On This Day 15/08/1980 Q-Tips

On this day, 15 August 1980 new wave soul band Q-Tips played Cardiff’s Casablanca Club.

First formed in 1979 from the remnants of the rock group Streetband, apart from the novelty song "Toast", a B-side made successful from heavy airplay by Capital Radio’s Kenny Everett, Streetband had failed to find any commercial success with their two albums London and Dilemma (both released in 1979).

Drummer Chalky and guitarist Roger Kelly departed, leaving the remaining trio of Paul Young on vocals, Mick Pearl on bass guitar, and guitarist John Gifford.

The ex-Streetbanders added Dave Lathwell on guitar and Baz Watts on drums. In addition, a four-piece brass section was created by Steve Farr (baritone saxophone), Richard Blanchchard (tenor saxophone), Oscar Stuart Blandamer (alto saxophone) and Tony Hughes (trumpet), and all hailed from the North London and Hertfordshire area. Organist Ian Kewley lived in Essex. Q-Tips' name derived from a well-known brand of cotton swab.

Q-Tips' first rehearsals took place in November 1979. Their first concert was on 18 November 1979 at the Queens Arms Hotel in Harrow. This was followed by another at the Horn of Plenty in St Albans – a regular gig for Streetband during 1978 – and a total of 16 in their first month of existence. Some personnel changes occurred during the first six months, with Blanchard and Lathwell leaving the band.

By 1 April 1980, the band had recorded two tracks, "SYSLJFM (The Letter Song)", and "Having a Party",both recorded at the Livingstone Studios in Barnet. Constant touring and concert appearances had built a strong fan base by mid 1981, when the small amount of soul music covers were outnumbered by the band's own tracks.

The professionalism of the band had attracted the attention of several record labels, with Mickie Most (RAK Records) confirming on BBC Radio 1's Round Table programme that Q-Tips "...are easily the best live band working at the moment". In August 1980, the British music magazine NME reported that Q-Tips had released their debut, self-titled album.

On This Day 01/08/1980 Ultravox

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On this day, 1 August 1980, new wave electronic pop band Ultravox played Cardiff’s Top Rank on the band’s Vienna UK tour.

Released in June 1980, the Vienna album produced the band's first UK Top 40 hit with "Sleepwalk" reaching No. 29, while the album itself initially peaked at No. 14.

A second single, "Passing Strangers", failed to reach the Top 40, only reaching No. 57, but the band achieved a substantial hit with the third single, the album's title track.

Accompanied by a highly distinctive video (inspired by Carol Reed's 1949 film The Third Man), the single became Ultravox's biggest ever hit, released in January 1981 and peaking at Number 2 (kept off the top spot by John Lennon's "Woman" and then Joe Dolce's "Shaddap You Face").

On the strength of the single, the album then re-entered the chart and reached No. 3 in early 1981. A fourth single from the album, "All Stood Still", peaked at No. 8. in 1981, and "Slow Motion" from Systems of Romance was also re-issued, reaching No. 33 the same year.

Ultravox were then revitalised by Midge Ure, who had joined the band as vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist. He had already achieved minor success with semi-glam outfit Slik and Glen Matlock's The Rich Kids, and in 1979, he was temporarily playing with hard rock band Thin Lizzy on their American tour, replacing Gary Moore.

Ure and Billy Currie had met while collaborating on Visage, a studio-based band fronted by New Romantic icon and nightclub impresario Steve Strange.

Setlist

Quiet Men

Passing Strangers

Face To Face

Mr X

Western Promise

Vienna

Slow Motion

Hiroshima Mon Amour

Private Lives

New Europeans

All Stood Still

Sleepwalk

Astradyne

Kings Lead Hat

On This Day 29/07/1986 Edwin Starr

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On this day, 29 July 1986, soul legend Edwin Starr played Cardiff’s Jacksons night club.

The biggest hit of Starr's career, which cemented his reputation, was the Vietnam War protest song "War" (1970). Starr's intense vocals transformed a Temptations album track into a number one chart success, which spent three weeks in the top position on the U.S. Billboard charts, an anthem for the antiwar movement and a cultural milestone that continues to resound in movie soundtracks and hip hop music samples. It sold over three million copies, and was awarded a gold disc."War" appeared on both Starr's War & Peace album and its follow-up, Involved, produced by Norman Whitfield. Involved also featured another song of similar construction titled "Stop the War Now", which was a minor hit in its own right. Music critic Robert Christgau called the latter album "Norman Whitfield's peak production". His backing singers during this time were Total Concept Unlimited, who later became Rose Royce.

Starr remained a hero on England's northern soul circuit and moved to England in 1983, continuing to live there for the remainder of his life. He based himself in the Midlands, living for many years at Pooley Hall at Polesworth, Warwickshire, before moving to Bramcote in Nottinghamshire.

Starr died on April 2, 2003, from a heart attack at his Nottinghamshire home. He was 61. He is buried at Wilford Hill Cemetery in Nottingham. He was survived by his long term partner Jean, and by his son and daughter from earlier relationships.

On This Day 03/05/1989 Inspiral Carpets

On this day, 3 June 1989, rock band Inspiral Carpets played Cardiff’s Radcliffe’s Club.

Part of the late-1980s/early-1990s Madchester movement. Formed in Oldham in 1983, the band's most successful lineup featured frontman Tom Hingley, drummer Craig Gill, guitarist Graham Lambert, bassist Martyn Walsh, and keyboardist Clint Boon.

Going by "The Furs", Lambert formed line-ups loosely with other various past band members from 1980 to 1983 until he and singer Stephen Holt met at The Moor End indie disco in Oldham in 1983. Holt sang on the first two independent singles. Holt departed the band before they signed with Mute Records. Inspiral Carpets are known for using organs and distorted guitars with influences from psychedelic rock.

Inspiral Carpets came to prominence along with bands such as the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays in the Madchester scene of the late 1980s. The band first appeared on a flexi-disc with "Garage Full of Flowers" that was given free with Manchester's Debris magazine in 1987. Their first proper release, the Cow cassette, soon followed. The 1988 Planecrash EP on the Playtime label received much airplay from Radio 1 DJ John Peel, who asked the band to record a session for his show. The band reworked their single "Find Out Why" as the theme song for the show 8:15 from Manchester.

As the band's popularity grew, Playtime's distributor Red Rhino Records went bankrupt, leading Inspiral Carpets to form their own label, Cow Records, in March 1989. The label's first release was the Trainsurfing EP. With half of the first album, Life, written, Holt and Swift departed and formed the Rainkings, so the band recruited Too Much Texas singer Tom Hingley and Martyn "Bungle" Walsh of The Next Step to replace them. Martyn Walsh became the band's 13th bass player.

After a handful of singles on their own label, with "Move" nearly reaching the UK top 40, the band signed a deal with Mute Records and soon experienced their first top-40 chart success in the UK with "This Is How It Feels." The single reached No. 14 on the singles chart, and the debut album Life reached No. 2 on the albums chart in 1990.

On This Day 28/05/1983 The Swinging Laurels

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On this day, 28 May 1983, Leicester ska/rock band The Swinging Laurels played Cardiff’s Nero’s Funktion Suite.

Formed in 1980 by ex-member of The Wendy Tunes, Gaz Birtles, and ex collaborator of Black Gorilla, John Barrow, both saxophonists. They released their first single as a duo in 1981 and then recruited synth and trumpet player Dean Sargent and keyboardist Mark O'Hara.

They released six singles with a sound based heavily on the saxes, till the end of the '80s and they guested in recordings of other acts like The Apollinaires, Fun Boy Three, Norman Beaton, Worldbackwards, Musical Youth, Splashdown and Team 23.

The first Swinging Laurels WEA release, RODEO, hit the streets in September and featured the distinctive percussive influence of SCRITTI POLITTI drummer TOM MORLEY, but despite Radio One airplay, was restricted to the lower reaches of the national chart. CULTURE CLUB producer Steve Levine lent his expertise to the second single Lonely Boy which originally featured a fine vocal contribution by BOY GEORGE but due to contractual objections by his record label Virgin Records was eventually released minus his efforts.

1983 saw the Swinging Laurels in their own right and as a special guests of CULTURE CLUB, at the request of BOY GEORGE who was a self-proclaimed fan. They were special guests on both of their sell-out UK tours in March and December. A Janice Long Radio One session was followed by a highly-successful Dutch festival tour where they supported NICK LOWE and OSIBISA as well as headlining dates.

This year also saw the band part company with WEA Records The Swinging Laurelsformed their own label identity, Happy Records based, at their Leicester studio Happy House.

On This Day 26/05/1989 Tim Finn

On this day, 26 May 1989, New Zealand singer, songwriter, musician, and composer Tim Finn played Cardiff University. He is best known as a founding member of Split Enz and occasional member of Crowded House.

Finn had just released his self titled third studio album. The reviewer in pan-European magazine Music & Media noted that the album "consists of 10 intelligent, well-crafted and introspective songs" and described Mitchell Froom's production as "pleasantly gritty and modest in a refined way".

The album yielded strong reviews and the New Zealand hit "Parihaka", based on a Māori village known for its campaign of passive resistance to European occupiers. Finn also created the song "Cane Toad Blues" which played during the credits for the documentary film "Cane Toads: An Unnatural History."

On His Day 24/05/1987 Tammy Wynette

On this day, 24 May 1987, American country music legend Tammy Wynette played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall. She was about to release her 27th album Higher Ground.

Wynette had a mezzo-soprano vocal range and was known for delivering singing performances with an emotional vulnerability that has been described as a "teardrop" vocal style. This delivery also helped her become billed as the "Heroine of Heartbreak".

Her original producer was the first to give Wynette the "teardrop" moniker. The Country Music Hall of Fame wrote, "Her gripping, teardrop-in-every-note vocal style seemed to weep with emotion, while she elaborated on the theme that suffering ennobles a woman."

Other publications described Wynette's emotional depth in other ways. Rolling Stone wrote, "Tammy could sustain power and complexity, whether whispering in your ear or shoving you up against a wall of sound."

The New York Times wrote, "When the songs moved toward honky-tonk or old-fashioned weepers, Ms. Wynette did more than navigate the melody dutifully; her voice showed the emotional depth that was smothered elsewhere." In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Wynette at number 127 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.

Wynette helped bring a female's perspective to country music. Her music spoke for rural and working-class women who previously lacked representation in the genre. Wynette's music also helped eliminate some of the male bias at country radio by expanding women into the record-buying public.

Along with Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton, Wynette elevated the popularity of female country artists. In total, Wynette had 39 singles reach the Billboard country chart while 20 topped the same chart. She has been said to have sold roughly 30 million records worldwide.

On This Day 18/05/1980 The Undertones

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On this day, 18 May 1980, Northern Irish punk band The Undertones played Cardiff’s Top Rank. Support was provided by The Moondogs.

The band had just released their second album Hypnotised, recorded at Wisseloord Studios in the Netherlands in December 1979, and at Eden Studios in London in January 1980. The album peaked at No 6 in the UK album charts.

The original release of Hypnotised included two singles: "My Perfect Cousin", which was released on 28 March 1980 and reached number 9 in the charts; and "Wednesday Week", released on 5 July 1980 and which charted at number 11 three weeks later.

The Undertones consisted of Feargal Sharkey (vocals), John O'Neill (rhythm guitar, vocals), Damian O'Neill (lead guitar, vocals), Michael Bradley (bass, vocals) and Billy Doherty (drums).

Much of the earlier Undertones material drew influence from punk rock and new wave; the Undertones also incorporated elements of rock, glam rock and post-punk into material released after 1979, before citing soul and Motown as the influence for the material released upon their final album.