Music is such a wonderful thing. It can inspire, it can motivate, it can bring people together, it can heal and it can create moments that stay in your memory forever. Tonight at The Prince I don’t think I have ever seen so many smiling faces in one room. In all my years of gig going and with over 4000 concerts under my belt I think this was the best atmosphere I have ever felt in a room, period. And that is before a note has been played.
After the triumph of their first shows on Australian soil at Glam Fest in Sydney and Melbourne just last year, it was one of the best gifts a fan could get when a 2025 Australian Tour was announced just before Christmas. A short three date tour playing Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney before heading back to the UK to support Rock Icons Uriah Heep on their final UK Tour makes it another busy start to the year for the band who has seen a wonderful resurgence over the last few years.
I must admit, of all the reviews I’ve written over the years this one has been the hardest because the anticipation was just so high. I was blown away back in the day when I heard ‘Don’t Come Easy,’ a mere 34 years ago. I was there on that tour when they played the UK for the first time and still count that double-bill with White Lion as one of my Top shows of all time. I’m sure like many in the room I’ve been on board ever since.
15 years ago when I started this website the first person I wanted to interview was Danny Vaughn and it’s been wonderful to chat regularly and chronicle the incredible resurgence of the band. The best thing about Tyketto is the songs, and over the years for me at least, they have just grown in stature. Those first two albums are masterpieces of Hard Rock and rank amongst very few albums that I consider have no weak point at all. Over the years of course the line-up has changed so the only question left to answer is can they capture that magic I heard all those years ago? The answer is simple – yes.
The 2025 line-up of Tyketto may only sport Danny from the original incarnation, but there’s an incredible chemistry at play on stage. When you add to that the incredible musicianship of the individuals involved and Danny’s stage presence and stories, you can easily argue that the band is 2025 is as strong as ever. Danny and Johnny Dee’s friendship of course dates back to the pre-Tyketto days of Wasted, and both Ged and Chris have been with the band for over a decade. That only leaves lead guitarist Harry Scott Elliott who joined in 2023 to quickly make his sonic presence felt. He of course fits right in.
You could literally cut the atmosphere with a knife before the band takes the stage and the roar from the passionate crowd is one of sheer joy. Opening up with ‘Strength In Numbers’ the title track from their second album there are several things that are immediately obvious – the most immediate is that the sound is incredible as the band throw themselves right in. There’s also the fact that everyone in this room is singing along and there’s not a body out there not moving. Incredibly that lasts the entire set, and even when I look out to see who is singing the newer numbers later in the set – it is clear that everyone is.
‘Strength In Numbers’ as is often is, is followed by the soaring melodies of ‘Wings’ and there is those two songs you have the reason why this band is so loved by its fans, there’ plenty of power and fight in the former and just enough sweeping melody in the latter to raise your feet right off the ground. And the switch all night between Danny reaching for the acoustic or going it alone shows the wonderful balance of songs .At 63 the most incredible thing is that Danny’s voice sounds even better than it did back in the day, it’s both powerful and strong and he has such control. Always one of my favourite vocalists I’d rank him up there with Paul Rodgers and Glenn Hughes.
‘Burning Down Inside’ has always been one of my favourite Tyketto songs and by song three I’m already content, probably grinning from ear to ear like a fool, whilst attempting to dance, and at the same time trying to get a few shots of the band. It’s impossible to do them all so I largely forget the latter!
There are few bands out there that you can honestly say manage to maintain the quality of their original material 30 plus years on, but the incredible thing about Tyketto is that they do it seemingly effortlessly. Tonight there are just as many in the crowd singing along to songs like ‘Circle the Wagons’, ‘Reach’ and ‘The Run’ all from 2016’s ‘Reach’ album as those from the first two records that make up the remainder of the set. There’s sadly nothing from comeback album ‘Dig in Deep’ but it’s a setlist that’s hard to fault otherwise, and after all what would you replace?
One of the best things about the night though are some of Danny’s asides and stories that pepper the set. Life lessons, memories and recollections that just elevate the show and are all so very self-assured yet starkly humble. There’s a vibe in the room I’ve not felt in ages, everyone is taken by these moments and you can feel the love radiating off everyone in the room (even the bar staff are dancing and even security realise that tonight will be the easiest of nights).
‘Seasons’ is shot through with sheer joy and ‘Nothing but Love’ keeps everyone moving before the guitar led ‘Meet Me in the Night’ ups the temperature even more. Tonight ‘Rescue Me’ is simply sublime – I’m speechless! With a new album on the way later in the year it’s great to hear how the more recent compositions hold up against the more nostalgic fare – and both ‘Reach’ and the emotionally charged ‘The Run,’ that Danny introduces with a story about his Uncle and Sturgis, deserve their spot in the set.
There’s a great story that precedes the “strip-club get up and dance anthem” ‘Lay Your Body Down’ and from then on in it’s a sheer masterclass of all that we love and continue to love about the very best 80’s inspired Hard Rock. ‘Catch My Fall’ is inspired and ‘Standing Alone’ is as good if not better than I’ve ever heard – it’s stature as a song just grows ever time I hear it. And who couldn’t love the sheer sweeping melodies of ‘Sail Away’.
And all too soon it seems it’s all over. A set of sheer magic that will leave no one in doubt of what a great band Tyketto was and most certainly still is. So whilst you could argue that the entire set has been all about crowd participation’ there’s fun to be had with ‘The Last Sunset’ that builds the tension to the inevitable show closer. ‘Forever Young’ may be the song that everyone out there knows even if they didn’t make it down tonight but there’s no denying that it stands as one of the anthems of late 80’s Hard Rock (yes I know it was released in 1990). Tonight it almost literally brings down the house, there’s such power even after a these years.
Tonight was perfect. An incredible show, a room full of so many friends and familiar faces I lost count. The band were sublime, and the atmosphere, if it could have been tinned, could quite possibly solve all of the problems in the world. After the show we just all spilled out into the warm Melbourne night and to the bar next door to sit outside and share a beer, talking about what we had just seen and reminiscing about old times. One by one the band filed by on the way back to the hotel and stopped to talk, before we all faded into the night, to get some sleep before work or an early lobby call.
SETLIST
Strength in Numbers
Wings
Burning Down Inside
Circle the Wagons
Seasons
Nothing but Love
Meet Me in the Night
Rescue Me
Reach
The Run
Lay Your Body Down
Catch My Fall
Standing Alone
Sail Away
The Last Sunset
Forever Young
Many thanks to Danny for heading back Downunder so soon and catching up before the tour (INTERVIEW HERE), and thanks to Ged and Johnny and Chris and Harry for taking the time to say hi after the show. If you’re in the UK we’ll also be heading down to the band’s next stop when they play with Uriah Heep on their Farewell Tour. Look out for a new interview and news about the new Tyketto album soon… Thanks also to Silverback Touring for making it all happen.
