On This Day 25/07/1996 Melissa Etheridge

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On this day. 25 July 1996, American singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge played Cardiff’s International Arena as support to Bryan Adams on her Your Little Secret World Tour.

Your Little Secret is the fifth album by singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge, released in 1995. It was her most successful album on the Billboard 200, where it peaked at number six.

The album also contained three singles, "Your Little Secret", "I Want to Come Over", and "Nowhere to Go". "I Want to Come Over" went on to reach No. 22 on the Billboard Hot 100, and "Nowhere to Go" peaked at No. 40.

As of 2010, the album has sold 1,348,000 copies in the United States alone, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Etheridge is known for music with a mixture of "confessional lyrics, pop-based folk-rock, and raspy, smoky vocals." She has been a gay and lesbian activist since her public coming out in January 1993.

She has received fifteen Grammy Award nominations throughout her career, winning two, in 1993 and 1995. In 2007, she won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "I Need to Wake Up" from the film An Inconvenient Truth.

In September 2011, Etheridge received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Tour Setlist

I Really Like You

If I Wanted To

I Want to Come Over

An Unusual Kiss

Come to My Window

Nowhere to Go

Silent Legacy

I Could Have Been You

Must Be Crazy for Me

I'm the Only One

Your Little Secret

Bring Me Some Water

Like the Way I Do

On This Day 24/07/1999 Simply Red

On this day, 24 July 1999, soul/pop band Simply Red played a sell-out gig at Cardiff Castle.

Band leader, singer and songwriter Mick Hucknall was the only original member left by the time Simply Red initially disbanded in 2010. They have released thirteen studio albums, from Picture Book (1985) through Time (2023), all of which have peaked within the top ten on the UK Albums Chart; with the albums A New Flame (1989), Stars (1991), Life (1995) and Blue (1998), along with their Greatest Hits (1996) album, reaching number one. Their 1991 album Stars is one of the best-selling albums in the United Kingdom.

1998 saw the release of the cover-heavy Blue, which produced four UK top 40 singles, including the top 10 hits "Say You Love Me" and "The Air That I Breathe". The follow-up album, 1999's Love and the Russian Winter, was a relative disappointment, spawning two minor hits that failed to break the top 10.

Simply Red were dropped from their label, East West Records in April 2000. Mick Hucknall subsequently set up the website Simplyred.com to handle releases of new recordings; the new label/website venture proved to be quite successful, many of the band's Simplyred.com releases selling and charting almost as well as their earlier recordings.

Setlist

Mellow My Mind

(Neil Young cover)

Never Never Love

Man Made the Gun

It's Only Love Doing Its Thing

(Barry White cover)

A New Flame

Thrill Me

For Your Babies

If You Don't Know Me by Now

(Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes cover)

So Beautiful

Thank You

Look Into Your Eyes

Night Nurse

(Gregory Isaacs cover)

Stars

Come to My Aid

I Won't Feel Bad

Infidelity

The Right Thing

Money's Too Tight (To Mention)

(The Valentine Brothers cover)

Holding Back the Years

(The Frantic Elevators cover)

Something Got Me Started

Fairground

On This Day 23/07/1990 Aztec Camera

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On this day, 23 July 1990, Scottish band Aztec Camera played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall. The band or more notably leader and songwriter Roddy Frame had just released his fourth album Stray.

Stray was praised for its diversity of songs and styles, and for the assured nature of Roddy Frame's lyrics (which had been considered the weak-point of some of his earlier material). Its understated production was also received positively, particularly coming after the group's previous album Love, which sold well in the United Kingdom but had been criticised by some for being too sanitised and glossy.

Review - South Wales Echo

Stray peaked at No. 22 in the UK Albums Chart. The single "Good Morning Britain", a collaboration with Mick Jones, reached No. 19 in the UK Singles Chart.

Stray Tour Band (1990)

• Roddy Frame – guitar, vocals

• Eddie Kulak – keyboards

• Gary Sanford – guitars

• Clare Kenny – bass guitars

• Frank Tontoh – drums

On This Day 22/07/2008 Michael Buble

On this day, 22 July 2008, Canadian singer Michael Buble played Cardiff International Arena on his Call Me Irresponsible Tour.

Regarded as a pop icon, he is often credited for helping to renew public interest and appreciation for traditional pop standards and the Great American Songbook. Bublé has sold over 75 million records worldwide, and won numerous awards, including five Grammy Awards and fifteen Juno Awards.

Bublé grew up listening to his grandfather's collection of jazz records and credits his grandfather in encouraging his love for jazz music. "My grandfather was really my best friend growing up. He was the one who opened me up to a whole world of music that seemed to have been passed over by my generation.

“Although I like rock and roll and modern music, the first time my granddad played me the Mills Brothers, something magical happened. The lyrics were so romantic, so real, the way a song should be for me. It was like seeing my future flash before me. I wanted to be a singer and I knew that this was the music that I wanted to sing.”

In 2003, Bublé's first album reached the top ten in Canada and the United Kingdom. He found a worldwide audience with his 2005 album It's Time and his 2007 album Call Me Irresponsible – which reached number one on the Canadian Albums Chart, the UK Albums Chart, the US Billboard 200, the Australian ARIA Albums Chart and several European charts.

On This Day 21/07/2002 Bryan Adams

On this day, 21 July 2002, Canadian rocker Bryan Adams played Cardiff’s Cooper’s Field on his Here I Am tour.

Adams co-wrote and performed the songs for the DreamWorks animated film Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron in 2002. The songs were included on the film's soundtrack. The most successful single from the soundtrack was "Here I Am", a British top five and German Top 20 hit. Adams received his fourth Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Song from a Motion Picture from the song.

On This Day 20/07/2010 The Xcerts

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On this day, 20 July 2010, Scottish alternative rock band The Xcerts, played Cardiff’s Clwb Ifor Bach.

The Xcerts were originally formed by 13-year-olds Murray Macleod and Jordan Smith after meeting in the headmasters room at Robert Gordon's College in Aberdeen. When school friend Ross McTaggart joined on drums, The Xcerts went on to record two EPs at the local recording studio Captain Tom's.

In order to progress, the band moved to Brighton, England in 2006, where Macleod went to college with future Architects vocalist, Sam Carter, and would later become roommates with Architects bassist Alex Dean.

Shortly afterwards, The Xcerts parted ways with their old drummer McTaggart. A replacement was found in Tom Heron, originally from Exeter, who was living in Brighton with a mutual friend and had also become close friends with Murray and Jordan. With the newly formed trio created, the band began writing the songs that would start to spread the word of The Xcerts.

The Xcerts debut album, In The Cold Wind We Smile, was released on 30 March 2009 through Xtra Mile. It was produced by Dave Eringa. On 1 August 2009 they played at the inaugural Hevy Music Festival held in Folkestone, UK.

In 2010 they completed another headline tour, supported The Get Up Kids and played many festivals notably playing the main stage at Rockness. They will also be embarking on a tour With Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, as well as a September tour supporting Futures.

On This Day 19/07/1968 Tim Hardin

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On this day, 19 July 1968, American folk music and blues singer-songwriter and guitarist Tim Hardin played Cardiff’s Sophia Gardens.

Hardin was admired for his singing voice, described by a Los Angeles Times reviewer as "a voice which quavers between the tugs of the blues and the tender side of joy. He can sing nasty, but his forte is gentle songs whose case allows him to slip and slide through a rainbow of emotions." However, Hardin said in another interview: "I think of myself more as a singer than a songwriter and always did. It happened to be that I wrote songs. I’m a jazz singer, really, writing in a different vocabulary mode but still with a jazz feel. I don’t ever sing one song the same way. I’m an improvisational singer and player.”

He recorded "Black Sheep Boy" in 1966, a song about his drug use and the alienation from his family. Bobby Darin, Ronnie Hawkins, Bill Staines, Joel Grey, Scott Walker, and Don McLean recorded cover versions of the song.

In 1967, Verve released Tim Hardin 2, which contained one of Hardin's most famous songs, "If I Were a Carpenter". That same year, Atco, a subsidiary of Atlantic Records, released an album of earlier material called This Is Tim Hardin, featuring covers of "The House of the Rising Sun", Fred Neil's "Blues on the Ceiling" and Willie Dixon's "Hoochie Coochie Man" as well as the original songs "Fast Freight" and "Can't Slow Down". The album's liner notes state that Hardin recorded the songs in 1963–1964, well before the release of Tim Hardin 1.

By 1967, after critical acclaim for Hardin's first album and the release of This Is Tim Hardin, a wide variety of artists were covering his songs and he was in demand to tour Europe and the United States. However, the quality of his work was in decline partly because of "his own combativeness in the studio, his addiction to heroin, his drinking problems and his frustration with his lack of commercial success". He began performing poorly and missing shows, reputedly falling asleep on stage at London's Royal Albert Hall in 1968. At the time, he was viewed as enigmatic, with one journalist stating that while "his position as one of the best songwriters of his generation is unquestioned ... [he] ... courted the scene in the most fumbling manner imaginable". The same writer noted Hardin's "uninspired stage presence" and seemingly ambivalent relationship with his audience, as he often ignored them, just singing "at times badly, at times beautifully ... somehow always fascinating". The tour was cut short after Hardin contracted pleurisy.

On This Day 18/07/2004 Rammstein

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On this day, 18 July 2005, German heavy rockers Rammstein played Cardiff’s International Arena on their Reise Reise Tour. Support was provided by Devil Sold His Soul.,

It was on this tour that the band was faced with several lawsuits resulting from severe fire breathing accidents involving audience members.

Reise, Reise is the band’s fourth studio album reaching no 37 in the UK album charts.

Formed in Berlin in 1994. The band's lineup—consisting of lead vocalist Till Lindemann, lead guitarist Richard Kruspe, rhythm guitarist Paul Landers, bassist Oliver Riedel, drummer Christoph Schneider, and keyboardist Christian "Flake" Lorenz—has remained unchanged throughout their history, along with their approach to songwriting, which consists of Lindemann writing and singing the lyrics over instrumental pieces the rest of the band have completed beforehand.

Prior to their formation, some members were associated with the punk rock acts Feeling B and First Arsch.

Setlist

Reise, Reise

Links 2-3-4

Keine Lust

Feuer frei!

Asche zu Asche

Morgenstern

Mein Teil

Stein um Stein

Los

Du riechst so gut

Benzin

Du hast

Sehnsucht

Amerika

Encore:

Rammstein

Sonne

Ich will

Encore 2:

Ohne dich

Stripped

(Depeche Mode cover)