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On this day, 24 Feb 1967, Rock legends The Yardbirds played Cardiff’s Sophia Gardens.
Formed in London in 1963. The band's core lineup featured vocalist and harmonica player Keith Relf, drummer Jim McCarty, rhythm guitarist/bassist Chris Dreja and bassist/producer Paul Samwell-Smith.
The band is known for starting the careers of three of rock's most famous guitarists, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck, all of whom ranked in the top five of Rolling Stone magazine's list of 100 greatest guitarists.
The band only played a handful of shows in the UK in 1967 before heading to Vancouver to begin their fourth tour of North America with Jimmy Page.
Their final album, Little Games, was released in July 1967, again only in the US. It was a commercial and critical non-entity. A cover of Harry Nilsson's "Ten Little Indians" charted briefly in the United States.
The Yardbirds spent much of the rest of that year touring in the US with new manager Peter Grant, their live shows becoming heavier and more experimental.
The band rarely played their 1967 Mickie Most-produced singles on stage, preferring to mix the Beck-era hits with blues standards and experimental psychedelia such as "Glimpses", a Page-written piece from Little Games featuring bowed guitars, pre-recorded noise loops and a hypnotic wah-wah guitar groove.
