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On this day 2 October 1971, Prog Rock band Van Der Graaf Generator played the Cardiff Institute of Science and Technology on their Pawn Hearts Tour.
Pawn Hearts was the fourth album by the band, released in October 1971 on Charisma Records.
The original album features just three tracks, including the side-long suite "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers".
The album was not commercially successful in the UK, but reached number one in Italy. It has since seen retrospective critical praise and was reissued on CD in 2005 with extra material.
The songs for the album were worked out while on tour in 1971, with further development and arranging at manager Tony Stratton-Smith's house in Crowborough, Sussex over a two-month period.
The original plan had been to release more material, making up a double album, but Charisma vetoed the idea.
A non-album single, "Theme One" was included on some releases in the US and Canada. The album's strong commercial showing in Italy resulted in a number of lucrative promotional tours there, but the resulting pressure led to the band's split in August 1972.
Singer-songwriter Fish is a fan of the album, particularly of "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers" and Julian Cope has called the album "a masterpiece".
Peter Hammill has said, "although a fairly extreme musical statement, [the album] contains some of our most cohesive work".
Though the George Martin’s "Theme One" cover released from the album did not chart as a single in the UK , John Peel replaced Martin's original orchestral version with the group's before closing down Radio 1 each night.
The BBC subsequently carried on using Van der Graaf Generator's version. Martin enjoyed the group's cover, calling it "a powerful recording that respected the original".
