On This Day 06/09/2007 Future Of The Left

On this day, 6 September 2007, alternative rock band Future of the Left played Cardiff’s Clwb Ifor Bach. The band were about to release their debut album Curses !

Future of the Left formed in mid-2005 after the bands Mclusky and Jarcrew both split up within two months of each other at the beginning of the year. The new group was formed by singer/guitarist Andy "Falco" Falkous and drummer Jack Egglestone, both previously of Mclusky, alongside singer/bassist Kelson Mathias and bassist Hywel Evans, both formerly of Jarcrew. Evans quickly moved on to start a math rock band, Truckers of Husk.

Future of the Left's first performances were secret gigs using aliases such as "Guerilla Press" and "Dead Redneck" to avoid the concert being attended by large numbers of expectant Mclusky and Jarcrew fans. Their very first show was at Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff on 2 July 2006, under the alias "the Mooks of Passim". The first official headline show (and the first show the band played under the name Future of the Left) was played in Camden Barfly to a capacity crowd on 1 September 2006.

In late 2006 the trio were signed to Too Pure, who had also signed Mclusky and when Too Pure disbanded the band transferred to 4AD.

Their debut album, Curses, was released on 24 September 2007 in the UK and 1 October in Japan. A surprise to some fans of Jarcrew and Mclusky was the band's occasional move towards songs with a synthesizer (a Roland Juno-60) in favour of Falco's guitar. On the whole, fans and critics responded to the change positively.

On This Day 27/08/1998 Lloyd Cole

On this day, 27 August 1998, singer, songwriter and musician Lloyd Cole played Cardiff’s Clwb Ifor Bach on his UK acoustic tour. He was lead vocalist of Lloyd Cole and the Commotions from 1984 to 1989.

The Commotions' debut studio album, Rattlesnakes (1984), contained literary and pop culture references to such figures as Arthur Lee, Norman Mailer, Grace Kelly, Eva Marie Saint, Simone de Beauvoir, Truman Capote and Joan Didion. The band produced two more studio albums, Easy Pieces (1985) and Mainstream (1987), before disbanding in 1989.

Songs by the band include "Perfect Skin", "Rattlesnakes", "Forest Fire", "Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken?", "Lost Weekend" and "Jennifer She Said". Cole subsequently relocated to New York City and recorded with various musicians, including Fred Maher, Robert Quine and Matthew Sweet.

Some of Cole's songs have been covered by other artists. "Rattlesnakes" has been covered by Tori Amos on her concept album Strange Little Girls (2001), while Sandie Shaw released a version of "(Are You) Ready to Be Heartbroken?" in 1986.

In 2006, Scottish indie pop band Camera Obscura released the song "Lloyd, I'm Ready to Be Heartbroken" as an answer song to Cole's 1984 hit "Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken?".

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 21/08/2007 Cold as Life

On this day, 21 August 2007, Cold as Life played Cardiff’s Clwb Ifor Bach.

Cold as Life is an American hardcore band based out of Detroit, Michigan, formed in 1988. Lyrical themes consisted of brutal depictions of the horrors of growing up and living in a city plagued with corruption, murder, drugs, depression and poverty, along with the tragedy of losing friends, family and bandmates to murder and drug abuse.

Their shows were frequently violent, involving vicious fights that often included stabbings and beatings with various weapons. However, Cold as Life has a large "family" based following. Stories of these shows would spread throughout the Midwest punk and hardcore communities, contributing to the band's notoriety. Cold as Life drew musical influence from such bands as Negative Approach, Sheer Terror, Discharge, 4 Skins, Cro-Mags, Black Sabbath, and Slayer.

In early 2007, a reunion tour was organized by former members but featured Enzo D and Jake Bulldog (of fellow Detroit band Dogz of War) on vocals and Guitar instead of co-founder Jeff Gunnells.

On June 4, 2013, Jeff Gunnells was sentenced to between 10 and 20 years in prison for armed robbery.

Cold as Life reformed once again in 2015 and have played sporadically since.

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 20/07/2010 The Xcerts

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On this day, 20 July 2010, Scottish alternative rock band The Xcerts, played Cardiff’s Clwb Ifor Bach.

The Xcerts were originally formed by 13-year-olds Murray Macleod and Jordan Smith after meeting in the headmasters room at Robert Gordon's College in Aberdeen. When school friend Ross McTaggart joined on drums, The Xcerts went on to record two EPs at the local recording studio Captain Tom's.

In order to progress, the band moved to Brighton, England in 2006, where Macleod went to college with future Architects vocalist, Sam Carter, and would later become roommates with Architects bassist Alex Dean.

Shortly afterwards, The Xcerts parted ways with their old drummer McTaggart. A replacement was found in Tom Heron, originally from Exeter, who was living in Brighton with a mutual friend and had also become close friends with Murray and Jordan. With the newly formed trio created, the band began writing the songs that would start to spread the word of The Xcerts.

The Xcerts debut album, In The Cold Wind We Smile, was released on 30 March 2009 through Xtra Mile. It was produced by Dave Eringa. On 1 August 2009 they played at the inaugural Hevy Music Festival held in Folkestone, UK.

In 2010 they completed another headline tour, supported The Get Up Kids and played many festivals notably playing the main stage at Rockness. They will also be embarking on a tour With Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, as well as a September tour supporting Futures.

On This Day 20/05/2015 Fireworks

On this day, 20 May 2015, American punk band Fireworks played Cardiff’s Clwb Ifor Bach on their Oh Common Life tour. Oh Common Life was the band’s third studio album.

After the release of their previous album, Gospel (2011), the band went on hiatus. During this hiatus the band wrote and demoed new material. In the summer of 2013 the band returned to the studio, with Brian McTernan producing. The band's next album was announced in January 2014 and was released a couple of months later through Triple Crown.

Prior to the album's release, "Glowing Crosses" and "Flies on Tape" were made available for streaming. Music videos were released for "Glowing Crosses", "Bed Sores", and "...Run, Brother, Run...", in March, August and October, respectively.

Setlist

Oh, Common Life

The Wild Bunch

Bed Sores

One More Creature Dizzy With Love

Geography, Vonnegut and Me

When We Stand on Each Other We Block Out the Sun

Glowing Crosses

The Back Window's Down

I Locked My Time Capsule

Arrows

Run, Brother, Run

Play "God Only Knows" at My Funeral

Woods

Detroit

On This Day 23/03/2010 This Is Hell

On this day, 23 March 2010, American hardcore punk band This Is Hell played Cardiff’s Clwb Ifor Bach.

This Is Hell formed in June 2004 when Long Island musicians and members of The Backup Plan, Scraps and Heart Attacks, and Subterfuge got together after their previous bands broke up.

The name of the band was originally the title of an Elvis Costello song. The band quickly released a four-song self titled demo EP which was later pressed onto vinyl via Boston label Run for Cover Records and in Europe via Broken Glasses Records. Pressings of the EP sold out quickly and was very well received. The demo gained enough popularity to later be reissued. In support of this demo, the band played over 200 live shows in one year.

After the release of their demo and in between touring, the band started working on their next release, a self titled EP. It was released on May 16, 2005, on State of Mind Records. Later that year, the band caught the attention of hardcore punk record label Trustkill Records.

The band signed to Trustkill shortly after that, and began to work on their debut album Sundowning to be released on their new label. In May 2006 the album was released and received a very warm reception. Larger magazines including Alternative Press, Metal Hammer, and Rock Sound started featuring the small-time Long Island band, creating a rise in popularity. Their slow rise to fame was also due to their non-stop touring.

This Is Hell mutually split with their label, Trustkill Records, and signed with Rise Records. With new recruits Andrew Jones (bass) and Benny Mead (drums) they released an EP through Think Fast! Records in 2009 called Warbirds. The EP featured covers and new songs, some of which would later appear on their third studio album Weight of the World, which was released on June 8, 2010, through Rise Records.

October 11, 2011, saw the release of This Is Hell's fourth full-length studio album, Black Mass.