Tyketto/Bad Touch Camden Underworld 28-07-15

First up to a very healthy size crowd for a Tuesday night was Norwich's finest Bad Touch who after a lengthy tour supporting The Answer and the release of their excellent debut cd Half Way Home are growing into one of the UK's best new bands.

Playing most of the debut cd in a 40 minute set they had the crowd in their sweaty palms from the start and in vocalist Stevie they have a bonafide front man who can not only work the audience but has a great set of pipes to back it up.

Add to that 2 great guitarists in Rob G and Seeks who know when to rock it up and take it down slow and a rock solid rhythm team in Bailey on bass and George on drums and fantastic backing vocals and throw in a classic rock set of songs and stand back and let it go.

All of the songs go down well in a live setting but a few are worthy of mention.

Wise Water starts on slide guitar before a stop start riff builds to a big chorus with help from the crowd too in the chorus and also after the guitar solo with a great bit of light and shade as the band drop it down a gear.

Waste My Time has a great upbeat rock n'roll riff and tempo equal parts Free,Bad Company or even The Rolling Stones and that can only be a good thing.

Motherload and Sweet Little Success both rock along all riff and vocal attitude.

Title track of the cd Half Way Home has a bluesy picked riff and Stevie intro that shows off the vocalist's range to a tee before another bluesy riff kicks in.The song ebbs and flows showing a real depth and quality from a band of such youth.

Good On Me (The Jeans song) is a classic already.Big AC/DC riff and stomp with Stevie asking the ladies where they buy their jeans and do they come in a size 14.

New Day is another rock n'roller with the attitude of a herd of elephants and the perfect set closer.Huge chorus and love the way half way through it it goes up a notch both vocally and the band put another log on the fire!!Great ending as all of the band go crazy with Rob G soloing over Stevie's vocal.

In the 3 months since The Answer tour they are showing more on stage charisma and swagger and that is reaching out to the fans and can only be good for the long term potential of the band which is huge.

Go see them now!!

 Many bands would struggle to top a wonderful support slot but Tyketto are firing on all cylinders at the moment with a real band camaraderie present and with Danny Vaughn in masterful form both vocally and as a front man this was special.

Over the course of 90 minutes they played probably the most eclectic set I have seen them play over the years with a Danny solo song off Soldiers and Sailors,a song off the Steve Augeri fronted shine album and a couple of other less well known songs.

Here is what they played.

Love To Love
Burning Down Inside
Rescue Me
Meet Me In The Night
Shadowland
Dig In Deep
Lay Your Body Down
Let It Go
Write Your Name In The Sky
Sound Off
Strength In Numbers
Catch My Fall
Standing Alone
Wings

Encore of Last Sunset
Forever Young

At Firefest 2012 we had the original line up with both Jimi Kennedy on bass and Brooke St James on guitar back on board.

With Jimi's other work getting in the way we had Chris Childs of Thunder helping out again and on guitar the amazing Chris Green of Pride,Furyon and Rubicon Cross who I felt let go more than on the previous tour.He still plays it like the originals but this time with a real fiery sense of style with added melodies and solo's.Quite fantastic to see close up.

With Ged Rylands on keys and long time partner in crime Michael Clayton on drums we are told will go back in the studio for a new Tyketto album in 2016 which will also see the re release of a Rock Candy remaster of the now 25 year old Don't Come Easy debut so busy times ahead.

Back to the gig Love To Love a song from back in the day that finally saw the light of day on the Dig In Deep album opened the show in fine style with an extended guitar solo from Chris in the outro setting the bar very high early on.

Burning Down Inside the saw the first of many audience participation moments and with the huge grins on stage the band were getting out of it as much as we were.

A solo song in Shadowland fitted in well with Danny on 12 string acoustic before the title track of last album Dig In Deep being played for the people at the Steelhouse Festival the previous weekend  who had struggled with the terrible weather.

Let It Go off Shine was played for the 4 young ladies who had come over from Holland with Danny apologising before starting it as he said he had never played anything off that album before.


Sound Off is Danny getting it all off his chest at the current state of the music industry and also US austerity and showing at 54 years old he has still a fire in his belly.He added that at his age he doesn't put the microphone in the audience because he can't sing it anymore but he does take the occasional extra breath or two.

Last few songs and it is classic after classic.Standing Alone is a monster and Danny's vocal line still gets the hairs on the back of my neck standing to attention.Superb.

And then Wings took it even higher with the crowd at full throttle.

But that paled into insignificance to closer Forever Young.A top 10 song ever for me with the lyrics just perfect for the ageing crowd (although pleasingly quite a few young faces too!) as we all jumped around and sang at the top of our voices like it was the last song ever.

A superb double bill and showing that one at the start of their career  and one with plenty of fire still in the belly can compliment each other fantastically well