On This Day 30/05/1986 The Mission

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On this day, 24 May 1986, gothic rock band The Mission played Cardiff’s New Ocean Club on their Expedition I tour. Support was provided by Pauline Murray and The Storm.

Formed in 1986 and initially known as the Sisterhood, the band was started by frontman Wayne Hussey and bassist Craig Adams (both from the Sisters of Mercy), soon adding drummer Mick Brown (Red Lorry Yellow Lorry) and guitarist Simon Hinkler (Artery and Pulp).

Aside from Hussey, the lineup has changed several times during the years and the band has been on hiatus twice.

After an aborted recording session with Andrew Eldritch in the summer of 1985, Wayne Hussey and Craig Adams left the Sisters of Mercy. Based in Leeds, the duo continued to work on various musical ideas and recorded them over the autumn.

Dismissing the use of a drum machine, Adams and Hussey asked Mick Brown (Red Lorry Yellow Lorry) to help out with the sessions. By the end of the year, he had joined the band on a permanent basis. With Hussey as both the frontman and principal songwriter, the trio required a second guitarist to facilitate a live setup.

They recruited Simon Hinkler (Artery), who also contributed keyboards and thus completed the four-piece. The name the Sisterhood was chosen with a nod to the past and rehearsals for the first shows started in January 1986.

The new name quickly became a point of discussion in the UK music press, giving the four-piece a significant amount of publicity. As the Sisterhood, the band made their live debut on 20 January 1986 at the Alice in Wonderland, London.

While the band was on tour as support to the Cult around Europe, Eldritch released a single as the Sisterhood. Back in the UK, Hinkler was briefly dismissed and reinstated for three dates where the band revealed their new name, the Mission.

Although Hussey and Adams were still under contract with WEA, manager Tony Perrin prepared their material for a release. In May, the EP I (Serpents Kiss) appeared on the Chapter 22 label as the Expedition I tour took the band around Europe. Two months later, II (Like a Hurricane/Garden of Delight) was released on the same label and supported by a number of festival slots that culminated in an appearance at the Reading Festival.

Setlist

Wasteland

And the Dance Goes On

Garden of Delight

Naked and Savage

Bridges Burning

Stay With Me

Serpent's Kiss

The Crystal Ocean

Wake (RSV)

1969

(The Stooges cover)

Sacrilege

Like a Hurricane

(Neil Young cover)

Wishing Well

(Free cover)

Shelter From the Storm

On This Day 29/05/2004 Jesse Malin

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On this day, 29 May 2004, American rock musician, guitarist, and songwriter Jesse Malin played Cardiff’s Clwb Ifor Bach.

He began his performing career in the New York hardcore band Heart Attack, and rose to prominence as vocalist of D Generation. Since 2015, he is a solo recording artist, having recorded numerous albums including the Lucinda Williams-produced Sunset Kids. Over the course of his career, Malin has collaborated with Bruce Springsteen, Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day, Ryan Adams and numerous other musicians.

Born January 26, 1967, Malin began his music career at the age of 12, as the frontman for the seminal New York City hardcore band Heart Attack. The band auditioned at CBGBs but were denied because they couldn't bring in a drinking crowd to the bar.

Following the demise of Heart Attack in 1984, Malin worked on several other projects, including the band Hope, before joining the band D Generation for which he was the lead singer. As one of New York City's most noted bands of the 1990s [citation needed], D Generation released three albums, including the critically acclaimed [citation needed] No Lunch, before eventually disbanding in April 1999. The band reunited and released its fourth album, Nothing Is Anywhere, in 2016.

Malin didn't stop writing music and went on to form two other projects, PCP Highway (with former D Generation bandmates Howie Pyro and Joe Rizzo) and Bellvue (also named Tsing-Tsing for a brief time); the latter band released one album, To Be Somebody, on Goldenseal Records. The album included versions of songs that would later be reworked for Malin's first two solo albums, including "Solitaire", "Basement Home", "Brooklyn" and "Downliner"

On This Day 28/05/2015 Georgia Ruth

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On this day, 28 May 2015, Welsh singer/songwriter and harpist Georgia Ruth played Cardiff’s Clwb Ifor Bach.

Born in Llantwit Major in South Wales. At the age of four she moved with her family to Aberystwyth, where she was educated bilingually in English and Welsh, though her parents were not Welsh speakers.

She began to learn the harp at the age of seven, and began to perform her own music whilst studying English Literature at the University of Cambridge. Her early recordings were sent to BBC Radio Wales's Adam Walton, and acclaim led to an early BBC Introducing appearance at the 2008 Glastonbury Festival.

Her first EP, In Luna, was released on limited edition 10" vinyl in 2011. It was engineered and produced by David Wrench at the Bryn Derwen Recording Studio in Snowdonia and featured Pete Richardson from Y Niwl on drums and Pete Walton on double bass.

The EP drew critical acclaim and gained radio airplay from Huw Stephens and Steve Lamacq, leading to an appearance at the 2012 Green Man Festival. She also performed at the festival in 2014 and 2015.

Her first album, Week of Pines (2013) was once again produced by David Wrench and featured Dafydd Hughes, Iwan Hughes and Aled Hughes from Cowbois Rhos Botwnnog.

Music from the album gained significant radio airplay from Adam Walton and Bethan Elfyn on BBC Radio Wales, Huw Stephens on BBC Radio 1, Steve Lamacq[4] and Tom Robinson on BBC Radio 6 Music and Simon Raymonde on Amazing Radio. Additional live sessions were recorded on 6 Music with Lauren Laverne with interviews on BBC Radio Cymru.

The album was further promoted by live appearances at Festival N°6, BBC Introducing on BBC Radio 2 in Hyde Park, Latitude Festival and WOMEX.[8] In 2014 she appeared in session for Bob Harris on BBC Radio 2 and a collaboration with Newport-based Ballet Cymru at the Riverfront Arts Centre, in which a live performance of tracks from the album was interpreted by the company's dancers.

She made a guest appearance on "Divine Youth", from Manic Street Preachers 2014 album Futurology. She was also involved in the Ghazalaw project with Gwyneth Glyn and Tauseef Akhtar. She features on several tracks on English folk artist Jinnwoo's 2016 debut record Strangers Bring Me No Light.

Her second album Fossil Scale was released in October 2016.

On This Day 27/05/1977 The Stranglers

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On this day, 27 May 1977, Punk/New wave legends The Stranglers played Cardiff’s Top Rank on the band’s Rattus tour. The had just released their single Peaches, taken from their debut album Rattus, issued the previous month. Support was provided by punk band London.

The Stranglers' early sound was driven by Jean-Jacques Burnel's melodic bass, but also gave prominence to Dave Greenfield's keyboards. Their early music was also characterised by the growling vocals and sometimes misanthropic lyrics of both Burnel and Hugh Cornwell.

Over time, their output gradually grew more refined and sophisticated. Summing up their contribution to popular music, critic Dave Thompson later wrote: "From bad-mannered yobs to purveyors of supreme pop delicacies, the group was responsible for music that may have been ugly and might have been crude – but it was never, ever boring."

From 1976 the Stranglers became associated with the burgeoning punk rock movement, due in part to their opening for the first British tours of American punks the Ramones and Patti Smith. Notwithstanding this association, some of the movement's champions in the British musical press viewed the band with suspicion on account of their age and musical virtuosity and the intellectual bent of some of their lyrics. However, Burnel was quoted saying, "I thought of myself as part of punk at the time because we were inhabiting the same flora and fauna ... I would like to think the Stranglers were more punk plus and then some.

During their appearance at the University of Surrey on the BBC TV programme Rock Goes to College, on 11 October 1978, and aired on the 19 October, the group walked off stage because an agreement to make tickets available to non-university students had not been honoured.

On This Day 26/05/1989 Tim Finn

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On this day, 26 May 1989, former Split Enz founder and singer/songwriter Tim Finn played Cardiff University. He had earlier in the day performed at the Our Price store in Cardiff.

In late 1988, Finn recording his eponymous third album, Tim Finn, for Capitol Records.

The album yielded strong reviews and the New Zealand hit "Parihaka", based on a Māori village known for its campaign of passive resistance to European occupiers.

In 1971 Finn commenced a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Auckland. There he jammed in music practice room 129 (later the name of a Split Enz song) with friends and future Split Enz bandmembers Mike Chunn, Robert Gillies, Philip Judd and Noel Crombie.

Music soon became more important to him than his studies. In 1972 he quit university. A few months later, Phil and Tim formed the group Split Ends, renamed Split Enz in 1975, shortly before they left New Zealand for Melbourne.

Between 1975 and 1984, the group released nine studio albums. Split Enz played its last show on 4 December 1984 in Auckland.

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