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On this day, 1 November 1984, Country music legend Johnny Cash played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall.
By the 1980s country legend Johnny Cash had seen his star fade, but this forgotten man of the music industry would end up having his career reignited by a punk from Newport.
Mekons' singer Jon Langford had been a life-long Cash fan when he sneaked backstage at the Manchester Apollo in 1988 to tell his idol he and some friends were planning to make a tribute album to him.
With the help of ex-Fall guitarist-turned-radio DJ Marc Riley, the homage – entitled ’Til Things Are Brighter – featured the eclectic likes of Michelle Shocked, Marc Almond and Gaye Bikers on Acid, and the proceeds went to the Terrence Higgins Trust, the UK’s leading HIV and sexual health charity.
Cash loved the album and US journalists dubbed the hook-up “Johnny Cash Meets the Hip Britons”, pre-empting the new-found coolness the singer experienced throughout the 90s under the guidance of influential Beastie Boys producer Rick Rubin.
Between 1981 and 1984, he recorded several sessions with famed countrypolitan producer Billy Sherrill (who also produced "The Chicken in Black"), which were shelved; they would be released by Columbia's sister label, Legacy Recordings, in 2014 as Out Among the Stars.
Around this time, Cash also recorded an album of gospel recordings that ended up being released by another label around the time of his departure from Columbia (this due to Columbia closing down its Priority Records division that was to have released the recordings).
After more unsuccessful recordings were released between 1984 and 1985, Cash left Columbia Records.
SETLIST
Ring of Fire
(Merle Kilgore cover)
Folsom Prison Blues
Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down
(Kris Kristofferson cover)
Any Old Wind That Blows
Big River
City of New Orleans
(Steve Goodman cover)
I Still Miss Someone
The Baron
Why Me
(Kris Kristofferson cover)
Bottom of a Mountain
Highway Patrolman
(Bruce Springsteen cover)
I Ride an Old Paint / Streets of Laredo
Riders in the Sky
(Stan Jones and his Death Valley Rangers cover)
Paradise
(John Prine cover)
Play Video
Remember the Alamo
(Tex Ritter cover)
One Piece at a Time
They Killed Him
Chariots of Fire
(Instrumental By Earl Ball)
Detroit City
If I Were a Carpenter
(Tim Hardin cover) (with June Carter Cash)
Jackson
(Billy Edd Wheeler cover) (with June Carter Cash)
San Antonio Rose
(Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys cover) (June Carter)
Wabash Cannonball
(The Carter Family cover) (June Carter)
Lonesome Valley
(The Carter Family cover) (June Carter)
Daddy Sang Bass
I'll Fly Away
(Albert E. Brumley cover)
The Fourth Man
(Arthur Smith cover)
A Boy Named Sue
Supper Time
(Jimmie Davis cover)
Give My Love to Rose
The Ballad of Casey Jones
([traditional] cover)
Orange Blossom Special
(Rouse Brothers cover)
