Dave Meniketti - guitar, vocals; Phil Kennemore - bass, vocals; Leonard Haze - drums; Joey Alves - guitar
This 1985 recording of Y&T was made three years before they disbanded initially in 1988. Recorded for the King Biscuit Flower Hour, the show was the basis of its Open Fire live album, released later in the year.
Y&T and was going from its longtime label home at A&M to the upstart high-brow label, Geffen, and the live disc was delivered to fulfill obligations. The show recorded for KBFH features many of the same songs, with a set that is heavy of 1980s hard-rock standard fare. Titles like "Lipstick And Leather," "Go For The Throat," and "25 Hours A Day" sum up the lyrical vibe of the show. They do offer a lengthy guitar solo followed by a 12-bar blues jam before closing with high energy versions of "Mean Streak" and "Black Tiger."
Formed in San Francisco the previous year, in 1973 Y&T (shortened from Yesterday & Today, a name copped from a 1966 Beatles album), cut its teeth opening for bands like Journey and the Doobie Brothers. The fact that they remained committed to the hard rock boogie style of bands like Ten Years After and Status Quo (after it was waning in the U.S.), may explain why they failed to find a huge audience here.
The band would endure for 15 years, but in all that time it would fail to have any sizable impact on the U.S. music scene. Y&T's inability to crack the American charts has been blamed on everything from bad timing to bad management, but in reality, they never really had the songs to crack the tough radio industry stateside. Y&T had long stints on London, A&M, and Geffen Records, all of whom had considerable success with the band in Europe, especially Holland. They remained a small cult act here, but across the pond Y&T had gold record status.
The band split up in the early 1990s, but in 2004, they reunited with Meniketti and Kennemore and continue to tour today.