On This Day 16/05/1975 Alan Stivell

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On this day, 16 May 1975, Breton and Celtic musician and singer, songwriter, recording artist, and master of the Celtic harp Alan Stivell played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre.

From the early 1970s, he revived global interest in the Celtic (specifically Breton) harp and Celtic music as part of world music. As a bagpiper and bombard player, he modernized traditional Breton music and singing in the Breton language. A precursor of Celtic rock, he is inspired by the union of the Celtic cultures and is a keeper of the Breton culture.

On 28 February 1972, Stivell performed a concert in the Olympia theater, a famous music hall in Paris, where Alan and his band played music combining traditional Celtic music with modern sounds (electric guitar, drums, etc.). This concert made Stivell and his music well known throughout France. At this time, Stivell's eclectic approach to music was very new and was considered risky, but it soon became popular. Over 1,500,000 records of that concert (À l'Olympia) were sold. Alan Stivell's newfound fame propelled him to tour across France, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. He continued recording, and published a collection of Breton poetry in 1976.

Music critic Bruce Eder has stated: "[Alan Stivell's] harp recordings, with their enveloping lyricism and tightly interwoven patterns of variations, can appeal to more serious listeners of new age music. Stivell's main audience, however, lies with fans of Celtic music and culture, and English folk music. Embracing ancient and modern elements, but (apart from his folk-rock work) making no compromises to modern melodic sensibilities, his music captures the mystery and strangeness of Breton, Irish, Welsh, and Scottish landscapes that are both ageless and timeless. It is haunting, mysterious, and beautiful, with no equivalent in modern popular music and few peers in the realm of commercial folk music."

On This Day 12/05/1969 Gun

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On this day, 12 May 1969, British rock guitar trio Gun played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre.

Evolving from the Ilford-based band, The Knack, which included guitarist/vocalist Paul Gurvitz (born Paul Anthony Gurvitz, 6 July 1944, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire (although he was known by the surname Curtis until the early 1970s), his brother Adrian Gurvitz and drummer Louie Farrell, the trio changed their name in early 1968 to The Gun. The full Knack lineup had been Paul Curtis (Gurvitz) on guitar and vocals, Louie Farrell (born Brian John Farrell, 8 December 1947, Goodmayes, Essex) (who had joined The Knack in mid 1966) on drums, Gearie Kenworthy on bass guitar (born 17 October 1946), Tim Mycroft playing organ (born 1949, Purewell, Christchurch, Dorset died 1 January 2010), and for a short while, Jon Anderson of Yes.

The Knack had regularly performed at the UFO Club, supporting bands such as Pink Floyd, Arthur Brown and Tomorrow. Recording sessions at Olympic Studios produced the unreleased single "Lights on the Wall", while in November 1967 they recorded for the BBC alternative music radio programme Top Gear and twice played on air. In early 1968, the band changed its line-up to a trio, with Paul Curtis (Gurvitz) on bass, Louie Farrell on drums and Adrian Curtis (Gurvitz) on guitar.

After being signed to CBS Records in early 1968, the band scored a hit with the opening track from their eponymous album (1968), "Race with the Devil". Issued as a single in October 1968, it reached the top 10 in the UK Singles Chart, number 35 on the Australian Singles Chart and number 1 in many UK territories in March 1969.

Jimi Hendrix quoted the song's riff during his song "Machine Gun" at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970, as did Status Quo on their song "Forty Five Hundred Times" during a stage show at Apollo Theatre in Glasgow in 1976. "Race with the Devil" has been covered by Judas Priest ((1977) on the 2001 remastered CD version of Sin After Sin), Black Oak Arkansas (on their 1977 album Race with the Devil), Girlschool (on their 1980 album Demolition), and Church of Misery (on their 1996 demo, released as a split album with Acrimony, and on their full-length LP Vol. 1).

Their debut album's cover is noteworthy as it was the first by Roger Dean (credited as "W. Roger Dean" on the back of the sleeve). AllMusic described it as having a "distinctive psych-flavoured proto-metal" sound. Their second album, Gunsight included "cover design + photos" by Hipgnosis and was released in 1969.[1]

Despite releasing a number of other singles, and an attempt by their record label to identify them with the underground counter-culture, the band had no further hits.

On This Day 24/04/1964 Dave Clark Five

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On this day, 24 April 1964, sixties legends the Dave Clark Five played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre headlining a stunning bill that included The Kinks, Mark Wynter, The Mojos, The Hollies, The Treble Tones and Frank Berry.

Formed in Tottenham in 1958. In January 1964 they had their first UK top ten single, "Glad All Over", which knocked the Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" off the top of the UK Singles Chart. It peaked at No. 6 in the United States in April 1964.

Although this was their only UK No. 1, they topped the US chart in December 1965, with their cover of Bobby Day's "Over and Over".

The DC5 was promoted as the vanguard of a "Tottenham Sound", a response to Liverpool's Mersey Beat sound. Dave Clark struck business deals that allowed him to produce the band's recordings and gave him control of the master recordings.

They were the second group of the British Invasion to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show in the United States (for two weeks in March 1964 following the Beatles' three weeks the previous month). They would ultimately have 18 appearances on the show.

The group disbanded in early 1970. On 10 March 2008, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

On This Day 15/04/1973 Roxy Music

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On this day, 15 April 1973, legendary rock band Roxy Music played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre on the bands For Your Pleasure tour. Support was provided by rock band The Sharks, a newly formed band that included former Free bass player Andy Fraser and guitarist Chris Spedding.

Roxy Music's second album, For Your Pleasure, was released in March 1973. It marked the beginning of the band's long, successful collaboration with producer Chris Thomas, who worked on all of the group's classic albums and singles in the 1970s. The album was promoted with the non-album single "Pyjamarama"; no album track was released as a single. At the time Ferry was dating French model Amanda Lear; she was photographed with a black jaguar for the front cover of the album, while Ferry appears on the back cover as a dapper chauffeur standing behind a limousine.

Soon after the tour to promote For Your Pleasure ended, Brian Eno left Roxy Music amidst increasing differences with Ferry. He was replaced by 18-year-old multi-instrumentalist Eddie Jobson, formerly of progressive rockers Curved Air, who played keyboards and electric violin.

Although some fans lamented the loss of the experimental attitude and camp aesthetic that Eno had brought to the band, the classically trained Jobson was an accomplished musician. John Porter also left at this time and for the next three years Roxy would undergo several more changes in bassist, with John Gustafson, Sal Maida, John Wetton and Rick Wills all passing in and out of the band during this period.

Setlist

Do the Strand

Beauty Queen

Editions of You

In Every Dream Home a Heartache

For Your Pleasure

Grey Lagoons

The Bogus Man

Encore:

Virginia Plain

On This Day 26/03/1971 Sacha Distel

On this day, 26 March 1971, French singing star Sacha Distel played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre. Support was provided by compère comedian Ted Rogers, legendary violinist Stephane Grappelli and Lostontos.

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Alexandre "Sacha" Distel (29 January 1933 – 22 July 2004) was a French singer, guitarist, songwriter and actor who had hits with a cover version of "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" in 1970, which reached No 10 in the UK Charts, “Scoubidou", and "The Good Life". He was made Chevalier (Knight) of the Légion d'honneur in 1997.

He had also scored a hit as a songwriter when Tony Bennett recorded Sacha's song for The Good Life in 1963. It peaked at #18 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart and Top 10 on the Easy Listening chart.

Distel was the son of Russian-French émigré Léonide Distel who was born in Odessa (Russian Empire) and French-Jewish pianist Andrée Ventura (1902–1965), born in Constantinople. His uncle was bandleader Ray Ventura. After Ventura settled in Paris with his orchestra Les Collégiens, Distel gave up piano and switched to guitar.

On This Day 24/03/1958 Buddy Holly and the Crickets

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On this day, 24 March 1958, American rock n roll legends Buddy Holly and The Crickets played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre. Support was provided by Gary Miller, The Tanner Sisters, Des O,Connor and Ronnie Keene and his Orchestra. It was the penultimate gig of their one and only UK tour.

Formed by singer-songwriter Buddy Holly in January 1957. Their first hit record, "That'll Be the Day", released in May 1957, peaked at number three on the Billboard Top 100 chart on September 16, 1957.

The sleeve of their first album, The "Chirping" Crickets, shows the band line-up at the time: Holly on lead vocals and lead guitar, Niki Sullivan on rhythm guitar, Jerry Allison on drums, and Joe B. Mauldin on bass. The Crickets helped set the template for subsequent rock bands, such as the Beatles, with their guitar-bass-drums line-up, performing their own material.

Review - Cardiff and Suburban News.

HOLLY AND THE CRICKETS GIVE US LOUDEST ROCK SHOW YET!

If rowdyism, drive and down-to earth abandon are the ingredients necessary for success in the rock’n’roll field, then Buddy Holly and The Crickets are all set for a long and eventful run of popularity! They rocked their way through a tremendous, belting 25-minute act without letting up for one moment at the Capitol Theatre on Monday, and the audience shared their approval in no uncertain terms. Much of the trio’s success can be attributed to the fact that their “in person” sound is almost identical to the sound they produce on record. They generate a brand of contagious excitement that is irresistible. On Monday, they completely overpowered the 13-piece Ronnie Keene Orchestra in relation to the volume of sound produced and, at times, I felt that leader Holly’s guitar was badly over-amplified. Drummer Jerry Allison attacks his kit with murderous intent, but bassist Joe Maudin remains relatively calm, and looks rather miserable most of the time! But how these 3 boys manage to make such a big, big sound with their limited instrumentation still baffles me!

On This Day 21 March 1975 Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel

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On this day, 21 March 1975, one of UK music’s most original writer and performer’s Steve Harley played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre. Support was provided by Sailor.

The band had recently scored a massive UK no 1 hit with their single Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me) taken from the album The Best Years Of Our Lives, released earlier in the month and peaked at no 4 in the UK album charts.

In November and December 1974, the band recorded The Best Years of Our Lives at Abbey Road Studios and Air Studios in London. Speaking to Record & Popswop Mirror in November 1974, Harley said, "The best work I've done yet is on the new LP. I find that I'm not writing in such a surrealistic way anymore. I'm writing slightly more blatant, less subtle. The whole album is a theme. The whole story is a dialogue, almost between two people – or a group of people and the artist: questions and answers. It's kind of like a guy who goes through a metamorphosis and comes out of it in good shape – alive and kicking." He added to the magazine in 1975, "This album is something I believe in. It means so much to me than anything I have done before."

To promote the album, the band embarked on a UK and European tour from March 1975 onwards. On the tour, the band hired guitarist Snowy White to play rhythm guitar. In a January 1975 issue of Record & Popswop Mirror, it was announced that the upcoming tour would feature "a specially built set and lighting to reflect songs and images featured on the forthcoming album". Later in the year they toured America, as a support act for The Kinks.

On This Day 12/03/1969 Engelbert Humperdinck

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On this day, 12 March 1969, British singer Engelbert Humperdinck played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre. Support was provided by comedian Ted Rogers with special guest the Welsh songstress Mary Hopkin.

Starting as a performer in the late 1950s under the name "Gerry Dorsey", he later adopted the name of German composer Engelbert Humperdinck as a stage name and found success after he partnered with manager Gordon Mills in 1965.

His recordings of the ballads "Release Me" and "The Last Waltz" both topped the UK Singles Chart in 1967, selling more than a million copies each. Humperdinck scored further major hits in rapid succession, including "There Goes My Everything" (1967), "Am I That Easy to Forget" (1968) and "A Man Without Love" (1968). In the process, he attained a large following, with some of his most devoted fans calling themselves "Humperdinckers". Two of his singles were among the best-selling of the 1960s in the United Kingdom.

In early 1967, the changes paid off when Humperdinck's version of "Release Me" topped the charts in the United Kingdom and hit No. 4 on the US Billboard 100. Arranged by Charles Blackwell in an "orchestral country music" style, with Big Jim Sullivan and Jimmy Page as session musicians and a full chorus joining Humperdinck on the third refrain, the record kept the Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever"/"Penny Lane" from the top slot in the United Kingdom (for the first time since 1963).

The B-side of "Release Me", "Ten Guitars", continues to be enormously popular in New Zealand. "Release Me" spent 56 weeks in the Top 50 in a continuous chart run, and was believed to have sold 85,000 copies a day at the height of its popularity. The song has remained at the core of Humperdinck's repertoire ever since. Humperdinck's easygoing style and good looks soon earned him a large following, particularly among women. His hardcore female fans called themselves "Humperdinckers". "Release Me" was succeeded by two more hit ballads: "There Goes My Everything" and "The Last Waltz", earning him a reputation as a crooner, a description which he disputed. As Humperdinck told Hollywood Reporter writer Rick Sherwood:

"f you are not a crooner it's something you don't want to be called. No crooner has the range I have. I can hit notes a bank could not cash. What I am is a contemporary singer, a stylised performer."