On This Day 21/11/1989 Rik Mayall

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On this day, 21 November 1989, actor, comedian and writer Rik Mayall played Cardiff’s St David’s on his Ton Up tour. Support was provided by Andy De La Tour.

He formed a close partnership with Ade Edmondson while they were students at Manchester University, and was a pioneer of alternative comedy in the 1980s.

Mayall starred in numerous successful comedy series throughout his career, including The Young Ones (1982–1984), The Comic Strip Presents... (1983–2012), Filthy Rich & Catflap (1987), The New Statesman (1987–1994), and man more.

Review - Steve Duffy - South Wales Echo

In the 1986, Mayall had a No. 1 hit in the UK Singles Chart, when he and his co-stars from The Young Ones teamed with Cliff Richard to record "Living Doll" for the inaugural Comic Relief campaign.

Mayall played Rick one last time in the Comic Relief stage-show and supported the Comic Relief cause for the rest of his life.

In the early 1990s, Mayall starred in humorous adverts for Nintendo games and consoles. With money from the ads, he bought his house in London which he called "Nintendo Towers".

On This Day 20/11/1988 Salt-N-Pepa

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On this day, 20 November 1988, American hip hop rap group Salt-N-Pepa played Cardiff University. The group had just released their second studio album A Salt with a Deadly Pepa.

The album spawned three singles, the top-10 R&B entry "Shake Your Thang"; the top-20 R&B entry "Get Up Everybody (Get Up)"; and "Twist and Shout", which peaked at number four on the UK Singles Chart. The album's title is a play on "assault with a deadly weapon".

Formed in New York City in 1985, they comprised Salt (Cheryl James), Pepa (Sandra Denton), and DJ Spinderella (Deidra Roper).

Their debut album, Hot, Cool & Vicious (1986), sold more than 1 million copies in the US, making them the first female rap act to achieve gold and platinum status by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

The album included the single, "Push It", which was released in 1987 as the B-side to their single "Tramp", and peaked within the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100.

On This Day 18/11/1980 Hazel O’Connor

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On this day, 18 November 1980, new wave singer/songwriter and actress Hazel O’Connor played Cardiff’s Top Rank on her 1980 Megahype tour. Support for the tour was Duran Duran.

O'Connor was born in Coventry, England. She is the daughter of a soldier from Galway who settled in England after the Second World War to work in a car plant. Her brother Neil later fronted the punk band The Flys, best known for their single "Love and a Molotov Cocktail", which she later covered.

Her film debut was in Girls Come First in 1975, where she was credited as Hazel Glyn. She became prominent as an actress and singer five years later in 1980 when playing the role of Kate in the film Breaking Glass. She also performed on the accompanying soundtrack.

“I ran away from my home in Coventry when I was 16, [...] made and sold clothes in Amsterdam, picked grapes in France, joined a dance troupe that went to Tokyo then onto Beirut (escaping the start of the civil war by one month!) travelled West Africa, crossed the Sahara, sang with a dreadful singing trio for the U.S. troops in Germany and came home to "settle down". Through all this experience of life and the world I realized that singing always cheered me up. I decided to be a singer. Through strange turns of fate I ended up in a film called 'Breaking Glass' I also ended up writing all the songs for the movie.”

— Hazel O'Connor, introduction note of the program for a gig at "At My Place" in Santa Monica, CA, 1989

Her performance as Kate won her the Variety Club of Great Britain Award for 'Best Film Actress'. She was also nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Film Music. The film's soundtrack album featured songs written and performed by O'Connor and reached number 5 in the UK Albums Chart. It had a 38-week chart run and was certified Gold by the British Phonographic Industry.

Several tracks from the album were released as singles, the most successful being "Eighth Day" and "Will You" (with a notable saxophone solo by Wesley Magoogan which both reached the UK Top 10. When O'Connor toured the UK to promote the album, the opening act were a then-unknown group called Duran Duran. It was the band's first opportunity to play to large audiences throughout the UK and gave them the exposure they needed to secure a recording contract.

On This Day 16/11//1988 The Blow Monkeys

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On this day, 16 November 1988, rock band The Blow Monkeys played Cardiff University.

Formed in 1981 when lead singer, songwriter, guitarist, bassist, and piano player Dr. Robert (born Bruce Robert Howard, 2 May 1961, Haddington, Scotland) returned to the United Kingdom after having spent five years in Australia.

Dr. Robert is named after the Beatles song Doctor Robert. The other band members are Mick Anker on bass guitar, Neville Henry on saxophone and Tony Kiley (born 16 February 1962) or Crispin Taylor on drums.

Their first single, "Live Today Love Tomorrow", was released in 1982.They subsequently enjoyed a successful career with several hit singles and albums throughout the 1980s before splitting up at the beginning of the 1990s.

Their first hit song was "Digging Your Scene" which hit No. 12 on the UK Singles Chart and No. 14 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in August 1986. They had four albums and eleven singles in the UK charts between 1986 and 1990.

On This Day 13/11/1985 King

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On this day, 13 November 1985, new wave band King played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall.

The band was formed from the remnants of Coventry rock-ska band the Reluctant Stereotypes, along with producer Paul Sampson.

After the Reluctant Stereotypes, singer Paul King formed the Raw Screens, who perfected their act and style to what Paul King and his manager Perry Haines called "Multi Tone", a reference to "Two Tone", and then, in 1983, relaunched the group as band King from the surname of lead singer Paul King.

As lead singer, Paul King wore a mullet haircut and spray-painted Doc Marten's Boots– a look described "like the Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang".

The band released two UK Top 20 albums on CBS, both produced and mixed by Richard James Burgess, who also played drums on most of the debut album Steps in Time (the second LP, Bitter Sweet, saw Adrian Lillywhite on drums).

Both albums were certified gold and produced five hit singles, the most successful being the UK No. 2 hit, "Love & Pride". "Love & Pride" was King's only single to chart on the US Billboard Hot 100 which peaked at No. 55 in September 1985.

Despite a year of success, the band split up in 1986. In 1987, Paul King released a solo album entitled Joy,produced by American producer Dan Hartman. After that, he briefly worked as a VJ for MTV.

On This Day 03/11/1989 The Beautiful South

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On this day, 3 November 1988, American singing band The Drifters played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall. The band had just released their debut album Welcome To The Beautiful South.

Formed in 1988 by Paul Heaton and Dave Hemingway, two former members of the Hull group the Housemartins, both of whom performed lead and backing vocals. Other members throughout the band's existence were former Housemartins roadie Sean Welch (bass), Dave Stead (drums), and Dave Rotheray (guitar). The band's original material was written by Heaton and Rotheray.

Review -South Wales Echo

Released in October 1989 by Go! Discs and the next year in the United States by Elektra Records. Three singles were released from the album, which became top 40 hits in the United Kingdom: "Song for Whoever" (No. 2), "You Keep It All In" (No. 8) and "I'll Sail This Ship Alone" (No. 31).

The original album cover depicted two pictures by Jan Saudek, one of a woman with a gun in her mouth, and another with a man smoking. Woolworths refused to stock the album, in the words of the band, to "prevent the hoards of impressionable young fans from blowing their heads off in a gun-gobbling frenzy, or taking up smoking";

An alternative cover featuring a picture of a stuffed toy rabbit and a teddy bear was therefore made. A second alternative cover was also prepared for the Canadian edition of the album; this version omitted the picture of the woman, and featured only the smoking man.

On This Day 02/11/1988 Helloween

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On this day, 2 November 1988, German power metal band played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall. The band had just released their third studio album Keeper of the Seven Keys: Part II

The album sold well, and success bloomed all over Europe, Asia, and even the United States. The album went gold in Germany and reached No. 108 in the US.

Two singles were released from the album, "Dr. Stein" and "I Want Out". "Dr. Stein" has a very long and moody solo, played with a blues tinge, very unlike other solos on the album, as well as an organ solo. "I Want Out" remains the band's best-known song, and has been covered by several metal bands, such as Gamma Ray (which Kai Hansen formed after leaving Helloween itself), Unisonic, HammerFall, LORD and Sonata Arctica. It is their last album to feature Hansen until 2021's self-titled album.

Founded in 1984 in Hamburg by members of bands Iron Fist, Gentry, Second Hell and Powerfool. It is said that the band is one of the most influential European heavy metal bands of the 1980s.

Its first lineup consisted of singer and guitarist Kai Hansen, bassist Markus Grosskopf, guitarist Michael Weikath and drummer Ingo Schwichtenberg.

On This Day 31/10/1985 Madness

On this day, 31 October 1985, ska/pop band Madness played Cardiff University on their Mad Not Mad tour.

In 1985, the band released their sixth studio album, Mad Not Mad. Mike Barson’s usual keyboard parts were filled by an emphasis on synthesisers provided by Steve Nieve of the Attractions.

In later years, frontman Suggs has described the album as a "polished turd". The album reached number 16 in the UK charts, which is the band's lowest position on the album charts to date. Despite the poor chart showing, the album was listed as number 55 in NME's "All Time 100 Albums".

The singles for the album fared even worse, with "Yesterday's Men" peaking at number 18 in the UK charts. The subsequent singles, "Uncle Sam" and "Sweetest Girl", failed to make the top 20, which was a first for Madness singles.

Setlist

Keep Moving

Samantha

Take It or Leave It

Michael Caine

Mad Not Mad

Grey Day

My Girl

Tomorrow's Dream

House of Fun

4BF

(The Madness cover)

Yesterday's Men

Blue Skinned Beast

Night Boat to Cairo

Time

It Must Be Love

(Labi Siffre cover)

Burning the Boats

Shut Up

Madness

(Prince Buster cover)

Embarrassment

I'll Compete

Our House

Encore:

Uncle Sam

Baggy Trousers

Encore 2:

The Sweetest Girl

(Scritti Politti cover)

One Step Beyond

(Prince Buster cover)