Devil Gate Drive – Suzi Quatro

The first album that I bought with my own money was Slade’s Old New Borrowed and Blue. If my memory serves me right the second might have been a Suzi Quatro album.

Whether that’s true or not there’s no doubting that Devil Gate Drive was one of the earliest rock songs that had a profound impact on young Andrew.

Listening to it now it holds up pretty well.

“Hey, ya’ll wanna go down to Devil Gate Drive”

“Yeah”
“Well come on”

Before the drums have even started on this song a bold declaration has been made.

Suzi is the leader of this gang and she’s going to lead us to this dark and mysterious place that an impressionable 12 year old in Melbourne Australia could not even imagine going. We’re not sure what we’re going to find at Devil Gate Drive but sure as hell it’s going to be more exciting than anything to be found in a suburban bedroom.

By the end of the song there’s plenty of whopping and hollering and you just know that a good time has been had and you feel pretty cool to have been invited. You’re not sure what exactly happened in that forbidden location and in fact there’s nothing in the lyric to suggest that anything actually happened at all! But you had been invited, you were one of the gang and you managed to get through the experience without making a fool of yourself.

You belonged.

Devil Gate Drive was perhaps surprisingly built around a honky tonk piano and a tribal beat with the guitars actually playing a supporting role. It’s got a great chorus, a fist pumping anthemic feel and its sounds like a party on the wrong sound of town.

Try resisting that when your a 12 year old boy from Glenhuntly.

Suzi Q Back In Australia

You would think that after 23 tours Suzi Quatro would have played to just about everyone that knew her in Australia but  it seems that there’s still plenty of people wanting to hear her run through those hits one more time.

And what a run of hits they were. The legendary rocker became an international superstar and icon in the seventies as she dominated the charts with Can the Can, Devil Gate Drive, 48 Crash, Daytona Demon, Too Big, The Wild One, Tear Me Apart, Your Mama Wont Like Me and  the countrified pop of Stumblin In.

She has toured the world many times, appeared in 13 episodes of ”Happy Days’ as Leather Tuscadero and been a featured guest on many high rating television series over the years. She even made a special appearance on the popular British sitcom ‘Absolutely Fabulous’

Suzi also hosts her own radio show on BBC2 ‘Wake up little Suzi’ where she interviews many of her famous friends and is now into her eleventh year.

She is also recording a new album with Mike Chapman who co-wrote most of her hits. Mike is taking apparently this Suzi album back to basics rock.

When she last toured Australia in 2007 she had just released her autobiography ‘Unzipped‘. Unzipped tells her story of life behind the scenes and presents the many sides of Suzi. It makes for a genuinely interesting read.

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 11 – Bendigo, Schweppes Stadium

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 12 – Melbourne, Palais Theatre

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 14 – Geelong, The Arena

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 16 – Newcastle, Civic Theatre

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 18 – Tweed Heads, Twin Towns

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 19 – Tweed Heads, Twin Towns

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 20 – Toowoomba, Empire Theatre

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 22 – Perth, Challenge Stadium

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 23 – Adelaide, Thebarton Theatre

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 25 – Sydney, Enmore Theatre

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 26 – Newcastle, Royal Theatre