On This Day 23/11/1988 The Snapdragons

On this day, 23 November 1988, alternative rock band The Snapdragons played Cardiff’s Square Club.

The band signed to Native Records, who released their first single, "The Things You Want", in 1988, and in February that year they recorded a session for Simon Mayo's BBC Radio 1 show.

"The Things You Want" was included on Volume VI of the Indie Top 20 series of albums (and later on Cherry Red Records' C88 compilation). The band's debut album, Dawn Raids on Morality, was produced by Pat Collier and released in 1989.

In 1989, they also recorded a session for the BBC Radio 1 DJ, John Peel. The band toured the UK and supported other Native Records acts, such as The Darling Buds and Richard Hawley's debut band, Treebound Story.

The band were amongst indie bands tipped to do well in 1990, alongside James, The Family Cat, Asia Fields and The Wood Children.However inconsistent performances by the band, and the departure of John Sullivan and later "Spike" Mullings, hindered the band's ability to reach a wider audience.

On This Day 26/10/1989 Blurt

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On this day, 26 October 1989, rock band Blurt played Cardiff’s Square Club. The band had released their fifth studio album Kenny Rogers' Greatest Hit (Take 2). Support was provided by Foreign Legion.

Founded in 1979 in Stroud, Gloucestershire by poet, saxophonist and puppeteer Ted Milton along with Milton's brother Jake, formerly of psychedelic group Quintessence, on drums and Peter Creese on guitar.

After three albums Creese left the band to be replaced by Herman Martin on synthesizers who, after a year of constant touring left the band, and was replaced by Steve Eagles, former member of Satan's Rats, The Photos and Bang Bang Machine.

Shortly thereafter Jake Milton left to be replaced by Nic Murcott, who was subsequently replaced by Paul Wigens.

Most of Blurt's compositions feature simple, repetitive, minimalistic guitar and/or saxophone phrases, but they can also explore more abstract musical territories, often serving as an atmospheric backdrop for Ted Milton's existentialist poetry.

On The Day 03/06/1989 Inspiral Carpets

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On this day, 3 June 1989, Indie rock band Inspiral Carpets played Cardiff’s Square Club.

The band had just released Dung 4, a demo album on Inspiral Carpets' own Cow Records and only on cassette. The name refers to the catalogue number.

Formed in Oldham in 1983, the band's most successful lineup featured frontman Tom Hingley, drummer Craig Gill, guitarist Graham Lambert, bassist Martyn Walsh and keyboardist Clint Boon.

Formed by Lambert and singer Stephen Holt, who departed the band before they signed with Mute Records,

Inspiral Carpets was known for using organs and distorted guitars with influences from psychedelic rock.

Inspiral Carpets came to prominence along with bands such as the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays in the Madchester scene of the late 1980s. The band first appeared on a flexi-disc with "Garage Full of Flowers" that was given free with Manchester's Debris magazine in 1987.

Their first proper release, the Cow cassette, soon followed. The 1988 Planecrash EP on the Playtime label received much airplay from Radio 1 DJ John Peel, who asked the band to record a session for his show.

The band reworked their single "Find Out Why" as the theme song for the show 8:15 from Manchester.

As the band's popularity grew, Playtime's distributor Red Rhino Records went bankrupt, leading Inspiral Carpets to form their own label, Cow Records, in March 1989. The label's first release was the Trainsurfing EP.

With half of the first album, Life, written, Holt and Swift departed and formed the Rainkings, so the band recruited Too Much Texas singer Tom Hingley and Martyn "Bungle" Walsh of The Next Step to replace them. Martyn Walsh became the band's 13th bass player.

After a handful of singles on their own label, with "Move" nearly reaching the UK top 40, the band signed a deal with Mute Records and soon experienced their first top-40 chart success in the UK with "This Is How It Feels."

The single reached No. 14 on the singles chart, and the debut album Life reached No. 2 on the albums chart in 1990.