On This Day 21/02/1978 XTC

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On this day, 21 February 1978, new wave band XTC played Cardiff’s Top Rank. The band had just released their debut album White Music.

Released on 20 January 1978. It was the follow-up to their debut, 3D EP, released three months earlier. White Music reached No. 38 in the UK Albums Chart and spawned the single "Statue of Liberty", which was banned by BBC Radio 1 for the lyric "In my fantasy I sail beneath your skirt". In April 1978, the group rerecorded "This Is Pop" as their third single.

Originally titled Black Music, referring to black comedy, the title was changed at the suggestion of both Virgin Records and the band's manager. The resultant title, White Music, refers to white noise.

White Music achieved modest success, charting in the Top 40 on the UK album charts, although its singles failed to chart. The band performed "Radios in Motion", "I'll Set Myself on Fire" and "Statue of Liberty" on BBC Two's The Old Grey Whistle Test on 14 February 1978.

XTC

Andy Partridge – guitar, harmonica, vocals

Colin Moulding – bass guitar, vocals

Barry Andrews – piano, organ

Terry Chambers – drums

Setlist

Radios in Motion;

Cross Wires;

Statue Of Liberty;

I'll Set Myself On Fire;

I'm Bugged;

New Town Animal In A Furnished Cage;

Into The Atom Age;

All Along the Watchtower;

She's So Square;

Do What You Do;

Dance Band;

Science Friction;

Neon Shuffle;

Hang On To The Night.

On This Day 20/02/1990 Michael Monroe

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On this day, 20 February 1990, Finnish rock musician Michael Monroe played Cardiff University on his No Fakin’ It tour.

After Hanoi Rocks broke up in 1985, Monroe decided to start his solo career, but first he got to work with his good friend Stiv Bators. In the Fall of 1985, Bators and Monroe were asked by Steven Van Zandt to record backing vocals in London and then fly to New York to appear on his song "Sun City" and its music video. Both agreed and recorded backing vocals for the song, and both can be seen in the music video.

In December 1985, Monroe announced that he would move to New York, and in 1986, Monroe founded his first solo band. In 1987, he released his first solo album, Nights Are So Long. The album was a moderate hit, but it attracted big record labels: In 1988, Monroe signed to Mercury Records.In 1989, Monroe's second solo album was released, titled Not Fakin' It.

The album featured guest appearances by Monroe's friends and fellow musicians, including Steven Van Zandt, Ian Hunter and Nasty Suicide. The album reached number 161 on the US Billboard Chart, and was Monroe's first album to be distributed internationally. The album also got good reviews from critics.

Music videos were shot for the singles "Dead, Jail or Rock 'N' Roll" and "Man With No Eyes". Axl Rose appeared in the music video for "Dead, Jail or Rock 'N' Roll". At that time, Michael Monroe hosted MTV's Headbangers Ball where he introduced the new music video to the world.

When Not Fakin' It was released, the Guns N' Roses record label, UZI Suicide, was re-releasing Hanoi Rocks albums in America. Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash also made a guest appearance on Monroe's Los Angeles shows in December 1989, performing the song "Looking at You".

Aerosmith's lead singer Steven Tyler had also taken notice of Monroe and asked him to perform with Aerosmith at Les Paul's 75th birthday at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York. Monroe played saxophone on the song "Big Ten Inch Record." He mostly spent the rest of 1989 and 1990 touring.

In the turn of the decade, Monroe performed along with Bryan Adams, Don Henley, Huey Lewis and Loudness in two New Year's shows at the 70,000-seat Tokyo Dome in Japan, on December 31, 1989 and January 1, 1990.

Monroe's solo career didn't prove to be as successful as he'd hoped, so in 1990 he decided to put together a new band. The band was called Jerusalem Slim, and was completed by former Billy Idol-guitarist Steve Stevens, Sami Yaffa, Greg Ellis and Ian McLagan.

On This Day 19/02/1980 Uriah Heep

On this day, 19 February 1980, rock band Uriah Heep played Cardiff’s Sophia Gardens. Support was provided by Girlschool. The band featured Cardiff’s John Sloman on vocals.

Ex-Lone Star John Sloman was brought in, a younger singer who played keyboards and guitar and was, in the words of Box, "an all rounder". But almost instantly, Lee Kerslake departed, after a row with Bron, whom the drummer accused of favouritism towards Hensley's material.

Several tracks of the next album had to be re-recorded with a new drummer, Chris Slade (of the Manfred Mann's Earth Band). Conquest LP was released in February 1980 (worldwide except the United States, where it was never released) and received 5 stars from Record Mirror, but, according to Box, "was a difficult album to record" and represented "a confused Heep", even "a mess" (in the words of Trevor Bolder).

The band went on the 10th Anniversary Tour with Girlschool as support and attracted respectable crowds. Hensley was very unhappy, primarily with Sloman, and he explained why:

“The band had chosen John and I had opposed that decision. He was a good musician and he looked great but I thought he had little going for him vocally. The way that he interpreted songs were totally different to the way I had written them. I could understand wanting to move on but this was like the difference between Black Sabbath and Gino Vannelli. We weren't addressing our basic problems, in that we weren't re-establishing our musical direction and John definitely wasn't helping us to do that.”

A meeting at the manager's office concerning the songwriting dissent was the last straw and, in September 1980, Hensley quit. Gregg Dechert, a Canadian who had worked with Sloman in Pulsar, came in and the band went on a 23-date tour of the UK. After recording an album's worth of unreleased material. Sloman left, citing musical differences for a reason. He would later go on to work with UFO, Gary Moore and Robert Palmer.

On This Day 17/02/1986 Aled Jones

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On this day, 17 February 1986, Welsh singer, radio and television presenter, and actor. Aled Jones played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall.

Jones became famous for the cover version of "Walking in the Air", the song from Channel 4's animated film The Snowman, based on the book by Raymond Briggs. The record reached number five in the UK charts in 1985. Although it is often reported that Jones sang the version used in the 1982 film, that was actually performed by Peter Auty, a St Paul's Cathedral choirboy.

In June 1985, Jones was the subject of an Emmy Award–winning BBC Omnibus documentary entitled The Treble. Jones, with the National Philharmonic Orchestra, was behind the Santa Claus: The Movie, original motion picture soundtrack, "Every Christmas Eve" of 1985.

Also in 1985, Jones was employed by Mike Oldfield to sing on his single "Pictures in the Dark", a three-voice song, on which he performed with Anita Hegerland and Barry Palmer, but the song did not reach the UK Top 40. In 1986, he sang the theme song for the Siriol Animation film A Winter Story. The song was a modest success, reaching number 51 in the UK Singles Chart.

In 1986, he sang the oratorio Athalia.

On This Day 16/02/1999 Van Morrison

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On this day, 16 February 1999, Irish legend Van Morrison played Cardiff’s Coal Exchange building.

The early to middle 1990s were commercially successful for Morrison with three albums reaching the top five of the UK charts, sold-out concerts, and a more visible public profile; but this period also marked a decline in the critical reception to his work.

The decade began with the release of The Best of Van Morrison; compiled by Morrison himself, the album was focused on his hit singles, and became a multi-platinum success remaining a year and a half on the UK charts. AllMusic determined it to be "far and away the best-selling album of his career." In 1991 he wrote and produced four songs for Tom Jones released on the Carrying A Torch album and performed a duet with Bob Dylan on BBC Arena special.

Review- South Wales Echo

The 1994 live double album A Night in San Francisco received favourable reviews as well as commercial success by reaching number eight on the UK charts. 1995's Days Like This also had large sales—though the critical reviews were not always favourable. This period also saw a number of side projects, including the live jazz performances of 1996's How Long Has This Been Going On, from the same year Tell Me Something: The Songs of Mose Allison, and 2000's The Skiffle Sessions – Live in Belfast 1998, all of which found Morrison paying tribute to his early musical influences.

In 1997, Morrison released The Healing Game. The album received mixed reviews, with the lyrics being described as "tired" and "dull", though critic Greil Marcus praised the musical complexity of the album by saying: "It carries the listener into a musical home so perfect and complete he or she might have forgotten that music could call up such a place, and then populate it with people, acts, wishes, fears."

The following year, Morrison finally released some of his previously unissued studio recordings in a two-disc set, The Philosopher's Stone. His next release, 1999's Back on Top, achieved modest success, being his highest-charting album in the US since 1978's Wavelength.

Setlist

Inarticulate Speech of the Heart No. 1

The New Symphony Sid

(Lester Young cover)

Rough God Goes Riding

Satisfied

Cleaning Windows

Give Me a Kiss

Vanlose Stairway

Ain't That Loving You, Baby

(Eddie Riff cover)

In the Afternoon / Joe Turner Sings / Don't You Make Me High

Brown Eyed Girl

How Long Has This Been Going On?

(George Gershwin cover)

Tupelo Honey

Lonely Avenue / Be-Bop-A-Lula / You Give Me Nothing But the Blues

Georgia (on My Mind)

(Hoagy Carmichael and His Orchestra cover)

Centerpiece / Outskirts of Town

That's Life

(Marion Montgomery cover)

Naked in the Jungle

It's a Man's Man's Man's World

(James Brown cover)

Have I Told You Lately

The Healing Game

On This Day 15/02/1969 Marmalade

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On this day, 15 February 1969, pop group Marmalade played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre as part of a bill that included Gene Pitney, Joe Cocker and Welsh band The Iveys, who later changed their name to Badfinger.

The band originating from the east end of Glasgow, originally formed in 1961 as The Gaylords, and then later billed as Dean Ford and the Gaylords, recording four singles for Columbia (EMI). In 1966 they changed the band's name to The Marmalade and were credited as such on all of their subsequent recorded releases with CBS Records and Decca Records until 1972. Their greatest chart success was between 1968 and 1972, placing ten songs on the UK Singles Chart, and many overseas territories, including international hits.

The band enjoyed their biggest UK success with their cover of the Beatles' "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", which topped the UK chart in January 1969, the group becoming the first Scottish group to top that chart. Their version of "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" sold around half a million in the UK, and a million copies globally by April 1969.[7] This was followed by further success with "Baby Make It Soon" (written by Tony Macaulay), which reached No. 9 in the summer of 1969.

In February 1969, the band appeared on the BBC's flagship program Colour Me Pop, (precursor to The Old Grey Whistle Test) performing a halfhour slot. They also appeared on the BBC's review of the 1960s music scene, Pop Go The Sixties, performing "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" live on the broadcast on BBC 1 on New Year's Eve 1969.

In November 1969, the band was signed to Decca Records by Decca head of A&R, Dick Rowe under a lucrative advance deal, allowing the band to write and produce their own songs, with no studio time restraints, and in their first Decca recording session, they recorded "Reflections of My Life", which would become their biggest worldwide hit, rewarding Decca's and Dick Rowe's faith in the band. Topping the charts in Europe (also Top 10 in United States and No. 1 in most of South America), it was written by Campbell and Ford,[10] and featured a "backwards" (backmasking) guitar solo by Campbell. "Reflections of My Life" has recorded over two million sales, and the writers were awarded a Special Citation of Achievement in 1998 by BMI in attaining radio broadcast performances in excess of one million in the US alone.

On This Day 14/02/1979 Stiff Little Fingers

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On this day, 14 February 1979, Irish punk band Stiff Little Fingers played Cardiff’s Grannies Night Club.

Prior to becoming Stiff Little Fingers, Jake Burns, vocals and guitar, Henry Cluney, guitar, Gordon Blair, bass, and Brian Faloon, drums, were playing in a rock music cover band, Highway Star, in Belfast. Upon the departure of Blair (who went on to play with another Belfast group, Rudi), Ali McMordie took over on bass.

Cluney had by this time discovered punk, and introduced the rest of the band to it. They decided that Highway Star was not a punk enough name, and after a brief flirtation with the name "The Fast", decided to call themselves Stiff Little Fingers, after The Vibrators' song, which appears on the album Pure Mania.

Stiff Little Fingers, especially the frontman and main songwriter Jake Burns, were heavily influenced by The Clash and Elvis Costello. According to Burns, "what [The Clash] did more than anything else was give me the confidence, through its lyrical subject matter, to realise it was OK to write about my own life and experiences."

The group started to write songs about growing up in the Troubles in late 1970s Northern Ireland. Among the first Stiff Little Fingers songs were "State of Emergency" and "Breakout".

SLF's decision to write songs about the experiences of young people growing up in The Troubles proved controversial. Some Northern Ireland punk bands felt songs about the Troubles were exploiting the sectarian conflict. There was also criticism and suspicion over the involvement and influence the management team, especially Gordon Ogilivie, was having on the band. The political differences were reinforced by musical differences as SLF's rockier punk sound contrasted with the more melodic pop punk of The Undertones and Rudi. Some of the criticism was simply down to band rivalries and jealousy.

There were a number of well-publicised arguments; The Undertones accused Stiff Little Fingers of sensationalising the Northern Ireland conflict, while they retorted that The Undertones ignored it. Michael Bradley, The Undertones bassist, tells of a confrontation in 1979 between The Undertones’ John O’Neill and SLF's Jake Burns: "He launched into Jake, not physically but verbally. Slagging his records, slagging the journalist writing the songs and slagging the band." Michael Bradley now describes ‘Suspect Device’ as "a great record, although at the time we weren't impressed, probably because they'd made a record before us".

On This Day 02/11/2001 Pitchshifter

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On this day, 11 February 2001, British industrial rock band Pitchshifter played Cardiff University University.

Pitchshifter was formed in 1989 (initially spelled Pitch Shifter) by guitarist and programmer Johnny Carter and bassist Mark Clayden, later joined by Stu Toolin, and then Jon "JS" Clayden (Mark Clayden's brother). During this time, the band played with local bands and soon gained attention of the Peaceville Records. During this time, JS went to live in France to sell paintings.

They have cited major influences as Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, Led Zeppelin, The Cure, The Doors, The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, and Ministry.

During 1990, the band started recording their début album, Industrial, with the main vocalist being Mark Clayden instead of JS, who contributed with backing vocals. The band later went on a small tour with bands like Napalm Death.

In 2000, founder Johnny Carter and drummer D.J. Walters left the band, and the band hired guitarist Matt Grundy and drummer Jason Bowld. The band later released their fifth album Deviant, which had appearances from drummer John Stanier and Jello Biafra. The band played in that year's Ozzfest.

The cover used a picture of one of Gee Vaucher's Paintings, who did artwork for Crass and Carcass. The painting shows a cross between the Pope John Paul II and Queen Elizabeth II. Due to outrage over the use of a caricature of the Pope, the album was banned in Poland. The band apologized for the artwork and changed it.