On This Day 01/03/1979 The Skids

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On this day, 1 March 1979, Scottish punks The Skids played Cardiff’s Grannie’s Club. The previous night the band had played their first ever Welsh gig at Newport’s Stowaway Club.

Formed in Dunfermline in 1977 by Stuart Adamson (guitar, keyboards, percussion and backing vocals), William Simpson (bass guitar and backing vocals), Thomas Kellichan (drums) and Richard Jobson (vocals, guitar and keyboards).

The singles "Sweet Suburbia" and "The Saints Are Coming" both made commercial inroads, before "Into the Valley" reached the Top 10 in the UK Singles Chart in early 1979. The band had just released their debut studio album, Scared to Dance, the month before.

Scared to Dance has been well received by critics. Ira Robbins of Trouser Press called the album "excellent [...] Using loud guitar and semi-martial drumming for its basis, Jobson's hearty singing sounds like an 18th century general leading his merry troops down from the hills into glorious battle."

The song "The Saints Are Coming" was later covered by Green Day and U2 and released as a charity single, reaching #1 in several countries.

"Into the Valley" became popular as adopted and sung by fans of Dunfermline Athletic F.C., the band's local football team, as well as Charlton Athletic F.C. in England whose ground is known as The Valley.

On This Day, 27/02/1979 Bill Nelson's Red Noise

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On this day, 27 February 1979, rock band Bill Nelson's Red Noise played Cardiff University.

The band had just released the first and only album Sound On Sound, after which Nelson continued as a solo artist.

The band was Bill Nelson's umbrella term for what effectively became a British new wave band formed by himself (lead vocals, guitar), his brother Ian (saxophone), Andy Clark (keyboards) and Rick Ford (bass). Dave Mattacks and Steve Peer (drums) both had brief stints in the band.

Nelson formed Red Noise after dissolving Be-Bop Deluxe,while metamorphosing from blues, progressive and glam rock to more new wave and electronic sounds following the last Be-Bop Deluxe album Drastic Plastic, released early in 1978.

EMI's Harvest Records subsidiary, to whom Be-Bop had been contracted, insisted on his name being added – hence Bill Nelson's Red Noise.

On This Day 25/02/1970 Incredible String Band

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On this day, 25 February 1970, psychedelic folk band the Incredible String Band played Sophia Gardens Pavilion.

formed by Clive Palmer, Robin Williamson and Mike Heron in Edinburgh in 1966.

The band built a considerable following, especially in the British counterculture, notably with their albums The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion, The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter, and Wee Tam and the Big Huge. They became pioneers in psychedelic folk and, through integrating a wide variety of traditional music forms and instruments, in the development of world music.

Following Palmer's early departure, Williamson and Heron performed as a duo, later augmented by other musicians. The band split up in 1974.

During 1969/70, the group lived communally at a farmhouse near Newport, in Pembrokeshire, Wales, where they developed ideas for mixed media experiments with Malcolm Le Maistre and other members of David Medalla's Exploding Galaxy troupe and the Leonard Halliwell Quartet.

There, a film was made about the ISB, Be Glad For the Song Has No Ending. Originally planned for BBC TV's arts programme Omnibus, it featured documentary footage and a fantasy sequence, 'The Pirate and the Crystal Ball', illustrating their attempt at an idyllic communal lifestyle. It made little impact at the time, but reissues on video and DVD have contributed to the recent revival of interest in the band.

On This Day 18/02/1977 Procul Harum

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On this day, 18 February 1977, rock band Procul Harum played Cardiff University.

Formed in 1967. Their best-known recording is the 1967 hit single "A Whiter Shade of Pale", one of the few singles to have sold over 10 million copies.

Although noted for their baroque and classical influence, Procol Harum's music is described as psychedelic rock and proto-prog with hints of the blues, R&B, and soul.

Guy Stevens their manager, named the band after a Burmese cat, which had been bred by Eleonore Vogt-Chapman and belonged to Liz Coombes. The cat's "cat fancy" name was Procul Harun, Procul being the breeder's prefix.

In the absence of a definitive origin, the band's name has attracted various interpretations, being said to be (incorrect) Latin for "beyond these things"; the correct Latin would be procul hīs.

Band member Keith Reid describes how the name came about:

It's the name of a cat, a Siamese cat. It's the pedigree name, and it belonged to a friend of ours, just somebody that we used to hang out with when we were forming the band. One day, somebody pulled out the cat's birth certificate and said 'Have a look at this', and the name of the cat was Procol Harum. And somebody else, in fact a chap called Guy Stevens who was quite instrumental in Gary [Brooker, the singer and pianist] and myself getting together in the first place, said, 'Oh, you must call the group Procol Harum'. And we just accepted that. We never even questioned it, never even thought if it was a good name, we just went ahead with that suggestion.

Once we put the record out, people started to say, 'Oh, it's Latin, and it means 'beyond these things'. But in fact, we had spelled it incorrectly. It should have been P-R-U-C-U-L, I think, or P-R-U-C-O-L H-A-R-U-M. I believe that's right anyway. If we'd spelled it correctly; it would have meant beyond these things. But it seemed quite apt. That was it really. It was the suggestion of a friend and we just stuck with it.

Tour Setlist

Something Magic

Conquistador

Beyond the Pale

Grand Hotel

Strangers in Space

The Mark of the Claw

Nothing but the Truth

The Worm and the Tree

Pandora's Box

The Unquiet Zone

A Salty Dog

Wizard Man

This Old Dog

Willie and the Hand Jive

(Johnny Otis cover)

Not Fade Away

(The Crickets cover) (GB on guitar)

Sea of Heartbreak

(Don Gibson cover)

A Whiter Shade of Pale

On This Day 14/02/1975 The Tremeloes

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On this day, 14 February 1975, pop/rock band The Tremeloes played Cardiff College of Education.

Founded in 1958 in Dagenham, Essex. They initially found success in the British Invasion era with lead singer Brian Poole, scoring a UK chart-topper in 1963 with "Do You Love Me".

After Poole's departure in 1966, the band achieved further success as a four-piece with 13 Top 40 hits in the UK Singles Chart between 1967 and 1971 including "Here Comes My Baby", "Even the Bad Times Are Good", "(Call Me) Number One", "Me and My Life" and their most successful single, "Silence Is Golden".

Their line-up changed several times from 1972 onwards, the first new entrants being Bob Benham and a year later Aaron Woolley (replacing Blakley and Hawkes, both of whom later returned to the band), effectively a merger with a Tremeloes-managed group called Jumbo.

Munden remained the only constant member. Hawkes pursued a solo career for a while producing two albums for RCA Records in Nashville, Tennessee.

On This Day 13/02/1974 Thin Lizzy

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On this day, 13 February 1974, Irish rockers Thin Lizzy played Cardiff’s Top Rank on their Vagabonds of the Western World tour.

The band's third album, Vagabonds of the Western World, was released in September 1973 following strong airplay in the UK, but again failed to chart.

The accompanying single "The Rocker" also found little success outside Ireland, and the momentum gained from their hit single "Whiskey in the Jar" was lost.

Eric Bell suddenly left the band on New Year's Eve 1973 after a gig at Queen's University Belfast, due to increasing ill-health and disillusion with the music industry, and young ex-Skid Row guitarist Gary Moore was recruited to help finish the tour.

Moore stayed until April 1974; the band recorded three songs with him in that time, including the version of "Still in Love with You" that was included on the fourth album Nightlife.

The band’s record label Decca had released Thin Lizzy's version of a traditional Irish ballad, "Whiskey in the Jar", as a single.

The band was angry at the release, feeling that the song did not represent their sound or their image, but the single topped the Irish chart, and reached No. 6 in the UK in February 1973, resulting in an appearance on Top of the Pops.

It also charted in many countries across Europe. However, the follow-up single, "Randolph's Tango", was a return to Lynott's more obscure work, and it did not chart outside Ireland.

On This Day 11/02/1975 Medicine Head

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On this day, 11 February 1975, Blues/Rock band Medicine Head played Cardiff College of Technology.

Initially a duo – active in the 1970s their biggest single success was in 1973, with "One and One Is One," a Number 3-hit on the UK Singles Chart.

The group recorded six original albums; the opening trio of which were on John Peel's Dandelion label.

For most of its career, the group was a duo comprising:

John Fiddler (born 25 September 1947, the Moxley area of Darlaston, Staffordshire, England) – (vocalist, guitarist, pianist and drummer).

Peter Hope-Evans (born 28 September 1947, Brecon, Powys, Wales) – (harmonica, Jew's harp, guitarist, and mouthbow player).

At various stages, the band used the following musicians: Laurence Archer, Clive Edwards, Keith Relf, Tony Ashton, Roger Saunders, George Ford, John Davies, Rob Townsend and Morgan Fisher.

Despite consistent touring, often as a supporting act, Medicine Head failed to place an album on the UK Albums Chart.

For their final album, Two Man Band, recorded at Pete Townshend's Eel Pie Studios, they reverted to being a duo.

Medicine Head finally folded in 1977.

Welshman Hope-Evans appeared on many albums, most prominently with Pete Townshend, and has played in several bands including The Dance Band, who released a 1980 album Fancy Footwork, and more recently accompanying singer-songwriter Noah Francis.

On This Day, 31/01/1979 Adam and the Ants

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On this day, 31 Jan 1979, Adam and the Ants played Newport’s Stowaway Club on their Young Parisians UK tour.

Signed to Decca, the band was let them go in early 1979, the group signed with independent label Do It Records and rerecorded and released their second single "Zerox" (with a changed B-side, "Whip In My Valise") before recording their debut album Dirk Wears White Sox.

The group existed in two incarnations, both fronted by Adam Ant, lasting from 1977 to 1982. The first, founded in May 1977 and known simply as The Ants until November of that year, achieved considerable cult popularity during the transition from the punk rock era to the post-punk and new wave era and were noted for their high camp, overtly sexualised stage performances and songs. The final line-up of this incarnation—Dave Barbarossa, Matthew Ashman, and Leigh Gorman—left the band in January 1980 at the suggestion of de facto manager Malcolm McLaren to form Bow Wow Wow.

The second incarnation of Adam and the Ants featured guitarist Marco Pirroni and drummer/producer Chris Hughes, and was noted for its use of Burundi drums.

Setlist

Nietzsche Baby

Day I Met God

Animals and Men

Cleopatra

Kick!

Never Trust a Man (With Egg on His Face)

Catholic Day

Boil in the Bag Man

Family of Noise

Press Darlings

Zerox

Lady

Puerto Rican

Fall-In