On This Day 11/03/1963 Brenda Lee

On this day, 11 March 1963, American singer Brenda Lee played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre headlining a package that included Mike Berry, Sounds Incorporated, The Bachelors, Steve Perry, Tony Sheridan and Bob Bain.

Primarily performing rockabilly, pop, country, and Christmas music, she achieved her first Billboard hit at age 12 in 1957, and was given the nickname "Little Miss Dynamite". Some of Lee's most successful songs include "Sweet Nothin's", "I'm Sorry", "I Want to Be Wanted", "Speak to Me Pretty", "All Alone Am I", and "Losing You". Her festive song "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree", recorded in 1958, topped the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in 2023, making Lee the oldest artist ever to top the chart and breaking several chart records.

Having sold over 100 million records globally, Lee is one of the most successful American artists of the 20th century. Lee was the second woman ever to top the Billboard Hot 100 (after Connie Francis) when her song “I'm Sorry” reached number one in 1960. Her U.S. success in the 1960s earned her recognition as Billboard's Top Female Artist of the Decade and one of the four artists who charted the most singles, behind Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and Ray Charles. Her accolades include a Grammy Award, four NARM Awards, three NME Awards, and five Edison Awards. In 2023, she was named by Rolling Stone as one of the greatest singers of all time.

The Yardbirds - 24 Feb 1967

On this day, 24 February 1967, legendary band The Yardbirds played Sophia Gardens.

Formed in London in 1963, the band started the careers of three of rock's most famous guitarists: Eric Clapton (1963–1965), Jeff Beck (1965–1966) and Jimmy Page (1966–1968), all of whom ranked in the top five of Rolling Stone magazine's 2011 list of 100 greatest guitarists. The band's other members during 1963–1968 were vocalist/harmonica player Keith Relf, drummer Jim McCarty, rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja, and bassist Paul Samwell-Smith, with Dreja switching to bass when Samwell-Smith departed in 1966. The band had a string of hits in the mid-1960s, including "For Your Love", "Heart Full of Soul", "Shapes of Things" and "Over Under Sideways Down".

Originally a blues-based band noted for their signature "rave-up" instrumental breaks, the Yardbirds broadened their range into pop, pioneered psychedelic rock and early hard rock, and contributed to many electric guitar innovations of the mid-1960s. Some rock critics and historians also cite their influence on the later punk rock, progressive rock and heavy metal trends.

On This Day 19/10/1966 The Hollies

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On this day, 19 October 1966, Manchester rock/pop band The Hollies played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre. Also on their Babies tour bill were The Small Faces, Paul & Barry Ryan, Nashville Teens, Peter Jay & The New Jaywalkers, Robb Storme & The Whispers & Paul Jones.

One of the leading British groups of the 1960s and into the mid-1970s, they are known for their distinctive three-part vocal harmony style. Singer Allan Clarke and rhythm guitarist/singer Graham Nash founded the band as a Merseybeat-type group in Manchester, although some of the band members came from towns further north, in east Lancashire.

In October 1966, the group's fifth album, For Certain Because (UK No. 23), became their first album consisting entirely of original compositions by Clarke, Nash and Hicks.

Released in the US as Stop! Stop! Stop!, it reached No. 91 there and spawned a US release-only single, "Pay You Back with Interest", which was a modest hit, peaking at No. 28. Another track, "Tell Me to My Face", was a moderate hit by Mercury artist Keith, and was also covered a decade later by Dan Fogelberg and Tim Weisberg on their Twin Sons of Different Mothers album.

Meanwhile, the Hollies continued to release a steady stream of international hit singles: "Stop Stop Stop" (October 1966, UK No. 2, US No. 7) from For Certain Because, known for its distinctive banjo arrangement; "On a Carousel" (February 1967; UK No. 4, US No. 11, Australia No. 14[6]); "Carrie Anne" (May 1967, UK No. 3, US No. 9, Australia No. 7

On This Day 10/10/1966 Manfred Mann

On this day, 10 October 1966, rock band Manfred Mann played Cardiff’s Top Rank.

The band were about to release their third studio album As If, their first to feature new members Mike d'Abo and Klaus Voormann.

The twelve tracks on the record include the line-up's first single release, a cut-down version of Bob Dylan's "Just Like a Woman" that reached the UK top ten, and a short cool jazz version of "Autumn Leaves", reminiscent of the Modern Jazz Quartet with Mike Hugg's vibraphone and double bass from the group's former bassist Dave Richmond, sounding like an out-take from the group's instrumental releases: these two make weight for a fairly short collection of group compositions. As d'Abo's presence somehow sparked Mike Hugg into producing baroque pop miniatures, both contribute three songs: d'Abo's "Box Office Draw" and "Trouble and Tea" are well-crafted pop, while "As Long as I Have Lovin'" is a generic soul ballad.

Hugg's "Morning After the Party", also released as a "B" side and on the compilation album What a Mann, recalls the rowdy rhythm and blues of the group's past, while two of his three collaborations with Mann suggest something of the direction they would later take with Manfred Mann Chapter Three. Guitarist Tom McGuinness provides a range of textures, including his trademark National Steel Guitar and contributes sleeve notes and a gentle folk-ballad. The group continued to exploit studio multitracking: keyboardist Mann layering Mellotrons, bassist Voormann taking over from Mike Vickers on flutes.

On This Day 11/09/1964 The Rolling Stones

On this day, 11 September 1964, legendary rock band the Rolling Stones played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre. Also on the bill were, Inez and Charlie Foxx, Mike Berry & The Innocents, Simon Scott & The Le Roys, and The Mojos.

South Wales Argus

Tour set list

"Not Fade Away"

"I Just Want to Make Love to You"

"Walking the Dog"

"If You Need Me"

"Around and Around"

"I'm a King Bee"

"I'm Alright"

"It's All Over Now"

On This Day 23/08/1966 Crispian St. Peters

On this day, 22 August 1966, pop singer-songwriter Crispian St. Peters played Cardiff’s Top Rank as part of the Radio England Swinging 66 UK Tour.

The tour, that featured the Small Faces, Neil Christian, Dave Berry and Wayne Fontana, was heavily advertised on air and gigs proved reasonably successful in the south-east of the country, where Radio England could be heard. Unfortunately outside the station's transmission area, audiences were understandably sparse. The tour proved a financial disaster, losing over £17,000.

The station attempted to get some of this back by selling autographed copies of the left-over concert programmes.

While a member of Beat Formula Three in 1963, Crispian St. Peters was heard by David Nicholson, an EMI publicist who became his manager. Nicholson suggested he use a stage name, initially "Crispin Blacke" and subsequently Crispian St. Peters, then promoted his client as being nineteen years of age, shaving off five years from his actual age of 24.

In 1964, as a member of Peter & The Wolves, St. Peters made his first commercial recording. He was persuaded to turn solo by Nicholson and was signed to Decca Records in 1965. His first two singles on this record label, "No No No" and "At This Moment", proved unsuccessful on the charts. He made two television UK appearances in February of that year, featuring in the shows Scene at 6.30 and Ready Steady Go!

In 1966, St. Peters' career finally yielded a Top 10 hit in the UK Singles Chart, with "You Were on My Mind", a song written and first recorded in 1964 by the Canadian folk duo, Ian & Sylvia, and a hit in the United States for We Five in 1965. St. Peters' single eventually hit No. 2 in the UK and was then released in the US on the Philadelphia-based Jamie Records label. It did not chart in the US until a year after his fourth release, "The Pied Piper", became known as his signature song and a Top 10 hit in the United States and the UK. Although his next single, a version of Phil Ochs' song "Changes", also reached the charts in both the UK and US, it was much less successful.

After the success of "You Were on my Mind", St Peters gave an interview to the New Musical Express claiming that he was a better song-writer than the Beatles and that his performance on stage made Elvis Presley look like the Statue of Liberty. After just one hit single, he claimed he was going to be “bigger than Presley, was more talented than Sammy Davis Jr.”, “sexier than Dave Berry” and “more exciting than Tom Jones”. These comments did not go down well in the pop music press, who began to treat him as a conceited outcast. After his fourth single flopped, work and money dried up, and he became depressed. In 1970, he was dropped by Decca and admitted to hospital suffering from a nervous breakdown.

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 17/07/1968 The Easybeats

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On this day, 17 July 1968, Australian rock band The Easybeats, played Cardiff’s Sophia Gardens.

Formd in Sydney in late 1964, they are best known for their 1966 hit single "Friday on My Mind", which is regarded as the first Australian rock song to achieve international success; Rolling Stone described it as "the first international victory for Oz rock".

One of the most popular and successful bands in the country, they were one of the few Australian bands of their time to foreground their original material; their first album Easy (1965) was one of the earliest Australian rock albums featuring all original songs.

The five founding members, all migrants from Europe, met at the Villawood Migrant Hostel in Sydney in 1964. They rose to national prominence in 1965 with the song "She's So Fine", which reached number three in Australia.

Their concerts and public appearances were marked by an intense fanaticism frequently compared to Beatlemania; this phenomenon was subsequently dubbed "Easyfever". They relocated to the UK in 1966, where they recorded "Friday on My Mind".

Following its success, the band struggled to maintain international recognition. Compounded by financial and contractual issues, drug use and the increasing independence of guitarists and songwriters Harry Vanda and George Young, they returned to Australia in 1969 amid declining popularity back home and subsequently disbanded.