On this day, 21 July 2002, Canadian rocker Bryan Adams played Cardiff’s Cooper’s Field on his Here I Am tour.
Adams co-wrote and performed the songs for the DreamWorks animated film Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron in 2002. The songs were included on the film's soundtrack. The most successful single from the soundtrack was "Here I Am", a British top five and German Top 20 hit. Adams received his fourth Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Song from a Motion Picture from the song.
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On this day, 20 July 2010, Scottish alternative rock band The Xcerts, played Cardiff’s Clwb Ifor Bach.
The Xcerts were originally formed by 13-year-olds Murray Macleod and Jordan Smith after meeting in the headmasters room at Robert Gordon's College in Aberdeen. When school friend Ross McTaggart joined on drums, The Xcerts went on to record two EPs at the local recording studio Captain Tom's.
In order to progress, the band moved to Brighton, England in 2006, where Macleod went to college with future Architects vocalist, Sam Carter, and would later become roommates with Architects bassist Alex Dean.
Shortly afterwards, The Xcerts parted ways with their old drummer McTaggart. A replacement was found in Tom Heron, originally from Exeter, who was living in Brighton with a mutual friend and had also become close friends with Murray and Jordan. With the newly formed trio created, the band began writing the songs that would start to spread the word of The Xcerts.
The Xcerts debut album, In The Cold Wind We Smile, was released on 30 March 2009 through Xtra Mile. It was produced by Dave Eringa. On 1 August 2009 they played at the inaugural Hevy Music Festival held in Folkestone, UK.
In 2010 they completed another headline tour, supported The Get Up Kids and played many festivals notably playing the main stage at Rockness. They will also be embarking on a tour With Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, as well as a September tour supporting Futures.
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On this day, 19 July 1968, American folk music and blues singer-songwriter and guitarist Tim Hardin played Cardiff’s Sophia Gardens.
Hardin was admired for his singing voice, described by a Los Angeles Times reviewer as "a voice which quavers between the tugs of the blues and the tender side of joy. He can sing nasty, but his forte is gentle songs whose case allows him to slip and slide through a rainbow of emotions." However, Hardin said in another interview: "I think of myself more as a singer than a songwriter and always did. It happened to be that I wrote songs. I’m a jazz singer, really, writing in a different vocabulary mode but still with a jazz feel. I don’t ever sing one song the same way. I’m an improvisational singer and player.”
He recorded "Black Sheep Boy" in 1966, a song about his drug use and the alienation from his family. Bobby Darin, Ronnie Hawkins, Bill Staines, Joel Grey, Scott Walker, and Don McLean recorded cover versions of the song.
In 1967, Verve released Tim Hardin 2, which contained one of Hardin's most famous songs, "If I Were a Carpenter". That same year, Atco, a subsidiary of Atlantic Records, released an album of earlier material called This Is Tim Hardin, featuring covers of "The House of the Rising Sun", Fred Neil's "Blues on the Ceiling" and Willie Dixon's "Hoochie Coochie Man" as well as the original songs "Fast Freight" and "Can't Slow Down". The album's liner notes state that Hardin recorded the songs in 1963–1964, well before the release of Tim Hardin 1.
By 1967, after critical acclaim for Hardin's first album and the release of This Is Tim Hardin, a wide variety of artists were covering his songs and he was in demand to tour Europe and the United States. However, the quality of his work was in decline partly because of "his own combativeness in the studio, his addiction to heroin, his drinking problems and his frustration with his lack of commercial success". He began performing poorly and missing shows, reputedly falling asleep on stage at London's Royal Albert Hall in 1968. At the time, he was viewed as enigmatic, with one journalist stating that while "his position as one of the best songwriters of his generation is unquestioned ... [he] ... courted the scene in the most fumbling manner imaginable". The same writer noted Hardin's "uninspired stage presence" and seemingly ambivalent relationship with his audience, as he often ignored them, just singing "at times badly, at times beautifully ... somehow always fascinating". The tour was cut short after Hardin contracted pleurisy.
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On this day, 18 July 2005, German heavy rockers Rammstein played Cardiff’s International Arena on their Reise Reise Tour. Support was provided by Devil Sold His Soul.,
It was on this tour that the band was faced with several lawsuits resulting from severe fire breathing accidents involving audience members.
Reise, Reise is the band’s fourth studio album reaching no 37 in the UK album charts.
Formed in Berlin in 1994. The band's lineup—consisting of lead vocalist Till Lindemann, lead guitarist Richard Kruspe, rhythm guitarist Paul Landers, bassist Oliver Riedel, drummer Christoph Schneider, and keyboardist Christian "Flake" Lorenz—has remained unchanged throughout their history, along with their approach to songwriting, which consists of Lindemann writing and singing the lyrics over instrumental pieces the rest of the band have completed beforehand.
Prior to their formation, some members were associated with the punk rock acts Feeling B and First Arsch.
Setlist
Reise, Reise
Links 2-3-4
Keine Lust
Feuer frei!
Asche zu Asche
Morgenstern
Mein Teil
Stein um Stein
Los
Du riechst so gut
Benzin
Du hast
Sehnsucht
Amerika
Encore:
Rammstein
Sonne
Ich will
Encore 2:
Ohne dich
Stripped
(Depeche Mode cover)
On this day, 16 July 1990, American rock band, Dan Reed Network, played Cardiff Arms Park in support of the Rolling Stones. The funk rock band was formed in 1984 by Dan Reed in Portland, Oregon.
The lineup was Dan Reed on vocals and guitar, Brion James on guitar, Melvin Brannon II on bass guitar, Dan Pred on drums, and Rick DiGiallonardo (formerly of Portland platinum rockers Quarterflash) on keyboard. DiGiallonardo, who was married with one child, was replaced by Blake Sakamoto on keyboard; Sakamoto, of Japanese heritage, had returned from Los Angeles, where he had been playing with future Atlantic Records artist Dear Mr. President. Lead singer Julian Raymond became vice president of Capitol Records.
In 1988, The Washington Post described the band as "easily charming [...] with an unlikely brand of heavy metal-ish rock sharpened by junk funk and plenty of rock 'n' roll theatrics".
While at the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in January 1989, Dan Reed met Nile Rodgers. The album Slam was produced by Rodgers the new collection had internal problems at Mercury Records. The band later toured Europe in the winter of 1989/1990 to support Bon Jovi.
The Rolling Stones selected the band as their main support for their first tour in nearly 10 years. The band played at the Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tour of Europe in the summer of 1990.
On this day, 11 June 1992, rock band Dire Straits played Cardiff Arms Park on their, On Every Street World Tour.
Support was provided by Was(Not Was) and Lyle Lovett.
The tour was supporting the band’s sixth and final album, On Every Street. It lasted from 23 August 1991 to 9 October 1992, and included 229 shows in 19 countries throughout Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand. The world tour sold 7.1 million tickets.
The tour lineup included Mark Knopfler (guitar, vocals), John Illsley (bass), Guy Fletcher (keyboards), Alan Clark (keyboards), Chris White (saxophone, flute), Paul Franklin (pedal steel guitar), Danny Cummings (percussion), Phil Palmer (guitar), and Chris Whitten (drums).
"The last tour was utter misery," said manager Ed Bicknell. "Whatever the zeitgeist was that we had been part of, it had passed." "Personal relationships were in trouble and it put a terrible strain on everybody, emotionally and physically," agreed Illsley. "We were changed by it."
Setlist
1. Calling Elvis
2. Walk of Life
3. Heavy Fuel
4. Romeo and Juliet
5. The Bug
6. Private Investigations
7. Sultans of Swing
8. Your Latest Trick
9. On Every Street
10. Two Young Lovers
11. Tunnel of Love
Encore #1
12. Money for Nothing
13. Brothers in Arms
14. Solid Rock
15. Wild Theme
On this day, 10 June 2008, electronic duo Goldfrapp, played The Point, Cardiff.
Formed in 1999, the duo consisted of Alison Goldfrapp (vocals, synthesiser) and Will Gregory (synthesiser).
Goldfrapp began writing and recording their fourth album, Seventh Tree, at the end of 2006 in Bath, England; released in February 2008, it débuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart. The album is a departure from the pop and electronic-dance music featured on Supernature, and features ambient and downtempo music. The band were inspired by an acoustic radio session they had performed, which led the duo to incorporate acoustic guitars into their music to create "warm" and "delicate" sounds.
The album's lead single, "A&E", reached number ten in the UK. The single received positive reviews from critics: musicOMH found it to be "a beautifully paced ballad" and Digital Spy called it "lush, folky and organic". "Happiness", the album's second single, reached number 25 in the UK. The third single, "Caravan Girl", which describes the story of a girl that suffers from amnesia, reached number 54 in the UK.
In 2008, Alison Goldfrapp took inspiration from the character of Pierrot and English Folk. The artwork for Seventh Tree featured her dressed as a clown because it is an "iconic image" with "so many different connotations". Goldfrapp chose to tone down her overtly sexual image because she felt that it was taking over the music. Her new image, inspired by Paganism, featured her dressed in white or natural-coloured flowing gowns with loose, curly blond hair.
On this day, 9 June 1995, indie rock band Pusherman played Cardiff University.
Formed in 1994, the band's lineup consisted of Andy Frank (vocals), Meredith "Yank" Reid (vocals, harmonica), Bo Ellery (bass), Martin Hoyland (guitar), Roger Swift (dorest wash board), Tony Antoniou (guitar) and Harry Harrison (drums).
Pusherman were signed to Oasis manager Marcus Russell's Ignition Records label, who released their first single entitled "First Time" in November 1995. Another single, "Whole", a 12" vinyl single, was voted single of the week by the NME, and though it was not available as a commercial release, it appeared on the NME 1996 cassette compilation Here Comes the Summer..., and Volume magazine's Volume Sixteen: Copulation Explosion! compilation.
The group's debut album, the Owen Morris–produced Floored, was released in September 1996. In November of that year, the song "Sold" from the album appeared on the CMJ New Music Monthly compilation, while another single "The Aim Indeed" was included in the UK indie compilation Indie Top 20 Volume 23.
Partly due to its members' heroin use, Pusherman disbanded in 1997. At the time of their breakup, they were being filmed by British filmmaker and music video director Mark Szaszy and photographer Corinne Day for a planned rockumentary". Afterwards singer Andy Frank moved to Los Angeles to form the band Jact along with Ted Hutt. Pusherman's other singer, Yank Reid, died in 2000.[4] Bass player Bo Ellery played on It's Jo and Danny's 2005 album Lank Haired Girl to Bearded Boy. Guitarist Martin Hoyland is a member of 9Bach.
Andy Frank died in 2008 at his home in Los Angeles, aged 42, and was buried in Portsmouth, England.
