On This Day 20/09/1983 Gloria Gaynor

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On This Day, 20 September 1983, American singer and disco diva Gloria Gaynor played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall.

In 1980 and again in 1981, Gaynor released two disco albums that were virtually ignored in the United States due to the backlash against disco, which began late in 1979. The album's singles barely registered on urban contemporary radio, where disco music remained popular. In 1982, having looked into a wide variety of faiths and religious movements, she became a Christian and began to distance herself from a past she considered to be sinful. That same year, she released an album of mid-tempo R&B and pop-style songs entitled Gloria Gaynor.

Gaynor would achieve her final success in the 1980s with the release of her album I Am Gloria Gaynor in 1984. This was mainly due to the song "I Am What I Am", which became a hit at dance clubs, and then on the Club Play chart in late 1983/early 1984. "I Am What I Am" became a gay anthem and made Gaynor a gay icon.

On This Day 19/09/1995 The Everly Brothers

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On this day, 19 September 1995, rock and pop legends The Everly Brothers played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall.

The American rock duo, known for steel-string acoustic guitar playing and close harmony singing. Consisting of Isaac Donald "Don" Everly and Phillip "Phil" Everly, the duo combined elements of rock and roll, country, and pop, becoming pioneers of country rock.

The duo was raised in a musical family in Central City, Kentucky, first appearing on radio singing with their father Ike Everly and mother Margaret Everly as "The Everly Family" in the 1940s. They gained the attention of Chet Atkins through Merle Travis and subsequently moved to Knoxville, Tennessee while still in high school. Nashville musicians like Atkins began to promote them for national attention.

They began writing and recording their own music in 1956, and their first hit song came in 1957, with "Bye Bye Love", written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant. The song hit No. 1 in the spring of 1957, and additional hits would follow through 1958, many of them written by the Bryants, including "Wake Up Little Susie", "All I Have to Do Is Dream", and "Problems". In 1960, they signed with the major label Warner Bros. Records and recorded "Cathy's Clown", written by the brothers themselves, which was their biggest selling single. The brothers enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserve in 1961, and their output dropped off, though additional hit singles continued through 1962, with "That's Old Fashioned (That's the Way Love Should Be)" being their last top-10 hit.

Long-simmering disputes with Wesley Rose, the CEO of Acuff-Rose Music, which managed the group, and a growing drug usage in the 1960s, as well as changing tastes in popular music, led to the group's decline in popularity in its native U.S., though the brothers continued to release hit singles in the U.K. and Canada and had many highly successful tours throughout the 1960s. In the early 1970s, the brothers began releasing solo recordings, and in 1973 they officially broke up. Starting in 1983, the brothers got back together and continued to perform periodically until Phil's death in 2014. Don died seven years later.

The group was highly influential with the music of the generation that followed it. Many of the top acts of the 1960s were heavily influenced by the close-harmony singing and acoustic guitar playing of the Everly Brothers, including the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Bee Gees, and Simon & Garfunkel. In 2015, Rolling Stone ranked the Everly Brothers No. 1 on its list of the 20 Greatest Duos of All Time.

On This Day 18/09/2015 The Graveltones

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On this day, 18 September 2015, UK-based Australian two-piece heavy blues rock and roll band The Graveltones played Cardiff’s Spillers Records and the Fuel Bar.

The Graveltones formed in London in 2011 after two Australians, Jimmy O (vocals and guitar) and Mikey Sorbello (drums and noises) met in London's Tin Pan Alley. Three days after meeting in a studio for a jam they played their first gig at the 100 Club in London, in February 2011.

In late 2014, The Graveltones announced that they were in the process of rehearsing new songs for the recording of their upcoming album. In January 2015, pictures were shown on their Facebook page of them in the studio recording that album alongside producer Jamie Gomez at Orgone Studios in London.

During this time, the band also announced that the title of their second studio album will be Love Lies Dying. Since then, both the band and Classic Rock magazine have stated that the album will be available globally from 1 June 2015, with digital pre-orders to be received 31 May, with the release coming via Lagoon Dog Records.

On This Day 17/09/1976 Bay City Rollers

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On this day 17 September 1976, teen pop stars the Bay City Rollers played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre. The band had just released their fourth album Dedication. To promote the release of the album, the Bay City Rollers embarked on a worldwide tour which grossed $2 million which included sales from merchandise. The album was subsequently certified Silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

On This Day 16/09/1974 Shirley Bassey

On this day, 16 September 1974, Cardiff singing superstar Shirley Bassey played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre.

Bassey was experiencing a resurgence 1970 leading to one of the most successful periods of her career. Starting the year with a BBC Television 'Special' The Young Generation Meet Shirley Bassey, recorded in Sweden and shown on BBC1 on 18 March.

She returned to the UK with a record-breaking run of performances at the Talk of the Town nightclub. Also that year, her album Something was released, and showcased a new Bassey style, a shift from traditional pop to more contemporary songs and arrangements (the eponymous single was more successful in the UK charts than the original recording by The Beatles) – although Bassey would never completely abandon what that had been her forte: standards, show tunes, and torch songs.

Nobody Does It Like Me is a 1974 album by Shirley Bassey. Bassey's recordings had been selling well since 1970, scoring three top ten singles and three ten top albums. Nobody Does It Like Me was recorded with a new producer, George Butler, and brought a partial return to the traditional pop sound of Bassey's pre-1970s career. Here, the title track "Nobody Does It Like Me" and "When You Smile" harken back to the big band era. Bassey's soaring vocals on Paul Anka's "I'm Not Anyone" and the slightly funky "Morning in Your Eyes" contrast with a delicately rendered "Davy". The duet "Davy", recorded with the song's composer Benard Ighner, is one of the rare occasions that Bassey would share the credits with another vocalist; it was also issued as a single and hit #44 on the US Adult Contemporary chart. The album closes with Bassey's reading of Stevie Wonder's "You Are the Sunshine of My Life". This album failed to chart in the UK, and peaked at #142 in the US. Her next two studio albums would be top 15 albums in the UK.

On This Day 11/09/1964 The Rolling Stones

On this day, 11 September 1964, legendary rock band the Rolling Stones played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre. Also on the bill were, Inez and Charlie Foxx, Mike Berry & The Innocents, Simon Scott & The Le Roys, and The Mojos.

South Wales Argus

Tour set list

"Not Fade Away"

"I Just Want to Make Love to You"

"Walking the Dog"

"If You Need Me"

"Around and Around"

"I'm a King Bee"

"I'm Alright"

"It's All Over Now"

On This Day 10/09/1976 Queen

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On this day 10 September 1976, legendary British rock band Queen played Cardiff Castle. Also on the bill was Cardiff’s Andy Fairweather-Low, Frankie Miller's Full House and Manfred Mann.

Richie Blackmore & Rainbow were originally part of the package but refused to play Cardiff Castle because they couldn't get onstage their 35-foot high artificial rainbow which they regarded as an "essential part of their act". Probably they weren't allowed to put it up due to upstaging Queen.

Roger Taylor wrote about the show in the autumn '76 fan club magazine, describing the weather as "virtually a monsoon." He adds, "The sight of the rain pouring down through the spotlights on everybody, and of Freddie splashing his way through pools of water at the front of the stage will remain indelibly printed on our memories forever. The fact that people stayed on and enjoyed themselves right to the end made it quite a moving occasion for us. In fact, I was so overcome I just had to wreck me drum kit at the end, which reduced 'Crystal' my roadie to floods of tears rivalling the rain (it was a brand new kit too!). Anyway if you were there thanks for being our bravest audience ever and I hope the pneumonia cleared up."

This is assumingly the final performance of Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon.

In his Queen Live book, Queen archivist Greg Brooks alleges there is a bootleg of this show called "Queen At The Castle," but no such release ever occurred. There are no known recordings of this show.

Setlist

A Day At the Races Intro

Bohemian Rhapsody

(Rock Section)

Ogre Battle

Sweet Lady

White Queen (As It Began)

Flick of the Wrist

You're My Best Friend

Bohemian Rhapsody

Killer Queen

The March of the Black Queen

Bohemian Rhapsody

(Reprise)

Bring Back That Leroy Brown

Brighton Rock

Son and Daughter

'39

You Take My Breath Away

The Prophet's Song

Stone Cold Crazy

Doing All Right

Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon

Tie Your Mother Down

Keep Yourself Alive

Liar

In the Lap of the Gods... Revisited

Encore:

Now I'm Here

Big Spender

(Cy Coleman cover)

Jailhouse Rock

(Elvis Presley cover)

God Save the Queen

([traditional] cover)

On This Day 09/09/1975 Kraftwerk

On this day, 9 September 1975, German pioneering electronic band Kraftwerk played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre.

Kraftwerk (German pronunciation: [ˈkʁaftvɛɐ̯k], lit. "power plant") were formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize the genre.

The group began as part of West Germany's experimental krautrock scene in the early 1970s before fully embracing electronic instrumentation, including synthesizers, drum machines, and vocoders. Wolfgang Flür joined the band in 1973 and Karl Bartos in 1975, expanding the band to a quartet.

The year 1975 saw a turning point in Kraftwerk's live shows. With financial support from Phonogram Inc., in the US, they were able to undertake a tour to promote the Autobahn album, a tour which took them to the US, Canada and the UK for the first time.

The tour also saw a new, stable, live line-up in the form of a quartet. Hütter and Schneider continued playing keyboard synthesizers such as the Minimoog and ARP Odyssey, with Schneider's use of flute diminishing. The two men started singing live for the first time, and Schneider processing his voice with a vocoder live. Wolfgang Flür and new recruit Karl Bartos performed on home-made electronic percussion instruments. Bartos also used a Deagan vibraphone on stage. The Hütter-Schneider-Bartos-Flür formation remained in place until the late 1980s and is now regarded as the classic live line-up of Kraftwerk. Emil Schult generally fulfilled the role of tour manager.

After the 1975 Autobahn tour, Kraftwerk began work on a follow-up album, Radio-Activity (German title: Radio-Aktivität). After further investment in new equipment, the Kling Klang Studio became a fully working recording studio.

The group used the central theme in radio communication, which had become enhanced on their last tour of the United States. With Emil Schult working on artwork and lyrics, Kraftwerk began to compose music for the new record.

Even though Radio-Activity was less commercially successful than Autobahn in the UK and United States, the album served to open up the European market for Kraftwerk, earning them a gold disc in France. Kraftwerk made videos and performed several European live dates to promote the album. With the release of Autobahn and Radio-Activity, Kraftwerk left behind avant-garde experimentation and moved towards the electronic pop tunes for which they are best known.