On This Day 26/03/1971 Sacha Distel

On this day, 26 March 1971, French singing star Sacha Distel played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre. Support was provided by compère comedian Ted Rogers, legendary violinist Stephane Grappelli and Lostontos.

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Alexandre "Sacha" Distel (29 January 1933 – 22 July 2004) was a French singer, guitarist, songwriter and actor who had hits with a cover version of "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" in 1970, which reached No 10 in the UK Charts, “Scoubidou", and "The Good Life". He was made Chevalier (Knight) of the Légion d'honneur in 1997.

He had also scored a hit as a songwriter when Tony Bennett recorded Sacha's song for The Good Life in 1963. It peaked at #18 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart and Top 10 on the Easy Listening chart.

Distel was the son of Russian-French émigré Léonide Distel who was born in Odessa (Russian Empire) and French-Jewish pianist Andrée Ventura (1902–1965), born in Constantinople. His uncle was bandleader Ray Ventura. After Ventura settled in Paris with his orchestra Les Collégiens, Distel gave up piano and switched to guitar.

On This Day 25 March 2003 Paradise Lost

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On this day, 25 March 2003, British gothic metal band Paradise Lost played Cardiff’s MS1 on their Symbol of Life tour.

Formed in Halifax, West Yorkshire in 1988, they are considered to be among the pioneers of the death-doom genre and regarded as the main influence for the later gothic metal movement. Bands that have cited Paradise Lost as an influence, or have covered them, include My Dying Bride, Anathema, The Gathering, Amorphis, Cradle of Filth, Katatonia, Moonspell, Lacuna Coil, HIM, Nightwish and many others. As of 2005, Paradise Lost have sold over two million albums worldwide.

Their line-up has remained stable for such a long-standing heavy metal band, consisting of singer Nick Holmes, guitarists Greg Mackintosh and Aaron Aedy, and bassist Steve Edmondson. Holmes and Mackintosh are the principal composers, with almost all of the band's songs credited to them. During the years, the band has only changed drummers.

Symbol of Life is the ninth studio album by British metal band Paradise Lost. It marks a departure by the band from their synth-based approach and returning to a much heavier sound, although not abandoning the keyboards altogether. This album was the final release featuring drummer Lee Morris.

On This Day 24/03/1958 Buddy Holly and the Crickets

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On this day, 24 March 1958, American rock n roll legends Buddy Holly and The Crickets played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre. Support was provided by Gary Miller, The Tanner Sisters, Des O,Connor and Ronnie Keene and his Orchestra. It was the penultimate gig of their one and only UK tour.

Formed by singer-songwriter Buddy Holly in January 1957. Their first hit record, "That'll Be the Day", released in May 1957, peaked at number three on the Billboard Top 100 chart on September 16, 1957.

The sleeve of their first album, The "Chirping" Crickets, shows the band line-up at the time: Holly on lead vocals and lead guitar, Niki Sullivan on rhythm guitar, Jerry Allison on drums, and Joe B. Mauldin on bass. The Crickets helped set the template for subsequent rock bands, such as the Beatles, with their guitar-bass-drums line-up, performing their own material.

Review - Cardiff and Suburban News.

HOLLY AND THE CRICKETS GIVE US LOUDEST ROCK SHOW YET!

If rowdyism, drive and down-to earth abandon are the ingredients necessary for success in the rock’n’roll field, then Buddy Holly and The Crickets are all set for a long and eventful run of popularity! They rocked their way through a tremendous, belting 25-minute act without letting up for one moment at the Capitol Theatre on Monday, and the audience shared their approval in no uncertain terms. Much of the trio’s success can be attributed to the fact that their “in person” sound is almost identical to the sound they produce on record. They generate a brand of contagious excitement that is irresistible. On Monday, they completely overpowered the 13-piece Ronnie Keene Orchestra in relation to the volume of sound produced and, at times, I felt that leader Holly’s guitar was badly over-amplified. Drummer Jerry Allison attacks his kit with murderous intent, but bassist Joe Maudin remains relatively calm, and looks rather miserable most of the time! But how these 3 boys manage to make such a big, big sound with their limited instrumentation still baffles me!

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 22/03/1993 Jesus Jones

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On this day, 22 March 1993, alternative rock band Jesus Jones played Cardiff University. The band had recently released their third studio album Perverse.

Jesus Jones, especially band leader Mike Edwards, conceived Perverse as a darker, more contemporary album. Fusing rave and techno music into more traditional rock and pop song structures, the album is heavier than its predecessors with a much greater inclusion of industrial music and features lyrics that concern the future. Edwards wrote the lyrics of the album during the band's 1991 tour, using a Roland W-30 sampler to conceive songs in their earliest stages.

According to Trouser Press, Perverse "enjoys the historical distinction of being the first album recorded entirely (except for Edwards' vocals) on computer." The band recorded the entire album onto floppy disks in Edwards' house, which were then used on his computer to turn the music into "zeroes and ones".

Edwards described it as "the second rock album of the nineties," after The Young Gods' T.V. Sky, due to both albums embracing full-on computer technology. Although the band were ridiculed at the time for the recording process, it later became an influential technique.

Upon its release, Perverse peaked at number 6 on the UK Albums Chart.

Set List

Spiral

Good Thing

International Bright Young Thing

Magazine

The Devil You Know

The Right Decision

Right Here, Right Now

Love To War

Don’t Believe It

Zeroes and Ones

Real, Real, Real

Idiot Stare

Encore: Who? Where? Why?

On This Day 21 March 1975 Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel

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On this day, 21 March 1975, one of UK music’s most original writer and performer’s Steve Harley played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre. Support was provided by Sailor.

The band had recently scored a massive UK no 1 hit with their single Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me) taken from the album The Best Years Of Our Lives, released earlier in the month and peaked at no 4 in the UK album charts.

In November and December 1974, the band recorded The Best Years of Our Lives at Abbey Road Studios and Air Studios in London. Speaking to Record & Popswop Mirror in November 1974, Harley said, "The best work I've done yet is on the new LP. I find that I'm not writing in such a surrealistic way anymore. I'm writing slightly more blatant, less subtle. The whole album is a theme. The whole story is a dialogue, almost between two people – or a group of people and the artist: questions and answers. It's kind of like a guy who goes through a metamorphosis and comes out of it in good shape – alive and kicking." He added to the magazine in 1975, "This album is something I believe in. It means so much to me than anything I have done before."

To promote the album, the band embarked on a UK and European tour from March 1975 onwards. On the tour, the band hired guitarist Snowy White to play rhythm guitar. In a January 1975 issue of Record & Popswop Mirror, it was announced that the upcoming tour would feature "a specially built set and lighting to reflect songs and images featured on the forthcoming album". Later in the year they toured America, as a support act for The Kinks.

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.

On This Day 19/03/1969 Fleetwood Mac

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On this day, 19 March 1969, rock giants Fleetwood Mac played Cardiff’s Top Rank.

Formed in London in 1967 by guitarist and singer Peter Green. Green recruited drummer Mick Fleetwood, guitarist and singer Jeremy Spencer and bassist Bob Brunning, with John McVie replacing Brunning a few weeks after their first public appearance.

Guitarist and singer Danny Kirwan joined the band in 1968. Christine Perfect, who contributed as a session musician starting with the band's second album, married McVie and joined Fleetwood Mac as an official member in July 1970 on vocals and keyboards, two months after Green left the band; she became known as Christine McVie.

Primarily a British blues band in their early years, Fleetwood Mac achieved a UK number one single in 1968 with the instrumental "Albatross", and had other UK top ten hits with "Man of the World", "Oh Well" (both 1969), and "The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown)" (1970).