On this day, 14 July 1996, American rock band Toto played Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium. The band were part of the bill supporting singer Tina Turner.
Formed in 1977 in Los Angeles, California. Toto combines elements of pop, rock, soul, funk, hard rock, R&B, blues, and jazz. Having released 14 studio albums and sold over 40 million records worldwide, the group has received several Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2009.
In 1995 Toto recorded Tambu, their first album with Simon Phillips, which saw the band back with CBS (now Sony). A departure from Toto's sound of the late 1970s and 1980s, Tambu was a very organic release and featured the single "I Will Remember", which received moderate radio play. Other singles released were "Drag Him To The Roof" and "The Turning Point". Tambu also featured John James and Jenny Douglas-McRae as backup singers on some of the tracks. Douglas-McRae even sang lead on the album's bonus track, "Blackeye", and also in a duet with Steve Lukather on "Baby He's Your Man". Tambu sold 600,000 copies worldwide.[citation needed]
The "Tambu Tour" proved to be another success, although there were no North American dates. Simon Phillips suffered from a back problem, so Gregg Bissonette had to fill in for him during the first leg of the tour in late 1995. The tour concluded in 1996. The rest of the tour personnel remained the same, with the exception of Donna McDaniel who had left in 1994 shortly after the "Night of the Proms" performances (which Douglas-McRae had missed since she was out touring with Joe Cocker). The song "Hold the Line" was now sung as a duet between James and Douglas-McRae.[31] Both James and Douglas-McRae were dropped from the band at the conclusion of the 1997 tour.
Lukather released his second solo album, Luke, which was a more "introspective" album than his previous solo album.