On this day 27/07/1997 Super Furry Animals, The Fall

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On this day, 27 July 1997, Welsh alternative rockers Super Furry Animals and Northern post-punk greats The Fall played Cardiff’s Cooper’s Field.

Super Furry Animals were just about to release Radiator, the band’s second studio album. It was released in August 1997 by Creation Records, and later the same year in the United States under Flydaddy Records. It peaked at number eight on the UK Albums Chart.

Singer Gruff Rhys has described Radiator as "more interesting" than the band's debut Fuzzy Logic with the group taking advantage of producer Gorwel Owen's "Atari computers, and banks of old vintage synths" to create an album which was "musically ... much more adventurous".

In 2000 Q magazine placed Radiator at number 73 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. Stylus Magazine named Radiator in a list of ten essential albums released by Creation Records in a 2003 article about the label.

In a 2017 list of the 50 Best Britpop Albums, Pitchfork placed Radiator at number 39.[17] In 2013, NME ranked it at number 92 in its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Manc greats The Fall were about to release Levitate, their 19th Album on Artful Records. Levitate became the last album to feature two long-time Fall members, drummer Karl Burns and bass player Steve Hanley (whose playing was once described by Smith as the defining element of the group's music).

Levitate was recorded amidst a difficult period for the group, described by personnel turmoil and financial troubles due to a VAT bill incurred in the 1980s and early 1990s for nearly £200,000.

Simon Wolstencroft left after a disagreement about the recording of 'Everybody But Myself'; also having received financial advice about the group's VAT bill, he resigned from being a co-director of The Fall business.

On this day 26th july 1963 Nat King Cole

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On this Day, 26 July 1963, legendary American singer Nat King Cole played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre, with support provided by Ted Heath & His Music.

Nat King Cole, was a singer, jazz pianist, and actor and recorded over 100 songs that became hits on the pop charts.

Cole's shift to traditional pop led some jazz critics and fans to accuse him of selling out, but he never abandoned his jazz roots; as late as 1956 he recorded an all-jazz album, After Midnight, and many of his albums after this are fundamentally jazz-based, being scored for big band without strings, although the arrangements focus primarily on the vocal rather than instrumental leads.

Cole had one of his last major hits in 1963, two years before his death, with "Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer".

His trio was the model for small jazz ensembles that followed.

Cole also acted in films and on television and performed on Broadway. He was the first African-American man to host an American television series.

Until his death in 1965, Cole was an active and visible participant in the civil rights movement, playing an important role in planning the March on Washington in 1963.

In August 1948, Cole purchased a house from Col. Harry Gantz, the former husband of the silent film actress Lois Weber, in the all-white Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. The Ku Klux Klan, which was active in Los Angeles in the 1950s, responded by placing a burning cross on his front lawn.

Members of the property-owners association told Cole they did not want any "undesirables" moving into the neighborhood. Cole responded, "Neither do I. And if I see anybody undesirable coming in here, I'll be the first to complain."

He was the father of singer-songwriter Natalie Cole (1950–2015).

On this day Glen Campbell 25th July 2006

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On this day, 25 July 2006, Country music legend Glen Campbell played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall with support provided by daughter Debby Campbell. Promoted as his last ever tour, Campbell did return in 2011, His last-ever visit to the City before his death in 2017.

Born in Billstown, Arkansas, Campbell began his professional career as a studio musician in Los Angeles, spending several years playing with the group of instrumentalists later known as "The Wrecking Crew".

Among Campbell's hits are "Universal Soldier", his first hit from 1965, along with "Gentle on My Mind" (1967), "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" (1967), "Dreams of the Everyday Housewife" (1968), "Wichita Lineman" (1968), "Galveston" (1969), "Rhinestone Cowboy" (1975) and "Southern Nights" (1977).

In 2005, Campbell was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

On this day 24/07/1976 Status Quo

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On this day, 24 July 1976, rock band Status Quo played Cardiff Castle, headlining a package that included Strawbs, Curved Air, Hawkwind and Welsh rock band Budgie, compered by DJ John Peel.

The concert was part of the group’s Blue For You tour, promoting their Blue For You Album. The band had played two concerts at the City’s Capitol Theatre earlier in the year before returning for their prestigious Cardiff Castle gig.

Blue for You was their ninth studio album and was released in March 1976, and was the band’s last album until 1980's Just Supposin' that they produced themselves, which resulted in subsequent albums having a noticeably lighter, more pop oriented sound.

Rick Parfitt's "Rain", the first single from the album, reached No. 7 in the UK charts after its release in February 1976. Its B-side was the non-album track "You Lost the Love", written by Francis Rossi and Bob Young.

The album was released the following month. It entered the British album chart at No. 1 and stayed there for three weeks, making it one of their most successful long players.

Link to interview - https://youtu.be/rGFTR-1LCMc

On this day 23/07/1990 Aztec Camera

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On this day 23 July 1990 Scottish rock/pop band Aztec Camera, played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall on the band’s Stray tour.

The band had just released their fourth studio album Stray a few weeks earlier on Sire Records and was praised for its diversity of songs and styles, and for the assured nature of leader Roddy Frame’s lyrics.

Stray peaked at No. 22 in the UK Albums Chart, whilst the single "Good Morning Britain", a collaboration with Mick Jones, formerly of The Clash, reached No. 19 in the UK Singles Chart.

In a 1990 interview, recorded during a tour of Japan, Frame explained that he wrote "Good Morning Britain" in 45 minutes after a two- to three-hour conversation with Jones in the canteen of a London rehearsal studio that both Big Audio Dynamite and Aztec Camera were using.

Frame elaborated further, stating that at the time he wrote the song, Jones lived near his London home; Frame visited Jones after recording the song and said to the Clash guitarist, "You'll either sing on it, or you'll want to sue me", as Frame believed the song was so similar to Jones' previous work.

Stray Tour Band (1990)

• Roddy Frame – guitar, vocals

• Eddie Kulak – keyboards

• Gary Sanford – guitars

• Clare Kenny – bass guitars

• Frank Tontoh – drums

On this day 22/07/2010 Funeral For A Friend/The Automatic

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On this day, 22 July 2010, Welsh bands The Automatic and Funeral For A Friend played Cardiff University Funeral For A Friend were on their Casually Dressed & Deep in Conversation Tour.

REVIEW - BUZZ - FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND + THE AUTOMATIC + YOUNG GUNS

Solus, Cardiff Students’ Union, Cardiff

Thurs 22 July

Subtitled Saying Goodbye to Darran Smith, Thursday’s show at Solus proved to be a fitting send-off for the departing guitarist, with a celebration of the band’s work over the past eight years. Particular focus was given to early material, including the first performance of 2003’s debut album Casually Dressed & Deep In Conversation in its entirety.

Indeed, there was an atmosphere of expectation amongst the excitable crowd, released in a mosh-pit frenzy when the band launched into opener Rookie of the Year. Despite the somewhat melancholy motive for the evening’s performance, frontman Matt Davies was in high spirits, with frequent jokes about the predictability of the setlist as well as several courageous stage-dives into a frantic sea of hands.

A brief interval was followed by the band’s return to the stage for 2007’s Into Oblivion (Reunion). The hits kept coming, with a ferocious rendition of latest single Wrench demonstrating a band that shows no sign of slowing down. Matt Tuck, vocalist from Bridgend contemporaries Bullet For My Valentine, joined the action onstage for a dual-vocal assault in fan favourite This Year’s Most Open Heartbreak, ahead of the bands’ joint European tour later this year.

2005 single History proved to be a fitting end to the evening, with the repeated refrain “your history is mine” echoed by Davies’ assertion that “Darran Smith will always be part of Funeral For A Friend”. Judging from tonight’s performance, the band has a lot of history yet to tell, albeit with one less storyteller.

Funeral For A Friend - Setlist

Rookie of the Year

Bullet Theory

Juneau

Bend Your Arms to Look Like Wings

Escape Artists Never Die

Storytelling

Moments Forever Faded

She Drove Me to Daytime Television

Red Is the New Black

Your Revolution Is a Joke

Waking Up

Novella

Encore:

Into Oblivion (Reunion)

The Art of American Football

Roses for the Dead

Wrench

Streetcar

You Want Romance?

This Year's Most Open Heartbreak

(with Matt Tuck)

History

The Automatic - Setlist

Recover

On the Campaign Trail

Interstate

This Is a Fix

Sleepwalking

Something Else

Run & Hide

Steve McQueen

On this day 21/07/2001 Stereophonics

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On this day 21 July 2001, Welsh rockers The Stereophonics played Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium, with support provided by the Black Crowes, Ash and another Welsh band The Crocketts.

The band had just released their third studio album Just Enough Education To Perform (JEEP) and spawned three top-ten singles in the form of "Mr. Writer", "Have a Nice Day" and "Handbags and Gladrags" as well as topping the UK album charts.

Review - BBC Wales

The Stereophonics conquered the odds of illness to stage a triumphant homecoming concert at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on Saturday night.

Plagued by foot-and-mouth disease, which forced a relocation from Chepstow Racecourse, and Kelly Jones's flu, which cancelled their US tour, the band were happy to finally turn up at their biggest ever gig on Welsh soil.

An estimated 60,000 fans joined the Phonics in the capital along with support acts the Black Crowes and the Crocketts - this was a rock concert in the very best sense of the word.

Stadium bosses closed the retractable roof to keep out the rain and to keep in the raucous rockers' noise.

But the fans could not keep a lid on their enthusiasm, many waving Welsh flags and huge plastic daffodils.

The boys from Cwmaman played a varied, two-hour set including material from their third and latest album, Just Enough Education To Perform, which went to the top of the charts when it was released in April.

JEEP is still top of the indie charts, moving around 20,000 copies each week.

The performance came as a relief after a troubled few months for the Phonics.

In May, the band was forced to cancel a US tour after Kelly Jones's flu bug worsened to a chest infection and doctors ordered a month's rest.

They also had to pull out of a curtain-raising appearance before the FA Cup Final on 12 May.

Saturday's concert, which seemed to fit the Millennium Stadium so well, was slated for Chepstow Racecourse - but foot-and-mouth put paid to the band's "Day At The Races" idea along with a host of horse races.

Then, Glastonbury 2001, which the Stereophonics were rumoured to headline, was cancelled over crowd safety concerns.

They went on to play a virtual 90-minute Glastonbury event to a handful of faithful fans and a web audience.

But it served as little more than a rehearsal for the impressive Cardiff concert.

Setlist

Local Boy in the Photograph

More Life in a Tramp's Vest

A Thousand Trees

Traffic

T-Shirt Sun Tan

The Bartender and the Thief

Just Looking

Pick a Part That's New

I Wouldn't Believe Your Radio

I Stopped to Fill My Car Up

Mr Writer

Hurry Up and Wait

Have a Nice Day

Step on My Old Size Nines

Roll Up and Shine

Encore:

Everyday I Think of Money

Watch Them Fly Sundays

Vegas Two Times

Rooftop

On this day 20th July 2001 All About Eve

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On this day, 20 July 2001, rock band All About Eve played Cardiff’s Coal Exchange on a mainly acoustic tour after releasing live albums Fairy Light Nights in 2000, and Fairy Light Nights Volume 2 in 2001.

The initial creative core consisted of Coventry-born Julianne Regan (vocals), Huddersfield-born Tim Bricheno (guitar) and Andy Cousin (bass guitar), with other members changing over the years.

Their highest-charting UK single was "Martha's Harbour" (1988). The band was active from 1984 to 1993, then 1999 to 2004, achieving four UK Top-50 albums.

The band had been recognised for their "unique, folk-rock-influenced take" on the gothic rock style, and Regan has been described as "certainly one of the more talented singers" of the scene in the late 1980s.