Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Phil Kennemore (1953 -2011)



Phil Kennemore, Y&T's original bassist, passed away from lung cancer on January 7, 2011. Phil was one of the premiere bass players, singers, and lyricists in hard rock music. He will live on through the songs of Y&T - FOREVER!

(click on image to enlarge)

"You want to keep holding on
But it's time for letting go
Time to be moving on
Time to let it be"

Sail On By

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Timeline


-->1973 Yesterday & Today (Dave Meniketti, Phil Kennemore, & Leonard Haze) wins a local battle of the bands in California. The runner-up was a band named Crutch with Joey Alves on guitar. Joey quits Crutch after the contest and joins Yesterday & Today. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
1974-1975
Yesterday & Today opens shows for Journey (who share the same management company, Spreadeagle Management) and the Doobie Brothers among others in San Francisco. The band begins promoting their own shows.
1976
Yesterday & Today releases their first album on London Records in the winter of '76. The album is self-titled. The band gets more high profile opening gigs playing shows with Kiss, Boston, Montrose, AC/DC, Queen, Blue Oyster Cult, and Aerosmith.
1978
The second album on London, Struck Down, is released.
1979
Phil Kennemore and Leonard Haze take part in Mike Varney's "rock opera" called Rock Justice. A record and video were released to accompany the stage performance.
1981
Yesterday & Today shortens their name to Y&T and signs to A&M Records. Earthshaker is released and would eventually be included in Kerrang!'s (a UK heavy metal magazine) top 100 metal albums of all time.
1982
Y&T wins a Bay Area Music Award (Bammie) in the "Best Bay Area Club Band" category. This was a write-in category. Dave Meniketti is nominated for "Best Guitarist" along with Neal Schon (Journey), Craig Chaquico (Starship), and Carlos Santana.
The band goes to England in May to record their second album for A&M, Black Tiger, and goes on a 10-day tour. Y&T breaks an attendance record at the Marquee Club previously held by Jimi Hendrix.
The band then goes on a 10-day tour of Japan, their first tour in the land of the rising sun. This tour inspired the song "Midnight In Tokyo" found on the Mean Streak album.
In the fall of '82, Y&T opens for AC/DC on the UK leg of their tour which consists of 19 dates in England, Scotland, and Ireland. The UK tour is so successful that AC/DC asks Y&T to open more dates in Germany, France, Belgium, Holland, and Switzerland.
1983
Dave Meniketti wins a Bammie for Best Guitarist. Neal Schon (Journey) and Craig Chaquico (Starship) are also nominated.
The band records their third album for A&M (fifth overall) in May & June at Fantasy Studios. Mean Streak is released on August 2. The album charts in the top 5 in Kerrang! and Melody Maker magazines.
Sammy Hagar takes Y&T on the road, and they play their first show with the "Red Rocker" on August 17. Y&T make their TV debut on TV20's Dance Party.
The Mean Streak World Tour began on September 29 in Sacramento, and the BBC's Rock Hour Network recorded and aired the October 1 show. Y&T hooked up with Dio to tour the East Coast.
NBC tapes a Y&T concert which took place during the week of October 17, and it aired on November 19. Y&T and the band Rock Goddess tour the UK in the month of November, and Y&T hooks up with Ozzy in December.
Leonard Haze is nominated for a Bammie but comes in second to Prairie Prince (The Tubes, Journey). Y&T, with the song "Mean Streak," contributes to their first of many K-tel compilations.
1984
Y&T records their fourth album for A&M (sixth album overall). In Rock We Trust is released on July 30, and "Don't Stop Runnin'" is the first single. The album enters the Billboard charts at #98 and was #1 in Sounds, Kerrang!, and Music Week magazines.
On August 13, Y&T, represented by Leonard Haze, made its first appearance on Rockline. Y&T was a hit at Castle Donnington in England this year. A special 12" EP and patch were issued to commemorate the day.
Y&T kicks off their high-profile tour with Twisted Sister in the US which was broadcast over the radio. This tour also marked the first appearance of the infamous In Rock We Trust robot affectionately named "Rock."
MTV tapes the September 25 show at the San Francisco Civic and airs the concert on December 15. The footage is released on home video and is titled Live At The San Francisco Civic.
Y&T hooks up with Dokken for more touring. K-tel records releases another compilation album with a Y&T song. Y&T also lands a spot on a Rush tour.
K-tel strikes yet again with Y&T's third appearance on one of their compilations.
1985
Y&T's fifth album for A&M (seventh overall) is a live album entitled Open Fire. The studio version of "Summertime Girls" is on the album, and it becomes Y&T's highest charting single. Y&T hits the road again.
Down For The Count, Y&T's sixth and last album for A&M (eighth overall) is released on October 21. The "Summertime Girls" video sees heavy rotation on MTV and the song almost becomes Y&T's first top-40 hit. The first single from Down For The Count is "All American Boy.' Since "Summertime Girls" was released on Open Fire first, it does not count as a single for Down For The Count.
Y&T embarks on a tour with Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, and Ratt. Y&T plays the Day On The Green concert with the Scorpions, Ratt, Metallica, Yngwie Malmsteen and Victory. MTV interviews Y&T for video award spots.
1986
The second single from Down For The Count, "Face Like An Angel," is released. The initial pressing of Down For The Count has the captions underneath pictures of Leonard and Joey reversed.
The Y&T Fan club offers the first two Yesterday & Today releases on one cassette. Y&T headlines a mini-tour in Japan and opens for Aerosmith in the US. Y&T has an entry in the book, San Francisco Rock (page 222).
A Y&T song, "Wild If I Wanna," is featured in the movie Out Of Bounds, but no soundtrack was released. The benefit album Hear N' Aid is released with Dave Meniketti featured on lead vocals. The studio version of "Go For The Throat" is also included on the album. (the live version can be found on Open Fire).
Y&T moves from A&M to Geffen and begins working on songs for their ninth album. Also big news in 1986 is the departure of Leonard Haze from Y&T. Jimmy DeGrasso, Haze's replacement, played in Mama's Boys and Ozzy Osborne's band before joining Y&T.
1987-1988
Work on the new Y&T album begins in January. Contagious is the name of the album and first single. The album was released on June 8. The video for "Contagious" saw medium rotation on MTV. Y&T tours.
1989
Y&T began writing songs and performing them live to get audience feedback in order to select the best songs for the new album. Y&T has another lineup change as Joey Alves is replaced on rhythm guitar by Stef Burns.
1990
Y&T releases their tenth album, appropriately entitled Ten. The first single, "Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark," charts on Billboard's "Mainstream Rock" chart and the video saw limited airplay on MTV. Steve Smith (Journey) is hired to lay down drum tracks on most of the album.
Dave mentions in interviews at the time that if Y&T didn't break any new commercial ground with Ten, they would call it quits and says in a 1995 interview that the band had a feeling that the end might have been near while in the studio.
Dave recounts in a RockLine interview that the song "Hard Times" was one of the last songs written for Ten and that the lyrics foreshadow the band's breakup.
Y&T plays their farewell show on New Year's Eve. The show is recorded and Metal Blade Records releases it on CD as Yesterday & Today: Live. A&M releases a compilation album of studio recordings called Best Of: 81-85.Y&T disbands.
1991-1994
Y&T plays a limited number of shows for fun before considering a reunion to record a new album.
1995
Y&T regroups to write and record Musically Incorrect. The album is released in Japan first and the band has a very successful tour there. The album was released in the UK three months later and Kerrang! gave it five stars. The ablum was eventually released in the US but sales were slow due to lack of promotion by the record label (Fuel).
1996
Work began in April on new songs. The official Y&T mailing list (not the fan club ran by Lauretta & Robin) held a contest to name the new album. Steve Porter from Bement, IL came up with Endangered Species, the winning entry.
1997
The latest CD, Endangered Species, is released in Japan. Dave does press in Japan but Y&T did not tour in Japan to support the ablum. Endangered Species is also released in Europe later in the year.
1997-1998
Y&T plays several sold-out shows in California. Endangered Species is released in the US in May of 1998.
1998
Dave Meniketti completes his solo album which was released in May in Japan and September in the US. Dave plays solo dates in California. Stef Burns also completes a solo album, Swamp Tea, released in Japan only (also available on his website).
Musically Incorrect gets a re-release on Fuel 2000 (formerly known just as Fuel) with better distribution. There is talk of an "unplugged" Y&T album.
1998-1999
Y&T calls it quits for a second time. Jimmy DeGrasso joins Megadeth as their permanent drummer. Dave gets ready for some 1999 solo concert dates. No new word on any Y&T releases, including the proposed acoustic album.
2000
Dave promotes his solo album, which does very well in Japan, while Stef joins Huey Lewis & The News.
2001
A new Y&T CD, The Ultimate Collection, is released on Hip-O Records and features the first career Y&T retrospective on one disc. It is remastered, with exclusive photos and liner notes.
Y&T gets back together in the fall of 2001 to play some gigs in California. Original drummer, Leonard Haze, is asked to rejoin the band for the reunion gigs. The band is invited to appear live on The Bone, a rock radio station in San Francisco, and performs several songs acoustic.
2002
Dave releases his second solo album, Meniketti. Y&T plays shows in California as well as in Virginia, there first shows on the East Coast in over a decade. There is talk of a live album from the current line-up, as well as a rarities CD.
2003
Due to scheduling conflicts, Stef Burns is not able to commit to doing shows with Y&T, so the band hires John Nymann to fill the rhythm guitar slot. John toured with Y&T in the 80's as a keyboardist and backing vocalist.
The band releases a CD of rarities called Unearthed, Volume 1 on their own Meanstreak Music label. The CD contains original recordings of unreleased songs from their Yesterday & Today era up to the 90's era line-up which included Stef Burns and Jimmy DeGrasso. Fans finally got their hands on legendary rarities like "Wild If I Wanna" and "Rockazoid Rollaroid" as well as songs left off of Ten.
Y&T plays concert dates in California and in music festivals across the US and Europe. They are also asked to tour the UK with Whitesnake on their Monsers of Rock tour.
2004
The band works on the second installment of the Unearthed series. Both Y&T and the Meniketti band play shows throughout the year.
2005
The second in a series of CD's featuring rare and previously unavailable Y&T songs, Unearthed, Volume 2 is released.
Hip-O Select re-releases the classic live album Open Fire with 2 bonus tracks, "Summertime Girls (Live)" and "Black Tiger (Live)." Dave Meniketti reports on the forum on his site that the band has negotiated with A&M/Universal for them to re-release Y&T's back catalog!
Black Tiger and Mean Streak are remastered and reissued with one bonus track on each CD.
2006
Earthshaker is remastered and reissued. In Rock We Trust is remastered and reissued with one bonus track.
2007
Y&T releases their first DVD, a live concert called Y&T Live: One Hot Night. The DVD also came with an audio CD of the concert.
2008
Musically Incorrect and Endangered Species are reissued as Incorrect Species, a 2 CD set.