On This Day 29/02/1988 Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction

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On this day, 29 February 1988, hard rock band Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction played Cardiff University.

The band had just released their debut studio album Tattooed Beat Messiah. The album reached #20 in the UK album charts.

Formed in 1985, Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction play a sleazy style of commercial hard rock featuring big riffs and choruses, as was the trend in the band's heyday of the mid-to-late 1980s and early 1990s.

The camp lyrics are intended as self-parody, and can be seen as either humorous, or offensive by those who take them at face value, for their often lascivious and misogynist tone. Song titles like "Back Seat Education", "Feed My Frankenstein", "High Heeled Heaven", and "Trash Madonna" illustrate Mindwarp's tongue-in-cheek approach.

Lyrical content also exhibits a send up of cult worship, often of Zodiac Mindwarp's self-proclaimed raging libido, with Mindwarp claiming the titles 'Sex Fuhrer', 'Love Dictator', 'President of the United States of Love' and 'High Priest of Love'.

On this day Zodiac Mindwarp 1/7/1987

On this day, 1 July 1987, British Hard Rockers Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction played Cardiff’s Ritzy. Support was provided by Beki Bondage and the Bombshells.

The band is the brainchild of Mark Manning, a former graphic artist and art editor of the now defunct Flexipop! magazine.

The magazine folded back in 1982 but the hedonistic lifestyle of the frequenting rock and pop stars to the magazine' offices fueled his desire to experience the debauchery of life as a decadent rock star.

He joined another music publication called Metal Fury as a graphic designer but assumed the alter ego 'Zodiac Mindwarp' at night.

'Zodiac Mindwarp' was the namesake of a series of underground comics written and illustrated by Spain Rodriquez.

Zodiac soon left Metal Fury and formed the Love Reaction in 1985 with Jimmy Cauty (who later formed The Orb, The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu and The KLF) on guitar; Kid Chaos (real name Stephen Harris) on bass; and Boom Boom Kaboomski on drums.

At various times, the band has also featured Evil Bastard (real name Robert Munro who co-penned and sang on two B-sides: "Hangover from Hell" and "Lager Woman from Hell"), Heavy Metal Bear (real name Alex Bradly), Trash D Garbage (real name Paul Bailey), Flash Bastard (real name Jan Cyrka), Suzi X (real name Richard Levy), Tex Diablo (real name Christopher Renshaw), and Robbie Vom (real name Rob Morris).