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On this day, 15 April 1966, "The Big O." American rocker Roy Orbison played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre.
Also on the bill were, The Walker Brothers, Lulu, The Quotations, The Marionettes, Kim D and the Dels with the show compere Ray Cameron.
Born and raised in Texas, Orbison got his start in a rockabilly band in high school. According to The Authorized Roy Orbison, Orbison's first release was in March 1956 on the Je-Wel label.
He broke into professional music under Sam Phillips at Sun Records in the summer of 1956,[4] but found only marginal success there.
After a couple years writing for other musicians (including "Claudette" recorded by The Everly Brothers), Orbison recorded several songs at Monument Records under producer Fred Foster starting in 1959.
With Foster, Orbison and his frequent songwriting partners Joe Melson and Bill Dees tailored many of Orbison's songs for his unique voice; his most popular songs were dramatic ballads ending with emotional crescendos that showcased his powerful vocals.
After his biggest hit in 1964, "Oh, Pretty Woman", Orbison continued to record and chart intermittently in the UK, but it was not until 1987 that he again found the level of popular worldwide success he had known in the early 1960s, when his original recording of "In Dreams" was used in David Lynch's film Blue Velvet.
The following year, Orbison co-founded the supergroup Traveling Wilburys with George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Bob Dylan and Tom Petty. Lynne produced Orbison's final album Mystery Girl, which was released posthumously in February 1989.
