On This Day 26/08/1999 The Donnas

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On this day, 26 August 1999, American rock band The Donnas played Cardiff’s Clwb Ifor Bach.

Formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1993, the band consisted of Brett Anderson (lead vocals), Allison Robertson (guitar, backing vocals), Maya Ford (bass guitar, backing vocals) and Torry Castellano (drums, percussion, backing vocals).

Amy Cesari replaced Castellano, who left the band in 2009 due to tendonitis. They drew inspiration from the Ramones, the Runaways, Girlschool, AC/DC, Bachman–Turner Overdrive and Kiss.

Rolling Stone has stated that "the Donnas offer a guileless take on adolescent alienation; they traffic in kicks, not catharsis, fun rather than rage". MTV has stated that the band offers "a good old-fashioned rock & roll party".

All four founding band members were born in 1979. Lead vocalist Brett Anderson on May 30; guitarist Allison Robertson on August 26; bassist Maya Ford and drummer Torry Castellano, both on January 8. They all became friends by eighth grade and formed as a band in May 1993 to play for their school's "Day on the Green." One of two all-female bands in their town Palo Alto, California, they were relatively unknown until they were out of high school. They are all self-taught musicians and practiced in Castellano's garage nearly every day during their years at Palo Alto High School. They called themselves "Ragady Anne" in their early days and shortly thereafter changed their name to "The Electrocutes".

Towards the end of their high school days, while they were still known as the Electrocutes, they decided to create another band (with the same members) that would play softer tunes without distorting the metal queen image of the Electrocutes. To help their fans distinguish between the two bands, they all took matching "Donna" monikers, where all of their names were Donna and their last names were the first initial of their last name (Brett Anderson became Donna A, etc.), which they used only when performing as "The Donnas."

They worked with producer Darin Raffaelli for their first two albums, the first of which, simply called The Donnas, was released on Raffaelli's Super*teem! record label. (It was later released again on Lookout! Records.) They took a week off their senior year of high school to tour Japan as The Donnas, and were promoted and organized by Pinky Aoki [ja] of The Phantom Gift [ja].

Afterwards, they signed with Lookout! Records. As the band grew, they were urged to sign with a major label company. In December 2001, they signed with Atlantic Records.

On This Day 13/08/1998 The Supernaturals

On this day, 13 August 1998, Glaswegian Indie rock band The Supernaturals, played Cardiff’s Clwb Ifor Bach.

Fronted by singer-songwriter James McColl, they signed to Parlophone in 1996, and had a string of singles which were taken from their three albums and four EPs. Other members included Mark Guthrie, Derek McManus, Gavin Crawford and Ken McAlpine.

The band's best known songs ("Smile" and "I Wasn't Built To Get Up") were featured prominently in a series of television advertisements. In total they scored five Top 40 entries in the UK Singles Chart.

After spending early 1998 recording with Pete Smith, they released their second album "A Tune a Day" (named after the music instruction books) in August 1998 and three singles were released from the album, "I wasn't Built to Get Up", "Sheffield Song" and "Everest" .

This was supported by festival appearances and several headlining tours and a 30 date UK Arena and European tour with Robbie Williams and the Divine Comedy in early 1999.

The band were nominated for an Ivor Novello Award in 1998 for best contemporary song for "Smile" along with The Verve's "The Drugs Don't Work" and Radiohead's "No Surprises". The band won a Tartan Clef award in 1997 as the best new Scottish band.

On This Day 05/08/1990 Big Country

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On this day, 5 August 1990, Scottish rock band Big Country played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall.

Formed in Dunfermline, Fife, in 1981 by lead singer and guitarist Stuart Adamson (formerly of the Skids) alongside guitarist Bruce Watson, bassist Tony Butler and drummer Mark Brzezicki.

Rising to prominence in the early to mid‑1980s, they pioneered a distinctive guitar-driven sound that fused alternative rock, new wave and Celtic folk traditions designed to mimic bagpipes and fiddle through innovative use of effects such as the MXR pitch transposer and e‑bow.

Their debut album The Crossing (1983) reached No. 3 in the UK and delivered their only U.S. Top 40 hit, “In a Big Country”. Follow‑ups Steeltown (1984) and The Seer (1986) also landed in the UK top ten, with The Seer producing the Irish No. 1 hit “Look Away” and featuring a collaboration with Kate Bush on its title track.

After Adamson’s death by suicide in December 2001, the classic lineup disbanded. Surviving members reunited in 2007 for anniversary tours, later joined by singer Mike Peters and changing bassists, culminating in the 2013 album The Journey, their first new studio release in 14 years.

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 11/06/1992 Dire Straits

On this day, 11 June 1992, rock band Dire Straits played Cardiff Arms Park on their, On Every Street World Tour.
Support was provided by Was(Not Was) and Lyle Lovett.

The tour was supporting the band’s sixth and final album, On Every Street. It lasted from 23 August 1991 to 9 October 1992, and included 229 shows in 19 countries throughout Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand. The world tour sold 7.1 million tickets.

The tour lineup included Mark Knopfler (guitar, vocals), John Illsley (bass), Guy Fletcher (keyboards), Alan Clark (keyboards), Chris White (saxophone, flute), Paul Franklin (pedal steel guitar), Danny Cummings (percussion), Phil Palmer (guitar), and Chris Whitten (drums).

"The last tour was utter misery," said manager Ed Bicknell. "Whatever the zeitgeist was that we had been part of, it had passed." "Personal relationships were in trouble and it put a terrible strain on everybody, emotionally and physically," agreed Illsley. "We were changed by it."

Setlist
1. Calling Elvis
2. Walk of Life
3. Heavy Fuel
4. Romeo and Juliet
5. The Bug
6. Private Investigations
7. Sultans of Swing
8. Your Latest Trick
9. On Every Street
10. Two Young Lovers
11. Tunnel of Love
Encore #1
12. Money for Nothing
13. Brothers in Arms
14. Solid Rock
15. Wild Theme

On This Day 09/06/1995 Pusherman

On this day, 9 June 1995, indie rock band Pusherman played Cardiff University.

Formed in 1994, the band's lineup consisted of Andy Frank (vocals), Meredith "Yank" Reid (vocals, harmonica), Bo Ellery (bass), Martin Hoyland (guitar), Roger Swift (dorest wash board), Tony Antoniou (guitar) and Harry Harrison (drums).

Pusherman were signed to Oasis manager Marcus Russell's Ignition Records label, who released their first single entitled "First Time" in November 1995. Another single, "Whole", a 12" vinyl single, was voted single of the week by the NME, and though it was not available as a commercial release, it appeared on the NME 1996 cassette compilation Here Comes the Summer..., and Volume magazine's Volume Sixteen: Copulation Explosion! compilation.

The group's debut album, the Owen Morris–produced Floored, was released in September 1996. In November of that year, the song "Sold" from the album appeared on the CMJ New Music Monthly compilation, while another single "The Aim Indeed" was included in the UK indie compilation Indie Top 20 Volume 23.

Partly due to its members' heroin use, Pusherman disbanded in 1997. At the time of their breakup, they were being filmed by British filmmaker and music video director Mark Szaszy and photographer Corinne Day for a planned rockumentary". Afterwards singer Andy Frank moved to Los Angeles to form the band Jact along with Ted Hutt. Pusherman's other singer, Yank Reid, died in 2000.[4] Bass player Bo Ellery played on It's Jo and Danny's 2005 album Lank Haired Girl to Bearded Boy. Guitarist Martin Hoyland is a member of 9Bach.

Andy Frank died in 2008 at his home in Los Angeles, aged 42, and was buried in Portsmouth, England.

On This Day 27/05/1999 Kenny Rogers

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On this day, 27 May 1999, American country music legend Kenny Rogers, played Cardiff International Arena.

He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013. Rogers was particularly popular with country audiences, but also charted more than 120 hit singles across various genres, topping the country and pop album charts for more than 200 individual weeks in the United States alone. He sold more than 100 million records worldwide during his lifetime, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. His fame and career spanned multiple genres - jazz, folk, pop, rock, and country. He remade his career and was one of the most successful cross-over artists of all time.

Review - South Wales Echo

Review - Cynon Valley Leader

In 1999, Rogers scored with the single "The Greatest", a song about life from a child's point of view (looked at through a baseball game). The song reached the top 40 of Billboard's Country Singles chart and was a Country Music Television number-one video. It was on Rogers's album She Rides Wild Horses the following year (itself a top-10 success). Also in 1999, Rogers produced a song, "We've Got It All", specifically for the series finale of the ABC show Home Improvement.