On This Day 28/07/2015 Nordic Giants

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On this day, 28 July 2014, instrumental post-rock duo the Nordic Giants played Cardiff’s The Globe on their Evolve or Perish tour.

The band includes prominent cinematic aspects into the performances and videos. The band released three EPs and a single on their own label before signing to Kscope in 2014. Since then they have released one compilation and two studio albums which featured a number of guest vocalists. The band have toured internationally.

The duo's live performance involves wearing masks and the use of cinematic projections that accompany their instrumental pieces. On occasion the singer Freyja has joined them on stage. Much of their material includes soundtracks for film, like for instance ‘Last Breath’ by David Jackson.

The band have played a number of European festivals and toured with Sólstafir, God Is An Astronaut, 65daysofstatic and Public Service Broadcasting.

On This Day 27/07/1997 The Fall

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On this day, 27 July 1997, Northern post-punk greats The Fall played Cardiff’s Cooper’s Field as guests in support of the Super Furry Animals.

Manc greats The Fall were about to release Levitate, their 19th Album on Artful Records. Levitate became the last album to feature two long-time Fall members, drummer Karl Burns and bass player Steve Hanley (whose playing was once described by Smith as the defining element of the group's music).

Levitate was recorded amidst a difficult period for the group, described by personnel turmoil and financial troubles due to a VAT bill incurred in the 1980s and early 1990s for nearly £200,000.

Simon Wolstencroft left after a disagreement about the recording of 'Everybody But Myself'; also having received financial advice about the group's VAT bill, he resigned from being a co-director of The Fall business.

The Fall have been called "the most prolific band of the British post-punk movement". From 1979 to 2017, they released 31 studio albums, plus dozens of live albums and compilations released against Smith's wishes. They were associated with the BBC DJ John Peel, who championed them from early on in their career and described them as his favourite band, saying: "They are always different; they are always the same." The group disbanded after Mark E Smith's death in 2018.

Line-up

Mark E. Smith (vocals), Steve Hanley (bass), Julia Nagle (guitar, keyboards), Tommy Crooks (guitar), Karl Burns (drums).

Setlist

Powderkeg / He Pep / Lie Dream of a Casino Soul / Idiot Joy Showland / Hurricane Edward / 10 Houses of Eve / Cheetham Hill / Behind the Counter / Feeling Numb / Ol' Gang

On This Day 26/07/1963 Nat King Cole

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On this Day, 26 July 1963, legendary American singer Nat King Cole played Cardiff’s Capitol Theatre, with support provided by Ted Heath & His Music.

Nat King Cole, was a singer, jazz pianist, and actor and recorded over 100 songs that became hits on the pop charts.

Cole's shift to traditional pop led some jazz critics and fans to accuse him of selling out, but he never abandoned his jazz roots; as late as 1956 he recorded an all-jazz album, After Midnight, and many of his albums after this are fundamentally jazz-based, being scored for big band without strings, although the arrangements focus primarily on the vocal rather than instrumental leads.

Cole had one of his last major hits in 1963, two years before his death, with "Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer".

His trio was the model for small jazz ensembles that followed.

Cole also acted in films and on television and performed on Broadway. He was the first African-American man to host an American television series.

Until his death in 1965, Cole was an active and visible participant in the civil rights movement, playing an important role in planning the March on Washington in 1963.

In August 1948, Cole purchased a house from Col. Harry Gantz, the former husband of the silent film actress Lois Weber, in the all-white Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. The Ku Klux Klan, which was active in Los Angeles in the 1950s, responded by placing a burning cross on his front lawn.

Members of the property-owners association told Cole they did not want any "undesirables" moving into the neighborhood. Cole responded, "Neither do I. And if I see anybody undesirable coming in here, I'll be the first to complain."

He was the father of singer-songwriter Natalie Cole (1950–2015).

On This Day 25/07/1981 Misty in Roots

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On this day, 25 July 1981’ reggae band Misty in Roots played Sophia Gardens Pavilion as part of the CND Wales Carnival. Support was provided by Cardiff band The Burpas.

Formed in Southall, London, in the mid 1970s. Their first album was 1979's Live at the Counter Eurovision, a record full of Rastafarian songs. It was championed by BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, helping to bring roots reggae to a white audience.

At this early stage, the band was a collective with five lead singers and various musicians, though by the time of the second album proper the band had slimmed down to just three members. Along with Steel Pulse, Aswad, Matumbi, Cimarons and Black Slate, Misty in Roots were one of the most popular British reggae bands of the late 1970s.

Following their debut, Misty in Roots released four studio albums through the 1980s. The band had two BBC Radio 1 "In Concert" appearances in 1983 and 1985. They were invited to play in Zimbabwe in 1982 in recognition of their support for the independence movement, and were the first reggae band to tour South Africa, Poland, and Russia. After a break from recording in the next decade the band returned with a new mini-album Roots Controller in 2002 and continue to play concerts as of 2014.

In 1979 Clarence Baker, a member of the collective, was severely beaten and injured by the London Metropolitan Police's SPG unit during a protest in Southall against a National Front march. The punk band The Ruts, who were partners of and had their debut single released by the People Unite co-operative, honoured him in their song "Jah War" which was released as a single and on their album The Crack the same year.

On This Day 24/07/1976 Status Quo

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On this day, 24 July 1976, rock band Status Quo played Cardiff Castle, headlining a package that included Strawbs, Curved Air, Hawkwind and Welsh rock band Budgie, compered by DJ John Peel.

The concert was part of the group’s Blue For You tour, promoting their Blue For You Album. The band had played two concerts at the City’s Capitol Theatre earlier in the year before returning for their prestigious Cardiff Castle gig.

Blue for You was their ninth studio album and was released in March 1976, and was the band’s last album until 1980's Just Supposin' that they produced themselves, which resulted in subsequent albums having a noticeably lighter, more pop oriented sound.

Rick Parfitt's "Rain", the first single from the album, reached No. 7 in the UK charts after its release in February 1976. Its B-side was the non-album track "You Lost the Love", written by Francis Rossi and Bob Young.

The album was released the following month. It entered the British album chart at No. 1 and stayed there for three weeks, making it one of their most successful long players.

On This Day 23/07/1990 Aztec Camera

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On this day, 23 July 1990, Scottish rock band Aztec Camera played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall on the band’s Stray tour.

The band had just released their fourth studio album Stray a few weeks earlier on Sire Records and was praised for its diversity of songs and styles, and for the assured nature of leader Roddy Frame’s lyrics.

Stray peaked at No. 22 in the UK Albums Chart, whilst the single "Good Morning Britain", a collaboration with Mick Jones, formerly of The Clash, reached No. 19 in the UK Singles Chart.

In a 1990 interview, recorded during a tour of Japan, Frame explained that he wrote "Good Morning Britain" in 45 minutes after a two- to three-hour conversation with Jones in the canteen of a London rehearsal studio that both Big Audio Dynamite and Aztec Camera were using.

Frame elaborated further, stating that at the time he wrote the song, Jones lived near his London home; Frame visited Jones after recording the song and said to the Clash guitarist, "You'll either sing on it, or you'll want to sue me", as Frame believed the song was so similar to Jones' previous work.

Stray Tour Band (1990)

• Roddy Frame – guitar, vocals

• Eddie Kulak – keyboards

• Gary Sanford – guitars

• Clare Kenny – bass guitars

• Frank Tontoh – drums

On This Day 22/07/2008 Michael Buble

On this day, 22 July 2008, Canadian crooner Michael Buble played Cardiff’s International Arena promoting third studio album, Call Me Irresponsible. released the previous year with Buble on a worldwide tour.

Bublé grew up listening to his grandfather's collection of jazz records and credits his grandfather in encouraging his love for jazz music. "My grandfather was really my best friend growing up. He was the one who opened me up to a whole world of music that seemed to have been passed over by my generation.

“Although I like rock and roll and modern music, the first time my granddad played me the Mills Brothers, something magical happened. The lyrics were so romantic, so real, the way a song should be for me. It was like seeing my future flash before me. I wanted to be a singer and I knew that this was the music that I wanted to sing.”

On This Day 21/07/2010 Pet Shop Boys

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On this day, 21 July 2010, synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys played Cardiff International Arena on their Pandemonium tour.

The Pandemonium Tour was a worldwide concert tour by British pop duo Pet Shop Boys in support of their tenth studio album Yes. The tour visited Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Yes debuted at number four on the UK Albums Chart with first-week sales of 27,639 copies, the duo's highest-placing album since Bilingual (1996). Early sales figures predicted that the album would enter at number one, but its release was beset by distribution problems and Yes proved unable to hold onto its midweek position.

The download version erroneously went on sale through the iTunes Store three days before its official release date, rendering 2,500 sales ineligible for the chart, while, the following week, a number of suppliers of the physical album reported stock level problems.

The closing track "Legacy" was subject to censorship in China for political sensitivity reasons, as it contains the lyric "governments fall". The song was changed to an instrumental.

Setlist

More Than a Dream

Heart

Did You See Me Coming?

Pandemonium

Can You Forgive Her?

Love etc.

Integral

Building a Wall

Paninaro

Go West

(Village People cover)

Two Divided by Zero

Why Don't We Live Together?

New York City Boy

You Were Always on My Mind

(Gwen McCrae cover)

Closer to Heaven

Left to My Own Devices

Do I Have To?

King's Cross

The Way It Used to Be

Jealousy

Suburbia

What Have I Done to Deserve This?

All Over the World

Se a vida é (That's the Way Life Is)

Discoteca

Domino Dancing

Viva la Vida

(Coldplay cover)

It's a Sin

Encore:

Being Boring

West End Girls