ON THIS DAY 31/08/2004 ALEXISONFIRE

On this day, 31 August 2004, Canadian post-hardcore band Alexisisonfire played Cardiff’s Barfly,

They describe their music as "the sound of two Catholic high-school girls in mid-knife-fight" (a reference to their song "A Dagger Through the Heart of St. Angeles", also the inspiration for their debut album cover art).

When the band emerged in late 2001, it was enough to impress critics as well as earning their self-titled debut album a platinum certification in Canada.

The band has released three subsequent successful studio albums since then: Watch Out! in 2004, Crisis in 2006, and Old Crows/Young Cardinals in 2009, each achieving platinum certification in their native country. Plus three special edition live albums from Manchester Academy, Birmingham Academy, and Brixton Academy.

Their accolades include a 2005 Juno Award for New Group of the Year.

In August 2011, vocalist George Pettit posted a message to fans on the band's official website stating that, following the departure of two members, that they would issue several special releases and complete a farewell tour before parting ways.

On March 9, 2015, following the previously shared post on social media the band appear to have confirmed themselves for several reunion shows, including Heavy MONTRÉAL, Reading and Leeds festivals, Sonic Boom, X-Fest, Riot Fest Toronto and the band's only American date, Riot Fest Chicago.

On September 19, 2015, during the band's last date of the tour at the Riot Fest in Toronto, Ontario, MacNeil announced on stage that the band was officially back.

On This Day 30/08/1965 The Who

On this day, 30 August 1965, legendary British rock band The Who, played Cardiff’s Sophia Gardens.

The Cardiff show is the first for The Who placed by their new booking agent, Australian Robert Stigwood. Two Stigwood acts, The Merseybeats and The Graham Bond Organization, open for The Who.

In early 1965, The Who made their first appearance on the television music show, Top of the Pops, at the BBC's Dickenson Road Studios in Manchester, with "I Can't Explain".

The follow-up single, "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere", by Townshend and Daltrey, features guitar noises such as pick sliding, toggle switching and feedback, which was so unconventional that it was initially rejected by the US arm of Decca. The single reached the top 10 in the UK and was used as the theme song to Ready Steady Go!

The transition to a hit-making band with original material, encouraged by manager Kit Lambert, did not sit well with Daltrey, and a recording session of R&B covers went unreleased.

The next single, "My Generation", followed in October. Townshend had written it as a slow blues, but after several abortive attempts, it was turned into a more powerful song with a bass solo from Entwistle. The song used gimmicks such as a vocal stutter to simulate the speech of a mod on amphetamines, and two key changes.

The debut album My Generation was released in late 1965. Among original material by Townshend, including the title track and "The Kids Are Alright", the album has several James Brown covers from the session earlier that year that Daltrey favoured.

On This Day 29/08/2006 Rolling Stones

On this day 29 August 2006, legendary rockers the Rolling Stones played Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium on their A Bigger Bang tour with support provided by The Kooks.

A Bigger Bang was a worldwide concert tour by the Rolling Stones which took place between August 2005 and August 2007, in support of their album A Bigger Bang. At the time, it was the highest grossing tour of all time, earning $558,255,524. It has since been surpassed by U2's 2009–11 U2 360 Tour, placing second as of 2019. The tour was chronicled on the video release The Biggest Bang, compiling full performances, several recordings from shows and documentaries.

After their 18 April 2006 performance in Wellington, New Zealand, the Rolling Stones took a one-month break before embarking on the European leg of their A Bigger Bang Tour. Mick Jagger remained in New Zealand to film a cameo in the sitcom The Knights of Prosperity, while Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood went to Fiji for two weeks with their wives.

During the vacation, Richards fell from a tree. After suffering a concussion, he was rushed back to Ascot Private Hospital in Auckland, New Zealand, for further observation. Although reports claimed he had been released two days later, it was soon confirmed by the hospital he underwent brain surgery on 5 May to relieve a blood clot that had gathered behind his skull. The BBC reported that upon discharge, Richards profusely thanked the hospital staff for his care.

On 15 May, Britain's The Independent newspaper said that the injury meant up to six shows could be pulled from the start of the band's European tour at an estimated cost of £1 million a show. The A Bigger Bang Tour restarted in Milan, Italy on 11 July 2006 at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza.

Personnel

Rolling Stones

Mick Jagger – lead vocals, guitars, harmonica, keyboards

Keith Richards – rhythm guitars, backing vocals

Ronnie Wood – lead guitar

Charlie Watts – drums

Additional musicians

Darryl Jones – bass

Chuck Leavell – keyboards, backing vocals

Bernard Fowler – backing vocals

Lisa Fischer – backing vocals, percussion

Blondie Chaplin – backing vocals, acoustic guitar

Bobby Keys – saxophone

Tim Ries – saxophone, keyboards

Michael Davis – trombone

Kent Smith – trumpet

Setlist

Jumpin' Jack Flash

It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (but I Like It)

Oh No, Not You Again

Let's Spend the Night Together

Live With Me

Streets of Love

Midnight Rambler

Tumbling Dice

Slipping Away

(Keith Richards on lead vocals)

Before They Make Me Run

(Keith Richards on lead vocals)

B-Stage

Miss You

Rough Justice

Start Me Up

Honky Tonk Women

Sympathy for the Devil

Paint It Black

Brown Sugar

Encore:

You Can't Always Get What You Want

(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction

On this day, 26/08/2007 Paul Van Dyk

On this day, 26 August 2007, German DJ, record producer and musician Paul Van Dyk played Coopers Field, Cardiff. Also featured were Sasha, Roger Sanchez, Pete Tong, Plump DJs, Marco V, Grooverider, Sander Van Doorn.

One of the first true renowned DJs, van Dyk was the first artist to receive a Grammy Award nomination in the newly added category of Best Dance/Electronic album for his 2003 release Reflections.

He was named the World's number one DJ in both 2005 and 2006, something few DJs have ever achieved. He was the first ever DJ to be named number one by Mixmag in 2005. By 2008, he had sold over 3 million albums worldwide.

Van Dyk released his fifth studio album, In Between, worldwide on 14 August 2007. The album, which he created over a three-year period, debuted at number No. 115 on the Billboard 200 and No. 2 on the Billboard's Top Electronic Albums and No. 1 on the Top Heatseekers.

The album was released accompanied by a special edition limited to two thousand copies which included a mixed version of the full album, along with an eight-track bonus CD and an eight-page photo anthology.[

The album was produced primarily by Paul van Dyk himself, and features a wide range of collaborators including David Byrne of Talking Heads, Jessica Sutta of the Pussycat Dolls, Ashley Tomberlin from Luminary, Alex M.O.R.P.H, Lo Fi Sugar, Rea Garvey of Reamonn, Ryan Merchant and Wayne Jackson. It also features a vocal sample from Ben Lost from Probspot's "Blows My Mind" on the song "Another Sunday". In June 2007, van Dyk embarked on the worldwide "In Between Tour" to promote the album.

On This Day 25/08/2011 Half Man Half Biscuit

On this day, 25 August 2011, Birkenhead band Half Man Half Biscuit played Cardiff University.

Known for their satirical, sardonic, and sometimes surreal songs, the band comprises lead singer and guitarist Nigel Blackwell, bassist and singer Neil Crossley, drummer Carl Henry, and guitarist Karl Benson.

Their debut album, 1985's Back in the DHSS, topped the UK Indie Chart and reached number 60 in the UK Albums Chart. Its title was a play on The Beatles' "Back in the U.S.S.R." and also a reference to the DHSS, the government department that dealt with the unemployed, Nigel Blackwell having been on unemployment benefits since 1979.

The band's first single, "The Trumpton Riots", topped the UK Indies Singles Chart in 1986, and they went on to perform at Glastonbury Festival. The second single, "Dickie Davies Eyes", also topped the indie chart. In late 1986, the band split up, giving as reason "musical similarities". The album Back Again in the DHSS, containing previously issued, unreleased and live tracks, followed.

The band reformed in 1990, with a performance at the Reading Festival following, and a new single, "Let's Not", issued before the year was out, followed in 1991 by a collaboration with Margi Clarke on a version of Edith Piaf's "No Regrets". Half Man Half Biscuit were championed by DJ John Peel, for whom they recorded twelve sessions, and it was on his programme in 1990 that the band announced their return.

Half Man Half Biscuit turned down the chance to appear on The Tube, as Tranmere Rovers were playing that night, even though Channel Four offered to fly them by helicopter to the game. Blackwell has been a fan of the team since "sometime after the Coventry City cup win in 1968".

Andy Kershaw has described Half Man Half Biscuit as "England's greatest folk band"[16] and "the most authentic British folk band since The Clash".

Setlist

The Light at the End of the Tunnel (Is the Light of an Oncoming Train)

When the Evening Sun Goes Down

Fuckin' 'Ell It's Fred Titmus

Play Video

Monmore, Hare's Running

Uffington Wassail

Petty Sessions

Bob Wilson - Anchorman

Surging Out of Convalescence

Running Order Squabble Fest

Turned Up Clocked On Laid Off

All I Want for Christmas Is a Dukla Prague Away Kit

Restless Legs

Tending the Wrong Grave for 23 Years

For What Is Chatteris...

Left Lyrics in the Practice Room

National Shite Day

Twenty Four Hour Garage People

Look Dad No Tunes

We Built This Village on a Trad. Arr. Tune

Them's the Vagaries

Vatican Broadside

(preceded by There Stands The Glass)

The Trumpton Riots

Joy Division Oven Gloves

Encore:

Tommy Walsh's Eco House

Calon Lan

([traditional] cover)

Help Me, Rhonda

(The Beach Boys cover)

Everything's A.O.R.

99% of Gargoyles Look Like Bob Todd

On This Day 24/08/1975 Queen

On this day, 24 August 1975 Supergroup Queen started recording 'Bohemian Rhapsody' at Rockfield studio' in Monmouth, South Wales. The song was recorded over three weeks.

Written by lead singer Freddie Mercury, the song is a six-minute suite, notable for its lack of a refraining chorus and consisting of several sections: an intro, a ballad segment, an operatic passage, a hard rock part and a reflective coda. It is one of the few progressive rock songs of the 1970s to achieve widespread commercial success and appeal to a mainstream audience.

Mercury referred to "Bohemian Rhapsody" as a "mock opera" that resulted from the combination of three songs he had written.

Mercury had mentally prepared the song beforehand and directed the band throughout the sessions. May, Mercury, and Taylor sang their vocal parts continually for ten to twelve hours a day, resulting in 180 separate overdubs.

According to Guitarist Brian May, much of Queen's material was written in the studio, but this song "was all in Freddie's mind" before they started.

On This Day 23/08/1966 Radio England Swinging 66 UK Tour

On this day, 23 August 1966, the Small Faces, Crispian St. Peters, Neil Christian, Dave Berry and Wayne Fontana played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre as part of the Radio England Swinging 66 UK Tour.

The tour was heavily advertised on air and gigs proved reasonably successful in the south-east of the country, where Radio England could be heard. Unfortunately outside the station's transmission area, audiences were understandably sparse. The tour proved a financial disaster, losing over £17,000.

The station attempted to get some of this back by selling autographed copies of the left-over concert programmes.

Nowadays record companies have synchronised worldwide release dates for their products but in the sixties American records were often released in the States months before they became available in the UK (and vice versa). Radio England frequently played the US releases which gave the station a unique sound and meant that it was often ahead of the competition.

It has been suggested that Radio England ultimately failed because it was “too American” for British tastes. If this is true, nowhere was the cuture gap more apparent than in the delivery of news. Listeners in the UK had never heard bulletins like this before! We were used to the BBC and its rather polite presentation of the stories of the day.

Radio London had introduced Morse bleeps between the items and a greater sense of urgency but news on Swinging Radio England was something else again. Jingles, sound effects and echo were all part of the mix. It was news as drama. Never knowingly under-stated, each bulletin was “a feature of the Radio England Department of News and Public Affairs” - “Europe's most comprehensive news service”!

On This Day 22/08/2009 U2

On this day, 22 August 2009, Irish rock band U2 played Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium on their 360° Tour with support provided by Glasvegas and The Hours.

Staged in support of the group's 2009 album No Line on the Horizon, the tour visited stadiums from 2009 through 2011. The concerts featured the band playing "in the round" on a circular stage, allowing the audience to surround them on all sides. To accommodate the stage configuration, a large four-legged structure nicknamed "The Claw" was built above the stage, with the sound system and a cylindrical, expanding video screen on top of it.

At 164 feet (50 m) tall, it was the largest stage ever constructed. U2 claimed that the tour would be "the first time a band has toured in stadiums with such a unique and original structure."

Setlist

Space Oddity (David Bowie song) (intro tape)

Breathe

No Line on the Horizon

Get on Your Boots

Magnificent

Beautiful Day

(with "Land of Our Fathers" and "Blackbird" snippets)

Mysterious Ways

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

(with "Stand By Me" snippet)

Stay (Faraway, So Close!)

Unknown Caller

The Unforgettable Fire

City of Blinding Lights

Vertigo

I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight

(remix; with "Two Tribes" snippet)

Sunday Bloody Sunday

(with "Oliver's Army" snippet)

Pride (In the Name of Love)

MLK

Walk On

(with "You'll Never Walk Alone" snippet)

Where the Streets Have No Name

(Desmond Tutu Speech)

One

Bad

(with "40" snippet)

Encore:

Ultraviolet (Light My Way)

With or Without You

Moment of Surrender

Review - Wales Online

U2 at the Millennium Stadium: 'The best gig Cardiff's ever had'

IT was one of the most eagerly anticipated gigs of the year.

And for 70,000 fans, it delivered on every count.

When U2 rolled into Cardiff last night for the last leg of their European 360 Degree Tour, they blew the audience away.

Taking centre stage and most of the audience’s breath away in the Millennium Stadium was the £20m set dubbed The Claw – which towered over the main circular stage.

As the iconic front man Bono emerged last night, clad in black and wearing his trademark sunglasses, the crowd erupted with delight.

The almost capacity 70,000 audience made it a record-breaking attendance for any gig at the stadium, outselling Take That’s 64,000 audience earlier this year.

After opening with Breathe, from the new album No Line on the Horizon, the band treated fans to a mix of their many hits from the last three decades and new songs from their latest CD.

Highlights included Beautiful Day, Mysterious Ways, Vertigo, Pride and One, as well as newer stand out songs, Get On Your Boots, Crazy Tonight and Magnificent.

Homage was also paid to The Edge’s Welsh roots, with Bono confessing to having once had singing lessons from the guitarist’s father, Garvin Evans.

“He told me to look after the consonants and the vowels will look after themselves,” Bono told the crowd, who lapped up his every word.

The Edge, whose family were in the Cardiff crowd, received a rapturous applause simply by saying “Cymru Am Byth”, before the band launched into I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For while the adoring masses sang along.

Of course, no U2 gig would be complete without a political message of democracy and freedom, and this was no exception.

The band dedicated their tracks Walk On and MLK to imprisoned Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu gave an uplifting video message before the song One.

Fans hailed the gig as possibly the greatest spectacle seen in the stadium’s 10 year history.

Martin Howarth, 25, from Swansea, said: “I’ve seen the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the stadium and the Rolling Stones but U2 were much better.

“They get such a mixed crowd because they have been going for so long. Some people knew all the words of the old stuff and others only knew the recent albums.

“You have to give them credit and say they are one of the best live bands in the world.

“I would definitely go back and see them again if they came to Cardiff.”

Lloyd James, 24, from Swansea, said: “It was unbelievable. I have never seen a gig like it before.

“The sound was fantastic and the stage looked immense.

“I’ve been to some pretty special rugby games in the Millennium Stadium before but the atmosphere was something totally different to those.

“It’s the best gig Cardiff’s ever had.”