Y & T
This San Francisco-based band formed in the mid-'70s as Yesterday & Today, but David Meniketti (vocals/lead guitar), Joey Alves (rhythm guitar), Phil Kennemore (bass/vocals) and Leonard Haze (drums) failed to make any real impact until they released EARTHSHAKER as Y&T. EARTHSHAKER was a classic hard rock record built on a blistering guitar barrage, Haze's thunderous rhythms and a superb collection of songs, catapulting the band into the public eye, but also proved to be something of an albatross around the collective Y&T neck. BLACK TIGER was excellent, but subsequent records failed to maintain the standards set on EARTHSHAKER. The OPEN FIRE live set stopped the rot, and DOWN FOR THE COUNT signalled a return to form, albeit in a more commercial direction. Summertime Girls was picked up by US radio, but a disenchanted Y&T split with both their record label and drummer, feeling that Haze's image left a lot to be desired. Jimmy DeGrasso made his drumming debut on CONTAGIOUS and Stef Burns replaced Alves for TEN, which were both credible hard rock albums, but the band's fortunes were waning and Y&T split in late 1990, with Burns moving on to Alice Cooper's band, DeGrasso joining White Lion and then Suicidal Tendencies, and Meniketti working with Peter Frampton. A brief Y&T reunion came to nothing.