On this day 05/11/1965 Gene Pitney

On this day, 5 November 1965, American singing star Gene Pitney played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre.

Also on the bill were the Rockin' Berries, Lulu & The Luvvers, Peter & Gordon, Mike Cotton Sound, The Quiet Five, with Syd & Eddie (comperes).

In the United Kingdom, Pitney had 22 top 40 hits, and 11 singles in the top ten. Among his most famous hits are "Town Without Pity", "(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance", "Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa", "I'm Gonna Be Strong", and "It Hurts To Be In Love". He also wrote the early 1960s hits "Rubber Ball" recorded by Bobby Vee, "Hello Mary Lou" by Rick Nelson, and "He's a Rebel" by the Crystals. In 2002, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Pitney maintained a successful career in Britain and the rest of Europe into the 1970s, appearing regularly on UK charts as late as 1974.

Pitney was touring the UK in the spring of 2006 when his manager found him dead in his hotel room following a concert in Cardiff, Wales, on April 5.

An autopsy found the cause of death to be a heart attack and that he had severely occluded coronary arteries. His final show at Cardiff's St David's Hall had earned him a standing ovation; he ended with "Town Without Pity".

He was buried at Somers Center Cemetery in Somers, Connecticut.

On this day 09/08/1992 The Troggs

Images may be subject to copyright

On this day, 9 August 1992, rock band The Troggs played the Heineken Music Big Top, Swansea.

The Troggs (originally called the Troglodytes) are an English garage rock band formed in Andover, Hampshire in May 1964. They had a number of hits in the United Kingdom and the United States.

Their most famous songs include the US chart-topper "Wild Thing", "With a Girl Like You" and "Love Is All Around", all of which sold over 1 million copies and were awarded gold discs.

"Wild Thing" is ranked #257 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and was an influence on garage rock and punk rock.

The Troggs are widely seen as a highly influential band whose sound was an inspiration for garage rock and punk rock. Influential American critic Lester Bangs "called the band the progenitors of punk", according to NPR. For example, the Troggs influenced artists such as Iggy Pop, and the early version of British pop-punk pioneers Buzzcocks featured "I Can't Control Myself" in their live repertoire.

The Ramones are also among the punk bands who cited the Troggs as an influence. "I Can't Control Myself" is perhaps the most enduring favourite of critics; it continues to be championed for its originality and lasting influence by radio hosts such as "Little" Steven Van Zandt.

A specially tailored version of "Give It to Me" featured in the "Sadie's Daydream" sequence of Michelangelo Antonioni's 1966 film Blowup. "I Can't Control Myself" appears at the climax of "The Little Chaos", the 1967 short film by German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder and in the "1967" episode of the 1996 British television serial Our Friends in the North.

"With a Girl Like You" is featured uncut in a school dance scene from the 1991 Nicole Kidman/Noah Taylor movie Flirting. It also is featured in Shine, The Good Night and The Boat That Rocked. "Wild Thing" is prominent in Jonathan Demme's 1986 film Something Wild. A modified version of "Love Is All Around" was featured in the film Love Actually (2003), performed by actor Bill Nighy.

The Troggs was the name of the high school gang in the movie Bang Bang, You're Dead that persuade the main character to join them in attacking their high school. The point-and-click adventure game Hopkins FBI features "I Can't Control Myself" and "Lost Girl". Trogg is the name of one of Bane's three henchmen in Dennis O'Neil's Batman: Knightfall comic arc. The other henchmen are Bird and Zombie, named after two other popular 1960s rock bands: the Byrds and the Zombies.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience famously covered "Wild Thing" during their appearance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, introducing it as the British/American joint "national anthem", and climaxing with Hendrix burning his guitar.

On this day 26th july 1963 Nat King Cole

Images may be subject to copyright

On this Day, 26 July 1963, legendary American singer Nat King Cole played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre, with support provided by Ted Heath & His Music.

Nat King Cole, was a singer, jazz pianist, and actor and recorded over 100 songs that became hits on the pop charts.

Cole's shift to traditional pop led some jazz critics and fans to accuse him of selling out, but he never abandoned his jazz roots; as late as 1956 he recorded an all-jazz album, After Midnight, and many of his albums after this are fundamentally jazz-based, being scored for big band without strings, although the arrangements focus primarily on the vocal rather than instrumental leads.

Cole had one of his last major hits in 1963, two years before his death, with "Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer".

His trio was the model for small jazz ensembles that followed.

Cole also acted in films and on television and performed on Broadway. He was the first African-American man to host an American television series.

Until his death in 1965, Cole was an active and visible participant in the civil rights movement, playing an important role in planning the March on Washington in 1963.

In August 1948, Cole purchased a house from Col. Harry Gantz, the former husband of the silent film actress Lois Weber, in the all-white Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. The Ku Klux Klan, which was active in Los Angeles in the 1950s, responded by placing a burning cross on his front lawn.

Members of the property-owners association told Cole they did not want any "undesirables" moving into the neighborhood. Cole responded, "Neither do I. And if I see anybody undesirable coming in here, I'll be the first to complain."

He was the father of singer-songwriter Natalie Cole (1950–2015).

On This Day 8th july 66 The Who

Images may be subject to copyright

On this day, 8 July 1966, legendary rock band The Who played Cardiff’s Top Rank.

The band had released the single ‘Substitute’ a few months earlier that reached number five in the UK.

"Substitute" was primarily inspired by the 1965 soul single "The Tracks of My Tears" by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. Pete Townshend became obsessed, particularly, with the line, "Although she may be cute/She's just a substitute." This had then led Townshend "to celebrate the word with a song all its own."

The guitar solo is played by bassist John Entwistle who later said: 'I played a Gibson SG medium scale bass with wire-wound strings. When it got to the solo, because we were recording and mixing it virtually live, I thought, yeah, this should be a bass solo, so I turned my volume up and they couldn’t mix me out, so it ended up as a bass solo.'

The Who get to take a few days off as Keith becomes a father. Amanda Moon is born to the secretly-married drummer and his wife Kim on the 12 July. Keith, however, fails to bring his wife home from the hospital because he is on a three-day LSD trip.

On the day 16th/June/1967 Small Faces

Images may be subject to copyright

On this day, 16 June 1967, mod rockers the Small Faces played two shows at Cardiff’s Top Rank.

The band had not long come off a long UK tour in a package that include Roy Orbison, Paul and Barry Ryan and Jeff Beck.

Signed initially to Decca, by 1966, despite being one of the highest-grossing live acts in the country and scoring many successful singles, including four UK Top 10 chart hits, the group still had little money.

After a confrontation with infamous manager Don Arden, who tried to face down the boys' parents by claiming that the whole band were using drugs, they broke with both Arden and Decca.

They were almost straight away offered a deal with the newly established Immediate label, formed by ex-Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham.

Given a virtual open account at Olympic Studios in Barnes, London, the band progressed rapidly, working closely with engineer Glyn Johns.

The band had earlier in the month released their first single for Immediate, “Here Comes The Nice”, written by guitarist Steve Marriott and bass guitarist Ronnie Lane, which reached No 12, whilst its follow up “Itcychoo Park” released in August, made No 3 in the UK singles chart.