Essential Classics
Y&T backstage at London’s Marquee club,
June ’82: (l-r) Dave Meniketti, Phil
Kennemore, Leonard Haze, Joey Alves.Earthshaker
A&M, 1981
If ever an album delivered on the
promise of its title, it was this one.
Earthshaker was a hard rock tour
de force with all the raw power
and take-no-prisoners attitude of
Montrose’s legendary debut. In
a stroke, Y&T went from
nobodies to cult heroes.
Livewire electricity coursed
through songs such as Hurricane,
Hungry For Rock, Young And Tough
and Squeeze, I Believe In You,
a heavy blues, was a showcase
for Meniketti’s gritty voice and
guitar-hero histrionics, while the
atmospheric intro to Rescue Me,
an epic track described by
Meniketti as “the most popular
song on the record, if not of our
career”, was the inspiration for
Metallica’s Fade To Black.Black Tiger
A&M, 1982
After the all-important
breakthrough with Earthshaker,
the follow-up was a defining
statement. As Dave Meniketti
said recently: “Black Tiger is our
signature album.”
Produced by Max Norman,
who had engineered Ozzy’s post-
Sabbath comeback records, Black
Tiger sounded a little slicker than
Earthshaker. But while the single
Don’t Wanna Lose was made for
radio, the meat of the album was
heavy rock, with hard-and-fast
head-bangers in Open Fire and
the title track, boozy rowdiness in
Barroom Boogie and high drama in
the euphoric anthem Forever. In
1982, with this album and
a triumphant Reading Festival
performance, Y&T were flying.Y& T
While they had their ups and downs, in the 80s the American
band recorded some albums that have stood the test of time.F
or Dave Meniketti, the lead singer
and lead guitarist with Y&T, there’s
one night in the summer of 1982
that he’ll never forget.
For an American band inspired by
British acts such as Led Zeppelin and The
Who, and originally named Yesterday And
To d a y after a Beatles album, it was a thrill
to play at London’s famous Marquee club.
What Meniketti had not anticipated was
the warmth of the welcome that Y&T
received there – so warm, in fact, that
rubber on a guitar stand melted during
the gig. As he recalled to Classic Rock:
“I had heat stroke after that show.”
The early 80s were the best of times
for Y&T, when they emerged, after long
years of struggle, as one of the great
hard rock groups of that era. It was in
the early 70s that the band formed in
Oakland, California, and the classic line-
up established with Meniketti alongside
rhythm guitarist Joey Alves, bassist Phil
Kennemore and drummer Leonard Haze.
They made two albums as Yesterday
And Today, both of which stiffed.
After rebranding as Y&T, they enjoyed
considerable success, in the UK and Europe
especially, with a trio of landmark albums:
Earthshaker, Black Tiger and Mean Streak.A powerful live act, Y&T played on the
biggest stages, touring with AC/DC and
appearing at the Reading Festival in 1982
and Monsters Of Rock in 1984. Their
biggest hit came in 1985 with Summertime
Girls, a bandwagon-jumping hair-metal
anthem with a comedy video to match.
By the end of the 80s the classic line-up
was no more, as Haze was replaced by
Jimmy DeGrasso (now with Black Star
Riders), and Alves by Stef Burns. A couple
of f lop albums led to the band splitting in- But just four years later the quartet
of Meniketti, Kennemore, DeGrasso and
Burns reunited for two albums: Musically
Incorrect and Endangered Species.
Since then there has been only one
more album, 2010 ’s Facemelter, featuring
Meniketti and Kennemore plus guitarist
John Nymann and drummer Mike
Vanderhule. Sadly, Kennemore died the
following year, Haze in 2016, and Alves
in 2017.
For Dave Meniketti, the sole survivor
from the band’s glory days, there is still
work to be done. He promises a new Y&T
album soon,and he remains true to the
words he sang back in 1981: ‘Hungry for
rock, ready to roll.’
Paul Elliott
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