On This Day 9/5/1989 Pixies

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On this day, 9 May 1989, American rock band the Pixies, played at Cardiff University with support provided by The Wolfgang Press.

Signing with Sony in 1988, several singles preceded the band's critically acclaimed 1989 debut LP, Pop Said.... The album, described as "relentlessly chirpy", ultimately reached the Top 30 in the UK Albums Chart, and the band appeared on Top of the Pops as well as the cover of Melody Maker twice (24 September 1988 and 18 February 1989).

The band had released their 2nd album Doolittle the previous month and released two singles from album , "Here Comes Your Man" and "Monkey Gone to Heaven", both of which were chart successes on the US chart for Modern Rock Tracks.

The album itself reached number eight on the UK Albums Chart, an unexpected success for the band.

On This Day 8/5/1988 The Darling Buds

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On this day, 8 May 1988, alternative rock band from Newport, South Wales, the Darling Buds, played Cardiff’s Clwb Ifor Bach.

The band formed in 1986 and were named after the H. E. Bates novel The Darling Buds of May – a title taken in turn, from the third line of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18: "Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May".

Signing with Sony in 1988, several singles preceded the band's critically acclaimed 1989 debut LP, Pop Said.... The album, described as "relentlessly chirpy", ultimately reached the Top 30 in the UK Albums Chart, and the band appeared on Top of the Pops as well as the cover of Melody Maker twice (24 September 1988 and 18 February 1989).

On This Day 7/5/1976 Desmond Dekker

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On this day, 7 May 1976, Jamaican ska, rocksteady, and reggae singer-songwriter and musician Desmond Dekker played the Top Rank, Cardiff.

Together with his backing group The Aces (consisting of Wilson James and Easton Barrington Howard), he had one of the earliest international reggae hits with "Israelites" (1968).

In 1975 "Israelites" was re-released and became a UK Top 10 hit for a second time. Dekker had also begun working on new material with the production duo Bruce Anthony in 1974.

In 1975 this collaboration resulted in the release of "Sing a Little Song", which charted in the UK Top Twenty; this was to be his last UK hit.

On This Day 6/5/1990 Gary Moore

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On this day, 6 May 1990, Northern Irish guitarist and songwriter, Gary Moore, played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall.
Influenced by Peter Green and Eric Clapton, Moore began his career in the late 1960s when he joined Skid Row, with whom he released two albums.

After Moore left the group he joined Thin Lizzy, featuring his former Skid Row bandmate and frequent collaborator Phil Lynott. Moore began his solo career in the 1970s and achieved major success with 1978's "Parisienne Walkways", which is considered his signature song.

In 1990, he returned to his roots with Still Got the Blues, which became the most successful album of his career.

Moore continued to release new music throughout his later career, collaborating with other artists from time to time. Moore died on 6 February 2011 from a heart attack while on holiday in Spain.

On This Day 5/5/1978 Graham Parker and the Rumour

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On this day, 5 May 1978, English singer-songwriter Graham Parker, who is best known as the lead singer of the British band Graham Parker & the Rumour, played Cardiff University.

Parker had just released his live album Parkerilla. Recorded at Winter Gardens, Bournemouth, Manchester Opera House, Apollo Theatre, Oxford and The Palladium, New York City; it was mixed at Rockfield Studios, Wales.

In 1991, Rolling Stone ranked The Parkerilla number 64 on its list of 100 greatest album covers. The cover photography was by Brian Griffin, with the artwork completed by Barney Bubbles.

On This Day 4/5/1966 Manfred Mann

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On this day, 4 May 1966, English rock band Manfred Mann played the Cardiff Top Rank.

Formed in London and lasting from 1962 to 1969. The group was named after their keyboardist Manfred Mann, who later led the successful 1970s group Manfred Mann's Earth Band. The band had two different lead vocalists, Paul Jones from 1962 to 1966, and Mike d'Abo from 1966 to 1969.

The previous October the band had released their 3rd studio album As Is.

It was their fourth overall (including a "greatest hits" package) but their first to feature new members Mike d'Abo and Klaus Voormann.

On This Day 3/5/1997 Marillion

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On this day, 3 May 1997, English rock band Marillion played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall.

Following the departure of original lead singer Fish in late 1988 and the subsequent arrival of replacement Steve Hogarth in early 1989. The band achieved eight Top Ten UK albums between 1983 and 1994, including a number one album in 1985 with Misplaced Childhood, and during the period the band were fronted by Fish they had eleven Top 40 hits on the UK Singles Chart.

They are best known for the 1985 singles "Kayleigh" and "Lavender", which reached number two and number five respectively, with "Kayleigh" also entering the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States.

This Strange Engine was released in 1997 with little promotion from their new label Castle Records, and the band could not afford to make tour stops in the United States.

Their dedicated US fan base decided to solve the problem by raising some $60,000 themselves online to give to the band to come to the US.[48] The band's loyal fanbase (combined with the Internet) would eventually become vital to their existence.

On This Day 2/5/1962 Jerry Lee Lewis

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On this day, 2 May 1962, American rock’n’roll legend Jerry Lee Lewis, played Cardiff’s Sophia Gardens.

The bill included, Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, Mark Eden, The Bachelors, Vince Eager, Dave Reid, The Echoes and The Viscounts.

Often known by his nickname the Killer. He has been described as "rock n' roll's first great wild man and one of the most influential pianists of the twentieth century." A pioneer of rock and roll and rockabilly music, Lewis made his first recordings in 1956 at Sun Records in Memphis.

"Crazy Arms" sold 300,000 copies in the South, but it was his 1957 hit "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" that shot Lewis to fame worldwide. He followed this with "Great Balls of Fire", "Breathless" and "High School Confidential". However, his rock and roll career faltered in the wake of his marriage to Myra Gale Brown, his 13-year-old cousin.

Welsh great recalls attending the concert, taken from the South Wales Echo.

HE’S duetted with some of the world’s greatest singing legends from Elvis Presley and Stevie Wonder to Johnny Cash and Tina Turner.

But Sir Tom Jones has revealed his favourite musical performance of all time was one he watched as a paying punter – in the front row of Sophia Gardens Pavilion in Cardiff.

He admitted that it was a homegrown gig by his idol, Jerry Lee Lewis, back in 1962 that stuck in his memory, a year before he’d find the first inklings of fame fronting Tommy Scott And The Senators.

“I’d had tickets to see him at the same venue a few years before but he never made it. It was just after he’d married his cousin and when the public found out about it there was uproar and he got sent out of the country.”

Lewis’ somewhat turbulent personal life was kept under wraps from his fans until that May 1958 British tour where a reporter at Heathrow Airport discovered that his then wife, Myra Gale Brown, was his first cousin once removed and only 13-years-old.

While Lewis, Brown and his management all insisted she was 15, the age difference – the Great Balls Of Fire singer was nearly 23 – meant the tour was scrapped after three concerts.

Tom not only finally got to see Lewis play in the Welsh capital, but once he’d made it big himself in America, he invited the infamous Louisiana rock-and-roller to be a special guest on his 70s Stateside TV show. The pair wowed fans with a blistering rendition of Lewis’ massive 1957 hit Whole Lotta Shakin’.

“I’d been a fan of Jerry Lee’s ever since I heard that song,” said Tom.

“Elvis had come out with Heartbreak Hotel, which was the first major hit, and everybody was going, ‘Wow! He’s a freak of nature, a white guy singing like that.’ So when Whole Lotta Shakin’ came out that was it. I realise it must be a Southern thing – white people growing up with black people, and it was all rubbing off, you know what I mean?”

So when it came to booking stars for his This is Tom Jones variety hour, the Ponty belter knew exactly who should be first on the list.

“In terms of the show, I was getting my way,” he added.

“They wanted Robert Goulet and other people like that – you know, mainstream America. But I was saying, ‘If you want me to do this, then I want Jerry Lee Lewis! I was pleased that it happened, and so was Jerry. He thanked me for getting him back on TV.”