Y & T in Concert
Back in November 1983 (the 27th to be exact), I was
lucky enough to catch a band that was fairly unknown in Britain at the
time.
The venue was the much missed Glasgow Apollo and I was in the stalls,
as it was the only part of the hall open. Told you they were fairly
unknown at the time.
The band was the incredible Y&T
.
Years later, I
managed to catch them at the SECC in Glasgow as openers for the
Monsters of Rock 2003 tour featuring Whitesnake and Gary Moore.
I felt that night that they were incredible, much the same as that
first night in the Apollo.
I discovered they were playing at the Cathouse in
Glasgow on the 6th
October.
I didn't have much option, did I?
Standing in the rain outside the venue that night, I wondered how time
had handled the guys.
Truth be told, I've followed Y&T's career with interest over the
years, and Meniketti's as well.
Meniketti blew me away that first night. This guy is a literel guitar
god. As founder, lead singer, guitarist and songwriter of the band, he
is a supreme axe man.
That first night, he played solos behind his head.
He and the rhythm guitarist played each other parts on their guitars, standing
together with each playing the frets on the others guitars.
This was one tight,
loud, down and dirty band.
I was hoping they hadn't lost that spark.
The band had changed over the years.
The rhythm guitarist, drummer had been replaced a few times, came back, left
again and now tonight the lineup was Menikitti, Mike Vanderhule, Kennemore (original
bassist) and
John Nymann.
This was my first visit to the Cathouse.
It is an upstairs venue and rather small.
The capacity figure on the wall said over 700, but I think they may
have been stating that for the entire building.
The walls are painted black and chains adorn the doors and most of the
fitments.
A very small stage accommodates the bands and a bar is in the middle allowing
people either to watch the band or sit at tables behind the bar and just drink.
You can tell it's Glasgow.........
The support band was GPS.
(Click on the images for a larger version)
I'm sure I've seen them before, but I can't remember who they were supporting.
GPS are the follow-up to Asia, which was one of the really big
names in soft, progressive rock a few years ago.
OK, it might have been more than a few years ago.
The band consists of John Payne on bass, vocals, Guthrie
Govan on guitar, Jay Schellen on drums and Ryo Okumoto on keyboards.
I found the band quite interesting.
They were tight and played their music well.
Payne is a nice singer and some of the crowd obviously knew the band's
material.
Since I wasn't into Asia, I couldn't really
tell if they were playing some of the older songs.
They did introduce some of the songs as off the new CD and the crowd
reacted favourably to them.
They weren't helped by a bad sound mix (the guitarist
had to constantly avoid the mike in front of him or risk killing half
the audience with feedback).
For more information about GPS (and a freely downloadable track of
theirs), click on the link.
http://www.musicbygps.com/
Another bad thing about the Cathouse is the lighting.
The pictures are particularly bad this time.
The lighting varied between whiting out everybody or leaving you in the dark.
The pictures are the best I could manage and I eventually switched to video
which did manage to capture the bands a bit better.
Using video, I had the chance to take the frames where the lights didn't destroy
the effect.
The venue had filled up nicely and the heat was rising.
You always know a good concert when the temperature in the venue rises
dramatically.
After a short interval as the roadies stripped down GPS gear and replaced it with Y&T's, and the band appeared.
The band has aged mostly gracefully and nobody looked too decrepit.
They played some firm favourites.
Never let it be said that this band doesn't know what the audience
wants.
Open fire, Rescue me, Barroom boogie, Mean Streak, Lipstick 'n'
Leather, Keep on running, Forever, Hang 'em high all got an outing.
The band is older which may explain the lack of theatrics this time,
but they still know how to rock.
Meniketti was in blistering form, showing the virtuosity he is renowned for,
while Nymann contributed well.
The crowd sang to the band while they stopped to draw
breath. Winter Wonderland will never be the same for me now.
© RIYAN Productions |