On This Day 10/09/1976 Queen

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On this day 10 September 1976, legendary British rock band Queen played Cardiff Castle. Also on the bill was Cardiff’s Andy Fairweather-Low, Frankie Miller's Full House and Manfred Mann.

Richie Blackmore & Rainbow were originally part of the package but refused to play Cardiff Castle because they couldn't get onstage their 35-foot high artificial rainbow which they regarded as an "essential part of their act". Probably they weren't allowed to put it up due to upstaging Queen.

Roger Taylor wrote about the show in the autumn '76 fan club magazine, describing the weather as "virtually a monsoon." He adds, "The sight of the rain pouring down through the spotlights on everybody, and of Freddie splashing his way through pools of water at the front of the stage will remain indelibly printed on our memories forever. The fact that people stayed on and enjoyed themselves right to the end made it quite a moving occasion for us. In fact, I was so overcome I just had to wreck me drum kit at the end, which reduced 'Crystal' my roadie to floods of tears rivalling the rain (it was a brand new kit too!). Anyway if you were there thanks for being our bravest audience ever and I hope the pneumonia cleared up."

This is assumingly the final performance of Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon.

In his Queen Live book, Queen archivist Greg Brooks alleges there is a bootleg of this show called "Queen At The Castle," but no such release ever occurred. There are no known recordings of this show.

Setlist

A Day At the Races Intro

Bohemian Rhapsody

(Rock Section)

Ogre Battle

Sweet Lady

White Queen (As It Began)

Flick of the Wrist

You're My Best Friend

Bohemian Rhapsody

Killer Queen

The March of the Black Queen

Bohemian Rhapsody

(Reprise)

Bring Back That Leroy Brown

Brighton Rock

Son and Daughter

'39

You Take My Breath Away

The Prophet's Song

Stone Cold Crazy

Doing All Right

Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon

Tie Your Mother Down

Keep Yourself Alive

Liar

In the Lap of the Gods... Revisited

Encore:

Now I'm Here

Big Spender

(Cy Coleman cover)

Jailhouse Rock

(Elvis Presley cover)

God Save the Queen

([traditional] cover)

On This Day 13/02/1970 Deep Purple

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On this day, 13 February 1970, heavy rock band Deep Purple played Cardiff University as part of their European Tour.

The Deep Purple European Tour was a year-long successful concert tour lasting from July 1969 until June 1970. The band played mostly United Kingdom shows, also covering West Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium. It was the first tour to feature the classic Deep Purple line-up: Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord and Ian Paice. It is considered to be the pre-tour for the In Rock album, as the band mostly played songs from the upcoming album.

In 1969, cofounders Ritchie Blackmore and Jon Lord decided to replace vocalist Rod Evans with Ian Gillan. Gillan declined to join Purple without his former bandmate Roger Glover. Lord and Blackmore accepted and, in 1969, Gillan and Glover, replaced Evans and bassist Nick Simper. This new line-up, known as MKII, immediately went on tour throughout Europe and the United Kingdom.

"I remember back in 1969 when Roger and I did our first show with Purple at the Speakeasy," recalled Gillan. "There were only twelve people there; well, twenty if you counted Keith Moon. But I looked at Roger and said, 'Oh man, this is it.' It was the kind of band we had both been dreaming of."