Live Review : Ted Poley + Rob Wylde + Kim Jennett Band @ The Tivoli, Buckley on March 31st 2023

The crowd is a bit thin when Warrington lass Kim Jennett hits the stage, but she doesn’t let that bother her. Despite her tiny stature she can really belt out a tune. Not only that, she uses her body to illustrate the songs as well, making her point with full movement that verges on being theatre at times. She’s supported tonight by guitarist Tyler Kent who is set to be a member of the new Kim Jennett Band that she has just put together. Tyler is quieter, sitting calmly on his chair, smiling at Kim’s antics and letting his fingers do the talking on his fretboard. Together they play a couple of Kim’s own songs and a handful of covers, including Allannah Myles’s “Black Velvet”. Our Kim forgets some of the words, but has the personality and chutzpah to effortlessly recover things. That’s kind of what Kim is about, she certainly has a fab voice with both power and range but she also gives herself to the performance, stamping it with her humour and charm, and it’s a joy to watch.

Rob Wylde, of Midnite City and Tigertailz fame, is a little more dour, a little more serious. He’s on his own tonight and although he has the talent to pull it off things don’t start too well as he breaks a string during the first song! This kind of breaks the ice, the crowd warm to him and the set carries on with a different guitar and a slightly more cheerful aspect! Rob is a walking hair metal cliché with his big hair,, guyliner and tight ripped clothes, but luckily he has the talent to overcome expectations and tonight the cheese level is at a minimum. He rips through a set of mostly Midnite City songs, and while in places I miss the band harmonies I do enjoy hearing them stripped back and a little more plaintive like this. There’s plenty of crowd interaction, with clapping and arm-waving and even a brief episode of phones-in-the-air. It’s laid back and despite being a little same-y in places (because at the end of the day it’s just Rob and a guitar and there aren’t many different directions to take that in) it’s good.

Ted Poley is a bit of a legend, he’s the famous rockstar you’ve never heard of. He rose to fame in 1987 fronting 80’s hair metal band Danger Danger, and has been around on the rock scene pretty much continuously ever since. Sometimes he’s in bands (Tokyo Motor Fist is the most recent one I can think of) and sometimes he’s just billed as himself, but either way what Ted brings to the occasion is Party, with a capital P. Even tonight, joined on stage by guitarist Declan McKerr for an acoustic romp, the party atmos prevails. It’s the last night of the tour, Ted is going home soon, so as well as some luscious vocal performance we get balloons, hurrah! Proceedings start with a rousing cover of Cheap Trick’s ‘Hello There’, followed by Danger Danger’s ‘Monkey Business’. Even played on 2 acoustic guitars this gets the crowd bouncing, and it’s all uphill from there. Ted is a likeable character, he has humour and charm by the bucketload and we all warm to him quickly and carry on. Tonight he twinkles, literally. There’s a twinkle in his eye and his sequinned shoes are absolutely amazing! Ted is here to have fun with us, and that comes across loud and clear. Doesn’t matter if he’s crooning a ballad or rocking out to his signature song ‘Naughty Naughty’, either way he is enjoying himself and his enthusiasm is totally infectious. He closes the show by getting Rob Wylde back up on stage to power through a moving version of Def Leppard’s ‘Hysteria’ and despite him getting some of the words wrong it gives me goosebumps. Back in my motorcycling days we used to have a saying “it doesn’t have to be fast to be fun” and tonight that was Ted all over – he rocked out without rocking and took us all along for the ride. Afterwards he was, as always, out at the merch meeting people, hugging people, signing stuff and just basically being a wonderful human being. Can’t fault him!