On this day, 9 October 1976, blues, rock and pop band Climax Blues Band played Cardiff University.
The band had just found chart success with the song Couldn’t Get It Right taken from their eighth studio album Gold Plated.
The song was originally released by RCA Records in early 1976. Although the song did not make the UK Singles Chart until October 1976 it did manage to crack the top ten, entering at #47 and departing from #18 in early December 1976, having been at positions #10 and #11 the weeks before. It reached #8 in Canada and #29 in New Zealand.
Later on that year, the song was picked up by Sire Records and the following year it made #3 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Later that year, the song was ranked #32 on Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1977.
The band were formed in Stafford, Staffordshire, England in 1968 by vocalist, saxophonist, guitarist and harmonica player Colin Cooper (1939–2008), guitarist, bassist and vocalist Pete Haycock (1951–2013), guitarist Derek Holt (b. 1949), bassist and keyboardist Richard Jones (b. 1949), drummer George Newsome (b. 1947) and keyboardist Arthur Wood (1929–2005).[2]
Holt tells of their formation:
"When I left school, I went to work in a local grinding wheel factory as a laboratory assistant and attending college for a degree in Chemistry. Colin Cooper also worked there as a metallurgist, so that's how we met. He had already discovered a young Peter Haycock and had wanted to put a blues band together. He was already gigging with a jazz band on clarinet. We started doing local gigs with local drummer George Newsome and a keyboard player named Arthur Wood, who at the time was a school teacher. Our bass player then was Richard Jones, who also knew Pete from grammar school. I was rhythm guitarist. While playing local gigs we were "discovered" by a scout for the new EMI label Parlophone, who was on the look out for a young blues/rock outfit for their label. We signed up for two albums with them, though we still had day jobs, so had to take time off work to go and record in London. Our first album was recorded over two days in the infamous Abbey Road Studios in 1968. We were in Studio 1, The Beatles were in Studio 2 and Pink Floyd in Studio 3! I was just 19 years of age.”
