On This Day 29/07/1975 Sassafras

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On this day, 29 July 1975, Welsh rock band Sassafras played Cardiff’s Top Rank. The band had not long released their second album Wheelin’ ‘N’ ‘Dealin’

The band was formed in South Wales in 1970 with guitarist Ralph Evans, bassist Ricky John Holt and drummer Rob Reynolds. David (Dai) Shell, a noted Cardiff guitarist, joined soon afterwards.

The band signed to George Martin’s AIR Productions in 1972 with a line-up completed by Terry Bennett on vocals and Robert 'Congo' Jones on drums. The band released their debut album, Expecting Company, on Polydor in 1973.

The band toured America's larger venues with such headlining groups as Ten Years After, Fleetwood Mac and Peter Frampton, played at festivals and achieved good press coverage, but never found real commercial success.

The band has been described as "a sort-of Welsh Fleetwood Mac/Eagles hybrid, with soaring west-coast melodies and a real roadtrip rock feel". In the early 1970s they held the record for highest number of gigs in a single year, with their 332 beating Slade by one.

On This Day 05/05/1975 Danny Moss

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On this day, 5 May 1975, British jazz tenor saxophonist Danny Moss played Cardiff’s New Theatre. He performed with many figures in British jazz, including Vic Lewis, Ted Heath, John Dankworth, Alex Welsh, and Humphrey Lyttelton.

The son of a toolmaker, Moss was born in Redhill, Surrey in 1927. His childhood was spent on the south coast, in the Brighton-Worthing area, and he attended Steyning Grammar School. At the age of thirteen, he saw a jazz band appear briefly in a Bowery Boys film on a family cinema visit, and was so inspired by the clarinet playing that he swapped his most valued possession, his ice skates, for a second-hand instrument of his own. He was self-taught on both this and the tenor saxophone, which he took up at school.

In 1957, Moss joined John Dankworth's orchestra. Here, with the band's encouragement, he began to develop his characteristic saxophone sound, eschewing the contemporary focus on light tone and fast phrasing in favour of a thicker and more spacious sound informed by American tenor saxophonists such as Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster. When the Dankworth band visited America, Moss' style was singled out for compliment by Count Basie, who declared his playing "real Texas tenor... the way it should sound!" He left Dankworth's band in 1962, as the band itself was winding down. From here, he joined Humphrey Lyttelton's group, where he continued to hone his style for another two years.

He then married jazz singer Jeanie Lambe on 6 January 1964, and the couple moved from London to Sussex at her suggestion. Here, he formed his own quartet, playing a mix of club gigs, festival appearances and radio broadcasts for the BBC. He continued to tour with this quartet throughout the 1970s and 1980s, also playing and recording with American singers like Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, Sarah Vaughan and Rosemary Clooney, and appeared as a guest soloist with Buck Clayton on a Humphrey Lyttelton album, Me And Buck in 1963. He worked with Louis Armstrong on his last British tour. Moss later co-founded British jazz "supergroup" Pizza Express All-Stars in 1980, playing with them until the end of the 1980s.

On This Day 03/12/1972 Suzi Quatro

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On this day, 3 December 1972, American rocker Suzi Quatro played Cardiff’s Top Rank alongside Slade and Thin Lizzy.

Quatro had moved to England in 1971, after being spotted by the record producer Mickie Most, who had by that time founded his own label, Rak Records. Most had been persuaded to see Quatro’s band Cradle by her brother Michael, who was managing the band.

Like other music producers at the time, Most was looking for a female rock singer who could fill the void created by the death of Janis Joplin. According to the Encyclopedia of Popular Music, his attention to Quatro was drawn by "her comeliness and skills as bass guitarist, singer and chief show-off in Cradle."

Quatro's first single, "Rolling Stone", was successful only in Portugal, where it reached No. 1 on the charts. This was a solo effort, although aided by people such as Duncan Browne, Peter Frampton and Alan White. Subsequently, with the approval of Most, she auditioned for a band to accompany her. It was also after this record that Most introduced her to the songwriting and production team of Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, who wrote songs specifically to accord with her image.

In 1972, Quatro embarked as a support act on a UK tour with Thin Lizzy and headliners Slade. Rak Records arranged for her to use Thin Lizzy's newly acquired PA system during this, incurring a charge of £300 per week that enabled the Irish band to effectively purchase it at no cost to themselves.

In May 1973, her second single "Can the Can" (1973) was a No. 1 hit in parts of Europe and in Australia.

On This Day 13/12/1969 Mary Hopkin

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On this day 13 December 1969, the Melody Maker reported on Welsh singer Mary Hopkin and the choice of songs for January's Eurovision Song Contest.

Mary Hopkin, Britain's 1970 representative at the contest will sing six songs from which viewers will choose the British entry.

Mary will feature one each a weekk on Cliff Richard's forthcoming BBC-1 series starting in January.

The songs chosen by Mary and the joint BBC TV and Music Publishers Association Committee are : "I'm Gonna Fall In Love Again" by Cyril Ornadel and Hal Shaper, "Easy in The Morning Of Your Life" by Alan Hawkshaw and Ray Cameron, "Can I Believe" by Valerie Avon and Harold Spiro, "Knock,Knock, Who's There?" by Geoff Stevens and John Carter, "Three Ships" by Guy Fletcher and Doug Flett, and "You've Everything You Need" by Anthony Dyball and Roger Reynolds.

At Amsterdam, the song was performed seventh on the night, after France's Guy Bonnet with "Marie-Blanche", and before Luxembourg's David Alexandre Winter with "Je suis tombé du ciel". At the end of judging that evening, "Knock, Knock Who's There?" took the second-place slot with 26 points after Ireland's "All Kinds of Everything", performed by Dana. The UK received points from nine out of a possible eleven voting juries.

The single was released in March 1970, backed by "I'm Going to Fall in Love Again" (the runner-up in the Song for Europe final) on the B-side. On 28 March 1970, "Knock, Knock Who's There?" entered the UK Singles Chart at No. 7, the highest new entry of the week. It peaked at No. 2 and remained on the chart for 14 weeks.

Rather different from her usual material, Hopkin rarely performed the song after the Eurovision due to her distaste for it. She later commented: "I was so embarrassed about it. Standing on stage singing a song you hate is awful." She also referred to it as humiliating. At the time, she conceded victory gracefully saying that "the best song won" and wished Dana well.

On This Day 24/07/1976 Status Quo

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On this day, 24 July 1976, rock band Status Quo played Cardiff Castle, headlining a package that included Strawbs, Curved Air, Hawkwind and Welsh rock band Budgie, compered by DJ John Peel.

The concert was part of the group’s Blue For You tour, promoting their Blue For You Album. The band had played two concerts at the City’s Capitol Theatre earlier in the year before returning for their prestigious Cardiff Castle gig.

Blue for You was their ninth studio album and was released in March 1976, and was the band’s last album until 1980's Just Supposin' that they produced themselves, which resulted in subsequent albums having a noticeably lighter, more pop oriented sound.

Rick Parfitt's "Rain", the first single from the album, reached No. 7 in the UK charts after its release in February 1976. Its B-side was the non-album track "You Lost the Love", written by Francis Rossi and Bob Young.

The album was released the following month. It entered the British album chart at No. 1 and stayed there for three weeks, making it one of their most successful long players.

Setlist

Junior's Wailing

(Steamhammer cover)

Backwater

Just Take Me

Is There a Better Way

In My Chair

Little Lady

Most of the Time

Rain

Forty-Five Hundred Times

Roll Over Lay Down

Big Fat Mama

Don't Waste My Time

Roadhouse Blues

(The Doors cover)

Mystery Song

Caroline

Bye Bye Johnny

(Chuck Berry cover)

On this day 16/09/1974 Shirley Bassey

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On this day, 16 September 1974, Welsh music legend Shirley Bassey played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre.

Bassey was experiencing a resurgence 1970 leading to one of the most successful periods of her career. Starting the year with a BBC Television 'Special' The Young Generation Meet Shirley Bassey, recorded in Sweden and shown on BBC1 on 18 March.

She returned to the UK with a record-breaking run of performances at the Talk of the Town nightclub. Also that year, her album Something was released, and showcased a new Bassey style, a shift from traditional pop to more contemporary songs and arrangements (the eponymous single was more successful in the UK charts than the original recording by The Beatles) – although Bassey would never completely abandon what that had been her forte: standards, show tunes, and torch songs.

Nobody Does It Like Me is a 1974 album by Shirley Bassey. Bassey's recordings had been selling well since 1970, scoring three top ten singles and three ten top albums. Nobody Does It Like Me was recorded with a new producer, George Butler, and brought a partial return to the traditional pop sound of Bassey's pre-1970s career. Here, the title track "Nobody Does It Like Me" and "When You Smile" harken back to the big band era. Bassey's soaring vocals on Paul Anka's "I'm Not Anyone" and the slightly funky "Morning in Your Eyes" contrast with a delicately rendered "Davy". The duet "Davy", recorded with the song's composer Benard Ighner, is one of the rare occasions that Bassey would share the credits with another vocalist; it was also issued as a single and hit #44 on the US Adult Contemporary chart. The album closes with Bassey's reading of Stevie Wonder's "You Are the Sunshine of My Life". This album failed to chart in the UK, and peaked at #142 in the US. Her next two studio albums would be top 15 albums in the UK.

On this day 20/08/1971 From Cowshed to Turntable

Sound Engineer Ralph Dean of Machen at the eight-track recording console at Rockfield Studio in Monmouthshire - August 1971

On this day, 20 August 1971, the South Wales Echo printed a report on the progress being made at Rockfield Studios, the legendary Welsh recording studios near Monmouth.

“The sound engineer is milking the cows,” said the voice on the other end of the telephone. The voice was speaking from a farm at Rockfield, Monmouthshire, where Kingsley Ward has put £20,000 worth of recording equipment into a disused granary.

The studio was first built in 1965 but the present one, with its eight-track recording equipment was finished last year and the first single recorded there, Dave Edmunds’ I Hear You Knocking, a massive hit, created a lot of publicity for the studio.

They are now booked up a month ahead. “We charge half the London studio prices £10.50 an hour – yet groups come down here and say the sound is better,” said Kingsley.

“It’s not because we are cheap that they like us – after all they may have a budget of £4,000 to make an album, but we are in the country. If they can’t get it together, they can go for a walk or horse-riding.

“London studios spend a lot on decor and work strictly by the clock. Our studio is a bit scruffy and there’s no clock in it. For a group who are in the studio for the first time, it’s like home from home.”

On this day August 16th 1977 The Kursaal Flyers

On this day, British pop band The Kursaal Flyers played Cardiff’s Top Rank.

Formed in Southend-on-Sea in 1973. They are most famous for their 1976 single "Little Does She Know" (which was a Top 20 hit) and were the subject of a BBC documentary following them on tour in 1975.

The group formed when Shuttleworth, Douglas, Birch, Collins, Bull and Hatfield, who had all performed locally in various combinations around Southend, got together in October 1973 to form a new band. They made their first appearance together as the Kursaal Flyers – named after the imitation train which was used to advertise Southend's famous amusement hall, the Kursaal, which had recently closed[2] – at the Blue Boar pub in Victoria Avenue, Southend-on-Sea, in February 1974, mainly playing covers of country rock songs but over time increasingly writing their own material.

Through contacts in the band with Dr. Feelgood, they played some support slots in London, where they were seen by influential agents and songwriters. All bar Hatfield turned professional at the start of 1975, signed for Jonathan King's UK Records, and released their first album Chocs Away. Although the singles "Speedway" and "Hit Records" received some airplay, the band failed to garner any commercial success. Their second album, The Great Artiste, also sold poorly.

Nevertheless the band developed a solid live reputation on the London pub rock scene, with an eclectic mixture of original material and cover versions, fronted by Paul Shuttleworth's "wide boy" persona.

The group toured widely and in 1977 released Five Live Kursaals, but failed to gain any further commercial success and, after numerous personnel changes, the band disintegrated in late 1977.