On This Day 02/05/1992 Everly Brothers

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On this day, 02/05/1992, legendary singing duo the Everly Brothers played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall.

They began writing and recording their own music in 1956, and their first hit song came in 1957, with "Bye Bye Love", written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant. The song hit No. 1 in the spring of 1957, and additional hits would follow through 1958, many of them written by the Bryants, including "Wake Up Little Susie", "All I Have to Do Is Dream", and "Problems".

In 1960, they signed with Warner Bros. Records and recorded "Cathy's Clown", written by the brothers themselves, which was their biggest selling single. The brothers enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserve in 1961, and their output dropped off, though additional hit singles continued through 1962, with "That's Old Fashioned (That's the Way Love Should Be)" being their last top-10 hit.

The group was highly influential on the music of the generation that followed it. Many of the top acts of the 1960s were heavily influenced by the close-harmony singing and acoustic guitar playing of the Everly Brothers, including the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Bee Gees, and Simon & Garfunkel.

In 2015, Rolling Stone ranked the Everly Brothers No. 1 on its list of the 20 Greatest Duos of All Time. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of the inaugural class of 1986, and into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001. Don was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2019, earning the organization's first Iconic Riff Award for his distinctive rhythm guitar intro to the Everlys' massive 1957 hit "Wake Up Little Susie".

Review - South Wales Echo - Dan O’Neill

On This Day 26/04/1994 Tori Amos

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On this day, 26 April 1994, American singer-songwriter and pianist Tori Amos played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall on her Under The Pink tour.

She had recently released her second studio album Under The Pink with the album debuted atop the UK Albums Chart on the back of the hit single "Cornflake Girl", and peaked at number 12 in the US.

The singer-songwriter continued to offer piano-driven rock songs dealing with religion, gender, and sexuality. In addition to featuring more cryptic lyrics and experimental song structures, Amos invited in reggae influences on the single "Cornflake Girl", prepared piano on "Bells for Her" by John Philip Shenale, and Debussy-inspired piano lines on "Yes, Anastasia".

Amos performed the Under the Pink tour from February through November 1994, encompassing many of the same stops as on her previous world tour. A limited edition release of the album commemorating the Australian tour included a second disc entitled More Pink, a collection of rare B-sides like "Little Drummer Boy" and a cover version of Joni Mitchell's "A Case of You", was issued in November 1994. During this period, she also contributed the song "Butterfly" to the soundtrack for the 1994 movie Higher Learning, as well as a cover of the R.E.M. song "Losing My Religion".

The original track listing included the B-side "Honey", which was left off the album at the last minute. Amos has since voiced great regret for this:

"There were certain songs that were supposed to be on the record that got kicked off. 'Honey' was supposed to be on the record and, in retrospect, I wish it had been. I kicked it off for 'The Wrong Band'. Under the Pink wept when 'Honey' wasn't on, and she still is angry with me about it."

The album was recorded in Taos, New Mexico in a hacienda. The album artwork features several Native American and New Mexican references in the photography. The album is also notable as the last Amos album to feature the production of Eric Rosse as they split that year.

Setlist

Precious Things
Pretty Good Year
Crucify
Leather
Icicle
God
Silent All These Years
The Waitress
Happy Phantom
Bells for Her
Me and a Gun
Baker Baker

Encore 1:
Cornflake Girl
A Case of You

Encore 2:
Past the Mission
Smells Like Teen Spirit

Encore 3:
Mother

On This Day 21/04/1989 Miles Davis

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On this day, 21 April 1989, American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer Miles Davis played Cardiff St David’s Hall.

Miles Davis is considered one of the most innovative, influential, and respected figures in the history of music. The Guardian described him as "a pioneer of 20th-century music, leading many of the key developments in the world of jazz." He has been called "one of the great innovators in jazz", and had the titles Prince of Darkness and the Picasso of Jazz bestowed upon him. The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll said, "Miles Davis played a crucial and inevitably controversial role in every major development in jazz since the mid-'40s, and no other jazz musician has had so profound an effect on rock.

Review by Steve Duffy - BBC News - 21 April 2016

It was winter in late 1988 and a fax arrived in my newspaper office in Cardiff. Miles Davis would be playing at St David's Hall.

What, Miles Davis? In Cardiff? Now jazz musicians of any ilk, especially undeniable legends, were not exactly queuing up at the Severn bridge tolls at the best of times.

But in the last two years of his life, he took to the road for a handful of UK shows beyond his near-annual London appearance.

He returned to Manchester Apollo for two nights for the first time since a Free Trade Hall gig in 1960. And then there would be two festival appearances - at Birmingham NEC and for Glasgow in its year as city of culture, a return after 17 years.

The Cardiff show in April 1989 was predictably a sell-out. I had invested a sizeable whack of my junior reporter's disposable salary on a ticket - £15. I didn't dare ask for a review ticket. After all, how do you review Miles Davis? I wanted to enjoy myself.

And then I got into a slight disagreement with the guy who got to do the review who insisted he would be disappointed if Davis didn't play Kind Of Blue, his 1959 epoch-making jazz classic. "But he hasn't played it for 30 years," I said. "That's the point of Miles Davis".

That point was, he did not look back. Unfortunately, Davis's music of the late 1980s - textural funky undertones to sparse melodies, mostly muted trumpet and twists on modern pop standards from the likes of Scritti Politti and Cyndi Lauper - has been overlooked somewhat. Many don't go beyond his critically-lauded, admittedly sublime 1950s and 1960s output.

None of that mattered to the lucky folks of Cardiff and Manchester 27 years ago this week. Now, if you wanted banter with the audience and high fives with the front row, then a Miles Davis concert was not the thing. He was more likely to have his back to the stalls. We should be thankful camera phones had not been invented.

Davis cut quite a small figure and walked off stage after a couple of songs before wandering back on a little while later.

There was an aura though, still some magic and the audience reacted quite wildly before the city of Cardiff, barring rare exceptions, could return to its sleepy default position as far as jazz giants are concerned.

The review, incidentally, was headlined "Off-form Miles is unexciting."

"He has the supreme and essential virtue of pleasing no-one but himself," my colleague wrote. I had to plead journalistic differences.

But what was it like being on stage with him?

Keyboard player John Beasley recalls: "It was my first tour with the band, so I was on cloud nine and I was learning from him like crazy.

"We rehearsed for two weeks in New York before so I'd started to get to know everybody."

He remembers the Cardiff concert.

"My family originally came from Wales so I remember the strange accent! We stayed over, it was a hotel not downtown but in a newer area. My wife was just about to have a baby and I hadn't realised they had Toys R Us in the UK too.

"Miles was on the bus with the rest of us - I was shocked, I thought he'd be flying to gigs or in a limo but he was hanging out with the guys. He could be funny. But it wasn't quite like being with your buddies because he was still Miles Davis."

He had been hired after Davis's nephew Vincent Wilburn, a drummer who had been watching Beasley's band play their weekly club set, suggested he record a cassette.

"He liked what we did and said he'd get a tape to Miles. I decided not to think about it but four months later in Florida my wife said, 'Miles Davis called'. Every musician has a joke about when Miles called but he answered when I called the number back."

Fellow keyboard player on the tour Kei Akagi said: "That was one of my first tours with Miles, and I was very green.

"I was trying very hard to find my place musically within such an incredible band. Miles could at times be a thoroughly intimidating and harsh leader, but he was also a very kind and warm person. He gave me a lot of words of encouragement."

Akagi said his concept of playing jazz piano had been formed by a succession of Davis musicians, from Red Garland to Keith Jarrett.

"To suddenly find myself being in Miles' band and occupying a position of such heavy historical import was very scary at first, and an awesome responsibility. It was humbling, to say the least."

Beasley said Davis would give little notes the next day after concerts.

"He'd call you in individually or the group into his dressing room and say what he liked or what he didn't like."

Akagi said: "He didn't tell me a lot about how to play. He could be rather verbally cryptic. But, what remains with me to this day is when he said 'I don't care what you play as long as you mean it'."

One thing which stuck with Beasley was a lesson on the art of leaving space - and when not to play.

"Early on, Miles came over and grabbed my left hand and put it behind my back. Piano players tend to play a phrase and use the left hand to fill in."

Akagi, still playing with his own trio but also a professor of music at the University of California in Irvine, remembers being part of an almost "tribal" tradition in the band.

"It was a curious tension. I think Miles gave us tremendous latitude to express ourselves, but there were definitely some firm boundaries that defined the 'Miles Davis sound'.

Beasley added: "At times he'd sit at his own keyboard - and play these little riffs, and I'd get to accompany him and he'd look over at me playing from over the top of his sunglasses. Sometimes he'd play something at me on his trumpet."

Setlist

Perfect Way

(Scritti Politti cover)

Star People

The Senate / Me & U

(Foley cover)

Jilli

Tutu

Human Nature

(Michael Jackson cover)

Wrinkle

Mr. Pastorius

Hannibal

Time After Time

(Cyndi Lauper cover)

On This Day 17/04/2002 The Dubliners

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On this day, 17 April 2002, legendary Irish folk group The Dubliners played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall on their 40th Anniversary tour.

Founded in Dublin in 1962 as The Ronnie Drew Ballad Group, named after its founding member; they subsequently renamed themselves The Dubliners. The line-up saw many changes in personnel over their fifty-year career, but the group's success was centred on lead singers Luke Kelly and Ronnie Drew. The band garnered international success with their lively Irish folk songs, traditional street ballads and instrumentals.

The Dubliners were instrumental in popularising Irish folk music in Europe, though they did not quite attain the popularity of The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem in the United States. They influenced many generations of Irish bands, and their legacy can to this day be heard in the music of artists such as The Pogues, Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly.

Much adored in their native country, covers of Irish ballads by Ronnie Drew and Luke Kelly tend to be regarded as definitive versions. One of the most influential Irish acts of the 20th century, they celebrated 50 years together in 2012, making them Ireland's longest-surviving musical act. Also in 2012, the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards bestowed them with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

The Dubliners announced their retirement in the autumn of 2012, after 50 years of performing, following the death of the last living original member Barney McKenna. However, some members of the group continued touring under the name of "The Dublin Legends", and as of 2021, Sean Cannon is the only remaining member of the Dubliners in that group, following the retirement of Patsy Watchorn in 2014 and the death of Eamonn Campbell in 2017.

On This Day 16/04/2006 Chris Rea

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On this day, 16 April 2006, rock and blues singer/ songwriter Chris Rea played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall on his Blue Guitars tour.

Known for his distinctive voice and his slide guitar playing, Rea has recorded twenty five solo albums, two of which topped the UK Albums Chart, The Road to Hell in 1989 and its successor, Auberge, in 1991. He had already become "a major European star by the time he finally cracked the UK Top 10" with the single "The Road to Hell (Part 2)".

Over the course of his long career, Rea's work has at times been informed by his struggles with serious health issues. His many hit songs include "I Can Hear Your Heartbeat", "Stainsby Girls", "Josephine", "On the Beach", "Let's Dance", "Driving Home for Christmas", "Working on It", "Tell Me There's a Heaven", "Auberge" and "Julia". He also recorded a duet with Elton John, "If You Were Me". Rea was nominated three times for the Brit Award for Best British Male Artist: in 1988, 1989 and 1990.

In 2003, Rea released Blue Street (Five Guitars) and Hofner Blue Notes, and The Blue Jukebox the following year. 2005 saw the release of Blue Guitars, a box set of 11 CDs containing 137 blues-inspired tracks with Rea's paintings as album covers, which is a once in a lifetime ambitious project about the history of blues music. Rea said, "I was never a rock star or pop star and all the illness has been my chance to do what I'd always wanted to do with music [...] the best change for my music has been concentrating on stuff which really interests me".

On This Day 14/04/2008 Jethro Tull

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On this day, 14 April 2008, Prog rock giants Jethro Tull played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall on their 40th Anniversary Tour.

Initially playing blues rock and jazz fusion, the band soon incorporated elements of English folk music, hard rock and classical music, forging a signature progressive rock sound. The group's lead vocalist, bandleader, founder, principal composer and only constant member is Ian Anderson, who also plays flute and acoustic guitar.

The group has featured a succession of musicians throughout the decades, including significant contributors such as guitarists Mick Abrahams and Martin Barre (with Barre being the longest-serving member besides Anderson); bassists Glenn Cornick, Jeffrey Hammond, John Glascock, Dave Pegg and Jonathan Noyce; drummers Clive Bunker, Barrie "Barriemore" Barlow and Doane Perry; and keyboardists John Evan, Dee Palmer, Peter-John Vettese and Andrew Giddings.

The band ceased studio recording activity in the 2000s, but continued to tour until splitting in 2011. Following the band's split, Anderson and Barre continued to record and tour as solo artists, with Anderson's band billed variously as both "Jethro Tull" and Ian Anderson" solo.

Anderson said in 2014 that Jethro Tull had come "more or less to an end". In 2017, however, Anderson revived the Jethro Tull name and released new studio albums in the 2020s. The current group includes musicians who were part of Jethro Tull during the last years of its initial run, as well as newer musicians associated with Anderson's solo band, without Barre's involvement.

Jethro Tull have sold an estimated 60 million albums worldwide, with 11 gold and 5 platinum albums. They have been described by Rolling Stone as "one of the most commercially successful and eccentric progressive rock bands"

On This Day 23/03/1987 The Cult

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On this day, 23 March 1987, rock band The Cult played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall on their Electric tour.

Formed in Bradford in 1983. Before settling on their current name in January 1984, the band performed under the name Death Cult, which was an evolution of the name of lead vocalist Ian Astbury's previous band Southern Death Cult.

They gained a dedicated following in the United Kingdom in the mid-1980s as a post-punk and gothic rock band, with singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary", before breaking into the mainstream in the United States in the late 1980s establishing themselves as a hard rock band with singles such as "Love Removal Machine".

Since its initial formation in 1983, the band have had various line-ups; the longest-serving members are Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy, who are also the band's two main songwriters.

The band's third studio album, Electric (1987), launched them to new heights of success, also peaking at No. 4 in the UK and charting highly in other territories, and spawned the hit singles "Love Removal Machine", "Lil' Devil" and "Wild Flower".

On that album, the Cult supplemented their post-punk sound with hard rock; the polish on this new sound was facilitated by producer Rick Rubin. After moving to Los Angeles, where the band has been based for the remainder of their career,

On This Day 20/03/2014 Rebecca Ferguson

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On this day, 20 March 2014, soul singer Rebecca Ferguson played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall on her Freedom tour.

In 2010, Ferguson finished in second place in the seventh series of The X Factor. She later released her debut album titled Heaven in December 2011. The album peaked at number 3 on the UK Albums Chart. Since then, Ferguson has released 4 more albums: Freedom (2013), Lady Sings the Blues (2015) Superwoman, and Heaven Part 2 (2023).She cites Aretha Franklin, Kings of Leon, Christina Aguilera and Amy Winehouse among her influences.

On 22 August 2013 she revealed on Facebook that her new album would be called Freedom and would be released on 2 December 2013 along with putting up pre-order links to the album.

The lead single, "I Hope", was uploaded to Ferguson's YouTube channel on 12 October 2013 and was released on 1 December 2013, entering the UK singles chart at number 15; in mainland Europe "Light On" was released as the lead single from the album. Freedom was released the following day and entered the charts at number 6 and has since been certified Gold by the BPI.

Freedom was met with generally positive reviews from critics. The album includes a duet with US soul star John Legend and production/songwriting from Jarrad Rogers, Toby Gad and Eg White.