On This Day 26/03/2007 Faithless

On this day, 26 March 2007, dance music band Faithless played Cardiff International Arena on their To All New Arrivals tour.

To All New Arrivals was the bands 5th studio album and was created after the positive response to the Faithless Greatest Hits tour, originally described as their "final tour".

The album was released on 27 November 2006, a week after the single "Bombs". The title for the album was inspired by the recent birth of two babies to band members Rollo and Sister Bliss. The album cover features the 1880 oil painting, Nightfall on the Thames, by John Atkinson Grimshaw.

The album was supported by a tour of all of the United Kingdom's major arenas, which began in Nottinghamon 17 March 2007. It entered the UK Albums Chart at number 30 for the week ending 3 December 2006. Given that their previous studio album, No Roots, entered the charts at number 1, this position was seen as a disappointment.

Lead singer Maxi Jazz loved the title, partly due to his Buddhist faith and partly due to his parents being new arrivals to the UK in the 1950s.

The track "Spiders, Crocodiles & Kryptonite" features the vocals of Robert Smith of English rock band The Cure, as well as a sample and a section of arrangement from The Cure hit "Lullaby".

Unlike the original versions of Faithless' previous studio albums, initially this album was not released in the United States.

On This Day 25/03/1989 Fishbone

On This Day, 25 March 1989, American rock band Fishbone played Cardiff’s The Venue.

Formed in 1979, the band plays a fusion of ska, punk, funk, metal, reggae, and soul. AllMusic has described the group as "one of the most distinctive and eclectic alternative rock bands of the late '80s. With their hyperactive, self-conscious diversity, goofy sense of humor, and sharp social commentary, the group gained a sizable cult following".

Fishbone first assembled as school students in 1979 with John Norwood Fisher (bass), his brother Philip "Fish" Fisher (drums), Angelo Moore (vocals, saxophones, theremin), Kendall Jones (guitar), "Dirty" Walter A. Kibby II (vocals, trumpet), and Christopher Dowd (keyboards, trombone, vocals). They achieved their greatest commercial success in the late 1980s and early 1990s, after which they went through many personnel changes.

Fishbone was primarily considered a ska and funk band during their early years, but later became more guitar-driven with a focus on rock and soul music. The 1988 album Truth and Soul brought Fishbone wide critical acclaim. With this album, the band also added social commentary to their lyrics, covering topics such as the breakup of families, contemporary racism, fascism, nuclear war, and oppression in lower income housing projects.

The album was highlighted by a hard rock-inspired version of Curtis Mayfield's classic "Freddie's Dead" from the film Super Fly. The music video, directed by Douglas Gayeton, became the band's first hit on MTV. That same year, the group toured with Red Hot Chili Peppers and became nationally known in the burgeoning alternative music scene.[16] Also that year, Fishbone and Little Richard recorded the Lead Belly song "Rock Island Line" for the tribute album Folkways: A Vision Shared.

The band added former Miles Davis sideman John Bigham on guitar and keyboards in 1989.

On This Day 24/03/1975 10cc

On this day, 24 March 1975, rock band 10cc played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre.

Formed in Stockport southeast of Manchester in 1972. The group initially consisted of four musicians, Graham Gouldman, Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, who had written and recorded together since 1968. The four members contributed to songwriting, working together in various permutations. Godley and Creme’s songwriting has been said to be inspired by art and cinema.

The four members were multi-instrumentalists, singers, writers and producers. Most of the band's records were recorded at their own Strawberry Studios (North) in Stockport and Strawberry Studios (South) in Dorking, with most of those engineered by Stewart.

In March 1975 they released their third studio album The Original Soundtrack which peaked at number 3 in the UK album charts.

The Original Soundtrack was a critical and commercial success reaching No. 3 in the UK[5] and No. 15 in the US.

Ken Barnes gave the album a rave review in Rolling Stone, commenting, "Musically there's more going on than in ten Yes albums, yet it's generally as accessible as a straight pop band (though less so than the two preceding 10cc LPs)." He particularly praised the album for being ambitious without being excessive or pretentious, and for its lyrical content.

Village Voice critic Robert Christgau panned the album, remarking of the song "I'm Not in Love": "stretching your only decent melody (a non-satirical love song) over six tedious minutes, is that a joke?"

The first single "Life Is a Minestrone" was another UK Top 10 for the band, peaking at No. 7. Their biggest success came with the song that sold the album, "I'm Not in Love", which gave the band their second UK No. 1 in June 1975, staying there for two weeks. The song also provided them with their first major US chart success when the song reached No. 2.

On This Day 23/03/2010 This Is Hell

On this day, 23 March 2010, American hardcore punk band This Is Hell played Cardiff’s Clwb Ifor Bach.

This Is Hell formed in June 2004 when Long Island musicians and members of The Backup Plan, Scraps and Heart Attacks, and Subterfuge got together after their previous bands broke up.

The name of the band was originally the title of an Elvis Costello song. The band quickly released a four-song self titled demo EP which was later pressed onto vinyl via Boston label Run for Cover Records and in Europe via Broken Glasses Records. Pressings of the EP sold out quickly and was very well received. The demo gained enough popularity to later be reissued. In support of this demo, the band played over 200 live shows in one year.

After the release of their demo and in between touring, the band started working on their next release, a self titled EP. It was released on May 16, 2005, on State of Mind Records. Later that year, the band caught the attention of hardcore punk record label Trustkill Records.

The band signed to Trustkill shortly after that, and began to work on their debut album Sundowning to be released on their new label. In May 2006 the album was released and received a very warm reception. Larger magazines including Alternative Press, Metal Hammer, and Rock Sound started featuring the small-time Long Island band, creating a rise in popularity. Their slow rise to fame was also due to their non-stop touring.

This Is Hell mutually split with their label, Trustkill Records, and signed with Rise Records. With new recruits Andrew Jones (bass) and Benny Mead (drums) they released an EP through Think Fast! Records in 2009 called Warbirds. The EP featured covers and new songs, some of which would later appear on their third studio album Weight of the World, which was released on June 8, 2010, through Rise Records.

October 11, 2011, saw the release of This Is Hell's fourth full-length studio album, Black Mass.

On This Day 22/03/2007 Lionel Richie

On this day, 22 March 2007, American singer/songwriter and Grammy/Oscar winner Lionel Richie played Cardiff International Arena on his Coming Home World Tour.

Coming Home is the eighth studio album by American singer Lionel Richie. It was released by The Island Def Jam Music Group on September 12, 2006 in the United States. A breakaway from his previous albums and their adult contemporary sounds, Richie and executive producer Antonio "L.A." Reid recruited a number of sought-after producers and songwriters from the contemporary R&B and hip-hop genres to work with him on the album, including Dallas Austin, Jerry Duplessis, Jermaine Dupri, Sean Garrett, Wyclef Jean, Rodney Jerkins, and Norwegian duo Stargate.

The album earned a generally mixed reception from music critics, who either complimented or dismissed Richie's decision to update his sound. In the United States, Coming Home debuted at number six on the US Billboard 200, becoming his biggest hit album since 1986's Dancing on the Ceiling, while selling up to 449,000 copies.

On This Day 21/03/1975 Sailor

On this day, 21 March 1975, glam pop/rock band Sailor played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre. The were support to headlining band Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel.

The group's leader, Georg Kajanus, had previously written "Flying Machine" for Cliff Richard in 1971, although it was Richard's first British single that failed to reach the top 30. Sailor developed from Kajanus Pickett, a singer-songwriter duo that had formed when Phil Pickett and Kajanus met in 1970 at E H Morris, a music publisher where Pickett briefly worked.

They later recorded the album Hi Ho Silver for Signpost Records. Sailor first came together in 1973 with the addition of musicians Henry Marsh (ex-Gringo) and Grant Serpell (ex-Affinity).

The group's work included Kajanus's invention of a special nickelodeon made of pianos, synthesizers and glockenspiels that allowed the four-piece band to reproduce on stage the acoustic arrangements that they had done in the recording studio.

The group's first UK single was "Traffic Jam" from their first album, Sailor. "A Glass of Champagne", issued late the following year (1975) from the Trouble album, reached No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart. The follow-up "Girls, Girls, Girls" also made the Top 10, but of their subsequent singles, only "One Drink Too Many" registered in the UK Top 40.

Sailor's original line-up split up in 1978, although Pickett and Marsh released more material as Sailor with Gavin and Virginia David in 1980, with an album of Pickett compositions called Dressed for Drowning, produced by James William Guercio at his Caribou studio in Colorado (Epic / Caribou).

On This Day 20/03/2005 Erasure

On this day, 20 March 2005, synth-pop duo Erasure played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall on their Erasure Show Tour The band had just released their eleventh studio album Nightbird.

Nightbird received mixed reviews and was only a moderate commercial success, charting no higher than number 27 in UK. Despite the mixed critical reception, many longtime fans of the band hailed it as a return to the sound and feel of classic Erasure albums like Wonderland and Chorus. Singer Andy Bell's revelation that he was HIV-positive just prior to the album's release shed new meaning on the songs' introspective and sometimes melancholy lyrics.

A massive concert tour accompanied this album which travelled across Europe and the UK as well as North America. The tour, dubbed The Erasure Show, featured the extravagant set designs and costume changes Erasure is known for. The tour wrapped up in June 2005.

The album graphic artwork was made by the British artist Rob Ryan.

The album's first single "Breathe" entered the UK Singles Chart at number four – Erasure's highest peak since "Always" hit number four in 1994. No singles from the album charted on the U.S. "Breathe" became Erasure's second number-one on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart – their first being "Victim of Love" in 1987.

Setlist

Mr Gribber and His Amazing Cat - Intro

No Doubt

Hideaway

Phantom Bride

Knocking on Your Door

The Circus

Breathe

Ship of Fools

Drama!

All This Time Still Falling Out of Love

Stop!

Rapture

(Blondie cover)

Ave Maria

(Charles Gounod cover)

Breath of Life

A Little Respect

I Broke It All in Two

Chains of Love

Chorus

Love to Hate You

Blue Savannah

Always

Who Needs Love Like That

Oh l'amour

Encore:

I Bet You're Mad at Me

Sometimes

On This Day 19/03/2001 Ed Harcourt

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On this day, 19 March 2001, singer/songwriter Ed Harcourt played Cardiff’s Clwb Ifor Bach.

Before going solo, Harcourt played the bass and keyboards for Snug, a band formed at school in the mid-1990s by Harcourt, James Deane, Ed Groves and Johnny Lewsley. The band recorded two albums and a handful of singles together before dissolving.

In 2000, Harcourt recorded his debut mini-album Maplewood EP straight to a 4-track recorder at Wootton Manor. After signing with Heavenly Records and releasing Maplewood in November 2000, Harcourt recorded his debut studio album Here Be Monsters with producers Gil Norton and Tim Holmes.

The album was released in June 2001, and charted on the UK Albums Chart at No. 84. One month after its release, the album was nominated for the 2001 Mercury Prize.

He later described the period as "very strange for me, I was naive, I knew nothing. I was used to making music in my room, so it felt very odd being on stage". In the US he signed with Capitol Records.