Made in England (1995) and
The Big Picture (1997) • Organ and vocals on
B.B. King's studio album
Deuces Wild (1997) • Keyboards on
Simply Red's studio album
Blue (1998) • Touring with
Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band (2003) In 1997, Carrack played organ for Elton John on the single "
Something About the Way You Look Tonight". It was coupled with "
Candle in the Wind 1997" on a
double A-sided single, which set a new record for best selling single of all time. ==Discography==