On This Day 02/09/2007 Plain White T’s

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On this day, 2 September 2007, American rock bandPlain White T’s played Cardiff’s Barfly.

From Lombard, Illinois, formed in 1997 by high school friends Tom Higgenson, Dave Tirio, and Ken Fletcher, and joined a short time later by Steve Mast. The group had a mostly underground following in Chicago basements, clubs, and bars in its early years.

The band had a number-one hit song with "Hey There Delilah", which achieved platinum status in 2007 and earned two Grammy nominations. Its songs "1234" and "Rhythm of Love" were certified platinum in 2009 and 2011.

The 2005 release, All That We Needed, was the first studio album from the reformed line-up, and featured the single "Hey There Delilah". In 2006 the band signed to Hollywood Records and recorded Every Second Counts, featuring a new version of "Hey There Delilah" with a string section.

Every Second Counts was released in September 2006. That same year, "Hey There Delilah" reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for two weeks. The song was written for the track star Delilah DiCrescenzo, whom Higgenson had met in 2002. The song received two Grammy nominations, and Every Second Counts was certified gold. In early 2006, the band teamed up with Motion City Soundtrack for a winter/spring tour.

On This Day 01/09/1978 The Pop Group

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On this day, 1 September 1978, rock band The Pop Group played Cardiff Top Rank supporting American singer Patti Smith.

The Pop Group was formed in 1977 in Bristol when teenager Mark Stewart set out to start a funk group with schoolmates John Waddington and Simon Underwood.

Inspired by the energy of punk rock but feeling the style to be too conservative, the group drew influence from the avant-garde, black music styles such as free jazz and dub, and radical political traditions.

Guitarist Gareth Sager and drummer Bruce Smith were eventually added to the group. Soon after forming, they began to gain notoriety for their live performances and were signed to Radar Records. They appeared on the cover of the NME.

The band donated the proceeds from their first high-profile tour to Amnesty International. They issued their debut single "She Is Beyond Good and Evil" in March 1979 and their debut album Y in April of that year, both to acclaim. Regardless, their moderate success was sufficient to convince Rough Trade to sign the band. During this period, Dan Catsis replaced Underwood on bass.

The band's career with Rough Trade began with the release of the single "We Are All Prostitutes." This was followed by the release of their second album For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder? (1980). Shortly afterwards the Pop Group released a split single, "Where There's a Will...", with the Slits, a band with whom they shared a drummer (Bruce Smith) and manager Dick O'Dell.

The band's last live performance was in 1980 to a crowd of 500,000 people at Trafalgar Square as part of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament protest. They split in 1981 after legal wranglings and internal disagreements.

Members of the group collaborated and joined bands such as Pigbag, Maximum Joy, Head, the Slits and Rip Rig + Panic, the latter notable for the involvement of Neneh Cherry. Stewart subsequently embarked on a solo career and went on to collaborate with Adrian Sherwood and On-U Sound, prior to a series of albums on Mute Records.

On This Day 31/08/2004 Allister

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On this day, 31 August 2004, American punk/pop band Allister played Cardiff’s Barfly. They were about to release their third studio album Before The Blackout.

The four-piece formed in 1994 as Phineas Gage when the original band members were still in high school. In 1998, Allister became one of the first bands to sign to Drive-Thru Records.

They went on hiatus in 2007, then reunited in 2010, and have been touring and recording again since. They have released six studio albums: Dead Ends and Girlfriends (1999), Last Stop Suburbia (2002), Before the Blackout (2005), Countdown to Nowhere (2010), Life Behind Machines (2012), and 20 Years and Counting (2019). The band also made a cameo appearance in the 2004 film Sleepover.

On This Day 30/08/1965 The Who

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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 29/08/1986 Excalibur

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On this day, 29 August 1986, heavy rock band Excalibur played Cardiff’s Bogey’s rock venue.

Excalibur was formed as a quartet as a school project by the 15-year olds as early as 1981. They may have very well kicked off a tradition of metal bands endlessly calling themselves 'Excalibur' all over the world going forward.

With Mick Dodson on drums the band released The Bitter End EP through Conquest Records in 1985. This EP was remixed by Conquest without the band’s permission. The Bitter End was recorded in March 1985 by Paul McBride, Paul Solynskyj, Martin Hawthorn and Mick Dodson at Woodlands Studio, UK with engineer Neil Ferguson, who went on to produce Chumbawamba.

Steve Blades bolstered the guitars in 1986 and Sykes joined the band in 1988. The band gigged at many clubs around England.

The Hot For Love single attracted attention in 1988 as much for its music as for the cover picture of a girl's butt. It was a BBC Radio 1 Friday Rock Show recording and produced by Mott The Hoople drummer Dale Griffin who worked often at the BBC.

The band had the opportunity to open for Saxon after its only full-length release, but split up after McBride left the band.

The end came after a number of farewell shows in 1992. The act had also opened for Uriah Heep and Budgie.

Setlist

I'm Telling You

Hot For Love

Back Before Dawn

Let It Go

Haunted by the Shadows

Devil in Disguise

Rough Justice

Come on and Rock

Full Circle

Early in the Morning

Sick and Tired

The Bitter End

Nightmare

Deaths Door

Face of Evil

On This Day 28/08/2016 The Tide

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On this day, 28 August 2016, American rock band The Tide played The Globe, Cardiff on their Click My Fingers Tour.

The band was formed when the Vamps announced a secret project in late December 2014 and held auditions for a US guitarist and drummer aged 18–20 to form a band. Drew and Nate were in a previous pop-punk band called "All the Above" until they were given the offer to move on.

The Tide started on February 25, 2015, consisting of 4 members: Austin Corini (born 26 December 1995) - lead vocals, Drew Dirksen (born 30 September 1996) - lead guitar and backing vocals, Levi Jones (born 21 November 1997) - bass guitar and vocals and Nate Parker (born 26 September 1996) - drum and backing vocals. Like the Vamps, the band started uploading covers on YouTube and gained a number of fans since then.

On February 18, 2015, the Vamps announced that they would be taking them on tour. The Tide have so far played shows across Europe in various countries such as Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Ireland for The Vamps UK Arena Tour. The first show of the tour kicked off in Glasgow, Scotland and the last show was in Madrid, Spain on 24 March 2016. The Tide toured the United Kingdom August - September 2016, with support acts of New Hope Club (also signed to the Vamps' record label) and Josh Taylor.

The Tide released their debut single "Young Love" on March 25, 2016. A second single, "Click My Fingers" was released on August 12, 2016. Their first EP, Click My Fingers was released on November 15, 2016. Their third single "Put the Cuffs on Me" was released on March 31, 2017, supporting their headlining tour named 'Put the Cuffs on Me Tour'. Their fourth single "Naked" was released September 8, 2017, alongside digital pre-order for their debut album Young Love. Their album was released on October 15, 2017.

On This Day 27/08/2004 Dido

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On this day, 27 August 2004, Singer songwriter Dido played Cardiff’s Motorpoint Arena, with support provided by Aqualung.

Dido had released her second album Life for Rent in 2003. Preceded by the hit single "White Flag", the album sold over 152,000 copies in the first day alone in the UK, and went on to sell over 400,000 in the first week.

Three further singles—"Life for Rent", "Don't Leave Home" and "Sand in My Shoes"—were lifted from the album, with Dido embarking on a worldwide tour in support of the album (a DVD of footage from the tour was released in 2005 entitled Live at Brixton Academy).

Following her sold-out world tour of 2004, Dido was asked to perform at three of the Live 8 concerts on 2 July 2005—performing in London, then at the Eden Project in Cornwall, before flying over to Paris, performing both solo ("White Flag") and duetting with Youssou N'Dour ("Thank You" and "Seven Seconds").

Dido's first two albums are among the best-selling albums in UK chart history, and both are in the top 10 best-selling albums of the 2000s in the UK.

In May 2019, Dido received the Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Song Collection from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors.

On This Day 25/08/2007 Kate Nash

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On this day, 25 August 2007, singer,songwriter and actress Kate Nash played Cardiff Calling, based in Bute Park in the city centre.

Nash embarked on a musical career in 2005, when she started recording after falling down the stairs and breaking her foot, which left her homebound.

She started performing live, holding her first shows in pubs, at open mic nights, and an anti-folk festival in Brighton.

After several gigs, she uploaded her music to MySpace where she secured a manager and found exposure thanks to support from Lily Allen.

Her debut single, featuring songs "Caroline's a Victim" and "Birds", was recorded and produced in Iceland by Valgeir Sigurðsson, and released through Moshi Moshi Records in February 2007.

Nash's biggest musical influences include Hole, citing their 1994 record Live Through This as her favourite album. She is also influenced by riot grrrl group Bikini Kill, crediting lead vocalist Kathleen Hanna as her idol.

Nash is also a fan of Arctic Monkeys. She appeared alongside the band in the documentary Evidently... John Cooper Clarke where she discussed the influence of John Cooper Clarke's poetry upon her lyrics, singling out the song "Foundations" in particular.

Kate has also cited M.I.A. as inspiration, claiming she was her favourite artist in 2014.[85][86] Some of her earlier influences include Buzzcocks, Celine Dion, the Spice Girls, Nirvana, Mis-Teeq, the Beatles, Pink, Blink-182, and Sum 41.

Beginning in the Girl Talk album era, Kate started to incorporate elements of punk rock and grunge into her work as well as 1990s-inspired visuals, notably in the music videos "She Rules" and "Trash". She is also known for retaining her thick London accent when she sings and makes no attempt to sing in an American accent.

Her music was used as part of an exhibition at the British Library which traced the history of Cockney English. The exhibition, which ran from November 2010 to April 2011, used Nash's music to demonstrate today's younger urban mode of Cockney English.