On This Day 04/11/1972 The Kinks

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On this day, 4 October 1972, legendary London band The Kinks played Cardiff’s Top Rank.

The band had just recently released their eleventh album Everybody’s in Show-biz, a double album, the first disc features studio recordings, while the second disc documents a two-night Carnegie Hall stand.

Everybody's in Show-Biz is often seen by fans as a transition album for the Kinks, marking the change in Ray Davies' songwriting style toward more theatrical, campy and vaudevillian work, as evidenced by the rock-opera concept albums that followed it.

This album marks Davies' explorations of the trials of rock-star life and the monotony of touring, themes that would reappear in future releases like The Kinks Present A Soap Opera and the 1987 live album Live: The Road.

On This Day 03/10/1977 Boomtown Rats

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On this day, 3 September 1977, Irish punk rockers the Boomtown Rats played Cardiff University.

Originally formed in Dublin in 1975. Between 1977 and 1985, they had a series of Irish and UK hits including "Like Clockwork", "Rat Trap", "I Don't Like Mondays" and "Banana Republic".

The original line-up comprised six musicians; five from Dún Laoghaire in County Dublin; Gerry Cott (rhythm guitar), Simon Crowe (drums), Johnnie Fingers (keyboards), Bob Geldof (vocals) and Garry Roberts (lead guitar), plus Fingers' cousin Pete Briquette (bass).

The Boomtown Rats broke up in 1986, but reformed in 2013, without Fingers or Cott. Garry Roberts died in 2022. The band's fame and notability have been overshadowed by the charity work of frontman Bob Geldof.

Initially known as The Nightlife Thugs, the group changed their name to The Boomtown Rats, which Geldof had taken from Woody Guthrie's autobiography Bound for Glory.

In the summer of 1976, the group played their first UK gig before moving to London where they signed with Ensign Records later that year. Their first single, "Lookin' After No. 1", released in August 1977 after a year of touring, including a support slot with Tom Petty. It reached the Top 40 of the UK Singles Chart at No. 11.

Their first album The Boomtown Rats was released the following month and included another single, "Mary of the 4th Form" reached No. 15 in December. Music journalist Martin C. Strong commented, "Geldof's moody charisma helped to give the band a distinct identity".

On This Day 11/09/1975 Wings

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On this day, 11 September 1975, Paul McCartney’s Wings played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre.

Former Beatle Paul McCartney and his band Wings (consisting of his wife Linda, Denny Laine, Jimmy McCulloch and Joe English, together with a brass section led by Howie Casey) performed the third of 66 shows of the Wings Over the World tour at the Capitol Theatre in Cardiff Wales, following concerts at Southampton and Bristol.

The Wings Over the World tour was a series of concerts in 1975 and 1976 by the British–American rock band Wings performed in Britain, Australia, Europe, the United States and Canada. The North American leg constituted band leader Paul McCartney's first live performances there since the Beatles' final tour, in 1966, and the only time Wings would perform live in the US and Canada.

The world tour was well-attended and critically acclaimed, and resulted in a triple live album, Wings over America, released in December 1976. In addition, the tour was documented in the television film Wings Over the World (1979) and a cinema release, Rockshow (1980).

BAND Interview - https://youtu.be/oW8K_dn4AN4

Setlist:

1. Venus and Mars

2. Rock Show

3. Jet

4. Let Me Roll It

5. Spirits of Ancient Egypt

6. Little Woman Love

7. C Moon

8. Maybe I'm Amazed

   (Paul McCartney song)

9. Lady Madonna

   (The Beatles cover)

10. The Long and Winding Road

    (The Beatles cover)

11. Medicine Jar

12. Soily

13. Picasso's Last Words (Drink to Me)

14. Richard Cory

    (Simon & Garfunkel cover)

15. Bluebird

16. I've Just Seen a Face

    (The Beatles cover)

17. Blackbird

    (The Beatles cover)

18. Yesterday

    (The Beatles cover)

19. You Gave Me the Answer

20. Magneto and Titanium Man

21. Go Now

    (Bessie Banks cover)

22. Junior's Farm

23. Letting Go

24. Live and Let Die

25. Call Me Back Again

26. My Love

27. Listen to What the Man Said

28. Band on the Run

29. Hi, Hi, Hi

On This Day 06/05/1978 Magazine

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On this day, 6 May 1978, rock band Magazine played Cardiff University.

Formed in 1977 in Manchester in England by singer Howard Devoto and guitarist John McGeoch.

After leaving the punk group Buzzcocks in early 1977, Devoto decided to create a more progressive and less "traditional" rock band.

The original lineup of Magazine was composed by Devoto, McGeoch, Barry Adamson on bass, Dave Formula on Keyboards and Martin Jackson on drums.

Their debut album Real Life (1978) was critically acclaimed and was one of the first post-punk albums. After releasing two other albums Secondhand Daylight and The Correct Use of Soap, McGeoch left the band in 1980 to join Siouxsie and the Banshees.

Magazine released another studio album and disbanded in 1981.

In early 1978, the band released their first single, "Shot by Both Sides", a song Magazine recorded as a quartet. It featured a guitar-bass-drums sound similar to punk rock.

Shortly after the single's release, Dave Formula, who had played with a briefly successful 1960s rock band from Manchester called St. Louis Union, joined as keyboardist. "Shot by Both Sides" used a chord progression suggested by Pete Shelley, which was also used in the Buzzcocks track "Lipstick".

The Magazine single just missed the UK Top 40. The band, with Formula on keyboards, made its first major TV appearance on Top of the Pops in February 1978, performing the single.

Following a British tour to promote their debut album Real Life (which made the UK Top 30), Jackson left Magazine in late July. He was replaced briefly by Paul Spencer, who performed with the band for gigs across Europe and some television appearances, including The Old Grey Whistle Test, where they played "Definitive Gaze".

On This Day 01/03/1979 The Skids

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On this day, 1 March 1979, Scottish punks The Skids played Cardiff’s Grannie’s Club. The previous night the band had played their first ever Welsh gig at Newport’s Stowaway Club.

Formed in Dunfermline in 1977 by Stuart Adamson (guitar, keyboards, percussion and backing vocals), William Simpson (bass guitar and backing vocals), Thomas Kellichan (drums) and Richard Jobson (vocals, guitar and keyboards).

The singles "Sweet Suburbia" and "The Saints Are Coming" both made commercial inroads, before "Into the Valley" reached the Top 10 in the UK Singles Chart in early 1979. The band had just released their debut studio album, Scared to Dance, the month before.

Scared to Dance has been well received by critics. Ira Robbins of Trouser Press called the album "excellent [...] Using loud guitar and semi-martial drumming for its basis, Jobson's hearty singing sounds like an 18th century general leading his merry troops down from the hills into glorious battle."

The song "The Saints Are Coming" was later covered by Green Day and U2 and released as a charity single, reaching #1 in several countries.

"Into the Valley" became popular as adopted and sung by fans of Dunfermline Athletic F.C., the band's local football team, as well as Charlton Athletic F.C. in England whose ground is known as The Valley.

On This Day, 27/02/1979 Bill Nelson's Red Noise

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On this day, 27 February 1979, rock band Bill Nelson's Red Noise played Cardiff University.

The band had just released the first and only album Sound On Sound, after which Nelson continued as a solo artist.

The band was Bill Nelson's umbrella term for what effectively became a British new wave band formed by himself (lead vocals, guitar), his brother Ian (saxophone), Andy Clark (keyboards) and Rick Ford (bass). Dave Mattacks and Steve Peer (drums) both had brief stints in the band.

Nelson formed Red Noise after dissolving Be-Bop Deluxe,while metamorphosing from blues, progressive and glam rock to more new wave and electronic sounds following the last Be-Bop Deluxe album Drastic Plastic, released early in 1978.

EMI's Harvest Records subsidiary, to whom Be-Bop had been contracted, insisted on his name being added – hence Bill Nelson's Red Noise.

On This Day 25/02/1970 Incredible String Band

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On this day, 25 February 1970, psychedelic folk band the Incredible String Band played Sophia Gardens Pavilion.

formed by Clive Palmer, Robin Williamson and Mike Heron in Edinburgh in 1966.

The band built a considerable following, especially in the British counterculture, notably with their albums The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion, The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter, and Wee Tam and the Big Huge. They became pioneers in psychedelic folk and, through integrating a wide variety of traditional music forms and instruments, in the development of world music.

Following Palmer's early departure, Williamson and Heron performed as a duo, later augmented by other musicians. The band split up in 1974.

During 1969/70, the group lived communally at a farmhouse near Newport, in Pembrokeshire, Wales, where they developed ideas for mixed media experiments with Malcolm Le Maistre and other members of David Medalla's Exploding Galaxy troupe and the Leonard Halliwell Quartet.

There, a film was made about the ISB, Be Glad For the Song Has No Ending. Originally planned for BBC TV's arts programme Omnibus, it featured documentary footage and a fantasy sequence, 'The Pirate and the Crystal Ball', illustrating their attempt at an idyllic communal lifestyle. It made little impact at the time, but reissues on video and DVD have contributed to the recent revival of interest in the band.

On This Day 18/02/1977 Procul Harum

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On this day, 18 February 1977, rock band Procul Harum played Cardiff University.

Formed in 1967. Their best-known recording is the 1967 hit single "A Whiter Shade of Pale", one of the few singles to have sold over 10 million copies.

Although noted for their baroque and classical influence, Procol Harum's music is described as psychedelic rock and proto-prog with hints of the blues, R&B, and soul.

Guy Stevens their manager, named the band after a Burmese cat, which had been bred by Eleonore Vogt-Chapman and belonged to Liz Coombes. The cat's "cat fancy" name was Procul Harun, Procul being the breeder's prefix.

In the absence of a definitive origin, the band's name has attracted various interpretations, being said to be (incorrect) Latin for "beyond these things"; the correct Latin would be procul hīs.

Band member Keith Reid describes how the name came about:

It's the name of a cat, a Siamese cat. It's the pedigree name, and it belonged to a friend of ours, just somebody that we used to hang out with when we were forming the band. One day, somebody pulled out the cat's birth certificate and said 'Have a look at this', and the name of the cat was Procol Harum. And somebody else, in fact a chap called Guy Stevens who was quite instrumental in Gary [Brooker, the singer and pianist] and myself getting together in the first place, said, 'Oh, you must call the group Procol Harum'. And we just accepted that. We never even questioned it, never even thought if it was a good name, we just went ahead with that suggestion.

Once we put the record out, people started to say, 'Oh, it's Latin, and it means 'beyond these things'. But in fact, we had spelled it incorrectly. It should have been P-R-U-C-U-L, I think, or P-R-U-C-O-L H-A-R-U-M. I believe that's right anyway. If we'd spelled it correctly; it would have meant beyond these things. But it seemed quite apt. That was it really. It was the suggestion of a friend and we just stuck with it.

Tour Setlist

Something Magic

Conquistador

Beyond the Pale

Grand Hotel

Strangers in Space

The Mark of the Claw

Nothing but the Truth

The Worm and the Tree

Pandora's Box

The Unquiet Zone

A Salty Dog

Wizard Man

This Old Dog

Willie and the Hand Jive

(Johnny Otis cover)

Not Fade Away

(The Crickets cover) (GB on guitar)

Sea of Heartbreak

(Don Gibson cover)

A Whiter Shade of Pale