The years have not dimmed or diminished the talents and stage presence of Mike Rutherford.

He may be into his mid 60s but the familiar sounds, moves, style and sounds are still clearly evident.

And he’s been given a fresh injection of young blood into his Mechanics with the addition of singer and keyboard player Andrew Roachford and vocalist Tim Howar.

The six-piece band had the Regent rocking last night with a raft of songs from the band’s back catalogue ... with a few mandatory and nostalgic Genesis tracks thrown in for good measure.

Their near two-hour 18-song play list was full of familiar tunes with a few new songs thrown in for good measure to “test them out” as Rutherford put it in his softly spoken voice.

Non more so than the iconic and poignant The Living Years which had the near full house singing along.

It’s been a few decades since he and the band visited Ipswich and a lot of water has flown under that bridge.

He originally formed the band in 1984 with Paul Young, ex Sad Café, and Paul Carrack, and between then and 2000 the band enjoyed a string of hits.

In 2000, Young died suddenly of a heart attack, but the band reconvened - as Mike+The Mechanics and Paul Carrack - to record the 2004 album Rewired.

Then the guitarist got involved with a Genesis reunion tour in 2007 and after that he carried on writing songs and the idea of bringing back The Mechanics came to the fore.

The band is currently on a huge nationwide tour following 17 dates in the USA and Canada before they cross over to Europe, finishing in Oslo in late June.

Luckily Ipswich was a stop off point for fans and the tone was set with the opening numbers of Silent Running and A Beggar On A Beach Of Gold.

Turn I On Again got the audience clapping before they swept into an acoustic set which included Everybody Gets A Second Chance.

Roachford performed his hit Cuddly Toy to huge applause and the evening was completed with I Can’t Dance, The Living Years, All I Need Is A Miracle before the baying fans got the band back on stage for an encore of Over My Shoulder and From The Westside to the Eastside.