On This Day 19/12/1994 The Cult

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On this day, 19 December 1994, rock band The Cult played Cardiff’s Astoria on their Beauty is on the Streets tour.

The band had just released their sixlth studio album The Cult on Beggars Banquet Records and it is also the band's last album on Sire Records in the US. It is also commonly referred to as the "Black Sheep" record, due to the image of a Manx Loaghtan black sheep on the front cover.

The record also features one of the very rare times when Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy have shared songwriting credit with anyone: bassist Craig Adams is credited as co-author of "Universal You".

Vocalist Ian Astbury referred to the record as "very personal, and very revealing" songs about his life, with the subject matter ranging from sexual abuse at the age of 15, to the death of Nigel Preston (friend and former drummer for The Cult), to his directionless years spent in Glasgow in the late 1970s. But the record was barely noticed, only reaching US#69, and UK#21, and then quickly dropping out of sight.

Reportedly it reached number one on the charts in Portugal, but quickly dropped out of sight as well. The single "Coming Down (Drug Tongue)" (UK#51) was released with the band going on tour in support of the new album. Only one more single, "Star" (UK#65), was officially released. That song began life in 1986 as "Tom Petty" before being dropped by the band during rehearsals. In 1993 the song was resurrected once again as "Starchild", and was finally completed for the record in 1994 as, just simply, "Star".

On This Day 18/07/1994 The Prodigy

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On this day, 18 July 1994. electronic dance music band The Prodigy played the Cardiff Astoria venue on their Jilted tour.

The band had just released their second album Music for the Jilted Generation

The album is largely a response to the corruption of the rave scene in Britain by its mainstream status as well as Great Britain's Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, which criminalised raves and parts of rave culture.

This is exemplified in the song "Their Law" with the spoken word intro and the predominant lyric, the "Fuck 'em and their law" sample. Many years later, after the controversy died down, Liam Howlett derided the title of the album, which he referred to as "stupid", and maintained that the album was never meant to be political in the first place.

Formed in 1990 by record producer and songwriter Liam Howlett. The band's line-up has included MC and vocalist Maxim, dancer and vocalist Keith Flint (until his death in March 2019), dancer and live keyboardist Leeroy Thornhill (who left to pursue a solo career in 2000) and dancer and vocalist Sharky (1990–1991). Along with the Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim, the Prodigy are credited as pioneers of the breakbeat-influenced genre big beat, which achieved mainstream popularity in the 1990s. Howlett's rock-inspired drum rhythms infused with electronic rave music beats/breaks were combined with Maxim's omnipresent mystique, Thornhill's shuffle dancing style and Flint's modern punk appearance.

The Prodigy describe their style as "electronic punk," being the pioneers in this rhythm, with a punk conceptual expression in many of their albums accompanied by strong and groundbreaking rhythms.

On this day 12/12/1994 Oasis

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On this day 12 December 1994, Brit Pop icons Oasis played Cardiff’s Astoria, formerly The Ritzy and the Top Rank. on the band’s Definitely Maybe Tour in support of their hugely successful debut album Definitely Maybe.

The tour, which spanned the UK, Europe, Japan, the US and Canada, included 143 shows over a period of several months in 1994 and 1995 amidst 10 different tour legs.

The tour started on 6 February 1994 with a short concert at Gleneagles, Scotland, and ended on 22 April 1995 at the Sheffield Arena.

The latter show featured an acoustic debut of the future hit "Don't Look Back in Anger", and was also the last concert to feature original drummer Tony McCarroll.

Nearly a year of constant live performances and recordings, along with a hedonistic lifestyle, were taking their toll on the band. This behaviour culminated during a gig in Los Angeles in September 1994, leading to an inept performance by Liam during which he made offensive remarks about American audiences and hit Noel with a tambourine.

The incident upset Noel to such an extent he temporarily quit the band and flew to San Francisco (it was from this incident the song "Talk Tonight" was written). He was tracked down by Creation's Tim Abbot and they made a trip to Las Vegas. Once there, the elder Gallagher was persuaded to continue with the band. He reconciled with Liam and the tour resumed in Minneapolis.

The group followed up with the fourth single from Definitely Maybe, "Cigarettes & Alcohol", and the Christmas single "Whatever", issued in December 1994 which entered the British charts at number three.

The band’s rider sells for £4,000

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/rider-1994-oasis-gig-requesting-20237686