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On this day, 13 July 1966, English rock band The Creation played Cardiff Top Rank.
Formed in 1966. Their best-known songs are "Making Time", which was one of the first rock songs to feature a guitar played with a bow, and "Painter Man", which made the Top 40 in the UK Singles Chart in late 1966, and reached No. 8 in the German chart in April 1967. It was covered by Boney M in 1979, and reached the No. 10 position in the UK chart.
"Making Time" was used in the movie Rushmore, and as the theme song from season 2 onwards of The Great Pottery Throw Down.
Creation biographer Sean Egan defined their style as "a unique hybrid of pop, rock, psychedelia and the avant garde."
The band's style, produced by Shel Talmy, was, at this point, loud art pop, similar to early records by The Who. Their first single, "Making Time", was a Pickett/Phillips original featuring Phillips playing his electric guitar with a violin bow. (He was reputedly the first guitarist to use this technique.) Released in June 1966 on Talmy's own label, Planet (distributed in the UK by Philips and in the US by Jay-Gee), it reached No. 49 on the UK chart. Almost immediately thereafter, The Creation suffered another lineup change when Jack Jones was fired and replaced by new drummer Dave Preston. However, the band was unsatisfied with Preston's live work,[citation needed] and in less than three weeks Jones was asked back and rejoined the group.
Their next single, October 1966's "Painter Man", became their biggest hit, reaching No. 36 UK and the top 10 in Germany. The Creation took their pop art experimentation slightly further when, during live performances of "Painter Man," Pickett would spray-paint a canvas during their concerts before a member of the road crew would set fire to the artwork on stage.
