Tyketto
+ Bonfire + Summers
Wulfrun
Hall
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 UK 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.
Check
out all tonight’s bands on their websites…
Danny
Vaughn: http://www.dannyvaughn.com/site/
Bonfire:
http://www.bonfire.de/
Summers:
http://www.officialsummers.com/
GD
Manofmetal.
Video by GD @ The Wulfrun Hall Wolverhampton:
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