On This Day 25/05/1999 Muse

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On this day, 25 May 1999, rock band Muse played Cardiff’s Coal Exchange as support to Welsh band Feeder.

Formed in 1994, theband consists of Matt Bellamy (lead vocals, guitar, keyboards), Chris Wolstenholme (bass guitar, backing vocals), and Dominic Howard (drums, percussion).

After a few years building a fanbase, Muse played their first gigs in London and Manchester supporting Skunk Anansie on tour. They had a significant meeting with Dennis Smith, the owner of Sawmills Studio, situated in a converted water mill in Cornwall. He had seen the three boys grow up as he knew their parents, and had a production company with their future manager Safta Jaffery, with whom he had recently started the record label Taste Media.

The meeting led to their first serious recordings and the release of the Muse EP on 11 May 1998 on Sawmills' in-house Dangerous label, produced by Paul Reeve. Their second EP, the Muscle Museum EP, also produced by Reeve, was released on 11 January 1999. It reached number 3 in the indie singles chart and attracted the attention of the radio broadcaster Steve Lamacq and the magazine NME.

Later in 1999, Muse performed on the Emerging Artist's stage at Woodstock '99 and signed with Smith and Jaffery. Despite the success of their second EP, British record companies were reluctant to sign Muse. After a trip to New York's CMJ Festival, Nanci Walker, then Sr. Director of A&R at Columbia Records, flew Muse to the US to showcase for Columbia Records' then-Senior Vice-president of A&R, Tim Devine, as well as for American Recording's Rick Rubin.

During this trip, on 24 December 1998, Muse signed a deal with American record label Maverick Records. Upon their return to England, Taste Media arranged deals for Muse with various record labels in Europe and Australia, allowing them control over their career in individual countries.

John Leckie was brought in alongside Reeve to produce the band's first album, Showbiz (1999). The album showcased Muse's aggressive yet melancholic musical style, with lyrics about relationships and their difficulties trying to establish themselves in their hometown.

Their second album, Origin of Symmetry (2001), incorporated wider instrumentation and romantic classical influences and earned them a reputation for energetic live performances. Absolution (2003) saw further classical influence, with strings on tracks such as "Butterflies and Hurricanes", and was the first of seven consecutive UK number-one albums.

On This Day 24/05/1977/ Subway Sect

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On this day, 24 May 1977, punk band The Subway Sect played Cardiff’s Top Rank supporting The Clash on their White Riot tour. Also on the bill were, The Slits and June Buzzcocks.

The core of the band was singer-songwriter, Vic Godard, plus assorted soul fans, who congregated around early gigs by the Sex Pistols until Malcolm McLaren suggested they form their own band.

Subway Sect were among the performers at the 100 Club Punk Festival on Monday, 21 September 1976 – sharing the bill with Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Clash and the Sex Pistols.

The first line-up of Godard on vocals, Paul Packham on drums, Paul Myers on bass and Rob Symmons on guitar lasted for four gigs before Mark Laff replaced Packham. Laff himself then left for fellow punk group Generation X after the White Riot tour.

A third drummer, Bob Ward, was recruited, and it is this line-up that can be heard on the band's first John Peel session and also on the single "Nobody's Scared". This was the first and only release on Braik Records, a label owned by Bernie Rhodes, who managed both Subway Sect and The Clash.

Rhodes subsequently supervised the recording of their debut album at Gooseberry Studios in London, with Clash sound man and producer Mickey Foote at the production helm. At that time the band toured extensively with The Clash and others.

Joe Strummer…..

“Number One for me at the moment are the Subway Sect. They've got some good ideas. The Slits are good, too. Palmolive on drums! She's the female Jerry Nolan. But like everyone, they need to do thirty gigs in thirty days and they would be a different group. Then they'd be great. The same with us.”

On This Day 23/05/2004 Less Than Jake

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On this day, 23 May 2004, American ska punk band Less Than Jake played Cardiff University on their Anthem tour.

Formed in 1992, the band consists of Chris DeMakes (guitars, vocals), Roger Lima (bass, vocals), Matt Yonker (drums), Buddy Schaub (trombone), and Peter "JR" Wasilewski (saxophone).

The group released its debut album, Pezcore, in 1995, following a series of independent seven-inch single releases. The band's subsequent two studio albums, Losing Streak (1996) and Hello Rockview (1998), were released on major label, Capitol Records, leading to increased exposure. Borders and Boundaries was released in 2000 on Fat Wreck Chords.

The band's fifth studio album Anthem (2003) was the group's most commercially successful to date. Debuting at No. 45 on the Billboard 200 (the band's highest to date), the album featured three major singles in both the US and the UK, with "She's Gonna Break Soon" (which spent a couple weeks on TRL), "The Science Of Selling Yourself Short" (which spent five weeks on the Billboard Top 40, peaking at No. 37), and "The Brightest Bulb Has Burned Out" (featuring Billy Bragg), which spent time in the UK Top 40.

Actress Alexis Bledel, known for her role as Rory Gilmore on Gilmore Girls, appeared in the video for "She's Gonna Break Soon", where she played the unnamed subject of the song, an angsty teen girl who has a nervous breakdown and destroys her bedroom over the course the song.

The band spent the rest of the year promoting the new album by playing the Warped Tour and gained support from Fall Out Boy, Yellowcard, and Bang Tango during its fall 2003 tour. The band released B Is for B-sides in July 2004.

The album comprised tracks that didn't make Anthem's final cut and was produced by Less Than Jake. The DVD retrospective The People's History of Less Than Jake appeared a month later, featuring both professional and bootleg recordings of the band. The band also held the opening spot on the main stage during the Projekt Revolution tour in the summer of 2004 with Linkin Park, Korn, Snoop Dogg, and The Used before taking a long break to write the group's next record.

Setlist

Plastic Cup Politics

Last One Out of Liberty City

Johnny Quest Thinks We're Sellouts

Welcome to the New South

The Ghosts of Me and You

Help Save the Youth of America from Exploding

Lockdown

Dopeman

Sleep It Off

The Science of Selling Yourself Short

Happyman

9th at Pine

All My Best Friends Are Metalheads

Mr. Chevy Celebrity

Automatic

Last Hour of the Last Day of Work

Escape From the A-Bomb House

Shindo

The Brightest Bulb Has Burned Out / Screws Fall Out

Encore:

Look What Happened

Gainesville Rock City

On This Day 22/05/1969 Roy Orbison

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On this day, 22 May 1969, American singer, songwriter, and guitarist Roy Orbison played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre. He was supported by The Art Movement, Ray Cameron and Moira Anderson.

He had just released his thirteenth studio album Roy Orbison's Many Moods It included two singles, both of which were minor hits in the UK; "Heartache", which just missed the Top Forty, stalling at number 44, and "Walk On", which scraped into the same chart, stopping at number 39.

Born in Texas, Orbison began singing in a rockabilly and country-and-western band as a teenager. He was signed by Sam Phillips of Sun Records in 1956, but enjoyed his greatest success with Monument Records. From 1960 to 1966, 22 of Orbison's singles reached the Billboard Top 40. He wrote or co-wrote almost all of his own Top 10 hits, including "Only the Lonely" (1960), "Running Scared" (1961), "Crying" (1961), "In Dreams" (1963), and "Oh, Pretty Woman" (1964).

Known for his distinctive and powerful voice, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. Orbison's music is mostly in the rock genre and his most successful periods were in the early 1960s and the late 1980s.

His music was described by critics as operatic, earning him the nicknames "The Caruso of Rock" and "The Big O". Many of Orbison's songs conveyed vulnerability at a time when most male rock-and-roll performers projected machismo. He performed with minimal motion and in black clothes, matching his dyed black hair and dark sunglasses.

On This Day 21/05/1995 Kirsty MacColl

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Singer songwriter Kirsty MacColl at Cardiff St David’s Hall on 21 May 1995. Photograph: Rob Watkins

On this day, 21 May 1995, singer and songwriter Kirsty MacColl played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall.

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The daughter of folk singer Ewan MacColl. She recorded several pop hits in the 1980s and 1990s, including "There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis" and cover versions of Billy Bragg's "A New England" and the Kinks' "Days".

Her first single, "They Don't Know", had chart success a few years later when covered by Tracey Ullman. MacColl also sang on a number of recordings produced by her then-husband Steve Lillywhite, most notably "Fairytale of New York" by the Pogues. Her death in 2000 led to the "Justice for Kirsty" campaign.

In 1995, she released two new singles on Virgin, "Caroline" and a cover of Lou Reed's "Perfect Day" (a duet with Evan Dando), together with the "best of" compilation Galore.

Galore became MacColl's only album to reach the top 10 in the UK Albums Chart, but neither of the new singles, nor a re-released "Days", made the Top 40. MacColl did not record again for several years; her frustration with the music business was exacerbated by a lengthy case of writer's block. MacColl herself admitted that she was ready to give up her music career and become an English teacher in South America.

On This Day 20/05/2012 The Horrors

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On this day, 20 May 2012, rock band The Horrors played Cardiff University.

Formed in Southend-on-Sea in 2005, consisting of lead vocalist Faris Badwan, guitarist Joshua Hayward, keyboardist and synthesizer player Tom Furse, bassist Rhys Webb, and drummer and percussionist Joe Spurgeon their music has been classified as garage rock, garage punk, gothic rock, shoegaze and post-punk revival.

The band have released five studio albums: Strange House (2007), Primary Colours (2009), Skying (2011), Luminous (2014) and V (2017) all of which charted within the UK Top 40.

The band joined Florence and The Machine on the UK and Ireland leg of her Ceremonials Tour in March 2012. They also headlined the Word Arena tent of 2012's Latitude Festival. In December 2012, the Horrors released the remix vinyl box set Higher.

Setlist

Mirror's Image

Who Can Say

I Can See Through You

Scarlet Fields

Dive In

Endless Blue

Changing the Rain

Sea Within a Sea

Still Life

Encore:

You Said

Moving Further Away

On This Day 18/05/1982 Altered Images

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On this day, 18 May 1982, Scottish pop band Altered Images played Cardiff’s Top Rank. The band had just released their second album Pinky Blue.

The album reached No. 12 on the UK Albums Chart, while the singles charted well, with "I Could Be Happy" peaking at No. 7, "See Those Eyes" at No. 11 and "Pinky Blue" at No. 35 on the official singles chart. This was to be their highest placed album in the charts

Their hits included "Happy Birthday", "I Could Be Happy", "See Those Eyes", and "Don't Talk to Me About Love". mainstream pop music, having six UK top 40 hit singles and three top 30 albums between 1981 and 1983. Their hits included "Happy Birthday", "I Could Be Happy", "See Those Eyes", and "Don't Talk to Me About Love".

Former schoolmates in Glasgow with a shared interest in the UK post-punk scene, Clare Grogan (vocals), Gerard "Caesar" McInulty (guitar), Michael "Tich" Anderson (drums), Tony McDaid (guitar), and Johnny McElhone (bass guitar), were all members of the Siouxsie and the Banshees official fan club.

When they learnt the Banshees were going to play in Scotland, they sent a demo tape to Billy Chainsaw, who managed the official Siouxsie fan club, with a note asking "can we support them on tour?" The Banshees gave the band a support slot on their Kaleidoscope British tour of 1980. Altered Images's name referred to a sleeve design on the Buzzcocks' single "Promises", and was inspired by Buzzcocks vocalist Pete Shelley's constant interfering with the initial sleeve designs.

Prior to finding fame with Altered Images, she had appeared in the 1981 film Gregory's Girl.
Bassist Johnny McElhone went on to perform with Hipsway and eventually Texas.

On This Day 17/05/2009 Silverstein

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On this day, 17 May 2009, Canadian rock band Silverstein played Cardiff University.

From Burlington, Ontario, and formed in 2000 their band name is a reference to the famous children's author Shel Silverstein, who the band had admired and whose work they had read as children.

They have released a total of 11 studio albums, seven EPs, a compilation album and a live DVD/CD. Their lineup remained unchanged for eleven years from December 2001 to September 2012, then consisting of lead vocalist Shane Told, lead guitarist Neil Boshart, rhythm guitarist Josh Bradford, bassist Billy Hamilton, and drummer Paul Koehler.

In September 2012, the band had announced that Neil Boshart had been fired and would be replaced by Paul Marc Rousseau, who also joined Billy Hamilton on backing vocals. The band achieved moderate success with their second studio album, Discovering the Waterfront, which was nominated for a Juno Award and reached No. 34 on the Billboard 200 charts, with the following two albums charting at similar positions. Silverstein has sold over 1,000,000 albums worldwide.

On 14 December 2008, the band announced by Myspace bulletin that their fourth album would be released by 31 March 2009. The name of the new album, A Shipwreck in the Sand, was announced on 29 January 2009, when the band concluded a viral marketing campaign by announcing the track listing via an album website, also revealing it would be a concept album. Along with the demo of "Broken Stars", which the band had been performing during their final U.S. tour in support of "Arrivals and Departures", short clips of the songs "Vices", "Born Dead" and "American Dream" were made available on MySpace On 17 March, the band filmed a music video for "Vices" with director Robby Starbuck. Later, on 23 March 2009, the band posted the full album to stream on their official MySpace page.

On 14 December 2008, the band announced by Myspace bulletin that their fourth album would be released by 31 March 2009. The name of the new album, A Shipwreck in the Sand, was announced on 29 January 2009, when the band concluded a viral marketing campaign by announcing the track listing via an album website, also revealing it would be a concept album. Along with the demo of "Broken Stars", which the band had been performing during their final U.S. tour in support of "Arrivals and Departures", short clips of the songs "Vices", "Born Dead" and "American Dream" were made available on MySpace. On 17 March, the band filmed a music video for "Vices" with director Robby Starbuck. Later, on 23 March 2009, the band posted the full album to stream on their official MySpace page.

A Shipwreck in the Sand was released on 31 March 2009 and sold nearly 17,000 copies in its first week.[32] The iTunes version of the album includes four bonus cover songs, "Help!" (The Beatles cover), "Go Your Own Way" (Fleetwood Mac Cover), "Three Miles Down" (Saves The Day cover), and "Total Bummer" (NOFX cover).

Setlist

Vices

Your Sword Versus My Dagger

Smashed Into Pieces

Bodies and Words

A Great Fire

Broken Stars

Fist Wrapped in Blood

American Dream

Call It Karma

Born Dead

The Weak and the Wounded

Apologize

(OneRepublic cover)

Smile in Your Sleep

Encore:

Three Miles Down

(Saves the Day cover)

My Heroine

(acoustic first part)

I Am the Arsonist

Bleeds No More