Tyketto The Brook Southampton 19-03-14

First up was local 5 piece band Summers who played a bright and breezy 30 minute set which focussed on last years debut cd 364.
With hugely catchy songs like " Superhero " and " Let's Go Round " they would have been all over MTV back in the day with Def Leppard the obvious comparison. The vocals of Crash Summers have Joe Elliott stamped on them and add to it the huge gang vocal backing and its late 80's Leppard all over again.
The crowd loved them although for me at times it was too cliched and a little bit more dirt in the mix wouldn't have gone amiss. A bit too clean!!

I haven't seen Bonfire since they supported Judas Priest on the " Ram It Down " tour back in 1988 when they were riding high on the success of the quite superb " Fireworks " cd released in 1987.
Here in 2014 they made this gig feel like a double headliner with a 60 minute greatest hits set that showed why they have lasted so long in this business.

Here is what they played

Bells Of Freedom
Tony's Roulette
Nevermind
Hot To Rock
Don't Touch The Light
Fantasy
Sword And Stone
Give It A Try
Under Blue Skies
Sweet Obsession
Bang Down The Door

Led by vocalist Claus Lessmann who has a wonderful melodic voice and great stage presence. To his right was the other founding member Hans Ziller on guitar who cranked out riff after riff and played some excellent melodic solo's.

Backed up by second guitarist Chris Limberg , ever smiling Uwe Kohler on bass and the powerful double bass drumming of Harry Reischmann the band hit us with a couple from the debut cd " Don't Touch The Light " including " Hot To Rock ".

I really enjoyed their contribution to the " Shocker " movie " Sword And Stone " which I never  thought I would ever see live and 3 songs from " Fireworks " were greeted like long lost friends.

The ballad " Give It A Try " had huge backing vocals and probably their best known song " Sweet Obsession " was just great to watch  and following it with " Pointblank " 's " Bang Down The Door " brought the house down.

Leaving to a standing ovation let's hope the reaction of the fans seems them returning to these shores very soon.

Legend has it that Tyketto never made a demo - they were signed on the strength of a single live show. I can believe that -  I've been fan since day 1 (I might have even bought the original LP in Shades Records just before it closed in '92...remember that place?). They are another one of those bands that have the songs, have the voice (Danny Vaughn)  but have never hit the heights they should have.. When you see the likes of Bon Jovi and Nickleback selling out huge enormodomes and these guys playing in much smaller venues then you have to think that something in the world is not quite right.

But the upside of that is that we get up close and personal in a place as wonderful as The Brook in Southampton.  Danny Vaughn doesn't look much different now than how he looked on the Don't Come Easy album cover, and the rest of the band have aged fairly gracefully too. We had Chris Green on guitar who is known as more of shredder in his day job with Furyon than Brooke St James (who had not come over) but he fitted in really well with the rest of the band.
He played the songs with a feel for the originals unlike PJ Zitarosa back in 2008 but on Lay Your Body Down he really opened up and showed how gifted he was. Michael Clayton on drums was having a ball and you could see how much he was enjoying playing with the new man. With Ged Rylands back on keys and Jimi Kennedy ever dependable on bass Danny Vaughn ruled the roost sounding better than ever and in majestic voice and using up every square inch of the stage.








Tyketto have the perfect mix of a heavy yet acoustic yet melodic sound that no one else seems to get close to.  And then there are the songs like Wings, Forever Young and the mighty Standing Alone.

They played :

  • Burning Down Inside
  • Rescue Me
  • Faithless
  • Seasons
  • End Of The Summer Days
  • Sail Away
  • Here's Hoping It Hurts
  • Meet Me In The Night
  • Dig In Deep
  • Lay Your Body Down
  • Sound Off
  • Standing Alone
  • Catch My Fall
  • Some Kind Of Wonderful
  • Wings
  • Encores
    • The Last Sunset
    • Forever Young

Some Kind of Wonderful seemed an apt song to play...because it was!




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