Way, way back in the mists of time, well... December 1983, I saw Y&T at Leicester's DeMontfort Hall. It was actually my second ever gig and even then, as a fresh faced 14 year old (barely) it already felt a little bit... lame. For a start it was supposed to be a co-headlining tour with Rock Goddess, which in itself was a bit ridiculous since Y&T were about six albums into their career and well established by this point, whereas Rock Goddess were only two albums into their (very soon to falter) career. But of the two, Rock Goddess were certainly the more 'attractive' prospect, with short snappy, catchy songs, a 40 minute set and, well... not to put too fine a point on it... three hot chicks in spandex (one of whom was almost the same age as me!).
Come on, I was fourteen years old. What do you want from me?
By contrast Y&T seemed old, even then. Some of their songs rocked, that you can't deny, but for every 'Forever' or 'Open Fire' there was a 'I Believe in You' or a 'Dirty Girl', and let's not even get into the nonsense that is 'Barroom Boogie'. The truth is, you see, that I've never liked the blues (unless it was Lemmy that was singing it) and on top of that Y&T seemed like 'old men' who shouldn't be wearing spandex at all, never mind red spandex and ripped T shirts. Of course they were only 30 or so, but when you're 14 everyone over 25 looks old. Oh I don't know, it just all seemed a little bit ridiculous, even then... and it seemed even more ridiculous six months later in the bright light of day at Donington.
By unanimous agreement Donington 1984 was 'the shit', with a truly MONSTER line up that opened with Motley Crue and finished with AC/DC, in between taking in such legends as Ozzy, Van Halen, Accept, Gary Moore and of course Y&T. I don't honestly remember much about their set (even though for many years I had a cassette tape of the gig, taped off The Friday Rock Show), except that the wind lifted their backdrop and dropped it on Leonard Haze's head... that was quite amusing and a truly Spinal Tap-esque memory.
To be honest, after 1984 Y&T fell off my radar, and with the onset of thrash metal and younger, cooler 'hair metal' bands their career had pretty much peaked. The band's next album was a live set, which opened with the sole (new) studio track 'Summertime Girls'... and just like that any credibility they still had left went right down the toilet.
Y&T continued without me, the albums getting further and further apart, but seemingly still touring like clockwork. There was always the temptation to 'give them another go' but it always seemed like the wrong time, the same day or too close to something else, and so we just never ended up making the effort. But in the meantime the 'classic' albums 'Black Tiger', 'Meanstreak' and 'In Rock We Trust' grew in my estimation so when Y&T announced their 50th anniversary tour, we figured maybe this would be the last chance and maybe this time we should make the effort.
But true to form, Y&T's dates came right at the busiest possible time... three days after my birthday, and one day after Assemblage 23 at the Corporation. In fact Y&T was just one of SIX gigs I attended in October 2025 (Rose only came to four of them) and it was difficult to find a date that worked with all these other gigs and my birthday and not being able to leave work early to go to Wolverhampton on a Friday because Rich was on holiday.
In fact at one point it looked like we wouldn't be going at all, and then I looked at the dates again and thought aloud 'where on Earth is Holmfirth'. I genuinely had no idea, it could have been in Scotland for all I knew, or Wales for that matter... but it transpired that Holmfirth was actually in the Yorkshire dales and not a million miles from Manchester. Of course, it was a Sunday night, just twenty four hours after another gig, but what the hell, let's finally put this to bed.
And so on a rainy Sunday night, still tired and achy from the night before, we piled into the car and headed up the M1 in the darkness. Holmfirth is exactly 100 miles from home and my phone told me it would take two hours to get there. We left at 5:50pm and stopped briefly at Woodall services and arrived at the Co-op car park just after 8pm.
It was weird, coming to this small town in the middle of nowhere to see an internationally renowned American rock band... especially since we had to cross a bridge, in the rain, in the dark, over a river to get there. But once inside, well... WOW! What a brilliant venue. A steeply sloped floor and high stage guaranteed a good view for everyone and two balconies offered seating for those who got their early. If only venues in bigger towns were so well appointed!
The sound was also crystal clear, and loud enough, but not so loud that you felt fatigued by it (see Destruction and Obituary in Birmingham!) which was just as well because once Y&T took the stage to the strains of the 'Black Tiger' intro and launched into that particular song, they didn't stop playing for two hours!
Along the way, we got nearly all the key songs, with only 'Open Fire' absent from the extensive set list. Unfortunately we did get 'Summertime Girls'... the only song that was joined to another one I noticed, didn't want to hear the deafening silence after that one I guess. Hahahaha.
Oddly, it felt like the set list was front loaded, with 'Meanstreak', 'Keep on Runnin', 'Black Tiger' and 'Midnight in Tokyo' all played in the first half of the set. Of course for the Y&T cognoscenti the 'true' classics are 'I Believe in You' and 'Rescue Me', but yeah whatever. At least they kept 'Forever' for the big finale... so I got five out of my top six Y&T tunes.
Black Tiger
Lipstick and Leather
Don't Stop Runnin'
Don't Be Afraid of the Dark
Mean Streak
Don't Wanna Lose
Winds of Change
Rock & Roll's Gonna Save the World
Hurricane
Midnight in Tokyo
Summertime Girls
Contagious
I Believe in You
Eyes of a Stranger
Dirty Girl
I'm Coming Home
Rescue Me
Lonely Side of Town
Forever
I have to say, for a seventy one year old cancer survivor, Dave Meniketti sounded fantastic, and he can still play too! In fact Dave is the only surviving member of the classic Y&T line-up, with Joey Alves, Phil Kennemore and Leonard Haze having all succumbed to various illnesses through the years. Their replacements are certainly capable and enthusiastic and to be honest it always felt like Meniketti's band anyway.
Y&T's influence on such luminaries as Metallica, Dave Mustaine and other Bay Area musicians is often overlooked, but staring at the Y&T logo high above the stage before the band came on, I couldn't fail to notice the 'familiarity' of the font. Particularly in that colour, it screams 'Peace Sells...' era Megadeth. How did I never notice that before?
Well, it was a long, long, long wait... (41 years) but it was definitely worth it and I would definitely consider seeing a band play in Holmfirth again, should anyone we like decide to play there. Of course by the time we got home we were wide awake, so we decided to stay up and watch the United States Grand Prix. Sure that meant going to work on about 4 hours sleep, but at least we avoided finding out the result.
Just two more gigs to go this month, Graham Bonnet (Rainbow, MSG) and The Birthday Massacre. Phew......
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