It was great to escape for a few hours, to warmer and happier times with the wonderful soundscape provided by Young Gun Silver Fox.
YOUNG GUN SILVER FOX
Manchester: Night & Day – 28 October 2021
In recent years there seems to have been a resurgence in the popularity of the posthumously named Yacht Rock (a collective description of the well-produced Westcoast AOR from the mid-seventies to early eighties). However, despite its renaissance, there are only a few artists producing new music within the genre, and even fewer playing live. Pre-COVID, I thought the only way I would get to see Young Gun Silver Fox would be a road-trip to The Netherlands as their only UK gigs seemed to be one-offs, mid-week, in their home city of London. Therefore, it was a no-brainer when they announced that they would also be playing their first ever date in the north.
This was my first time to the Night & Day venue in the centre of Manchester. The music venue is long and relatively narrow with the stage at the far end. The sound was reasonably good, albeit (and expectedly) a little rawer than on the albums. There was a very mixed demographic in attendance, with lots of youngsters, a relatively equal split of males and females, plus the usual middle-age fans, of which I'm one, and whom I'm most used to seeing at Rock, Metal and Blues gigs.
There was a definite buzz in the air that we were in for something special as the band, Andy "Young Gun" Platts (vocals and keyboards), Shawn "Silver Fox" Lee (guitar and vocals), David Page (bass and backing vocals), and Adrian Meehan (drums) took to the stage to the intro tape of the Hall & Oates' classic 'She's Gone'. The small stage was adorned with a couple of plastic palm trees (and there had been a seven-foot cactus) to give it that true West Coast feel; the temperature within certainly rose to California-style levels, contrasting to the typical wet weather outside. The heat inside the venue, particularly on-stage, Lee frequently alluded to; although, he kept his inter-song chat to a minimum, jokingly saying that he thought most people "Up North" couldn't understand him and that he talked funny. However, he did say he was paid the biggest compliment of his life when one of the fans referred to him as, "Our kid!"
The seventeen-song set-list was garnered from their three fantastic albums to-date: 'West End Coast' (2015), 'AM Waves' (2018) and 'Canyons' (2020), all of which I've reviewed for Fireworks from my own personal collection. If you've never heard any music by this talented group of musicians and you choose to check out one song, then I would personally recommend the superb 'Midnight In Richmond'. Tonight, it highlighted the great harmony vocals of Platts, Lee and Page. Songs like 'Kids', 'You Can Feel It' (their first ever single written via text message), 'Mojo Rising', 'Lenny' (written by Platts following a dream he had of Lenny Kravitz serving him whiskey in a bar) and 'Lolita' (extended rockier version than on the 'Am Waves' opus) showed that the majority of the two-hundred-plus audience were familiar with the music. The two-song encore was the popular 'Kingston Boogie' and the sublime 'Long Way Back', where Lee produced his best fretwork of the evening.
In these gloomy and uncertain times, we're living in, it was great to escape for a few hours, to warmer and happier times with the wonderful soundscape provided by Young Gun Silver Fox.
Mark Donnelly
Setlist:- Emilia / Midnight In Richmond / Kids / Better / You Can Feel It / In My Pocket / Saturday / Who Needs Words / Caroline / Underdog / Mojo Rising / Love Guarantee / Baby Girl / Lenny / Lolita
Encore: Kingston Boogie / Long Way Back
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