On this day July 12 1975, 10cc became the first band to headline a concert at Cardiff Castle.
The Rolling Stones first raised the possibility years earlier and even went as far as to have posters made for the event, but the show never went ahead.
10cc were riding high following the massive success of the single "I'm Not In Love" released in May 1975. It became the band’s second number-one single and stayed on the top spot in the UK for two weeks from June 28, while it spent three weeks at number two in the US.
With support provided by Steeleye Span, Thin Lizzy and local favourites Man as special guests, the day proved a success despite torrential rain. By the time 10cc hit the stage, the rain had stopped and the 15,000 saturated crowd managed to enjoy the headliners set with steam rising from the drenched surroundings.
The obvious worry about the lethal mixture of water and electricity did cause worry for the performers and the crowd were warned not to approach anything electrical.
10cc opened with explosions and fireworks which sort of undermined all the warnings being issued during the day.
Such was the band's popularity that demand for tickets far exceeded supply, despite the appalling conditions.
Their manager Harvey Lisberg recalls in the excellent book 'Worst Band in the World' by Liam Newton, something about the day: "It rained and rained and rained. There were 15,000 people there, who had been waiting for hours to hear the group and another 10,000 turned away because they couldn't get anymore in and were sitting soaked through waiting for them to appear. There was a real risk that, with all those volts going through the sound system, if something went wrong one of the group might get electrocuted, so we had to make especially sure that the equipment was all right."
Kicking of their set with "Silly Love" and with three arches of lights and the illuminated Castle Keep lit up dramatically, it provided a stunning backdrop, with the band only stopping when proceedings were brought to a hasty finish with "Rubber Bullets" as the midnight curfew approached with stage times in disarray due to the weather.
The after show party was a medieval banquet which was quite fitting for such a venue. Brian Robertson of support band Thin Lizzy's memory of the evening was getting "trashed" before "walking through the grounds of the castle with Eric Stewart before getting arrested."
