On This Day 20/11/1988 Salt-N-Pepa

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On this day, 20 November 1988, American hip hop rap group Salt-N-Pepa played Cardiff University. The group had just released their second studio album A Salt with a Deadly Pepa.

The album spawned three singles, the top-10 R&B entry "Shake Your Thang"; the top-20 R&B entry "Get Up Everybody (Get Up)"; and "Twist and Shout", which peaked at number four on the UK Singles Chart. The album's title is a play on "assault with a deadly weapon".

Formed in New York City in 1985, they comprised Salt (Cheryl James), Pepa (Sandra Denton), and DJ Spinderella (Deidra Roper).

Their debut album, Hot, Cool & Vicious (1986), sold more than 1 million copies in the US, making them the first female rap act to achieve gold and platinum status by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

The album included the single, "Push It", which was released in 1987 as the B-side to their single "Tramp", and peaked within the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100.

On This Day 16/11//1988 The Blow Monkeys

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On this day, 16 November 1988, rock band The Blow Monkeys played Cardiff University.

Formed in 1981 when lead singer, songwriter, guitarist, bassist, and piano player Dr. Robert (born Bruce Robert Howard, 2 May 1961, Haddington, Scotland) returned to the United Kingdom after having spent five years in Australia.

Dr. Robert is named after the Beatles song Doctor Robert. The other band members are Mick Anker on bass guitar, Neville Henry on saxophone and Tony Kiley (born 16 February 1962) or Crispin Taylor on drums.

Their first single, "Live Today Love Tomorrow", was released in 1982.They subsequently enjoyed a successful career with several hit singles and albums throughout the 1980s before splitting up at the beginning of the 1990s.

Their first hit song was "Digging Your Scene" which hit No. 12 on the UK Singles Chart and No. 14 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in August 1986. They had four albums and eleven singles in the UK charts between 1986 and 1990.

On This Day 28/10/1989 Ian McCulloch

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On this day, 28 October 1989, former Echo and the Bunnymen lead singer Ian McCulloch played Cardiff University on his Candleland tour.

In 1988, McCulloch left the group to pursue a solo career under the impression that the Bunnymen would be laid to rest, if only temporarily.

When the remaining Bunnymen continued using the name with new lead vocalist Noel Burke, the break-up became more permanent with McCulloch referring to the band as "Echo & the Bogusmen".

In 1989, McCulloch released his debut solo studio album Candleland which reflected a more mature outlook on the world, owing to the recent deaths of McCulloch's father and Pete de Freitas, and peaked at number 18 on the UK Albums Chart.

It yielded two Modern Rock Tracks hits, "Proud to Fall" (No. 1 for 4 weeks) and "Faith and Healing". McCulloch's second solo album Mysterio was released in 1992 as the public's interest in the former Bunnyman was waning and sold less than its predecessor. Shortly after, McCulloch left the public eye to devote more time to his family.

Setlist

The Flickering Wall

The White Hotel

Toad

Horse's Head

Rescue

(Echo & the Bunnymen song)

Faith and Healing

I Know You Well

Candleland

Fear of the Known

Rocket Ship

In Bloom

The Killing Moon

(Echo & the Bunnymen song)

The Cape

Pots of Gold

Proud to Fall

Damnation

Ceremony

(New Order cover)

On This Day 25/10/1980 Captain Beefheart

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On this day, 25 October 1980, American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and visual artist Captain Beefheart played Cardiff University. Beefheart had just released his eleventh studio albumDoc at the Radar Station

The album cover was painted by Don Van Vliet. It was placed at number forty-nine on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Album Covers in November 14th, 1991 issue.

Although about half of the album's songs are based on old musical ideas, Mike Barnes states that "most of the revamping work built on skeletal ideas and fragments ... would have mouldered away in the vaults had they not been exhumed and transformed into full-blown, totally convincing new material".[11] The tracks "A Carrot is as Close as a Rabbit Gets to a Diamond", "Flavor Bud Living" and "Brickbats" were originally intended and recorded for the unreleased album Bat Chain Puller.

John French (the original drummer in the Magic Band) rejoined Beefheart for this album. He played guitar on all songs, plus bass ("Sheriff of Hong Kong"), drums ("Ashtray Heart" and "Sheriff of Hong Kong"), and marimba ("Making Love to a Vampire with a Monkey on My Knee"). He also sings the second vocal on "Dirty Blue Gene".

Setlist

Nowadays a Woman's Gotta Hit a Man

Abba Zaba

Hot Head

Dirty Blue Gene

Safe as Milk

Her Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles

Flavor Bud Living

(with Gary Lucas)

One Red Rose That I Mean

The Dust Blows Forward 'n' the Dust Blows Back

Improvisation

Doctor Dark

My Human Gets Me Blues

Sugar 'n' Spikes

Dropout Boogie

Kandy Korn

Suction Prints

On This Day 23/10/1990 Pop Will Eat Itself

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On this day, 23 October 1990, alternative rock band Pop Will Eat Itself played Cardiff University. On the same day the band released their third studio album Cure For Sanity.

Upon its release, the album entered the UK Albums Chart and stayed there for two weeks, peaking at number 33, and re-entered the chart when it was re-released in July 1991, staying there for one week at number 58.

Cure for Sanity is less light-hearted than prior albums, "mixing a couple of more serious efforts with a new slew of catchy, immediate singles and not-bad album cuts".The album features a dancier and more electronica based sound, eschewing the guitars of previous and future albums.

Formed in 1986 in Stourbridge in the West Midlands of England with members from Birmingham, Coventry and the Black Country. Initially known as a grebo act, they changed style to incorporate sample-driven indie and industrial rock.

Graham Crabb describes their sound as "electronic, punk, alternative hip-hop, hybrid music for fucking, fighting & smoking cigars". Their highest-charting single was the 1993 top-ten hit "Get the Girl! Kill the Baddies!". After initially disbanding in 1996, and having a brief reformation in 2005, they issued their first release in more than five years in 2010.

On This Day 21/10/1988 The Wonder Stuff

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On this day, 21 October 1988, alternative rock band The Wonder Stuff played Cardiff University. The band had just released their debut album The Eight Legged Groove Machine .

The original line-up of Miles Hunt (whose uncle Bill Hunt was keyboard player with ELO and Wizzard) on vocals and guitar; Malcolm Treece on guitar and vocals; bassist Rob "The Bass Thing" Jones (died July 1993); and Martin Gilks (died April 2006) on drums grew from Hunt and Treece's collaboration with future members of Pop Will Eat Itself in a band called From Eden that featured Hunt on drums.

The Wonder Stuff were formed on 19 March 1986 (their name reportedly came from a remark made about a very young Hunt by John Lennon and in September that year recorded a self-financed debut EP, A Wonderful Day.

After finding management with Birmingham promoter Les Johnson and signing with Polydor Records for £80,000 in 1987, the group released a series of singles including "Unbearable", "Give Give Give, Me More More More", "A Wish Away" and "It's Yer Money I'm After Baby" (their first Top 40 entry) that featured on their debut album The Eight Legged Groove Machine, which was released in August 1988 (UK No. 18). This preceded a first headlining nineteen-date national tour, 'Groovers on Manoeuvres'.

A non-album single, "Who Wants to Be the Disco King?" was released in March 1989 and was followed by UK, European, and United States tours and appearances at the Reading and Glastonbury festivals.

Melody Maker made The Eight Legged Groove Machine one of their albums of the year for 1988, judging it, "A rollicking debut from the only band with enough wit, energy, charisma and acumen to cross over from loutish grebo into raffish pop."

Setlist

Goodbye Fatman

A Wish Away

Give, Give, Give Me More, More, More

Grin

Like a Merry Go Round

No, for the 13th Time

Ruby Horse

The Animals and Me

Unbearable

(Acoustic)

It's Yer Money I'm After, Baby

Ten Trenches Deep

Poison

Red Berry Joy Town

Astley in the Noose

Unbearable

On This Day 20/10/1976 Deaf School

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On this day, 20 October 1976, art/rock band Deaf School played Cardiff University. The band had just released their debut album 2nd Honeymoon.

Formed in Liverpool, England, in January 1974, between 1976 and 1978, the year in which they split up, Deaf School recorded three albums for the Warner Brothers label.

The first album's art rock style had roots in cabaret, and later releases moved towards a harder punk rock sound. Deaf School have been recognized as an important influence on many British musicians. According to Frankie Goes to Hollywood singer Holly Johnson: "They revived Liverpool music for a generation." The journalist, author and founder of Mojo, Paul Du Noyer, went further: "In the whole history of Liverpool music two bands matter most, one is The Beatles and the other is Deaf School."

Nearly all the group's members went on to enjoy successful careers, notably guitarist Clive Langer, who produced Madness and Dexys Midnight Runners, two non-Liverpool acts which cite Deaf School as an influence. Langer also co-wrote (with Elvis Costello) the song "Shipbuilding".

On This Day 19/10/1988 Deacon Blue

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On this day, 19 October 1988, Scottish rock band Deacon Blue played Cardiff University on their Through The Villages And Towns tour.

This predominantly Glaswegian act became one of the top-selling UK bands of the late 1980s/early 1990s. The group's members were Ricky Ross, Lorraine McIntosh, James Prime, Dougie Vipond, Ewan Vernal and Graeme Kelling.

Ross, a former school teacher originally from Dundee, was the group's frontman, penning the vast majority of Deacon Blue's songs. He married female vocalist Lorraine McIntosh in the later years of the band's career. McIntosh, born May 1964 in Glasgow joined the band in 1987 as a vocalist.

The band's first album, Raintown, produced by Jon Kelly and released in 1987, is regarded by many as the band's finest effort, spawning the singles "Dignity", "Chocolate Girl" and "Loaded". Many consider Raintown to be a concept album, since nearly all the songs contribute to the overall theme of being stuck in a dead-end life in a deprived city longing for something better. The city that the album's title refers to is Glasgow, and the memorable cover art of the album is a shot of the River Clyde's docks taken on a miserable day from Kelvingrove Park.

The second album, 1988's When The World Knows Your Name, was the band's most commercially successful, with the mega-selling singles "Real Gone Kid", "Wages Day" and "Fergus Sings The Blues". However, music critics began deriding the band at this stage for pursuing commercial success over artistic quality, citing the earlier achievements of Raintown.

Setlist

Fergus Sings the Blues

The Very Thing

Love's Great Fears

Born Again

This Changing Light

One Hundred Things

Raintown

Circus Lights

Chocolate Girl

Loaded / A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall

He Looks Like Spencer Tracy Now

Real Gone Kid

Wages Day

Dignity

Long Distance Love / When Will You Make My Telephone Ring?

Ragman

Town to Be Blamed / Tinseltown in the Rain

Suffering

Not Fade Away / Ain't That Good News