The Yo Yo's: Camden Underworld (14.04.05)

Sometimes events just leave you standing with an aghast expression by the side of a motorway wondering what on Earth just swept you up and dragged you screaming along - The Yo Yo's reformation was like this. A week before the gig, an eagle-eyed observer spotted their name in the tiny weekly advert that the Underworld runs in 'Kerrang'...Was it really the Yo Yo's? Why hadn't I heard? Why wasn't it reported in any periodical? A quick foray onto fivemileshigh.com confirmed that it was indeed the Yo Yo's. Danny McCormack's post-Wildhearts punk n' roll greasers that burst into life with one classic album (2000's 'Uppers and Downers') before disappearing in a puff of heroin in 2001.

To a certain group of people though, this band stands up as one of the great might-have-been stories in British rock and that group was out in force last Tuesday, packing the Underworld solid. The Underworld is a venue that by its very structure belies any barrier between the bands and the crowd, and members of all three bands can be seen carousing beforehand at the bar. We're dragged towards the stage though as openers The Grit start making a racket, and what a racket. It's never easy to open a gig, particularly one so focussed upon the headliners, but The Grit succeed with winningly combative Geordie banter and some great songs. The reference points are clear enough, some of Rancid's loose guitars, some of the Dropkick Murphy's gang-chants and some of the Clash's ska roots. It's a simple equation, but one to often bungled by Americans, and The Grit walk the tightrope perfectly. It all climaxes with "I Came Out the Womb an Angry Cunt", a glorious, over-blown punk epic that proves this band as something particularly special.

Which is not something I'd say for DTX. Formerly known as Dog Toffee who auger a retreat the bar with some over-pronounced vocal keening and no apparent sense of what makes the other bands tonight so great.

And so to the headliners. The Yo Yo's mk.II come on stage, play like the bastards that they patently are for 37 minutes and then leave before a sweaty mass of devotees cheering for more. Ever present opener '1,000 Miles Away From Me' sets a blistering pace and from then the band simply take off into the stratosphere. Don't mistake me, this was no race-to-the-finish as one might have expected from a recently assembled group of musicians, this was fucking tight as well.

13 songs are played, including two b-sides and a cover. In another world, the band would have played 'Half Hour Heartache' and 'Too Lazy to Bleed', but not tonight, and it's clear why. Any slackening of pace would negate the purpose of this gig, as it is the closest we get to a break is 'Champagne and Nakedness' which evolves into mayhem soon enough anyway. I face a difficult task in explaining to someone who doesn't know the band quite how astonishingly good they are. I could describe the sound: Sort of punk with rockabilly bits, some dedicated shouting and the occasional solo when Tom Spencer can be bothered, but it wouldn't work. I could sonnet you sonnets and ballad you ballads about the sheer, open-hearted joy that communal sing-a-longs of 'Time of Your Life' and 'Keepin' On Keepin' On' create in the audience, but that wouldn't do it either.

In the end, I suppose, you'll have to take my word for it. Whenever Danny McCormack actually takes the time to writes songs like in the similarly short-lived Chasers or for the Wildhearts ('Dancin' remains one the bands crowning achievements), it's always worth listening. If this band can keep it together this time (changing the lyrics of the Clash's 'Brand New Cadillac' to "Bag of Smack" isn't a particularly comforting move), then this could really be the beginning of something big.

Taking my cue from the band, I'll keep this review short and content myself by saying that The Yo Yo's have mastered a very difficult sound; It's so, so easy to fuck up this sort of thing (a mooted tour with Three Colours Red will illustrate this perfectly). In the end, it comes down to the quality of the songs, which, in the Underworld that night, were something close to perfect.

By J.L Cranfield

Set List

1000 MILES FROM ME
OUT OF MY MIND
TIME OF YOUR LIFE
HOME FROM HOME
SUNSHINE GIRL
HEAD OVER HEELS
CHAMPAGNE & NAKEDNESS
RUMBLE(D)
STOCKHOLM SICK BLUES
HANGING UP
ROCK CITY
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BRAND NEW CADILAC
KEEPIN' ON KEEPIN' ON