On This Day 14/02/2001 Texas

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On this day, 14 February 2001, Scottish band Texas played Cardiff International Arena.

founded in 1986 by Johnny McElhone (formerly of the bands Altered Images and Hipsway), Ally McErlaine, and Sharleen Spiteri (on lead vocals). Texas made their performing debut in March 1988 at the University of Dundee. They took their name from the 1984 Wim Wenders movie Paris, Texas.

The band released their debut album Southside in 1989, along with the debut single "I Don't Want a Lover", which was a top-ten hit on the UK Singles Chart and peaked within the top ten of the charts in many other European countries.

In October 2000, Texas released their first compilation album, The Greatest Hits. The album featured tracks spanning their career, from their 1989 debut to the current day and included three new songs. A new single, "In Demand" was released on 2 October 2000 and reached No. 6 in the UK, with a video that featured the actor Alan Rickman.

When The Greatest Hits was released, it became the band's third consecutive album to debut at No. 1 in the UK. A second new single from the collection, "Inner Smile", was released at the end of 2000, also reaching No. 6 on the UK Singles Chart. The video for "Inner Smile" featured a homage to Elvis Presley (and specifically his '68 Comeback Special shows) with lead singer Spiteri dressed and made up to look like Elvis in his famous black leather suit. In July 2001, a remix of "I Don't Want A Lover" was released which made the UK top 20.

Setlist

Zero Zero

In Demand

Black Eyed Boy

Halo

In Our Lifetime

Guitar Song

Insane

Tired of Being Alone

(Al Green cover)

Pull Up to the Bumper

(Grace Jones cover)

Put Your Arms Around Me

Prayer for You

I Don't Want a Lover

When We Are Together

Summer Son

Encore:

Inner Smile

Suspicious Minds

(Mark James cover)

Encore 2:

Say What You Want

On This Day 05/08/1989 Simple Minds

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On this day, 5 August 1989, Scottish rockers Simple Minds played Cardiff Arms Park on their Street Fighting Years tour. Support was provided by Texas, Welsh band The Darling Buds and The Silencers.

Street Fighting Years Tour

"After we'd finished the record we knew what would work on stage: by the time we did the Street Fighting Years tour all those songs fitted beautifully in to that set. We were definitely down the Celtic road – it was "this is who we are and we’re not ashamed of it." We'd avoided that before."

The rehearsals took place at The Point, Dublin, Ireland for three weeks before the tour. This included all the prep work for the equipment and culminated with full dress rehearsals. (The second day of the full rehearsals was on the 9th May 1989). The songs worked on were: Street Fighting Years, Wall Of Love, Mandela Day, This Is Your Land, Soul Crying Out, Waterfront, Ghostdancing, Book Of Brilliant Things, Don't You (Forget About Me), Gaelic Melody, Take A Step Back, Oh Jungleland, Big Sleep, Kick It In, Let It All Come Down, Belfast Child, Sanctify Yourself, Alive And Kicking, East At Easter, Sun City and Biko.

The rehearsals were recorded and can be recognised by the lack of audience reaction before and after the songs. (Lone roadies and support staff can be heard clapping and cheering after several tracks).

The "live" version of Big Sleep, which appeared on the Kick It In single, was taken from these rehearsal sessions.

"We played things like Celtic songs with a fiddle break in the middle and we were giving everything a shot. We opened our Wembley show with the title track of Street Fighting Years, which doesn't even really have any drums in it! It was a bit mad, but we had to play stadiums on our terms. If we were going into that environment, we had to do what we wanted." - Charlie, Classic Pop Magazine, March 2020

Review - South Wales Echo

Simple Minds are a long way from becoming an endangered species - 50,000 adoring fans at the National Ground on Saturday night proved that.

Having said that, they have other similarities to the blue whales they showed on the video screens during an ecologically-conscious interlude halfway into the set. Impressive and powerful, even magnificent but, it has to be said, a little bit dull really.

On the night Kerr and Co just couldn't be faulted, managing to communicate a genuine warmth and enjoyment.

They open opened up in a relatively low-key manner but things improved with a stunning Great Wall Of Love, Charlie Burchill's beautifully pure lead guitar and Mel Graynor's awesome drums powering the song along. The celebratory Mandela Day followed, and already Jim Kerr had the crowd where he wanted them - nestling comfortably in his waistcoat pocket.

Kick It In, Ghostdancing, The Book Of Brilliant Things - they were all tight, sharp, and powerful, but were songs all dressed up with no place to go. The band encored with a ferocious version of Steve Van Zandt's rousting Sun City (I Ain't Gonna Play), and Peter Gabriel's worthy but rather dull Biko. A triumphant Alive and Kicking closed the show with what looked like the entire crowd waving and singing. Simple Minds left the stage very much alive and kicking.

Concert Preview and Review - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qd4LQMPzV8

Setlist

Theme for Great Cities

(intro)

When Spirits Rise

(intro)

Street Fighting Years

Wall of Love

Mandela Day

This Is Your Land

Soul Crying Out

Waterfront

Ghost Dancing

Book of Brilliant Things / Five to One

(The Doors cover)

Don't You (Forget About Me)

Gaelic Melody

Once Upon a Time

Oh Jungleland

Big Sleep

Kick it In

Let It All Come Down

Belfast Child

Sun City

(Artists United Against Apartheid cover)

Biko

(Peter Gabriel cover)

Sanctify Yourself

East at Easter

Alive and Kicking

Theme for Great Cities

(outro)

On This Day 08/04/2002 Texas

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On this day, 8 April 2002, Scottish rockers Texas played Cardiff International Arena, with support provided by Reef.

They were founded in 1986 by Johnny McElhone (formerly of the bands Altered Images and Hipsway) and Sharleen Spiteri on lead vocals.

Texas made their performing debut in March 1988 at the University of Dundee. They took their name from the 1984 Wim Wenders movie Paris, Texas.

The band released their debut album Southside in 1989, along with the debut single "I Don't Want a Lover", which was a top-ten hit on the UK Singles Chart and peaked within the top ten of the charts in many other European countries.

Southside entered at number three on the UK Albums Chart and number 88 on the Billboard 200 album chart in the United States, and sold over two million copies worldwide.

Despite the success of Southside, the follow-up albums Mothers Heaven (1991) and Ricks Road (1993) were less successful, peaking at number 32 and number 18 on the UK Albums Chart respectively, but achieved moderate success on various European markets.

The band's fortunes changed in 1997 with the release of their White on Blonde album, which entered at the top of the UK albums chart and became their biggest seller. To date it has been certified six times platinum in the United Kingdom.

Follow up album The Hush (1999) was also successful, entering at the top of the UK albums chart and certified triple platinum. The band's Greatest Hits album, released in 2000, was another big-seller, again entering at the top of the UK albums chart, and certified six times platinum.

Texas would go on to release a further two studio albums, Careful What You Wish For in 2003, and Red Book in 2005, both of which were certified gold in the United Kingdom.

After the release of Red Book and a tour to support the album's release, Texas went on hiatus. Lead singer Sharleen Spiteri launched a solo career, releasing her debut solo album, Melody, in 2008.

On This Day 8/4/2001 Texas

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On this day, 8 April 2001, Scottish rockers Texas played the Cardiff International Arena with English rock band Reef in support.

Oddly it was the band’s second visit and quick return to the venue following a visit in February on their Greatest Hits Tour.

Founded in 1986 by Johnny McElhone (formerly of the bands Altered Images and Hipsway) and Sharleen Spiteri on lead vocals. Texas made their performing debut in March 1988 at the University of Dundee.

They took their name from the 1984 Wim Wenders movie Paris, Texas.