On this day 04/11/1979 The Skids

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On this day, 4 November 1979, Scottish punk rockers The Skids played Cardiff’s Top Rank.

Formed in Dunfermline in 1977 by Stuart Adamson (guitar, keyboards, percussion and backing vocals), William Simpson (bass guitar and backing vocals), Thomas Kellichan (drums) and Richard Jobson (vocals, guitar and keyboards).

Their biggest successes were the 1979 single "Into the Valley" and the 1980 album The Absolute Game.

Pre-tour the band had recorded their 2nd Album Days in Europa at Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, with Bill Nelson, producing.

The album was initially released with an Aryan album cover reminiscent of the 1936 Olympics, complete with Germanic Gothic-style lettering causing some controversy.

The album was re-released the following year with a new cover. At the same time the opportunity was taken to change the album's track listing and re-mix some of the original songs, allegedly for the US market.

Some of the original tracks resurfaced on later albums.

The second release's cover includes the controversial first cover as a picture on the wall behind the woman in white's head. On the back of the cover the illustration is repeated, only with the withdrawn release's picture on the wall being replaced with that of the earlier Scared to Dance album. The track "Pros and the Cons" is removed, and "Masquerade", also released as a single, is added.

Setlist

Animation

Out of Town

Melancholy Soldiers

Working for the Yankee Dollar

Dulce et Decorum Est (Pro Patria Mori)

Masquerade

The Olympian

Pros and Cons

Scared to Dance

The Saints Are Coming

Thanatos

Home of the Saved

Charade

Into the Valley

On This Day 03/11/1979 Joy Division - The gig that never was !

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On this day, 3 October 1979, Manchester Punk Rock legends The Buzzcocks were due to play Cardiff’s Sophia Gardens.

Most notable about the event was that, in support were another soon to be iconic Manchester combo, Joy Division.

What would have been the band’s first (and only) visit to Cardiff, the disappointment was palpable for fans who would later come to embrace the work of Ian Curtis and the band that would later morph into New Order.

From the Joy Division website - “The South Wales Echo were still advertising tickets for sale on Thursday 1st November, but in Friday 2nd's edition there was a "CANCELLED" sign stamped across the advert.

Mark Anderson didn't see the paper ... he tells us "I turned up not knowing of the cancellation and was told by box office staff that it was cancelled due to poor ticket sales. I do not know if this is correct but am relating what I was informed at the time".

The cancellation may have been a relief to Joy Division as Ian had suffered a lengthy seizure at the Bournemouth concert the night before and this would have provided a much needed break.”

On this day 01/11/1984 Johnny Cash

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On this day, 1 November 1984, Country music legend Johnny Cash played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall.

By the 1980s country legend Johnny Cash had seen his star fade, but this forgotten man of the music industry would end up having his career reignited by a punk from Newport.

Mekons' singer Jon Langford had been a life-long Cash fan when he sneaked backstage at the Manchester Apollo in 1988 to tell his idol he and some friends were planning to make a tribute album to him.

With the help of ex-Fall guitarist-turned-radio DJ Marc Riley, the homage – entitled ’Til Things Are Brighter – featured the eclectic likes of Michelle Shocked, Marc Almond and Gaye Bikers on Acid, and the proceeds went to the Terrence Higgins Trust, the UK’s leading HIV and sexual health charity.

Cash loved the album and US journalists dubbed the hook-up “Johnny Cash Meets the Hip Britons”, pre-empting the new-found coolness the singer experienced throughout the 90s under the guidance of influential Beastie Boys producer Rick Rubin.

Between 1981 and 1984, he recorded several sessions with famed countrypolitan producer Billy Sherrill (who also produced "The Chicken in Black"), which were shelved; they would be released by Columbia's sister label, Legacy Recordings, in 2014 as Out Among the Stars.

Around this time, Cash also recorded an album of gospel recordings that ended up being released by another label around the time of his departure from Columbia (this due to Columbia closing down its Priority Records division that was to have released the recordings).

After more unsuccessful recordings were released between 1984 and 1985, Cash left Columbia Records.

SETLIST

Ring of Fire

(Merle Kilgore cover)

Folsom Prison Blues

Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down

(Kris Kristofferson cover)

Any Old Wind That Blows

Big River

City of New Orleans

(Steve Goodman cover)

I Still Miss Someone

The Baron

Why Me

(Kris Kristofferson cover)

Bottom of a Mountain

Highway Patrolman

(Bruce Springsteen cover)

I Ride an Old Paint / Streets of Laredo

Riders in the Sky

(Stan Jones and his Death Valley Rangers cover)

Paradise

(John Prine cover)

Play Video

Remember the Alamo

(Tex Ritter cover)

One Piece at a Time

They Killed Him

Chariots of Fire

(Instrumental By Earl Ball)

Detroit City

If I Were a Carpenter

(Tim Hardin cover) (with June Carter Cash)

Jackson

(Billy Edd Wheeler cover) (with June Carter Cash)

San Antonio Rose

(Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys cover) (June Carter)

Wabash Cannonball

(The Carter Family cover) (June Carter)

Lonesome Valley

(The Carter Family cover) (June Carter)

Daddy Sang Bass

I'll Fly Away

(Albert E. Brumley cover)

The Fourth Man

(Arthur Smith cover)

A Boy Named Sue

Supper Time

(Jimmie Davis cover)

Give My Love to Rose

The Ballad of Casey Jones

([traditional] cover)

Orange Blossom Special

(Rouse Brothers cover)

On this day 31/10/1985 The Flying Pickets

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On this day, 31 October 1985, British acappella singing group The Flying Pickets played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall.

The group was first formed in 1982 by members of the 7:84 Theatre group, a socialist fringe theatre group who used acappella singing in a 1981 production called One Big Blow, the story of the 1972/74 UK miner's strikes, from the miner's point of view.

They enjoyed the singing so much that they started to work around the pubs and clubs of London, at a time when nobody else in the UK was performing pop/rock based acappella, and found immediate success.

The very first single with Virgin, "Only You", a cover of a song by Yazoo, went straight to Number 1 in the UK charts and was to remain there for five weeks over the Christmas of 1983, before going on to repeat the success throughout almost every country in Europe.

Over 30 years later, 'Only You' remains the only acappella track to stay at Number 1 in the mainstream singles charts for more than one week.

The name "Flying Pickets" refers to mobile strikers who travel in order to join a picket, reflecting the group's radical socialist political views. The height of the group's fame coincided with the 1984 miners strike, when the National Union of Mineworkers called strike action following the National Coal Board's decision to close 20 pits – a move which would claim some 20,000 jobs.

The Flying Pickets were vocal in their support of the miners during the dispute and came to blows with the record label Virgin after they picketed Drax Power Station in Yorkshire. They also performed benefit gigs for the miners.

Founding member Welsh actor Brian Hibbard himself claimed that their political beliefs probably had a detrimental effect on the group's mainstream image but it was a sacrifice they were willing to make; one well known record store refused to sell the group's albums due to their support of strike action.

Link to video - Only You - https://youtu.be/qgDKtLPp46s

On This Day 30/10/1974 10cc

On this day, 30 October 1974, pop/rockers 10cc played Cardiff University.

A few months earlier the band had released their second album Sheet Music, which yielded the hit singles "The Wall Street Shuffle" and "Silly Love". The album reached No. 9 in the UK and No. 81 in the United States.

It is thought by many to be the group’s best offering with impeccable writing and musicianship.

Live the band included drummer Paul Burgess supplementing the group’s drummer Kevin Godly, whose vocals were a key element to the group’s live performances.

On this day 29/10/1971 King Crimson

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On this day, 29 October 1971, prog rockers King Crimson played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre.

The band were about to release their fourth studio album Islands and the only studio album to feature the 1971-1972 touring line-up of Robert Fripp, Mel Collins, Boz Burrell and Ian Wallace.

This would be the last album before an entirely new group would record the trilogy of Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Starless and Bible Black and Red between 1973-1974.

This is also the last album to feature the lyrics of co-founding member Peter Sinfield.

Islands reached number 30 in the UK Albums Chart.

The band formed in November of 1968 in London, England and quickly exerted a strong influence on the early 1970s progressive rock movement and continue to inspire subsequent generations of artists across multiple genres. Robert Fripp, the sole remaining founding member, has acted as the primary composer and a driving creative force throughout the band’s history.

Although he is often viewed as the band’s leader, Fripp himself shuns this label. He has been quoted as seeing the group more as “a way of doing things”, and his role in the group a form of “quality control”.

Setlist

Cirkus

21st Century Schizoid Man

Pictures of a City

Formentera Lady

Sailor's Tale

The Letters

Ladies of the Road

Islands

The Devil's Triangle

Encore:

Cadence and Cascade

On this day 28/10/1964 Gene Vincent/"Big Beat Scene"

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On this day, 28 October 1964, rock ‘n’ roll great Gene Vincent played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre as part of a package that included the headlining Honeycombs, Millie, Lulu & The Luvvers, Applejacks, Daryl Quist, Beat Merchants and the Puppets, with Freddie Earle as compere in what was billed as "Big Beat Scene"

Vincent was the first inductee into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame upon its formation in 1997. The following year he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Vincent has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1749 North Vine Street.

Headlining band The Honycombs were riding high with their debut single Have I the Right? a massive it for the band, produced by the legendary Joe Meek.

Lulu and her band the Luvvers were touring on the back of her first hit Shout, the former Isley Brothers song, peaking at No 7 in May 1964, whilst Millie had enjoyed a No 2 hit with her debut single My Boy Lollipop

On this day 27/10/1975 Argent

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On this dayArgent, 27 October 1975, rock band Argent played Cardiff University.

The band had just released Counterpoints, their seventh and final album on RCA Victor (United Artists Records in U.S. in 10 April 1976).

This was the second studio album recorded without founding member Russ Ballard. John Verity stepped in to fill Ballard's shoes with the previous album Circus (at the recommendation of Ballard) after Verity's band supported Argent on tour 1974 tour.

Phil Collins played drums and percussion on Counterpoints while Bob Henrit was ill.

Founded in 1969 by keyboardist Rod Argent, formerly of the Zombies. They had three UK top 40 singles: "Hold Your Head Up", which reached number five and spent 12 weeks on the chart, "Tragedy" (number 34) and "God Gave Rock and Roll to You" (number 18).

Two of their albums charted in the UK; All Together Now, which peaked at number 13 in 1972, and In Deep, which spent one week at number 49 in 1973.

Original members of the band were Rod Argent on keyboards, bassist Jim Rodford (Argent's cousin and formerly with the Mike Cotton Sound), drummer Bob Henrit and guitarist Russ Ballard (both formerly with the Roulettes and Unit 4 + 2).

Lead vocal duties were shared between Ballard, Rodford and Argent.

When Ballard left in 1974, he was replaced by guitarist/vocalist John Verity and guitarist John Grimaldi.

This lineup produced two albums and a film that was never released (though a clip is available to view on John Verity's website).

The band's decision to stop touring late in 1976 has never been fully explained, though the decision might have been influenced by the declining health of one of its members.

Rodford, Henrit and Verity briefly continued together under the name Phoenix before going their separate ways, with first Rodford and then Henrit becoming members of the Kinks.

Meanwhile, Rod Argent performed some work with Andrew Lloyd Webber and produced a couple of solo albums. He also opened a keyboard shop in the West End of London.