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Tonight is a cause for celebration on many fronts (and not just that it’s another day above the ground, while senile old men in power play the biggest game of “My Dad’s bigger than your Dad” ever seen). It’s warm; the sun is out; it’s not raining; there is a queue outside the venue, stretching the length of the street; and rather aptly, it’s the actual 35th anniversary of the release of arguably the greatest melodic hard rock album in existence: Tyketto’s masterpiece of a debut album ‘Don’t Come Easy.’
A momentous milestone not lost on Tyketto founding member and vocalist Danny Vaughn, who, throughout the evening, takes every opportunity possible to thank the audience for not only still turning up after all these years, but turning up in increasing numbers.
Coming 18 months after the last visit to this venue, this tour follows the same format as the last. Tyketto, with another stellar act from the 90s, and a fledgling act looking for that hand of reassurance to help navigate the treacherous waters of the music business.
Tonight, taking the place of Little Caesar and Dan Byrne from 2024, are Kory Clarke and his compadres in acid punk veterans Warrior Soul, and opening the show on this ten-date jaunt around the UK (which concludes with a show at KK’s Steel Mill in Wolverhampton on April 25th) are Kent-based quartet Collateral.
Although still relatively new to the game, Collateral have been around for a good few years now and have built up quite a following, as proven by the number of punters streaming up the stairs to get into the venue in time to catch the short set. The slight delay in doors opening doesn’t help, but by the time that frontman Angelo Tristan launches the band into the opening track ‘No Place For Love’, the band are greeted by a sea of familiar faces on the barrier. Collateral, it would seem, have brought their own cheering section, and they are making their presence felt.
A perfect fit for a Tyketto audience, Collateral go down the proverbial storm. Seizing the opportunity with both hands, the band tears through a well-received six-song set, with Tristan wearing a smile permanently etched on his face from the first moment to the very last. Hell, he’s probably still smiling now, days later. Highlights and excuses for audience participation include ‘Midnight Queen’, ‘Merry Go Round’, and ‘Mr. Big Shot’, the latter ends the set, and not many opening acts will leave the stage to a reception like that. Like a lot of similarly sized bands, Collateral were robbed of momentum during the lockdown of 2020/2021, and being a band that are essentially a live act, this hit Collateral hard. That momentum, though, seems to have built up again, and it seems to be full steam ahead.
The unlikely filling in this sandwich of melodic hard rock, Warrior Soul stick out like the proverbial spare prick at a whore’s wedding. The fly in the ointment. The sand in the vaseline. The anger. And what a glorious short, sharp, shock their set is. Time has not slowed down frontman Kory Clarke (think Iggy Pop, mixing with Patti Smith and Lou Reed at a party over at David Lynch’s house) one iota.
If The Simpsons gets credited for having predicted the current state of affairs the world finds itself in, then perhaps Mr. Clarke ought to be afforded the same levels of respect. He has been singing about this shit since Warrior Soul burst onto the scene in 1990 with the explosive debut album ‘Last Decade Dead Century’, and its immediate follow-up ‘Drugs, God and the New Republic’. The latter (which, like Tyketto’s ‘Don’t Come Easy’, is also celebrating its 35th anniversary) doesn’t feature much tonight, with only the Joy Division cover ‘Interzone’, and ‘The Wasteland’ aired; so perhaps there is a 35th anniversary tour announcement on the way?
Instead, moments from the Warrior Soul jukebox, such as ‘Love Destruction’, ‘Punk and Belligerent’, and a visceral version of ‘The Fourth Reich’ which, although written in 2009, could have been written last week (“Mass media controlled by defense corporations that send your kids to die…”) all hit the mark. As does the inclusion of Clarke’s love letter to Glasgow: ‘She’s Glaswegian’, which not only namechecks some of the best venues, past and present, in Glasgow (including tonight’s venue), but also Irn Bru. It’s noisy, it’s full-on, and it provokes a reaction. Headline shows on the horizon? Make it so, Mr. Clarke.
Back on the road again, and this time around Tyketto have a brand new album to promote: the immense ‘Closer To The Sun’. The first new studio album from Danny Vaughn and Tyketto in ten years. Insane when you stop and think about that for a moment. But with a legacy as strong as Tyketto has, you are not going to risk that by rushing out anything sub-standard, and ‘Closer To The Sun’ is anything but sub-standard. It’s 1994, though, that Tyketto turns to for the set-opener: the hooky-as-hell ‘Rescue Me’, which, thanks to the guitar work from Harry Scott Elliott, has been given a youthful shot of adrenaline.
Once the dust settles, it’s straight into ‘Don’t Come Easy’ for the lung-busting duo of ‘Wings’, followed by ‘Burning Down Inside’, and why is it that this reviewer can walk into a room and forget what they came in for, or where the car keys are, but can remember every word to these as soon as they start up? Simple. It’s the hooks and melodies, along with easily identifiable lyrics and huge choruses, easy to sing along to. And 35 years later, they still spark something inside everyone who was there in 1990 when ‘Don’t Come Easy’ was birthed. Veteran drummer Johnny Dee (from Doro fame) is playing his heart out and is making quite an impression, especially on the hard-hitting parts of ‘Burning Down Inside’.
It’s not just about the past, though, as the aforementioned ‘Closer To The Sun’ album is something special, and Danny Vaughn is, rightly so, proud of it. Not surprisingly, the band stops off at the album on several occasions, with the catchy, uplifting ‘Higher Than High’ being the first of four new tracks aired. The title track is a perfect example of how effective a singing guitar riff can be, and the one that opens the song is gorgeous. As are the hooks on the chorus. Prime-time Tyketto on a track that could have come from the same sessions as ‘Don’t Come Easy’. Simply put, it soars. ‘We Rise’ offers the audience a chance to get involved on a song tailor-made for audience participation, and the lush keyboards from Ged Rylands add extra layers of feels.
Covering Roxette might seem a strange choice, but as Vaughn points out, ‘Harleys & Indians (Riders In The Sky)’ is about riding motorcycles, so it makes sense. Not a million miles from the 1994 original version, which mainly featured Per Gessle on lead vocals and the much-missed Marie Fredriksson on backing vocals, it’s a percussion-heavy track where Dee and his partner in crime, bassist Chris Childs, excel. You might be surprised to discover a Roxette track with loads of guitars and lashings of harmonica, but that’s exactly what this one is, and right on cue, here is Danny Vaughn with the trusty harmonica.
Vaughn is in commanding form throughout the set and remains walking, living proof of what a vocalist from the 90s can achieve 30 years later if they look after themself. If you have ever had the misfortune to watch someone from the same era dial-it-in, or rely on backing tracks or even additional backing vocalists, then Vaughn’s professionalism is worthy of a semester of its own the next time that the School of Rock is in session. The nice guy persona isn’t an act with Vaughn, and when he takes time out to thank everyone for being on this journey that started 35 years ago, he means it. When he mentions THAT gig at Glasgow Barrowland Ballroom back in June 1991, where Tyketto blew headliners White Lion off the stage and made the multi-platinum band look bloated and pedestrian in comparison, he means it. When he thanks everyone for allowing him to keep doing this, year after year, he means it.
One of those sets that should be recorded and held up as Exhibit A for all young acts to use as an example of not only how to build an audience, but more importantly, retain that audience. Find out for yourself on the remaining tour dates, or up the Welsh mountain at Steelhouse Festival, where the band will appear this Summer. Following that, Tyketto head out on the Rock & Roll Salvation European Tour with Black Star Riders.
24 April – Corporation, Sheffield (United Kingdom)
25 April – KK’s Steel Mill, Wolverhampton (United Kingdom)
All remaining tour dates can be found HERE.
Review – Dave
All images – Dave Jamieson
