Quite a surprise to see The Yo-Yo's coming to play a gig in Coventry. But the Jailhouse has been getting some quite decent bands to play and the turn out to see them seems to show there is an audience for them too, even mid week as this one was.

We arrived after the 1st two bands had played and I was quite surprised how full the pub was. The bill had advertised four bands so quite surprised to find there were actually five playing. Me and my mate Fred had a couple of drinks at the bar before going through to the band room to watch who we throught were gonna be The Yo-Yo's and were surprised to find Antiproduct hitting the stage. Now I've seen this lot before and they are very good at what they do, but I've never gone out of my way to get into their music. They play their own brand of over the top shock/glam rock. The front man, who's name escapes me now, is very energetic and in your face literally. He came flying off the stage a few times and the 1st time I thought he was gonna knock my drink out of my hands as he leapt off the stage towards me. His band consisted of three girls on bass and guitars, all dressed quite kinky in rubber and leather, and a male drummer who dressed like he'd just walked in off the street. Anyhow we watched a few songs and I got the feeling I'd seen a similar kind of show before and the Wrathchild memories sprung to mind. So a few songs in and we retired into the other room to the bar.

Upon entering we met up with Danny from the Yo-Yo's who was in hyper mode waiting to go on stage. ******d to him for a few minutes and got a couple of pics with him, which was cool. The guy is such a down to earth, friendly and funny person. We had actully seen him earlier in the night comparing tattoo's with a girl in the bar. Danny has the beginnings of a new tattoo on his back which is the drawing off the cover of the latest Yo Yo's mini album.

After Antiproduct had played we made our way back through to the band room and waited in antisapation for The Yo-Yo's to hit the stage. 1st song up was '1000 Miles'. The band was tight and apart from Danny's vocals a little low in the mix, which was resolved after the 1st song, they were excellent and worth the wait. Danny seemed pretty cleaned up although the drink began to take it's toll on him towards the end of the set. It probably didn't help with a guy in the audience buying them all what looked like whisky and coke, about half way through the set.

'Omega Male' was the 1st new song from the latest album and was the second song in. It seemed to blend right in with the old songs that much that I didn't realise it was one of the new tunes, as it never stood out on the album. The new album though really is a pretty bad production along side 'Uppers and Downers'. Took me a lot of plays to get into it. But all the new songs that got an airing tonight sounded great and not out of place. 'Tattoos don't last forever' was dedicated to Danny Frye (I'm not to sure who he is myself) and Danny got a little upset with a guy at the back who seemed to be disrespectful. Rich Jones got Danny to laugh it off a bit though before ploughing into the song. The band seemed to pay as much attention to the banter between songs as they did to the actual playing of them. One quite funny moment came before playing 'Rock City'. If ya know this tune you will know it is one big chorus, with every other line a change. Anyhow one guy at the front offered to jump up and sing with the band but said he only knew the chorus which amused the band enormously. Anyhow the band were on for about an hour and did one encore, which Danny swapped bass with Tom Spencer for his guitar, to play a song I didn't recogonise and guessed it was a cover. A brilliant gig, which sent me home with 'Rock City' ringin' through my head. Look forward to them returning to Coventry, possibly with Plan A or even Ginger in Tow!!??!!?

by Andy Rothwell

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