On This Day 08/05/1981 Larry Norman

On this day, 8 May 1981, American musician, singer, songwriter, record label owner, and record producer Larry Norman played Cardiff University on his 1981 UK Tour. He is considered to be one of the pioneers of Christian rock and released more than 100 albums.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Norman also influenced a number of emerging punk and alternative rock artists. According to documentarian Larry Di Sabatino, Larry Norman was "an early influence" on the post-punk. When Bono met with a summit of Nashville Christian music artists in 2002 to garner support for an African aid campaign, he specifically asked to see Norman.

Upon Larry Norman's death, Bono sent flowers to his funeral with the note "Eternal singer, still eternal, Bono." According to Charles Normal , Larry Norman attended his "first of many" punk rock shows while touring London in 1977, seeing Richard Hell and the Voidoids, the Damned and Dead Boys.

Regarding the punk movement, Norman stated that while he initially disliked some of the lyrical content, he was generally supportive of it and its youthful energy, which he viewed as preferable to disco

Norman subsequently introduced his younger brother, Charles, to the genre, including the music of the Sex Pistols. Within several years, Charles was the lead guitarist for the Bay Area hardcore punk band, Executioner. Larry paid for the recording of Executioner's first EP in 1982.

Setlist

I Hope I'll See You in Heaven

If I Were a Singer

I Am Near

When You Sent Your Son

No More LSD for Me

A Note From Mr. God

One Way

U.F.O.

666 (The Anti-Christ)

The Outlaw

The Troubles

On This Day 03/05/1991 Bleach

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On this day, 3 May 1991, indie rock band Bleach played Cardiff University.

From Ipswich, the band is usually considered part of the shoegazing genre. The band was formed in 1989 by brothers Neil and Nick Singleton (guitar and bass, respectively) together with drummer Steve Scott and vocalist Salli Carson.

Their first release was the Eclipse EP in 1990, followed in 1991 by the Snag EP. The tracks from these two EPs were collected on an album in 1991.

They recorded two Peel sessions, in 1990 and 1991, which were broadcast on BBC Radio One.[3] 1992 saw the release of the full-length album Killing Time, and the single "Shotgun", a surprising mixture of shoegazing and rap.

In 1993 the band released two separate mini-albums, Hard and Fast. The group disbanded shortly thereafter.

On This Day 25/04/1989 Salif Keita

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On this day, 25 April 1989, Salif Keita, the Malian singer-songwriter, referred to as the "Golden Voice of Africa" played Cardiff University. He had just released the album Ko-Yan which was recorded in Paris.

The album contains more influence from Western music, while still maintaining a traditional style. All the songs were written by Keita, including "Nou Pas Bouger", one of his first hits.

Album review - South Wales Echo

The New York Times wrote: "Synthesizers and Western horns perk along (sometimes sounding like Weather Report on Ko-Yan), but the underlying rhythms percolate in triple time, and it's hard for a Western ear to predict where Mr. Keita's vocal lines, and the responses of his female backup singers, will begin or end." The Edmonton Journal noted that Keita's music "injects the stirring traditional rhythms of Mali with nourishing contemporary textures—funk, soca, and soul."

On This Day 20/04/2000 Coldplay

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On this day, 20 April 2000, rock band Coldplay played Cardiff University on their Parachutes tour co-headlining with Welsh band Terris. The band were about to release their debut album Parachutes.

The album was produced by the band and British record producer Ken Nelson, except for one track, "High Speed", which was produced by Chris Allison. Parachutes spawned the singles "Shiver", "Yellow", and "Trouble", with a limited European release of "Don't Panic". The album was also supported by the Parachutes Tour, which saw the band performing 131 shows in their first world tour.

The album was a commercial success and was met with positive reviews from critics. Upon release, it quickly reached number one in the United Kingdom and has since been certified 9× Platinum. In the United States, the album peaked at number 51 on the Billboard 200 and eventually was certified double platinum.

It won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album in 2002, the British Album of the Year award at the 2001 Brit Awards, and many other accolades. Parachutes is also the 22nd-best-selling album of the 21st century in the United Kingdom. As of 2020, it has sold over 13 million copies worldwide.

Melody Maker hailed Parachutes as a "masterpiece" and "a defining musical statement of 2000", while James Oldham of Uncut felt that the album "more than justifies the plaudits heaped upon [the band] by the weekly music press". The Guardian described the album as "one of the year's most uplifting albums", adding that it features "elegant songs, classic guitars and gorgeous singing".

While noting that Parachutes "brings nothing new to the table" and that its "musical reference points are immediately recognizable and difficult to overlook", Billboard stated that the band "seems talented enough to transcend this early identity crisis." Matt Diehl of Rolling Stone opined that the album "ultimately rises above its influences to become a work of real transcendence".

On This Day 18/04/2007 Drowning Pool

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On this day, 18 April 2007, American rock band Drowning Pool played Cardiff’s Cardiff University on their Full Circle tour.

Drowning Pool rose to fame with their debut album and played at the Ozzfest in 2001. Their 2001 debut album Sinner was certified platinum within six weeks. A number of songs from the album were featured at various WWE events that year, and three tracks would be included on the soundtrack for the Funimation dub of Dragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge in early 2002.

On August 14 that year, Dave Williams was found dead inside his tour bus. He died from an undiagnosed heart condition, now known to be hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. When asked if the band had any unreleased songs, according to a 2002 Blabbermouth article, drummer Mike Luce replied that "only 3-4 songs were done, including one called "Heroes," which is a tribute to dead rock musicians such as Layne Staley. I don't know if we will ever release them."

In 2003, Jason 'Gong' Jones replaced Williams as Drowning Pool's vocalist and the band released the album Desensitized in 2004. Despite the success of the album's lead single, "Step Up", the album was not nearly as successful as Sinner, and it was publicly announced on June 14, 2005, that Jones had departed from the band, due to "irreconcilable differences".

The band announced that their replacement singer would be formally announced at Ozzfest in Dallas, where the band did a one-off performance on the main stage. On July 20, 2005, the website SMNNews revealed that Ryan McCombs, then former singer of SOiL, was the new vocalist. The band initially wanted McCombs to join Drowning Pool as the replacement of Dave Williams, nearly two years prior.

The band's third album, Full Circle, was released on August 7, 2007. Two songs on the album were produced by Funny Farm Records, owned by Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx and former Beautiful Creatures guitarist DJ Ashba. The remaining songs were produced by Ben Schigel at the Ohio-based Spider Studios.

On This Day 09/04/1999 Pitchshifter

On this day, 9 April 1999, English industrial rock band from Nottingham, Pitchshifter , played Cardiff International Arena University. Also on the bill were Janus Stark and Soundisciples.

The band was started by lead guitarist and programmer Johnny A. Carter, and bassist and vocalist Mark Clayden. The band's early material was characterized for its gritty industrial metal sound with downtuned guitars and the use of drum machines, and has been cited as one of the originators of the genre along with Godflesh.

With later albums the group's music became increasingly more melodic and strongly influenced by nu metal and drum and bass; particularly evident of their 1998 release www.pitchshifter.com, which has been compared with groups like The Prodigy.

Although Pitchshifter has found little mainstream success, the band managed to gain a platinum certification with the release of the Mortal Kombat: Annihilation soundtrack. Since its formation, the band has released six studio albums, three EPs and eight music videos. The band has played in various festivals around the world including Ozzfest, Phoenix Festival and Damnation Festival.

On This Day 26/03/2006 OK Go

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On this day, 27 March 2006, American indie rock band OK Go played Cardiff University with support provided by The Bright Space.

The band's second album, Oh No, was recorded in Malmö, Sweden, in the fall of 2004 and was produced by Tore Johansson (the Cardigans, Franz Ferdinand) and mixed by Dave Sardy (Nine Inch Nails, Jet, System of a Down). In February 2005, Andy Duncan left the band, citing creative differences, major label pressures, and the band's rigorous touring schedule.

Duncan was replaced by Andy Ross, who beat out 34 other guitarists who auditioned for the role, in a process that ended with each candidate being asked about their willingness to do a choreographed dance on stage.[28] Ross introduced himself to the band's fans by writing a blog post entitled "The Will To Rock," in which he detailed life on the road, beginning with his first show with the band on February 18, 2005.

Released in August 2005, Oh No gained popularity for its first single, "A Million Ways". Ross programmed a web application, hosted at a1000000ways.com, that allowed people to hear the single and to share it with their friends in exchange for free downloads from the iTunes music store.

The video for "A Million Ways" featured the band in a backyard performing a dance choreographed by lead singer Kulash's sister, Trish Sie. By August 2006, the video had become the most downloaded music video ever, with over 9 million downloads.The band performed the dance live on British TV show Soccer AM, as well as on the late-night American comedy show Mad TV.

Setlist

"Don't Ask Me"

"No Sign of Life"

"Here It Goes Again"

"Let It Rain"

"Bye Bye Baby"

"A Good Idea at the Time"

"Don't Bring Me Down"

"Get Over It"

"The Fix Is In"

"Oh Lately It's So Quiet"

Invincible

"Do What You Want"

"You're So Damn Hot"

"It's a Disaster"

"A Million Ways (dance sequence)"

On This Day 15/03/1991 Green on Red

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On this day, 15 March 1991 American rock band Green on Red played Cardiff University.

The band began in 1979 as The Serfers, a four-piece made up of Dan Stuart (vocals/guitar), Jack Waterson (bass), Van Christian (drums, later of Naked Prey) (organ), quickly replaced by Chris Cacavas.

In the summer of 1980, the Serfers relocated to Los Angeles, where they changed their name to Green on Red (after the title of one of their songs) to avoid confusion with the local surf punk scene. Christian returned to Tucson and was replaced by Lydia Lunch sideman Alex MacNicol.

The band issued an overtly psychedelic, self-released red vinyl EP, sometimes called Two Bibles, though its first widely available record was an EP issued in 1982 by Dream Syndicate leader Steve Wynn on his own Down There label. Green on Red followed the Dream Syndicate onto Slash Records, which released the album Gravity Talks in the fall of 1983. San Francisco-based guitarist Chuck Prophet joined for the 1985 Gas Food Lodging (Enigma), after which MacNicol was replaced on drums by Keith Mitchell (later of Mazzy Star). Also in 1985, Stuart collaborated with Steve Wynn as "Danny & Dusty" on the album The Lost Weekend (A&M).

A major-label deal with Phonogram/Mercury followed, with the 7-song EP No Free Lunch released in summer 1986.[3] A strong country music direction was evident, which music critic Ira Robbins remarked "should finally erase the group's original misassociation with the dreaded paisley underground". The album The Killer Inside Me appeared one year later, produced by Jim Dickinson at Ardent Studios in Memphis. The band split up afterwards; Cacavas began recording albums under his own name. When Stuart returned to recording he decided to use the Green on Red name. In 1989, the band—now consisting of Stuart and Prophet—released Here Come the Snakes. They hired backing musicians, including Christopher Holland on keyboards. In 1991 they released Scapegoats, but after the 1992 album Too Much Fun Stuart stopped using the name.

Post Green on Red, Stuart recorded the album Retronuevo with Al Perry in 1993, and solo effort Can O'Worms in 1995, and then essentially quit the music business; Prophet maintains a career as a solo artist and semi-celebrity sideman.