GD TAKE'S ON THE WORLD: Forever Young [Gig Review]

Tyketto + Bonfire + Summers

Wulfrun Hall

Wolverhampton

22.03.14

Incredibly its twenty five years since Tyketto released their first album Don’t Come Easy on Geffen Records and the ensuing single Forever Young will be forever their signature song as well as mine and many other rock fans’ mantra. To celebrate this quarter century milestone Tyketto have embarked on a five date mini-tour of the

before heading off to the Caribbean to take part in the luxurious festival that is the Monsters of Rock Cruise.

Tonight’s venue is the Wulfrun hall in Wolverhampton, that’s the smaller stage at the back of the civic theatre but with nigh on a thousand people in for the three band line-up it makes for an electric atmosphere. First up are self styled Southampton stadium rockers Summers, formed in the late noughties by brothers Crash and Ricky Summers this five piece melodic rock band were entertaining enough but they didn’t capture my attention half so much as the array of merchandise they were selling, you could even buy a ‘Summers’ novelty condom, for goodness sake what next? Mind you at the other end of the merch stand was, shall we say less of an array of commodities, Tyketto were selling a DVD, that’s it, just a DVD, no shirts, patches or prophylactics for that matter.

Moving quickly on and special guests for this micro-tour are some of Germany’s finest sons, Bonfire have been around for a very long time and made many studio and live albums however it is with their earlier material many folk are primarily familiar. Albums like Face The Light, Fireworks, Point Blank and Knock Out released in the late ‘80’s and early ‘90’s are what this band are remembered for the most. Tonight front man Claus Lessmann seems in fine form as between singing some great rock anthems like Sweet Obsession, Never Mind and American Nights he regales us about last night’s show at AOR Hard Rock Hell in Pwllheli North Wales and how we English have many different unintelligible accents. It has to be said for a German he does speak better English than a lot of us natives. It was a bit of a nostalgia trip watching Bonfire tonight, I missed them last year when they played Rock City in Nottingham and have only vague memories of seeing them play that very same venue in 1989 so to hear these great songs from one of the unsung heroes of the ‘80’s rock scene after all this time was an awesome way to warm myself and the crowd up for the headliners.

It was about a year and a half after first seeing Bonfire that I got to go to a Tyketto gig, well actually it was a White Lion gig, Tyketto were the support band on that occasion. After a few short years in the limelight sadly they vanished into the ether like so many of their contemporaries did at that time, however lead singer and all round good egg Danny Vaughn would frequently return to play solo shows, Tyketto numbers would inevitably be included in his set.

Danny was only on the first two studio albums back in the day so when in 2012 Dig In Deep was released, his first studio album with the band for eighteen years it injected new impetus into both Tyketto and their fans. Tonight no fewer than four songs from that album are included in their set and although they didn’t get as big a reaction from the crowd as the ‘classic’ songs I’m sure this is just because of unfamiliarity and not because those numbers are not liked.

Opening with Burning Down Inside and following this up with Rescue Me, Tyketto had the Wolverhampton horde eating out of their hands right from the get-go, it was apparent straight away that something special was happening. Sadly though this ‘special happening’ was taking place without lead guitarist Brook St. James who had other obligations when these spring dates were offered to the band so deputising for him on this tour is Chris Green a more than competent stand in who sounded and looked like he’d been with Tyketto forever, the rest of the dramatis personae are Jim Kennedy (bass) Ged Rylands (keys) and Michael Clayton Arbeeny (drums).

Danny Vaughn not only sings but also plays the six and twelve string acoustic guitars as well as harmonica on occasion, he’s a bit of a wit and raconteur and his mix of American and West Country accents adds to his charm. He tells us, with great amusement from the audience, that his band members have ‘come to

England

from the

USA

to get a suntan, this was going great then we went to

Wales

’.

With no less than seven of the ten tracks from their first album having an airing tonight backed up with the best from their second and newest albums the ninety minutes or sow the band were on stage seemed to flash by in a blur. Loads of singing along to the songs is always encouraged and lots of dancing and jumping was the order of the day, I’m pretty sure everyone in attendance at the Wulfrun Hall went home happy and happy in the knowledge that Tyketto return. The guys of Tyketto will have a great time on the Monsters of Rock Cruise in Florida (the line-up for that is astonishing) then it will really be time to top up their tans for sure maybe in an attempt to stay Forever Young.