On This Day 17/05/2006 The Kooks

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On this day, 17 May 2006, indie rock band Kooks played Cardiff University.

Following their first tour supporting the Thrills, the Kooks recorded their debut album, Inside In/Inside Out, at Konk studios in London in 2005. Though media attention was dominated by the release of the Arctic Monkeys debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not on the same day, Inside In/Inside Out recorded first week sales of 19,098.

Later, speaking to NME, Pritchard thanked the Arctic Monkeys for "shielding" The Kooks from the press' scrutiny. "God bless the Arctic Monkeys because if it wasn't for them we wouldn't have been so shielded. We were so overshadowed by the success of Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not because it was so monster and we crept in behind everybody's back."

Entering the UK Albums Chart at number nine, it would eventually peak at number 2 for two weeks. Singles "Eddie's Gun", "Sofa Song", "You Don't Love Me", "Naïve", "She Moves in Her Own Way" and "Ooh La" achieved chart success in the UK and Europe, while "Naïve" and "She Moves in Her Own Way" put The Kooks in the top ten for the first time.

Kev Kharas, in his review for Drowned in Sound, viewed the Kooks as "a less irreverent and more melodic Art Brut, swapping that band's caustic wit for a far nicer type of honesty."[18] Kharas also noted traces of "emo" in the band's style. AllMusic's Tim Sendra noted that the band's direction was "heavily indebted to classic rock", in particular Thin Lizzy and the Dexys, ultimately though Sendra felt "the band sounds like the Kooks and no one else".

Calling the Kooks "an important reminder that there are just as many mediocre bands in the UK as there are in the United States" reviewer Jenny Eliscu of Rolling Stone claimed the album was "utterly forgettable, shoddily produced retro rock that at its worst sounds like a Brighton-accented version of the Spin Doctors". Brian Belardi of Prefix gave a positive review, describing Inside In/Inside Out as "An almost-perfect blend of '60s-style Britpop, '90s-style Britpop, and the post-punk of the new millennium".

The album went on to be certified quadruple platinum in the UK by the British Phonographic Industry within a year and certified platinum across Europe by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

The success of their debut album brought the band into mainstream media attention, winning the award for best UK and Ireland act at the MTV Awards in 2006 and picking up a Brit Awards nomination for "She Moves in Her Own Way", in 2007.

On This Day 16/05/1957 Mitchell Torok

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On this day, 16 May 1957, American country music singer-songwriter, guitarist, artist and author Mitchell Torok played Cardiff’s New Theatre as part of abill that included Cardiff born singer Shirley Bassey. He is best known for his 1953 hit record "Caribbean". He also wrote "Mexican Joe", which catapulted Jim Reeves to stardom.

Torok became a member of Louisiana Hayride on KWKH-AM in Shreveport. In 1954, his song "My Arabian Baby" appeared as the B-side of Snow's hit "I Don't Hurt Anymore". Torok gained a No. 8 country hit with "Hootchy Kootchy Henry (From Hawaii)" and in 1956, after joining Decca Records in Nashville, he had top ten success on the UK Singles Chart with his and wife Gail Reed’s song, "When Mexico Gave Up The Rhumba" and "Red Light, Green Light".

This success led to a four-month tour of the United Kingdom in 1957, headlining at the London Palladium. His shows included English comedian Dickie Henderson and Shirley Bassey. It marked the only time Torok has performed with a full pit orchestra with written arrangements on all the songs, led by Torok's own conductor, Maurice " Tex" Bromley, at the on-stage piano with him.

On This Day 15/05/1983 Iron Maiden

On this day, 15 May 1983, heavy metal rock band Iron Maiden played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall on their World Piece tour in support of their fourth album, A Piece Of Mind.

The band were supported by Grand Prix.

review - South Wales Argus

In 1983, they released their fourth studio album, Piece of Mind, which reached the No. 3 spot in the UK, and No. 14 on the Billboard 200.

Piece of Mind features the successful singles "The Trooper" and "Flight of Icarus", the latter being notable as one of the band's few songs to gain substantial airplay in the US.

The other notable songs of the album are "Where Eagles Dare" (based on so same entitled movie with Clint Eastwood starring), "Revelations", "Die with Your Boots On" and an epic "To Tame a Land" based on Frank Herbert's novel titled "Dune".

Iron Maiden played 151 concerts in Europe and North America as a part of World Piece Tour. For the very the first time they booked a massive North America tour as headliners.

Nearly 90 shows took place in 10,000 + capacity arenas, and the band sold out Madison Square Garden with a crowd of 20,000.

In London, they played four consecutive nights at the Hammersmith Odeon, then toured many large venues across Western Europe, including an extensive German leg.

The World Piece Tour was summed up by two headlining performances at the Rock & Pop Festival at the Westfalenhalle in Dortmund. The show was broadcast live to 300 million people with the exception of the song "Iron Maiden" due to the band's "violent behaviour on stage".

The final night of the tour in Dortmund saw the band "kill" their mascot Eddie after the song "Iron Maiden". Bruce Dickinson took the brain out of Eddie's head while the rest of the band kicked and pummelled the mascot, while guitarist Dave Murray smashed his Fender Stratocaster on Eddie's neck and a nearby amplifier.

Setlist

1 Intro – theme from Where Eagles Dare

2 "Where Eagles Dare" (from Piece of Mind, 1983)

3 "Wrathchild" (from Killers, 1981)

4 "The Trooper" (from Piece of Mind, 1983)

5 "Revelations" (from Piece of Mind, 1983)

6 "Flight of Icarus" (from Piece of Mind, 1983)

7 "Die with Your Boots On" (from Piece of Mind, 1983)

8 "22 Acacia Avenue" (from The Number of the Beast, 1982)

9 "The Number of the Beast" (from The Number of the Beast, 1982)

10 "Still Life" (from Piece of Mind, 1983) (Dropped after 12 June 1983)

11 "To Tame a Land" (from Piece of Mind, 1983)

12 "Phantom of the Opera" (from Iron Maiden, 1980) (Dropped after 12 June 1983)

13 "Hallowed Be Thy Name" (from The Number of the Beast, 1982)

14 "Iron Maiden" (from Iron Maiden, 1980)

15 "Run to the Hills" (from The Number of the Beast, 1982)

16 "Sanctuary" (from Iron Maiden, 1980)

17 "Drifter" (from Killers, 1981)

18 "Prowler" (from Iron Maiden, 1980)

On This Day 14/05/1995 Klaus Wunderlich

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On this day, 14 May 1995, famous German easy listening organist Klaus Wunderlich played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall.

Wunderlich was born in Chemnitz. He played the Hammond organ model C3 then mid 60s changed to model Hammond H100. Wunderlich also tried new sounds and released an album exclusively played on Hohner instruments: model Planet T, Clavinet D6 and String Melody string synthesizer (also branded as Logan String Melody).

With the introduction of the first synthesizers, Wunderlich briefly used Moog synthesizer and produced three albums with the instrument. He later combined the sound of a Hammond organ model H 100 with a Lowrey Organ Model H25-3 and Wersi model W248S which was called the "New Pop Organ Sound". Wunderlich switched to Wersi organs permanently with the introduction of the Wersi Helios model in 1976, with which he created his own unique electronic sound.

During the course of time, the Wersi Helios was not sufficient to keep up with current technology and trends so Wunderlich started to use Wersi Beta Dx400. The Beta was then combined with the Wersi Helios to again create a unique sound. The 1980s saw Wunderlich purchase the Wersi Pianostar electronic piano which he used for rhythm guitar effects only.

In 1988, Wunderlich decided to part company with the Wersi Helios and Beta and purchased a new organ to replace both older models, the Wersi Spectra.

Wunderlich also used a small Moog synthesizer Minimoog to replicate the sound of the Bass guitar on his recordings as well as in the latter half of his career playing the drums and percussion on his recordings.

As a musician Wunderlich was open to different music styles and played classical, operetta, Broadway musical, as well as popular music. He sold more than 20 million records globally, and received 13 golden albums as well as one golden cassette.

Wunderlich died in Engen.

On This Day 13/05/1969 Sounds Incorporated

On this day, 13 May1969, instrumental rock/pop band Sounds Incorporated played Cardiff’s Tito’s night club.

Sounds Incorporated formed in early 1961, in Dartford, Kent, and gained a reputation in nearby South London for the fullness of their saxophone-led instrumental sound. In August 1961, after Gene Vincent's band, The Blue Caps, had been denied permission to work in the UK, Sounds Incorporated won the opportunity to back Vincent on his British tour and on recordings in London. This led to further opportunities to back other visiting American artists, including Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Brenda Lee and Sam Cooke.

The group toured the world as the Beatles' opening act, including the July 1964 concert in Hong Kong and the August 1965 concert at New York City's Shea Stadium. Sounds Incorporated's continuing popularity ensured a stream of work, including backing duties at the televised NME awards. In December 1964, NME reported that Sounds Incorporated would appear at the Hammersmith Odeon at the "Another Beatles Christmas Show".

The group began to disintegrate in the late 1960s. Drummer Tony Newman, known for his long solos, left to work as a session musician and at one stage joined the Jeff Beck Group. He later joined Reid Hudson and James Black to form British/Canadian power trio May Blitz.

For the remaining members of Sounds Inc., Cameron's departure for a career in A&R left a gap, which was filled by Terry Fogg (percussionist and drummer) and Trevor White, the band's first true vocalist. The group soldiered on, moving to and mainly playing in Australia for their final years together. Their act became more middle-of-the-road, exemplified in their final LP, which was released in many territories but not the UK, containing more vocals than instrumentals. Sounds Inc. finally broke up in 1971

On This Day 12/05/1971 Colosseum

On this day, 12 May 1971, jazz rock band Colosseum played Cardiff’s Top Rank. Colosseum, one of the first bands to fuse jazz, rock and blues, were formed in early 1968 by drummer Jon Hiseman with tenor sax player Dick Heckstall-Smith, who had previously worked together in the New Jazz Orchestra and in The Graham Bond Organisation, where Hiseman had replaced Ginger Baker in 1966.

During a British tour in 1971, Colosseum, with doubtful enthusiasm from their management and label, set about recording shows with the Granada mobile, with the intention of capturing their onstage magic, and a clutch of hitherto unrecorded numbers, on a live album (Jon Hiseman, feeling their three studio albums to that point had lacked something of this). In Jon’s 2010 autobiography ‘Playing the Band’, it is explained that while nobody could by then recall how many shows had been recorded, the first was at Canterbury, the third was at Manchester University on 13 March, there was another at Manchester University on 18 March and the final recording was made at the Big Apple in Brighton on 27 March. Somewhere in between, there had also been a recording made at Bristol. The second show in Manchester – a free gig – was put on because the band had felt the first one was below par, with a ‘huge row’ in the dressing room after, and they were desperate to try and get something good on tape.

After the Brighton show, their manager, Gerry Bron, pulled the plug on more live recordings and Jon became despondent. However, they all listened again to the first Manchester show at Lansdowne Studios and realised it was much better than they’d reckoned at the time. Thus, five tracks from Manchester on March 13, and one from Bristol (date not given, track not identified) – according to Jon in his book, the only one from a show other than Manchester that they thought was any good – became the June 1971 double LP ‘Colosseum Live’. It would be their last album, bar a compilation of oddities, until reforming in 1994.

On This Day 11/05/1982 Nick Lowe

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On this day, 11 May 1982, English singer-songwriter, musician and producer Nick Lowe and his band Noise to Go played Cardiff’s Top Rank. The band featured Paul Carrick on vocals/keyboards, Martin Belmont/Guitar, James Eller/Bass and Bobby Irwin/Drums.

Lowe had recently released his third solo album Nick the Knife, his first since the breakup of his band Rockpile. The record still has several ties to Rockpile with Lowe's former bandmates Billy Bremner and Terry Williams both playing on the album. The album includes Lowe's slower remake of the Rockpile song "Heart"; the original version can be found on the band's album Seconds of Pleasure, sung by Bremner.

Nick the Knife reached #50 on the Billboard 200, and #99 on the UK album charts. No singles from the album made the US or UK charts, although in Canada "Stick It Where The Sun Don't Shine" hit the top 40.

Nick the Knife is notable for being one of only two Lowe solo albums with no cover versions, including only songs written or co-written by Lowe, the other album being his 1990 Party of One.

On This Day 10/05/1995 Tanita Tickaram

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On this day, 10 May 1995, British pop/folk singer-songwriter Tanita Tickaram played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall.

She had recently released her fifth studio album Lovers in the City. Jennifer Warnes provided backing vocals on four tracks on the album. One of these songs, "I Might Be Crying", was released as lead single.

A video for this single was filmed in Vietnam. The album reached No. 75 in the UK charts. "I Might Be Crying" was the first single to be released from the album, and peaked at number 64 in the UK.

"Wonderful Shadow" was the second single to be released and peaked at number 198 in the UK. "Yodelling Song" was the third and last single to be released and then only in some countries in continental Europe.

Review - South Wales Echo

Upon its release, John Harris of NME praised Lovers in the City as "shockingly decent", with Tikaram "coming out of it looking like someone who's worthy of sharing lunch with Tori, Bjork or Kate Bush". He commented on how Tikaram had "binned most of the forced intellectualism that made her sound like an eternal undergraduate" and "turned her straining, fractured baritone into something of an asset".

Setlist

You Make the Whole World Cry

Men & Women

Hot Stones

Out on the Town

Feeding the Witches

Happy Taxi

Heal You

Elephant

World Outside Your Window

Twist in My Sobriety

Good Tradition

Yodelling Song

Preyed Upon