On This Day 06/05/1978 Magazine

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On this day, 6 May 1978, new wave band Magazine played Cardiff University. The band had just recently released their second album Secondhand Daylight which peaked at no38 in the UK album charts.

Upon its release, Secondhand Daylight was hailed in the NME. Reviewer Nick Kent described songs like "Feed the Enemy" as "very Low-period Bowiesque", due to the "stray saxophone bleats and lulling synthesiser chords". Sounds was less positive; music journalist Garry Bushell declared that Magazine were in "retreat to the '70s progressive lie". The Guardian wrote that the album "explores the mixture of keyboards, saxophone and Howard Devoto's Rottenesque vocals in a professional, controlled and surprisingly subdued manner".

Formed in 1977 in Manchester in England by singer Howard Devoto and guitarist John McGeoch. After leaving the punk group Buzzcocks in early 1977, Devoto decided to create a more progressive and less "traditional" rock band. The original lineup of Magazine was composed of Devoto, McGeoch, Barry Adamson on bass, Bob Dickinson on keyboards and Martin Jackson on drums.

Their debut album, Real Life (1978), was critically acclaimed and was one of the first post-punk albums. After releasing two other albums, Secondhand Daylight and The Correct Use of Soap, McGeoch left the band in 1980 to join Siouxsie and the Banshees. Magazine released another studio album and disbanded in 1981. All four of their albums reached the top 40 on the UK Albums Chart.

On This Day 05/05/1975 Danny Moss

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On this day, 5 May 1975, British jazz tenor saxophonist Danny Moss played Cardiff’s New Theatre. He performed with many figures in British jazz, including Vic Lewis, Ted Heath, John Dankworth, Alex Welsh, and Humphrey Lyttelton.

The son of a toolmaker, Moss was born in Redhill, Surrey in 1927. His childhood was spent on the south coast, in the Brighton-Worthing area, and he attended Steyning Grammar School. At the age of thirteen, he saw a jazz band appear briefly in a Bowery Boys film on a family cinema visit, and was so inspired by the clarinet playing that he swapped his most valued possession, his ice skates, for a second-hand instrument of his own. He was self-taught on both this and the tenor saxophone, which he took up at school.

In 1957, Moss joined John Dankworth's orchestra. Here, with the band's encouragement, he began to develop his characteristic saxophone sound, eschewing the contemporary focus on light tone and fast phrasing in favour of a thicker and more spacious sound informed by American tenor saxophonists such as Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster. When the Dankworth band visited America, Moss' style was singled out for compliment by Count Basie, who declared his playing "real Texas tenor... the way it should sound!" He left Dankworth's band in 1962, as the band itself was winding down. From here, he joined Humphrey Lyttelton's group, where he continued to hone his style for another two years.

He then married jazz singer Jeanie Lambe on 6 January 1964, and the couple moved from London to Sussex at her suggestion. Here, he formed his own quartet, playing a mix of club gigs, festival appearances and radio broadcasts for the BBC. He continued to tour with this quartet throughout the 1970s and 1980s, also playing and recording with American singers like Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, Sarah Vaughan and Rosemary Clooney, and appeared as a guest soloist with Buck Clayton on a Humphrey Lyttelton album, Me And Buck in 1963. He worked with Louis Armstrong on his last British tour. Moss later co-founded British jazz "supergroup" Pizza Express All-Stars in 1980, playing with them until the end of the 1980s.

On This Day 04/05/1976 PFM

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On this day, 4 May 1976, Italian progressive rock band PFM played Cardiff University.

Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM) (translation: Award-winning Marconi Bakery) band founded in 1970 which continues to the present day. They were the first Italian group to have success internationally. The group recorded five albums with English lyrics between 1973 and 1977.

During this period they entered both the British and American charts. They also had several successful European and American tours, playing at the popular Reading Festival in England and on The Midnight Special, a popular national television program in the United States.

PFM introduced new sounds, such as the synthesizer, to the Italian musical world. They were also among the first to combine symphonic classical and traditional Italian musical influences in a rock music context. Such innovations and their longevity have earned PFM a place among the most important bands in the Progressive rock genre.

PFM's first live performance in the UK was on BBC Radio 1's 'In Concert' programme introduced by DJ Pete Drummond on 21 May 1975 in which they performed their own arrangement of Rossini's William Tell Overture. They also appeared on the BBC television show The Old Grey Whistle Test firstly in 1974 and 1975. On 13 April 1976, on the same show, they performed the title track to the album. The album reached the UK top 20 but was less successful internationally.

Tour Setlist

Paper Charms

La luna nuova

Dove... quando..., parte I

Dove... quando..., parte II

Guitar Solo

(acoustic)

Out of the Roundabout

Chocolate Kings

Mr. 9 Till 5

Celebration

La carrozza di Hans

Alta Loma 5 Till 9

Guillaume Tell Ouverture

(Gioachino Rossini cover)

On This Day 03/05/2011 Skindred

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On this day, 3 May 2011, Welsh band Skindred played Cardiff University on their Union Black tour. Skindred fuse heavy metal, reggae, punk, hip hop and electronica influences to create a unique style and sound. The band has previously referred to this style as "Ragga metal". Benji Webbe has also jokingly referred to the band's musical style as "nu-reggae", in reference to the term nu metal

Formed in Newport in 1998, they are well known for their energetic and involving live performances and have won several awards including "Best Live Band" at the 2011 UK Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards and the "Devotion Award" at the 2011 Kerrang! Awards.

The band's fourth studio album, Union Black, was released 25 April 2011 exclusively to the UK and Europe. On 1 July, it was released in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The band promoted this with a UK tour, supported by American post-hardcore group Chiodos and Blackpool band Me Vs Hero.

The London show was filmed for Scuzz TV in the UK. Skindred also played at several major European festivals including Download Festival on the Acoustic Stage (Friday) and Main Stage (Saturday), Boardmasters Festival, Wacken Open Air, Przystanek Woodstock and Sonisphere Festival in Spain and Switzerland,[14] the Swiss leg of Sonisphere being notable for the first live performance of Warning with Jacoby Shaddix, whose band Papa Roach was also performing at Sonisphere in Switzerland.

Setlist

Bruises

Roots Rock Riot

Set It Off

Rude Boy for Life

Doom Riff

State of Emergency

Trouble

Calling All Stations

Living a Lie

Selector

Cut Dem

Rat Race

The Fear

Guntalk

Destroy the Dancefloor

Nobody

Encore:

Stand for Something

Pressure

Warning

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 01/05/2009 NOFX

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On this day, 1 May 2009, American punk rock band NOFX played Cardiff University.

The band had just released their eleventh studio album Coaster on April 28 2009. To promote the album's release, the band went on a tour of Europe with the Flatliners; Snuff appeared on three of the shows.

Formed in Los Angeles in 1983. Bassist/lead vocalist Fat Mike, rhythm guitarist Eric Melvin and drummer Erik Sandin are original founding and longest-serving members of the band, who have appeared on every release by the band, although Sandin departed briefly in 1985, only to rejoin the following year. El Hefe joined the band in 1991 to play lead guitar and trumpet, rounding out the best-known iteration of the lineup.

NOFX's mainstream success coincided with increased interest in punk rock during the 1990s; unlike many of their contemporaries, however, they have never been signed to a major label. NOFX has released fifteen studio albums, sixteen extended plays and a number of 7" singles.

The band rose to popularity with their fifth studio album Punk in Drublic (1994), which is their only release to receive gold certification by the RIAA. Their final studio album, Double Album, was released on December 2, 2022. The group has sold over eight million records worldwide, making them one of the most successful independent bands ever. In 2008, NOFX broadcast their own show on Fuse TV entitled NOFX: Backstage Passport.

On This Day 30/04/2006 Ordinary Boys

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On this day, 30 April 2006, indie rock band Ordinary Boys played Cardiff University.

Originally a hardcore outfit named Next in Line, they are influenced by punk rock and Britpop music, as well as the bands the Clash, the Specials, the Jam, the Kinks and the Smiths. Their name derives from a Morrissey song, "The Ordinary Boys".

In 2004, the Ordinary Boys released their debut album Over the Counter Culture preceded by the single "Maybe Someday". The title track "Over the Counter Culture" was featured on the soundtrack for the video game Burnout 3: Takedown. In support of the album, they embarked on tours supported by the Kaiser Chiefs, the Cribs and Hard-Fi.

In 2005, they released their second album Brassbound along with the single "Boys Will Be Boys". The single become a hit the following year, when the band's popularity grew while Preston participated in Celebrity Big Brother UK. During this time, "Boys Will Be Boys" was re-released and reached no. 3 on the UK Singles Chart and no. 1 on the UK Download Chart. That year, Simon Gold-ring replaced original drummer Charlie Stanley.

Following this, they released singles "Nine2Five" and "Lonely at the Top" to further top 10 success. In October 2006, they released their third album, How to Get Everything You Ever Wanted in Ten Easy Steps, which marked a change of sound, with more of a commercial pop feel, featuring synthesisers and samples. "I Luv U" was released as the final single from the album and became their fourth consecutive top 10 hit.

Yahoo! UK reported that "The Ordinary Boys" was the fourth most searched for keyword of 2006 in their annual top ten search results.

The song "Boys Will Be Boys" featured in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The band was also referenced in the episode "Smoke and Mirrors" from the second series of The IT Crowd.

On This Day 29/04/1997 Billy Bragg

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On this day, 29 April 1997, singer, songwriter, musician, author and political activist Billy Bragg played Cardiff University.

His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, with lyrics that mostly span political or romantic themes. His activism is centred on social change and left-wing political causes.

Bragg released the album William Bloke in 1996 after taking time off to help new partner Juliet Wills raise their son Jack. (There is a reference to him in the track "Brickbat": "Now you'll find me with the baby, in the bathroom.") After the ambitious instrumentation of Don't Try This at Home, it was a simpler record, musically, more personal and even spiritual, lyrically (its title a pun on the name of 18th-century English poet William Blake, who is referenced in the song "Upfield").

Around that time, Nora Guthrie (daughter of American folk artist Woody Guthrie) asked Bragg to set some of her father's unrecorded lyrics to music. The result was a collaboration with the band Wilco and Natalie Merchant (with whom Bragg had worked previously). They released the album Mermaid Avenue in 1998,[33] and Mermaid Avenue Vol. II in 2000. The first album was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Contemporary Folk Album category. A third batch, Mermaid Avenue Vol III, and The Complete Sessions followed in 2012 to mark Woody Guthrie's centennial.

A rift with Wilco over mixing and sequencing the first album led to Bragg recruiting his own band, The Blokes, to promote the album live. The Blokes included keyboardist Ian McLagan, who had been a member of Bragg's boyhood heroes The Faces. The documentary film Man in the Sand depicts the roles of Nora Guthrie, Bragg, and Wilco in the creation of the Mermaid Avenue albums.

Setlist

She's Got a New Spell

The World Turned Upside Down

(Leon Rosselson cover)

Goalhanger

The Man in the Iron Mask

To Have and to Have Not

Levi Stubbs' Tears

Accident Waiting to Happen

The Boy Done Good

Greetings to the New Brunette

The Saturday Boy

Brickbat

Upfield

Sexuality

Between the Wars

Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards

There Is Power in a Union

A New England

(Father's version)